Starting fish

Hiya guys, hope all is well in your fish world .

I was just thinking how much part of my day to day routine looking after the fish is. I used to panic about water testing and changes etc, but now am a bit more laid back about it, as everything seems to be ticking along ok.

I also remember agonising about what fish to get to start off with, being terrified that I didnt get the wrong ones.

Did you all spend hours studying all the various fish before deciding what to get, or did you just go to the shop and pick whatever took your fancy?

Did you ever choose the wrong mix, or were you lucky?

I've had a few wrong mixes in my years of fishkeeping but that was before we had super google & nowadays it's so much easier to find out what is best for what fish & who they can live with.
I had a yellow lab & blue zebra (malawi cichlids) in a tank of guppies, a siamese fighter & a load of neons. The SFF attacked the neons, the guppies attacked the SFF then the 2 malawi cichlids pretty much ate the neons & guppies.
I do research anything i'm going to buy now although my malawi tank is fully stocked & all hunky dory It's quite easy having a species tank because you never go out looking at random fish.

Wow.......that sounds like a bloodbath!

As you say Munchy - Google is a Godsend nowadays How long have you been keeping fish for then - I know you have cichlids but do you still keep ordinary fish too? (sorry to be nosey!!)

As well as Googler we have forums like this where we can pick the brains of people who have been into fish for a while and that really helps.
A lot of them have learned through experience so you can always rely on the info you get from them.

Charley - i have had fish for about 15yrs but cichlids for only 2 yrs. I always kept a community tank before that

Thanks Munchy. I know you are the resident cichlid expert, but I wasnt sure if that was long term or not. Nice to know that you started off with the ususual guppy platty mix too!

LOL My first fish I still have - a 5" kissing gourami that came with the first tank abou t16 months ago.

Well my initial fish were suggested to me by the LFS, including a Redtail Black Shark for a two foot tank......and then I just increased the numbers of the ones I liked (Zebra Loaches, Black Neons, Plecs) and the ones I didn't like, I didn't bother replacing when they died (Mollies, Zebra Danios).

Then it was trial and error with other species depending on what other people had (Rams, Cherry Barbs, SAE, Otos) and what I fancied in the LFS (Siamese Fighters, Hatchetfish, Gouramis, Guppies, Angelfish) and I'm still not finished.

Well I was VERY organised and asked loads of questions while I was doing the fishless cycle, and went to the lfs with a list of suitable fish for my tank size, and whixh were compatable with each other.

I then went and bought totally different fish when I got to the lfs! :lol:

I was lucky though, they were all peaceful and fortunately I didnt have any major issues.