# Which type of fish for lower maintenance ?



## hmhs (Dec 22, 2010)

We are going to purchase some new fish on Sunday, right now we have only one... its a Gouramis (sp?). We have a 12 gallon tank and would like advice on what other types to buy and how many. We obviously want all the fish to get along and be as low maintenance as possible. 

Also, should we get a snail or some other type of creature to help keep the tank clean? 

I'm real new to this and want to get off on the right foot!!

Thanks!!!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Not trying to be rude, but in my honest opinion if you are just getting started and already looking for ways to do less maintenance then that wouldn't be starting off on the right foot. My opinion anyway.

Your best bet is to do what the recommended maintenance is and then adjust from there when you figure out what works for you and your tank. You will not gain this overnight and it may take you a few months to figure what the balance is and may take that long for your tank to be "established." Just enough maintenance to get by will usually end you up with problems down the road as little things tend to accumulate over time. 

For the most part, if you keep your fish load to just a few this will allow you to potentially go longer periods with regular maintenance. Small tanks can be largely affected by small things though. Much more so than like a 55gal tank, if you understand that. Remember that and you shoould do okay.


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## hmhs (Dec 22, 2010)

thanks for your advice, but i of course was already planning to do the recommended maintenance... I was simply curious as to which fish would make less of a mess, I have been told not to get certain types of fish. I have no illusions that having an aquarium will be maintenance free, simply trying to make it go as easily as possible since I'm new to this.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

if i understand it correctly, the question is what are some hardy fish 

the easiest hardiest and one of the most colorful fish are the bolivian rams  my fav also called the altispinosa they stay smaller compared to all other cichlids and if you place a mirror somehow in the aquarium, it fishts with itself and gets soo colorful 

the only problem is you can have only one of this fish in your 12 gal along with other smaller fish. it wont bother any other kinda fish except for other rams  

Good luck


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

oops forgot to tell ya, 
these fish almost always look for deposited food and it always looks like they are cleaning gravel eating off remains  
so ............................


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## Chillwill007 (Aug 20, 2010)

Hello u should get some shrimp done since they are a good clean up crew. Some fish may eat them so I suggest starting off with ghost shrimp since there just sold as feeder shrimp and are only like 30¢. And them after a lil while I would add a few ottos. But they need to be in a well established tank as they are fineky


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## rtbob (Jul 18, 2010)

3 corydoras catfish will help to get the food that floats to the bottom. 

Real plants can help to reduce the frequency of water changes.

The gourami limits your choices for small tetra schooling fish. To small and it will eat them. How about some Serpae Tetras? Their a pretty red color and about five of them should do well.

Or maybe a few live-bearers like molly's, platys or something not to small.

Good Luck!


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## mfgann (Oct 21, 2010)

My first thoughts are to add some ghost shrimp as a cleanup crew, perhaps 4 or 5. They are a very low bio-load and very effective cleaners, as long as your gourami doesn't make a meal of them. Beyond that, perhaps some neons, as they're a pretty small fish and won't add a lot to the bio load. You can have about 10 shrimp per gallon and/or 1" of fish per gallon. 
Please be careful and continue maintenance on the tank. It is not too much effort to keep up with water changes, and keeps your fish healthy and happy. 
If you truly want a very low maintenance tank, look into the 'beaslbob build' tanks some of us are doing. You have to plan it from the start though, putting 1" of peat moss in the bottom, then 1" of play sand, and then 1" of gravel. Then you plant it very heavy with fast growing plants, and make sure you have enough light (about 2W per gallon). Beaslbob runs no filters and doesn't change any water. Pretty awesome actually.

Good luck.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I would suggest a molly or a platy or two. Most people find these fish are ideal as far as toughness and ease of care. However, be careful because if you put a male and female together you get babies, and lots of them!

Shrimp are the best cleanup crew, in my opinion, however they are fairly fragile little critters. For a decent cleanup/bottom feeder fish I would suggest a catfish or an oto, but I have no experience with either of these guys so I can't make any suggestions beyond that point.

Welcome to the hobby!


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## PolymerTim (Sep 22, 2009)

Hey and welcome to the forum!

Is the Gourami you have a dwarf gourami? Maybe looks like one of these:
Dwarf Gourami - Colisa lalia
I just wanted to check since some of the other types of Gouramis get a bit big for a 12 gallon.

Also, how long have you had the Gourami? If you're new to aquariums, one thing you will need to be aware of is that you should add fish slowly. This allows time for beneficial bacteria that assist with breaking down fish waste to grow and balance out the amount of waste your fish produce (often referred to as bioload).


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I think this is a really good question. Lots of people buy a bunch of fish and then find them too much work. There is a huge difference in the amount of work it can take to properly maintain a tank depending on the setup and fish you have.

For an easy to take care of tank the most important factor would be keeping the stocking level low. With less fish the water doesn't get dirty so quickly, so less water changes and less chance of fish getting ill or dieing. A 12 gallon tank isn't that big so that is probably less fish than you think. No more than one inch per gallon (of the adult size of the fish, not the size you buy it at) is a good rule for small bodied fish like neon tetras and guppies. Start by finding out what type of gourami you have because depending on the type you may not be able to have any other fish in your 12 gallon tank. A giant gourami for example needs about 200gallons or more, but don't panic because it's unlikely you have one of those! Another reason to find out what type you have is because the bigger it gets the more likely it will be to eat small fish. If you have a dwarf then you can still add more fish, I'd say about 2 more the same size or say a school of 6 pygmy cories or rasboras would work well.

Avoid messy fish or those with special requirements like puffers. And obviously avoid fish that get too big for your tank, always check adult size before you buy the fish. A common pleco or a goldfish for example can both get to well over a foot in length. Don't trust what they tell you in the shop, because most have no idea or they just want to sell the fish. Schooling fish (like tetras) usually don't do well in less than a school of six, less and they will often fight or be very shy and stressed.

A good filter will also help. Not all filters are the same.

As was mentioned above don't add too many fish at once. If the fish you have has been in the tank less than about 6 weeks DON'T get any more fish yet as the tank may not have finished cycling and adding more might kill them all.


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## missmanatee (Dec 25, 2010)

Hi! welcome! i am pretty new to this as well. i just joined this website and i have had a tank for about a year now. based on your situation i would recomend platties!!! i have about 10 in a 10 gallon tank currently. they are active, come in a variety of colors, and are very sturdy fish. i have had a couple problems with my tank before but these fish have always been strong through the whole experience. i have had no deaths from these fish. also the platty is often described as a beginner fish. it was my first kind of fish and i absolutly love them!! they are sooo fun to watch and they often seem to dance with eachother! and they can only grow to 2.5 inches at the most but most of mine are about an inch and a half and i'd say full grown. and as a bonus they do not require that much matinece. i just do gravel vacuming, partial water changes and clean the sides of the tank once a week. it is easy matinece and takes less than an hour. the only thing you should know is that they are best kept in small groups of at least 3-4 and you need to have more females than males. but this shouldn't be too much of a problem. i highly recomend platties!!! good luck i hope you consider these awsome fish!!!!!!!:fish-in-bowl::fish-in-bowl::fish5::fish-in-bowl:


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## hmhs (Dec 22, 2010)

Thanks to everyone for all the information!! We wound up adding a platy, a molly & a glofish into the tank with the gourami (yes, he is a dwarf). We were a little concerned at first because the gourami didn't seem to like the other fish and kept chasing them, but everyone is doing fine now.

Thanks again for all your suggestions!

p.s. one thing we were concerned about when buying the fish was getting more than one of the same kind... the girl helping us at the pet store didn't know how to tell if they were male/female so we didn't know if that would be an issue. Is this something we should be concerned about?... we didn't want to have lots of babies bc we only have a 12 gallon tank.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Platys and mollies are livebearers. If you happen to stick a male and a female together, they will breed profusely. Glofish, however, I have had quite a challenge even trying to get to breed (they are a danio, and I've been keeping zebra danios for years with no babies). You may add more glofish if you would like, IMO, but be wary of the platys and mollies. Others on here will help you determine the sex of a particular fish.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I don't think you want to add more fish as you are well stocked. I'd recommend that you don't feed very much for the next week or so as you have added three fish at the same time, just feed a little every other day and it should be okay.

If you have female moly or platy they tend to come pregnant but the babies are small and likely to be eaten by the other fish if you leave them in the same tank.


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## mfgann (Oct 21, 2010)

I don't think you mentioned how long the tank has been set up. If it is less than about 6 weeks (or if you want to get a test kit and see how the water parameters are) then you need to wait before adding anymore. In that first 6 weeks there are some beneficial bacteria colonies that need to grow in to convert toxic waste into something less toxic. Read about the "Nitrogen cycle" to find out more. 
If you're through that, wait a few weeks then you need to have something as a ground-cleaning crew. I would recommend ghost shrimp (or red cherry shrimp though they cost more). You could go with some dwarf cory cats instead, if you'd like. A ground crew will be constantly searching for food that other fish missed, keeping it from rotting on the aquarium floor. Then, if anything else, I would add another couple of glofish. They really like being in groups, though 12G is a little small for them to school well.

Good luck.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

hmhs said:


> We are going to purchase some new fish on Sunday, right now we have only one... its a Gouramis (sp?). We have a 12 gallon tank and would like advice on what other types to buy and how many. We obviously want all the fish to get along and be as low maintenance as possible.
> 
> Also, should we get a snail or some other type of creature to help keep the tank clean?
> 
> ...


Platys are a good hardy fish.

But they could be a problem (i think) with groumies (my mis spelling LOL) 

that said, IMHO the tank setup itself determines how much maintenance is needed.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

mfgann said:


> I don't think you mentioned how long the tank has been set up. If it is less than about 6 weeks (or if you want to get a test kit and see how the water parameters are) then you need to wait before adding anymore. In that first 6 weeks there are some beneficial bacteria colonies that need to grow in to convert toxic waste into something less toxic. Read about the "Nitrogen cycle" to find out more.
> If you're through that, wait a few weeks then you need to have something as a ground-cleaning crew. I would recommend ghost shrimp (or red cherry shrimp though they cost more). You could go with some dwarf cory cats instead, if you'd like. A ground crew will be constantly searching for food that other fish missed, keeping it from rotting on the aquarium floor. Then, if anything else, I would add another couple of glofish. They really like being in groups, though 12G is a little small for them to school well.
> 
> Good luck.


Good advice about the nitrogen cycle but this is only a 12 gallon tank I think it's pretty well stocked without adding more fish. 

Maximum sizes for the fish:
Molly 4 inches (depends on the breed, some are smaller)
Dwarf gourami 3inches
platy 2 inches
glofish 2inches

That's 11 inches of fish, the general rule is one gallon per inch of fish for small fish, I'd give more for the dwarf and molly. So more fish would be too much for a low maintenance 12 gallon tank.


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## PolymerTim (Sep 22, 2009)

hmhs said:


> Thanks to everyone for all the information!! We wound up adding a platy, a molly & a glofish into the tank with the gourami (yes, he is a dwarf). We were a little concerned at first because the gourami didn't seem to like the other fish and kept chasing them, but everyone is doing fine now.
> 
> Thanks again for all your suggestions!
> 
> p.s. one thing we were concerned about when buying the fish was getting more than one of the same kind... the girl helping us at the pet store didn't know how to tell if they were male/female so we didn't know if that would be an issue. Is this something we should be concerned about?... we didn't want to have lots of babies bc we only have a 12 gallon tank.


I'm glad you found some fish you like. I would highly recommend you purchase a liquid test kit that includes pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. This will help you better understand your water chemistry and alert you to some potential problems before they become lethal to your fish. Even if your aquarium has completed the cycle, adding many fish at once can sometimes cause a mini cycle while new beneficial bacteria grow to balance out your fish. During this mini cycle, your ammonia and nitrite levels (toxic to fish) might spike. If you want to give your fish the best odds of getting through the mini cycle, you will need to know your water chemistry and perform extra partial water changes to keep it in check, just during this transitional period.

If you don't have a kit to test with and don't do any partial water changes, things might work out fine, but it's a bit like playing roulette with your fish.


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