There are great articles covering what type of plants to keep in your fish tank as well as the worst plants not to keep in your fish tank. If you look online, you will find millions of different types of fish to put in your fish tank or aquarium.
However, be really careful not to just pick any random fish based on their appearance. Most beautiful freshwater fish are suitable to be put in your fish tank. But if you put an ocean fish, they will (for sure) not be able to survive.
Not only you will need to take care of your fish tank frequently, but choosing the right fish for your fish tank might be an important step anyone should do.
There are billions of different types and species of freshwater fish. You may probably be considered to pick giant freshwater fish. But remember, it is a small fish tank. So here is the list of different types of small freshwater fish to have.
- Swordtails
Swordtails, or also known as Xiphophorus, is one of the freshwaters to put in your fish tank. Usually, swordtails has a green body with a or black-red stripe along their body.
Male swordtails fish are usually smaller than the female ones. While the female weight to 6.3ish inches, the male swordtails weight to only 5.5 inches maximum.
Swordtails fish is a really good choice for beginner aquarists. Not only that they basically eat anything, ranging from algae to small chopped worms, but also they can live in different and diverse types of environments.
Moreover, they do not need a spacious space since they are very tiny in size. For beginners, swordtails fish is a general and famous choice.
- Betta
Another good choice for beginner aquarists is Betta fish. Similar to Swordtails, they are an omnivore fish, eating animals and plants. Hence, you should give nutritional food to feed your betta fishes. Spoiler alert, there are few food options for your betta fish. Betta fish might be pretty big in size, compared to Swordtails.
However, Betta can be considered one of the easy fish for beginner aquarists. Betta can live with other peaceful types of fish, so it easier for Betta fish to be put in the same fish tank with other fish
Betta is considered as one of the beautiful freshwaters fish with their glamorous tails. However Betta fish can get really aggressive, it only happens when the male Betta is put with female Betta without any separation. Thus, if you choose to have Betta, make sure to only choose either a female Betta or male Betta.
- Angelfish
The next pick is the Angelfish. Angelfish is one of the most popular fish. Not only they have beautiful shapes (like a literal angel), they are quite small in size and also pretty easy to maintain.
Angelfish, or known as Pterophyllum, can grow up more than 5 inches long (usually less than 6 inches long). This type of fish is also an omnivore, which can basically eat anything ranging from worms to plants
Angelfish also considered being good community fish. It means that Angelfish can be paired with other different species of freshwater fish. This makes it easier for beginner aquarists to choose angelfish as well as other fish, that will make their fish tank to be more beautiful.
- Neon Tetras Fish
Unlike other types of fish mentioned before, neon tetras fish is considered to be one of the simple in shape types of fish. Yet, their vibrant with a mix between gray and red color adds a uniqueness.
Neon Tetra can grow up to around 3.5 cm and live up to 10 years. Similar to other types of fish, neon tetra fish is an omnivore, eating from animals to plants.
Neon tetras fish is also popular among beginners and most likely to be the number one pick for most beginners. Neon Tetras can be paired with other fish from different types since they are considered peaceful without any aggressive behavior towards other species. Thus, it is easier to have neon tetras fish in your fish tank.
- Guppies
As cute as their name, the shape of guppies fish is one of the reason most people choose to have them in the fish tank. Not only that they a very bright yellow color that people love, but also, guppies fish is easy to adapt with water changes in the fish tank. While the most type of fish is really reliant on the water condition, Guppies can fit themselves with the changes.
Guppies, or also known as rainbow fish, can grow up to 6 cm long. Similar to other fish, Guppies can eat anything, ranging from algae to larvae. Moreover, guppies fish can live to more than 3 until 4 years and their maturity is also considered to be fast, in just (as early as) 10 weeks and also are very peaceful fish.
- Danio
Similar to guppies, danio is very popular among beginner aquarists, since Danio is easy to take care of among fish. Not only that they are peaceful, but also danio is a social type of fish if they are paired with another type of fish. It is hard for them to get aggressive in a group full of different types of fish.
Danio can grow up to 5 cm and also live up to 6 years both for females and males. Danio is not a picky eater either as they can basically eat anything they are given. Most people choose Danio to be the first beginner fish as they are extremely cheap or even the cheapest, compared to other freshwater fish.
- Platy
The last one for this list will go to platy fish, one of rainbow fish due to its uniqueness in color. By rainbow, it means that platy fish comes in every different color ranging from red to yellow.
Although it comes from different colors, platy fish is really handy to be taken care of since they are omnivores (though they eat mostly plants), and they grow up to only 4 cm.
Similar to other types of freshwater fish, platy is a very social fish. Naturally, they can get along to other types of fish. Even, platy can get really stressful when they left alone in a fish tank. With their small size and fins, platy does not require a big space for them.
Although their life span is considered to be short (around 3 to 5 years), most people still find platy fish to be so popular due to its uniqueness in color and easy maintenance.