Community Tanks

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The community aquarium is most peoples first experience with tropical fish. As a general rule, community fish, are those that have no special feeding requirements, and live peacefully together. The fish are not necessarily found in the same bodies of water in the wild (indeed they may be from completely different continents) but will get along as long as they have everything to fulfill their own requirements

Fish with difficult or unusual requirements with regard food, water or tankmates should be avoided

A typical community tank will contain a mix of the following fish

livebearers
cyprinids barbs, danios etc
tetras

  • neon tetra
  • cardinal tetra
  • glowlight tetra

cichlids generally should be avoided in anything but a cichlid only community tank, as they get quite aggressive. In a large, well-planted aquarium, the following dwarf ciclids are appropriate

  • kribensis
  • ram
  • Agassiz’s dwarf cichlid

Some fish are often sold as community fish, and on occasions may do well, but the vast majority of the time do not. However cool or cute you think these species are DO NOT buy them for your community tank

  • Pleco – dwarf varieties are fine, but the standrad pleco can get very big very quickly. If you have an algae problem, feed less food, don’t add to the bioload!
  • Elephant nosed fish. These are very sensitive, nocturnal and difficult to feed – in a community tank the other fish will get all their food and they will slowly starve
  • Red tailed catfish – these cats look cool as tiddlers in your local shop, but can grow several feet long. Public aquariums are already bursting with donated red-tails that their owners should not have bought in the first place
  • Pangasius sutchi – another species sold as a youngster that gets too big for most home aquaria. Furthermore they like to swim continually, which gets difficult in a small rectangular tank