freshwater fish bright like saltwater fish
- Thread starter talal101
- Start date
First check these out because they might be able to go with your set up and can get quite colorful:
http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/index.php
Check out the Apisto. cacatuoides.
Malawian Africans are beautiful but I have been around to a lot of LFS and petstores in my area lately and most are just a bunch of mutts and faded colors. Hopefully, you have a good LFS. Good luck.
http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/index.php
Check out the Apisto. cacatuoides.
Malawian Africans are beautiful but I have been around to a lot of LFS and petstores in my area lately and most are just a bunch of mutts and faded colors. Hopefully, you have a good LFS. Good luck.
If you decide to go with africans look into going with an all male tank. It will be a little bit more work to get the stocking right where they all get along but females tend to not have the same bright colors or can be very drab.
Thanks pidgeonblood, I appreciate the respect. And yeah I like the idea of starting an African tank, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe I really should just start up a saltwater tank because it is true that I may get it all set up and still be disappointed because I'm trying to have SW stand ins and not looking to have a African tank, and with that thought in the back of my mind I will never be truly happy with my aquarium. I have thought about starting up a separate SW tank but I don't have the time,space,or money to start over a whole tank. I'm going to do a ton more research on the subject and then decide if it's the right thing for me.
Also thanks for the website, it will be very useful to me because I have been trying to find a website for dwarf cichlids for awhile and thanks for the tips
Really depends. Reefs? Yes. FOWLR you can do pretty easily on a budget, and you can often find great deals on craigslist for everything you need.
Salt water tank has two major costs: Start up and salt mix.
There are plenty of boring saltwater fish... in fact I'd say 90% of the marine fish out there are white/grey/brown - drab colors.
The bright colors you want can be drawn out in FW cheaper than going salt. Start with the right fish, put them in the right enironment with high end lights and you'll have what you are looking for. As posted, many of the African cichlids will suit you, some of the South/Central Americans will as well. A lot of the Asian and South American schooling fish can really show colors, too.
There are plenty of boring saltwater fish... in fact I'd say 90% of the marine fish out there are white/grey/brown - drab colors.
The bright colors you want can be drawn out in FW cheaper than going salt. Start with the right fish, put them in the right enironment with high end lights and you'll have what you are looking for. As posted, many of the African cichlids will suit you, some of the South/Central Americans will as well. A lot of the Asian and South American schooling fish can really show colors, too.
i understand that SW can be very costly but i dont have a budget because my brother said he would help me with start up and would buy all the things i needed to turn it into a SW tank. i have looked at many african cichlids but i still dont see what everyone is talking about in terms of color, even the brightest cichlid IMO is still not as bright as SW fish, its as though SW fish have a neon glow and freshwater fish depend on lighting to show their best colors. i have to compare how much it would cost to set up a fowler system and how much it would cost to start up a FW african tank and i may just be lucky and find cheap equipment from someone shutting down their system and can start up a SW system of my own, and if not i can just switch over to african cichlids because i know that the people on here are very knowledgable and know what they are talking about.
If you want a colorful fish I would suggest a medium size growing cichlid like an electric blue jack Dempsey or a Cuban cichlid. I'd only get one male tho not more... Something like that.. My ebjd had awesome color at only 3" but unfortunately got eaten. With that get 4/5 clown loaches and a bristlenose pleco that will eat algae and not grow to 2 feet.
