The care guides
Freshwater species we cover
We're building the warmest, most trustworthy freshwater care library there is — from the best beginner fish to the planted-tank favourites, each one fact-checked before we publish it.
96 of 96 fully sourced
We only flip a guide from "coming soon" to published once its numbers are checked against authorities — no guessing.
Bettas & gouramis 8
Betta
The jewel-toned solo star of the hobby — and the fish most often sold into a bowl it can't thrive in.
Honey Gourami
A tiny, peaceful, sunset-coloured gourami — one of the calmest centrepiece fish for a small community.
Dwarf Gourami
A vivid, popular centrepiece gourami — beautiful, but watch for the disease and male-aggression issues.
Pearl Gourami
An elegant, lace-patterned gourami — larger, hardy, and famously graceful in a planted tank.
Sparkling Gourami
A jewel-like nano gourami that literally croaks — a peaceful, personable labyrinth fish for a gentle, well-planted small tank.
Three-spot Gourami
The hardiest gourami in the trade — adapts to almost any water; the real catch is temperament, not chemistry.
Paradise Fish
A hardy, subtropical labyrinth fish with old-world charm — cool water, floor space, one male only.
Croaking Gourami
A little labyrinth fish that actually croaks — a shy, peaceful nano gourami with big personality for its size.
Livebearers 5
Guppy
The rainbow livebearer that breeds like clockwork — cheap, colourful, and endlessly beginner-friendly (you'll soon have fry).
Endler's Livebearer
The guppy's smaller, flashier cousin — a nano livebearer with electric colour.
Platy
A hardy, cheerful livebearer in every colour — one of the most forgiving community fish.
Molly
A big, personable livebearer — hardy but wants harder water and more space than people expect.
Swordtail
The livebearer with a sword — active, hardy, and a notorious jumper (keep a lid on).
Tetras & rasboras 22
Neon Tetra
The classic shimmering schooling fish — stunning in numbers, but buy a real group, not three.
Cardinal Tetra
The neon's bolder, redder cousin — deeper colour and a bit hardier in a warm, mature tank.
Ember Tetra
A tiny ember-orange nano schooler — perfect for a small planted tank.
Harlequin Rasbora
A hardy, peaceful copper-and-black schooler — one of the best first schooling fish.
Rummynose Tetra
The schooler with a red nose that tells you your water's right — tight-shoaling and elegant.
Chili Rasbora
A pinch of glowing red — one of the smallest, most jewel-like nano fish, but it needs a mature, stable, gently-run tank.
Cherry Barb
A calm, ruby-red small barb — the peaceful exception in a family known for fin-nipping, and a great beginner shoaler.
Tiger Barb
A bold, striped, endlessly busy barb whose "fin-nipper" reputation is really a stocking problem — buy 8+ and give them room.
Glowlight Tetra
A hardy, glowing beginner tetra — soft-ish water, gentle warmth, and a shoal of six or more is all it really asks for.
Rosy Barb
A hardy, subtropical 4-inch barb (16–24 °C) — keep 8–10 in a metre-long tank and the "nippy" reputation disappears.
Denison Barb
A cool-water shoaler, not a solo showpiece — 6–10 fish, a 120 cm+ tank and spotless, oxygen-rich water.
Congo Tetra
Drab and grey in the shop, it matures into an iridescent, long-finned showpiece in soft, clean, well-circulated water.
Odessa Barb
A subtropical, ruby-flanked barb that is peaceful and easy — as long as you keep a real shoal of 8–10.
Black Skirt Tetra
An unfussy, hardy community tetra — keep 12+ and the fin-nipping reputation melts away.
Serpae Tetra
Gorgeous in a real shoal, a menace in a small one — keep 12+ and give them their own upper water.
Black Neon Tetra
The calm, hardy cousin of the neon — a green-and-black racing stripe that handles beginner mistakes better than most.
Black Phantom Tetra
A smoky, ghostly tetra whose males "duel" harmlessly — best in a group where that display comes alive.
Emperor Tetra
A regal violet-and-gold tetra with blue eyes — a bit more of a personality (and a mild fin-nipper) than the average schooler.
Lambchop Rasbora
The harlequin's slimmer cousin — a warm-copper nano rasbora with a lamb-chop patch, perfect for a planted community.
Lemon Tetra
A sunshine-yellow shoaling tetra with a ruby eye — easy and forgiving, as long as you keep it in a real group.
Scissortail Rasbora
A fast, silvery shoaler whose forked tail flicks like scissors — needs real swimming length, not a nano tank.
X-Ray Tetra
A translucent little tetra with a built-in "x-ray" look — one of the toughest, most water-tolerant tetras there is.
Catfish & bottom-dwellers 14
Corydoras Catfish
The endearing armoured bottom catfish that works in cheerful groups — a community-tank staple.
Bristlenose Pleco
The manageable, algae-grazing pleco that stays a sensible size — unlike the common pleco.
Otocinclus
The tiny, peaceful algae-eating catfish — wonderful, but only for a mature, algae-rich tank.
Panda Cory
The panda-masked pocket cory — all the charm of a Corydoras shoal in a smaller, cooler-running package.
Pygmy Cory
A thumbnail-sized shoaling cory that swims the mid-water in a tight little group — a nano-tank favourite that needs numbers, not a lone pair.
Common Pleco
Sold as a 3-inch cleaner, it grows to nearly 2 feet — buy a bristlenose instead unless you can house a giant for life.
Siamese Algae Eater
The real black-brush-algae eater — a 6-inch river shoaler, not a solo clean-up tool; check the ID and skip the protein.
Clown Pleco
A true dwarf pleco (~9 cm) that EATS wood — give it driftwood and strong filtration, not a common-pleco tank.
Sterbai Cory
The warm-water, discus-friendly cory — keep six+ over clean sand; it forages, it doesn’t "clean".
Glass Catfish
A living pane of glass — a shy, transparent shoaling catfish that lives in mid-water and needs the security of its own kind.
Julii Cory
A spotted, peaceful bottom-dweller (usually the "false julii" C. trilineatus) — a tidy, sociable cory for any community.
Pictus Catfish
A silver, spotted speed-demon catfish with long whiskers — active and charming, but it will eat any fish it can fit in its mouth.
Rubber Lip Pleco
A genuinely small pleco that actually eats algae — a peaceful, cool-tolerant grazer that won't outgrow your tank like a common pleco.
Salt and Pepper Cory
A pea-sized dwarf cory that shoals in mid-water as much as the bottom — nano-tank charm with real personality.
Loaches 9
Kuhli Loach
The little eel-like loach that hides by day and pops out at night — a peaceful, quirky bottom-dweller.
Clown Loach
Sold as a cute juvenile, but it hits ~40 cm, lives 20+ years, and must be kept in a shoal in a huge tank.
Yoyo Loach
Not a small snail-zapper — a ~6-inch social loach that needs a mature tank, a group of 5+, and a locked-down lid.
Dwarf Chain Loach
A planted-tank-safe mini loach — but a real shoal of 5+, no long-finned tankmates, and not snail pest-control.
Hillstream Loach
A cool, high-flow river specialist — mature biofilm tank, 15–20× turnover, a group of 6+ and a tight lid.
Weather Loach
A hardy ~11-inch coldwater loach with real personality — needs a big cool mature tank and must never be released.
Zebra Loach
The best community Botia — but only in a mature tank, in a group of 5–10+, and never as snail pest-control.
Panda Garra
A stripy, busy little algae-grazer with real character — a hillstream-ish garra that stays small and works hard on biofilm.
Rosy Loach
A thumbnail-sized, peaceful shoaling loach with a rosy glow — a charming, active nano bottom-to-mid dweller.
Rainbowfish 5
Boesemani Rainbowfish
A farm-bred beauty that ships drab — hard water, a real shoal and a year of patience make the fish on the box.
Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish
The dwarf neon fits small tanks but not small groups — a real shoal in soft light is where the electric blue shows up.
Threadfin Rainbowfish
A stunning but delicate nano: mature calm tank, gentle flow, tiny food, no fin-nippers, and a shoal of 6+.
Celebes Rainbowfish
A shimmering yellow-finned gem — stunning in a shoal, but a soft, sensitive fish that wants clean, harder, rock-stable water.
Madagascar Rainbowfish
A silvery, red-finned schooler with real presence — an underrated, hardy rainbowfish for a spacious community.
Cichlids 15
Angelfish
The tall, graceful centrepiece cichlid — beautiful, but a semi-aggressive predator that outgrows small tanks.
German Blue Ram
A jewel of a dwarf cichlid — stunning colour, but wants warm, clean, mature water.
Apistogramma
The 'apisto' — a characterful dwarf cichlid with big personality in a small package.
Kribensis
A colourful, easygoing West African dwarf cichlid — one of the best first cichlids, right up until a pair decides to breed.
Bolivian Ram
The hardy, forgiving dwarf cichlid — all the personality of a ram without the German blue ram’s demand for scorching, unstable-tank-killing warmth.
Discus
The shy, disc-shaped jewel of the Amazon — demanding not for mystery but because it wants hot, clean, stable water kept consistently.
Oscar
A personable "wet pet" cichlid that hits ~35 cm, lives 10–20 years, and needs a big, heavily filtered tank of its own.
Convict Cichlid
Small, bombproof and cheap — but "not a community fish": convicts are a species-tank cichlid.
Electric Yellow Lab
The "beginner’s mbuna" — but only with hard, alkaline Malawi water and the right male-to-female ratio.
Electric Blue Acara
A calm, beginner-friendly cichlid — but still a cichlid: stable water, sand to dig, tankmates too big to swallow.
Firemouth Cichlid
Its fiery throat is mostly bluff: a 5-inch bluffer that needs a mature tank, real space, and tankmates too big to eat.
Blood Parrot Cichlid
The round-bodied, permanently-"smiling" hybrid cichlid — endearing and personable, but a deliberate hybrid with real welfare trade-offs.
Keyhole Cichlid
The gentle, timid cichlid — a soft-water community fish that would rather hide than fight, unusual for its family.
Severum
A disc-shaped, dog-tame big cichlid — a calmer, hardier alternative to a discus for a large tank.
Shell-Dweller (Multi)
A thumb-sized cichlid that lives, breeds and hides in empty snail shells — a whole colony in a nano footprint.
Danios & minnows 6
Zebra Danio
The bulletproof striped starter schooler — hardy, active, and forgiving of beginner mistakes.
White Cloud Mountain Minnow
The hardy 'coldwater tetra' — a peaceful subtropical schooler that doesn't need a heater.
Celestial Pearl Danio
The galaxy rasbora — a jaw-droppingly patterned nano fish for a calm planted tank.
Pearl Danio
A hardy, fast, subtropical-tolerant danio that wants swimming length, a shoal of 8–10, and above all a tight lid.
Giant Danio
Not a nano fish — a big, fast, hardy schooler that needs a long 30-gallon+ tank, a group of 6+, and a lid.
Glowlight Danio
A tiny gold-and-neon danio that glows in a planted shoal — hardy once settled, and happiest in a real group.
Shrimp & snails 10
Cherry Shrimp
The beginner's dwarf shrimp — colourful, a cleanup-crew helper, and prolific in stable water.
Amano Shrimp
The algae-eating workhorse shrimp — bigger and hardier than cherries, and the best natural algae crew.
Nerite Snail
The best algae-eating snail that won't overpopulate your tank — its eggs need brackish water to hatch.
Mystery Snail
The big, friendly, colourful snail that grazes leftovers — peaceful and won't devour your healthy plants.
Assassin Snail
The hobby’s natural pest-snail control — a bumblebee-striped carnivore that hunts other snails but leaves fish, plants and adult shrimp alone.
Ramshorn Snail
A harmless algae-and-leftovers cleaner that only "infests" when you overfeed — control the food, control the colony.
Bamboo Shrimp
A big, peaceful fan-feeding shrimp that needs flow + suspended food (never a clean, calm tank) and dies to any copper.
Crystal Red Shrimp
Not a hardy cherry shrimp: CRS need soft, acidic, copper-free, rock-stable water — get the water right, then the shrimp.
Ghost Shrimp
A see-through, cheap-and-cheerful scavenger shrimp — a hardy clean-up crew, though bigger and more opportunistic than a cherry.
Rabbit Snail
A big, droopy-faced grazing snail with real charm — slow-moving, slow-breeding, and a tidy algae/detritus worker.