Tetras and other small fish would be barra food? I would imagine oscars would be pretty voracious too? If you do get tetras, always go cardinals over neons!

Millions of cichlids, but remember the african ones (which are often brighter colours, particularly ones from malawi) tend to prefer harder water than the barra and oscars will like.

Yup - what he said.

hey mate the oscars and barra are sperate they are in a pond i was wonderin what to get for the tank?

the tank is empty

sorry if i didnt make it clear enough but i was trying to say ive got barra and oscars already out in the pond so i dont want the same species in my tank inside

LOL! Cardinals are great especially in a planted tank.

If you go with the planted up tank don't load up with too many fish as it's hard to clean with all the plants. Cichlids would be a bit easier to set up and probably a bit more easier to maintain once up and running. Good mix of cichlids such as electric yellows, blue moorii, red emperess, a good peacock and maybe a pleco or gibbicep and you have a pretty attractive tank.

If you want to keep cichlids, Id go with malawi cichlids to start off, they are the most common in shops and they are probably the easiest to keep. Buy groups of 5 or so fish as juviniles and try to create a happy community so avoid agressive fish. Most good fish shops will be able to help you with selection. Once the filters have developed the bacteria and the aquarium settles (algae cycles etc) a small water change every so often is all youll need to do. Theyre pretty tough, though stress is the biggest killer because from that, the stressed fish is seseptible to disease and secondary infection, so having no agressive fish should result in a good fish community.

I've got them. Really pretty fish, easy to look after, grow to a good size.

had tropicals in the past and they just dont have a lot of action togethor. they are smaller, slower swimmers and get boring quick. Cichlids are all agressive fish so you need lots of them so they can lose each other in traffic and then the colours are all fast moving and alive!

rate them.

He's the owner of the Malaga aquarium store. Got heaps of fish, got me started when i knew nothing much about them, friendly guys and will chat about regular fishing while your at it

The native Rainbows are cool fish too very tough and colour up well I've got a tank full of diff types plus a couple of catties and South American Cichlids in there too.

Cichlids for sure. And when you get bored you can buy some live shrimps or even neons and watch them smash em up.

I used to work for a big aquarium wholesaler over east.

- there's nothing more mesmerizing than a school of 50+ tetra's (neons, cardinals, glowlights) in a shoal ! gotta be a decent sized tank, but seeing them in big numbers, not just the 5-10 that most people get is unreal !

what size tank are you getting?

definatly shop at malaga aquariums, as already said kev the owner is a top bloke.

www.perthcichlid.com.au is the fishwrecked equivalent for aquariums.

personally i like tankbusters, but malawi's look good when you have at least 4 or 5 of the same species.

they will compete against each other and grow faster than if you where to have 1 or 2 a particular species.

grab a flicky and an esky head up to dwellingup get urself some small redfin perch they got great colours and love feederfish and yabbies... good companions with them would be small black bream..!

just an idea, and sure its not legal so no one can give me stick about that..

.

I at my peak at 8 tanks going at a time.I got into breeding, more L numbers and B/N species....I do love cichlids, but there something about the rare L numbers that do it for me.

In regards to ideas, if you want colours, pick cichlids, but you must have a DISPLAY tank. Generally if you 5-6 fish of the same species there will be a dominant species ( the male with most colouring).Other males wont colour neallyy as much. Females generally are exactly the same colour but less detail or opposites and quite dull depending on your species. This is why if you want lot of colour you pick just male fish. having 4 species of of malawis in schools will generally cause cross breeding. a big no no in the aquairum industry. I guess its fine if you just use them as feeders, but if you plan on selling back, or taking them to a LFS (local fish store). You need to do your research thers generally 3 kinds of malawis Haps, Mabuna and Alcuonora these generally dont mix well. There is alot of agression.

Look in the morely aquariums website about cycling a tank, this is CRITICAL, you will loose most fish if this isnt done. Feel free to pm asking specific questions if you want. Ive got a bit of experience in the fish keeping world side of things and its no way near as simple as plonking the fish in the tank.

I currently have a 5x2x2 running a malawi display, and all my fish are single species males and the colours are amazing. reds, blue, oranges, yellows etc etc

Cichlids dig, so plants must be rooted to wood or limestone, they also like much harder water. Limestone brings PH up! hence why there is always limestone. I disagree with who ever said "the odd water change".  For optimum health and happiness to the fish a weekly water change of around 30% and adding fish chorlinator (what ever its called) everytime to the new water. This is critical to get rid of the bad amonia. Oxygen is created by moovement of water, hence the filtration movving the top surface of water creates oxygen in the water.

i could honestly write and write for ages but really meh! pm me questions if you please.

brett

get 2 x green terrors, male and female, or just the male,

great to watch , they build mountains etc from rock/gravel, they breed awesome, but the mr eats them at night , not knowing, just in his blood,lol

amazing fish and my mr green terror loves the kids , as they r head high he runs up n down tha tank full pelt when my youngest goes there, i think he gets horny lol.

haha harro, green terrors are very dominate, if you get green terrors dont mix them with other fish