Top 3 Peaceful Fish for Beginner Community Tanks from Pond Life Aquatics and Tropical Fish London
Welcome to the first in a new series where we'll be discussing our top three peaceful fish ideal for community tanks, especially if you're just starting your fishkeeping journey!
Before we dive in, we'd like to ask a huge favor: The Practical Fishkeeping Readers Poll for 2025 is now open! If you'd like to vote for us for Pond Life Aquatics and Tropical Fish London in any of the available categories, it would mean the world to us and help our shop grow. You can vote for us in the Practical Fishkeeping Readers Poll.
1. Corydoras Catfish (Cory Cats)
First on our list, and more of a genus than a single species, is the Corydoras catfish. These peaceful bottom dwellers come in a variety of species, though some have recently been renamed to haplo cats.
For beginners, we always recommend smaller species like Panda Corydoras or Julii Corydoras. This is because they are truly communal fish , needing to be kept in groups of six or more of their specific species. Since most beginners typically start with 60-100 litre tanks rather than 150-200 litre tanks , these smaller Corydoras are ideal. Keeping them in adequate space will be incredibly rewarding for any beginner fish keeper.
Most Corydoras in the industry today are captive-bred , making them much rarer to find wild-caught. In fact, captive breeding has helped reverse their near-endangered status in the wild.
Setting up their ideal aquarium:
Substrate:
Aim for a soft substrate like sand or aqua soil. Avoid harsh gravels, as Corydoras use delicate feelers called barbells to find food, which can be damaged by rough surfaces.
Water Parameters:
While wild Corydoras generally prefer softer water , captive-bred species are highly adaptable and can be kept in hard London tap water, provided you use a good dechlorinator during water changes. This applies unless you are looking to breed them, which is not a typical beginner activity.
Decor:
A naturally planted environment with bogwood, rocks, Cryptocoryne species, Java fern, and Echinodorus is ideal. However, avoid very small stemmed plants as Corydoras enjoy digging and might unearth them.
Feeding:
Supplement their diet with a good Corydoras tablet to ensure food reaches them, as they are not strong competitors. They are omnivorous , so supplementing with frozen and live foods whenever possible is perfect for pretty much every species of Cory catfish.
Tank Mates:
Corydoras are incredibly peaceful and won't harass any other species of fish. Just ensure you are not keeping them with semi-aggressive species that are going to bother them.
Behavior:
Keeping them in groups of six or more in a sufficiently sized aquarium will allow you to see them shouldering together and moving around the aquarium, exhibiting those beautiful playful behaviours. This is why most beginners fall in love with them almost instantly.
2. Harlequin Rasbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha)
Next up is the Harlequin Rasbora. Trigonostigma heteromorpha, though not technically a rasbora species, has been a staple in the aquarium trade for over 100 years. Their stunning red bodies and black, pork chop-shaped spots on their tails make them very appealing.
Harlequin Rasboras are an extraordinarily peaceful species and naturally inhabit slow-moving, peaty waters in Southeast Asia.
Setting up their ideal aquarium:
Tank Size:
A minimum of 40 litres is recommended.
Grouping:
Like Corydoras, they are a truly shoaling, communal fish. Keeping them in groups of 10 or more will bring out their best behaviors and make them a lot less timid. For a larger shoal, we recommend a 60-80 litre tank or more.
Substrate:
A good aqua soil substrate is recommended as its dark color will help make the reds in their bodies pop.
Planting:
Replicate their naturally heavily planted wild habitat. For beginners, this means lots of easy-to-grow plants like Cryptocoryne species (half a dozen in a 40-litre tank provides sufficient cover) , hornwort, and Java fern.
Feeding:
A good staple flake food supplemented with live and frozen foods is ideal.
Tank Mates:
They are generally very peaceful species exhibiting pretty much no nipping to other species of fish. They can be kept with things like Bettas, Corydoras, Tetras, and the list goes on. Avoid semi-aggressive species like Barbs that might harass them. Their adaptability makes them absolutely perfect for the beginner fish keeper.
Temperature:
Ideal temperatures range between 22 and 28 degrees Celsius, although 22 to 24 degrees is going to be that sweet spot to keep them happy.
Filtration:
Standard commercial filtration systems large enough for the aquarium, such as hang-on-backs or powerheads, are suitable.
Flow:
They don't enjoy as fast flow as some other species like Danios or Minnows. They won't enjoy being buffeted around, however, they can take a little bit of flow.
The Harlequin Rasbora is truly a beautiful fish that is so easy to keep. There is a reason why they have been kept for so long in the aquarium trade. They come in a variety of different colors that have been captively bred through the generations , and we generally can't recommend them more for the beginner fish keeper.
3. White Cloud Mountain Minnow
Finally, we couldn't discuss beginner friendly fish without mentioning the White Cloud Mountain Minnow. White clouds are generally known as the "bulletproof fish". They are incredibly easy to keep due to their wide tolerance for temperatures and water parameters.
They can thrive in temperatures ranging from 10 degrees up to 24 or even 26 degrees Celsius , making them a true temperate species, meaning beginners don't have to worry about heaters if they don't have to. They are also extraordinarily active and interesting, occupying the mid to upper levels of the tank. Their constant activity makes them ideal for beginner fish keepers who want to see their fish active.
White Clouds generally come in two varieties: the Golden variant, which has white bodies, and the regular white clouds, which have beautiful golden bodies with that distinctive red tail. Although not a truly shoaling species, we always recommend keeping them in groups to get the best behaviours out of them. In something like a 40-litre aquarium, we'd recommend keeping six or more of them.
White Cloud Mountain Minnows are excellent dithering fish:
Because of their dithering nature, they are always active.
They will always take food, whether that's frozen, dry or live.
They will encourage other species to come out and show off the behaviors you as their owners want to see, particularly things like sparkling gourami or honey gourami that may be a little bit more timid.
Setting up their ideal aquarium:
Flow:
Hailing from rivers, they do enjoy a little bit more flow. However, as long as you provide a good oxygen content in the water with sufficient surface, they will adapt readily to pretty much any aquarium there is.
Substrate:
They can go on bare base, or pretty much any substrate you want. However, we would avoid having large pebbles with gaps where they might get stuck underneath them because they are quite a tiny little species of fish.
Planting:
They will enjoy any kind of planting in the aquariums. They will tolerate pretty much anything.
Water Quality:
As with most species of fish, you should aim to have your ammonia and nitrites down to zero , and they are relatively tolerant of nitrates. However, as with pretty much every other species, you should try and keep your nitrates low, whether that be through planting or regular water changes. White Cloud Mountain Minnows will tolerate a lot more than your other delicate species of fish.
They are simply the simplest fish to keep in aquariums. They will readily breed in hard water, they'll readily breed in soft water. They are the beginner fish if you are worried about killing your fish. We cannot recommend them more, and in general, we think they are fascinating. They are the OG fish when it comes to setting up an aquarium, and it's easy to see why.
Conclusion
That's it for the first top three in this series! Let us know what you would like us to discuss next in terms of our top three, whether you would like another three fish that you should keep as a beginner fish keeper, or maybe a top three semi-aggressive fish to keep as a fish keeper, or top three plants for beginner plant keepers. The reason we make these is because we do just want as many people as possible to be keeping fish in the best possible way, and being able to teach everyone about different species of fish generally is what we want to be doing.
As we mentioned, the Practical Fish Keeping Readers poll is open now, and any vote for us for Pond Life Aquatics would mean the world to us. It would help us grow as a shop , and help us continue what we're doing here, and helping to encourage more people into keeping fish in the aquarium trade in the best possible way. Thank you so much if you do decide to vote for us
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