The 11 Easiest Fish to Take Care Of For New Fish Parents
Easiest Fish to Take Care of: Looking to get started with a freshwater aquarium? It’s important to remember that starting and maintaining an aquarium can take some work. Luckily, some fish are much easier to take care of than others, including white cloud minnows, cherry barbs, goldfish, guppies, neon tetras, and cory catfish. All of these species are relatively peaceful, non-demanding fish that do well in a beginner’s fish tank. But it’s always important to keep fish that have similar requirements in water temperature, pH, and tank size, so be sure to do your research before heading to the pet store.
Here are the 11 easiest fish to take care of for new fish parents.
Standard Goldfish (Carassius auratus)
There are many varieties of goldfish, but newbies should start with long-body goldfish, like the comet, sarasa, and shubunkin varieties. Fancy goldfish with unusual body shapes are better for more intermediate fish keepers. Comet goldfish can be white, orange, gold, or black, and although they start very small, they can grow up to 14 inches or the size of a large dinner plate. Sarasa and shubunkin goldfish tend to stay smaller and max out around eight to ten inches.
No matter which type of goldfish you choose, keep in mind that you will need 20 gallons of water per fish to start. As they get bigger, goldfish will need to be moved to a larger aquarium.
Goldfish, in general, are not great feed converters, so they may produce more waste than other fish. Graduate them to a pelleted diet as soon as they are big enough to eat it to reduce food waste, which can produce additional ammonia.
Species Overview
- Length: up to 8-14 inches
- Physical Features: Pair fins with a couple of singlons and three singles. Head without any scales, incredibly huge eyes, in colours including red, orange, bluish grey, brown, yellow, white, and black.
Betta Fish (Betta splendens)
Even though they have become the poster children for easy-keep fish, your betta deserves much better than a dismal existence in some crummy, small fishbowl.
Bettas thrive in a five-gallon tank minimum, with a filter and heater. Being tropical fish, bettas should be kept at 78 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit (26 to 28 degrees Celsius). The bigger the volume of water, the easier it is for your heater to keep a constant temperature. Make sure your aquarium has a thermometer—and not those unreliable stick-on ones!
With their long, delicate fins, bettas are easily knocked about by quick flowing water. Use an appropriate size filter and turn the flow all the way down or divert it so your betta doesn’t get pushed around by the water flow. Their fins are easily torn on sharp decor items. If you run your finger along any potential decor, you should not feel any firm or sharp protrusions. Use decor that is betta specific if you are concerned. Keep in mind that betta fish top out length-wise around three to four inches, so make sure all their decor will suit them as they grow.
Bettas will fight with each other, so males need to be kept separated. Female bettas can usually be kept together in a large aquarium. For beginners, it is recommended to start with one male betta fish in his own tank. Bettas are easy to keep in a larger aquarium, and one male betta can be kept with similar-sized non-aggressive fish of other species. Extra water makes it easy for beginners to have an easy maintenance schedule. Your filter and heater will go a long way in making a happy betta home.
Be sure you don’t overfeed your betta! Their “stomach” is only about the size of their eyeball. They should never be allowed to eat their fill—only as much food as they will eat in about three minutes twice daily. Feeding quantity will depend on the size of your fish and pellet size. It is best that bettas eat betta-specific pellets, which are the appropriate size of their mouth, in order to receive proper nutrition.
How Much to Feed Your Betta Fish
Species Overview
- Length: 3-4 inches (7-10 centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Long, elaborate fins and overlapping scales; come in vibrant colors like red, green, purple, and blue
Neon Tetras (Paracheirodon innesi)
Two neon tetras
They may seem small, but a school of these brightly colored fish can look great in an aquarium. Bright streaks of blue and red make these fish a colorful addition to a community freshwater aquarium. Neon tetras tend to be very easygoing, and their small size makes a minimal impact on water quality.
Neon Tetras can grow to one-and-a-half inches long. They like to school together, so start with at least three to five fish. They are the ideal occupants for a mellow, Zen-inspired planted aquarium.
Neon tetras are easily bred in captivity, so be on the lookout for signs of inbreeding, including missing an operculum (gill cover), asymmetrical mouths, or misshapen fins. Heavily planted aquariums are needed to allow baby fish to hide and survive.
There are pelleted diets available that are small enough for Neon Tetras, but flake foods can be used as well, especially for very small fish.
Species Overview
- Length: One-and-a-half inches (Four centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Red, white, blue, silver, and black, usually with a turquoise blue line stretching between its eyes to its adipose fin and a red stripe that runs from the middle of its body to the caudal fin
Mollies & Platys (Live bearers)
Many molly and platy owners start with only one or two fish. A few weeks later, they have many fish. Live-bearing fish have this reputation, as the fish you first adopted has a 50% chance of being a pregnant female. Since fertilisation takes place internally, you never know from the outward appearance how many fish you may be adopting. And after a single mating, a female live bearer can have multiple batches of babies!
Mollies and platys are very easy fish to care for and come in many varieties and colours. They can be kept in schools and grow to about three inches in length. We recommend starting with a common variety that is widely available, such as a black molly or red platy. Some speciality breeds, specific to only one owner or shop, tend to have inbreeding issues and do not make good beginner fish.
Most mollies and platys are hardy and easy-to-keep fish. They can eat a pelleted or flake diet. It is recommended to start with a ten-gallon aquarium at a minimum, but know you may have to upgrade as your population increases.
The 10 Best Fish Foods
With live-bearing fish, it is important to always plan for more fish. Even beginner fish keepers can successfully rear several generations, doubling or tripling your initial numbers within a few months. However, you will need to slow production eventually, and unmonitored breeding will cause eventual inbreeding. TThankfully, most species are sexually dimorphic, and males and females can be distinguished by external characteristics. The males have long pointed anal fins and the females have fan-shaped anal fins. This allows you to separate males and females to keep populations from exploding. You can try a tank divider, but it is safer to put males and females in separate aquariums if you don’t want continued breeding.
Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Zebra fish
As their name describes, these cute, tiny fish are distinctive with their zebra-like horizontal black and white stripes along their bodies. Another fish that likes to swim in a school, zebrafish are one of the easiest fish to take care of. Unlike other tropical fish, zebrafish don’t require warm water temperatures. Zebrafish like cooler temperature water (around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or 21 degrees Celsius), but you may still need a small heater to keep your aquarium from getting too cold in the winter.
Correct Aquarium Water Temperature
Zebrafish come in normal and long-fin lengths but will top out at two inches long. They even come in special day-glow colors, thanks to a little genetic engineering with fluorescent jellyfish protein. These colors can be very pronounced under a blue LED light. When selecting specialized zebrafish varieties, look for individuals with straight spines and a full operculum covering their gills on both sides.
Zebrafish are great beginner pets, who come without the hassle of keeping an eye on a heater constantly. They can eat standard tropical fish pellets or flake food. As with all other aquatic pets, perform regular filter maintenance and water changes to keep the water clean and the fish healthy.
Species Overview
- Length: Two inches (five centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Silver-gold body with distinctive blue-black horizontal stripes running from gill to tail, also come in albino, golden, veil-tailed, and long-finned varieties, as well as glo-fish colors
Harlequin Rasbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha)
There are several species of rasboras often kept in aquariums, but one of the easiest is the harlequin raspbora. This pretty little fish has a pinkish-beige body, orange fins, and a prominent black triangular marking on its tail. Harlequin rasboras are peaceful fish that do very well in a community tank, as long as you keep them with other fish around the same size of one to two inches. These are schooling fish, so it’s best to keep them in a group of four to six.
The harlequin rasbora mostly swim through the middle to upper part of the tank, and prefer water that’s around 76 degrees and has a pH of around 7.2. As long as these conditions are met, the harlequin rasbora is a hardy fish that remains in motion most of the time. They need at least a 10-gallon tank for a school of six fish, but a larger tank is better.
Your harlequin rasboras will thrive on a diet of good-quality flake tropical fish food, and will also enjoy occasional treats of live daphnia or brine shrimp.
Species Overview
- Length: Two inches (five centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Pinkish-beige or pale orange body with bright orange fins and a black triangular mark on the tail
Cory Catfish (Corydoras)
Another great fish for beginners is the family Corydoras. While there are many species within this group, some of the easiest are the panda cory (shown in the photo here), the bronze cory, and the albino cory. All of these catfish are bottom feeders that spend their time peacefully scavenging along the substrate in search of tidbits of food.
How to Stock an Aquarium With Different Levels of Fish
These are peaceful, social, and very gregarious fish that thrive well in community tanks and prefer to be in a school of at least four of their own kind. Most are no larger than 1-2 inches in length. They are fairly adaptable to water chemistry and temperature but do best within a temperature range of 72 to 82 degrees and pH range of 6.5 to 7.8. Their tank should be at least 20 gallons.
These fish are easy to breed and aren’t too picky about food, although they especially like worms and pelleted fish food designed to sink to the bottom of the tank.
Species Overview
- Length: 2 inches (5 centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Varies by species. Panda corys are silvery-beige with darker spots on their face and lower body.
Cherry Barb (Puntius titteya)
Male Cherry Barb
It comes in a non-aggressive social form, rather than the fiercely aggressive cousin which is the tiger barb: males are pretty and red coloured, while the females are perhaps a little on the dull red side. But these fish come shy at times, but later on, given time to be comfortable with a new environment they are active enough to zip in and out in the tank – they love this and swimming to and fro to plants or simply other tank decorating features. Keep cherry barbs in schools of at least six, and house them with other small fish that don’t exceed two inches or so in length.
The cherry barb is quite easy to care for. They do best in a tank that’s 20 gallons or more, with water temperature between 74 and 80 degrees and pH between 6.0 and 7.0. They aren’t generally picky about food and do well on a diet of tropical fish pellet food, although they enjoy an occasional snack of fresh vegetables or frozen worms and daphnia.
Species Overview
- Length: Two inches (Five centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Breeding males are bright red. Males are not in breeding season and females are a duller red with brighter highlights.
Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
Guppies are one of the most popular beginner fish for the freshwater aquarium, and it’s no wonder. They are very easy to care for, they breed readily, they come in a wide range of beautiful colors, and they get along well with other fish that are similar in size and temperament. Give your guppies plenty of hiding places in the tank, because they can be shy, but when comfortable, they are lovely to watch swimming to and fro.
Guppies should have a tank that’s at least ten gallons, but bigger is better. Groups of three or more do best, but guppies breed quickly, so you may soon end up with far more fish than you expected. Feed your guppies flake or pellet food and provide occasional treats of frozen proteins or bits of fresh vegetables.
Keep the water in your guppy tank between 68 and 78 degrees, with a pH between 6.5 and 8.0.
Species Overview
- Length: Females: One to two inches (five centimeters); Males: Up to two inches (Five centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: A very wide range of colours and colour combinations. Fins vary as well, with some varieties having shorter, rounded fins and others having long, flowing fins
White Cloud Minnow (Tanichthys albonubes)
The graceful white cloud minnow is a peaceful community fish as long as it is kept with at least five others of its species and in a tank with other fish of similar size and temperament. These fish generally grow to around 1.5 inches in length and have varying degrees of red or pink colouring on a silvery body. Males are generally more colourful than females.
Keep your white cloud minnow in a tank that’s at least ten gallons, although 20 gallons or more is better. These fish like it cooler than many other freshwater species; a water temperature of 60 to 72 degrees is best, making these fish a good match for goldfish. The pH should be 6.0 to 8.0.
The white cloud minnow is not a picky eater. Feed your fish a diet of flake or pellet food with occasional additions of live, freeze-dried, or frozen worms, daphnia, brine shrimp, or mosquito larvae.
Species Overview
- Length: 1.5 inches (Four centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Shimmering silvery bodies with a dark stripe and red fins
Kuhli Loach (Pangio kuhlii) Easiest Fish to Take Care of
This eel-like fish prefers the bottom of the tank and can be somewhat nocturnal, but the kuhli loach gets along well with other small peaceful fish and does best when kept in groups of five or more of its own species. Its long body and dramatic stripes are quite striking, especially when the fish darts in and out of greenery in the tank.
Provide a 20-gallon or larger tank with a substrate of sand or small, smooth gravel, as these fish like to burrow and dig in the substrate, and can be injured by sharp gravel. A tightly-fitted lid is also a necessity, as they can be jumpers. The water temperature should be between 75 and 86 degrees, and the pH between 6.0 and 6.5.
Feed your kuhli loach live or frozen food as much as possible. Blood worms, tubifex worms, daphnia, and glass worms are all devoured quickly. You can also provide sinking pellets of tropical fish food, wafers, or flakes. It’s best to feed these fish at night when they are most active.
Species Overview
- Length: Four inches (Ten centimeters)
- Physical Characteristics: Long and eel-like with dark brown stripes on a yellowish or pinkish body.
Getting into the hobby of aquarium-keeping is such a thrilling adventure! Once you have chosen which species you wish to keep, do your research and design a suitable aquarium for the fish you will bring home. Remember, all new aquariums must be allowed to cycle through nitrogen before they can be considered established systems. By starting with a low number of fish in a lot of water, you can set yourself up for success with some of the easiest fish to take care of.
Conclusion
Keeping fish as pets is a calming and fulfilling hobby, but it helps to select beginner-friendly species in order to make yourself successful. The following fish—such as goldfish, bettas, neon tetras, and cory catfish—are tough, low-maintenance, and suitable for new aquarium owners. By researching their specific needs, setting up a proper tank, and maintaining a clean environment, you’ll create a healthy and thriving home for your aquatic pets. Begin small, be patient, and appreciate the beauty of your underwater world!