Fish

The African Butterfly fish makes excellent community fishes and are great additions to your reef tank. They are graceful swimmers and its bird-like finnage could add so much fascination and ornamental quality to your aquatic display. Tankmates for this fish should be chosen carefully though, as the African Butterfly fish can be a predator and would prey on smaller fishes. They can be relatively peaceful if kept with similar-sized or larger fishes.

This fish feed mostly on surface insects like moth, spiders and flies but will also feed on smaller fish food like flakes, frozen or freeze-dried crickets and worms. However, with its reasonably sized mouth, fishes under 2 inches can be considered food by the African Butterfly fish and are out of the question in selecting tankmates for them.

Known as carnivorous hunters, the African Butterfly fish are known to best tolerate being in a tank with their own species, or better yet alone. Though generally, they can really be a good community fish. There are many other factors to be considered in choosing co-inhabitants for your African Butterfly fish. As surface dwellers, they will often not tolerate other surface-dwelling fishes. They see them as competition for food and would tend to be aggressive towards them. However, they can stay peaceful with mid-dwelling and bottom-dwelling fishes. With its shy personality, the African Butterfly fish would even often ignore them. It is important for tank keepers to learn more about the kind of fish they wish to add in their African Butterfly fish tank to make sure they would get along. Such helpful information can be obtained from the fish store keepers and even online.

Its long trailing finnage could appear tempting to fin nipping species and should not be kept on the same tank. A few recommended tankmates for your African Butterfly fish are Congo Tetras, Elephant Nose fish, Synodontis Catfish, African Knifefish, Ctenopoma species and some other African species. Oddball fish, Plecos, and larger Scavenger fishes make suitable tankmates as well. If you keep an African Butterfly fish in a tank with Mudskippers, Minnows and Cherry Barbs, they would get along just fine.

Knowing a little bit about your fish and their suitable tankmates is always helpful to keep your reef showcase peaceful. The African Butterfly fish is a beautiful fish to keep, and is sure important to have a little knowledge on it if you intend to keep one. The exotic appearance of this fish easily makes it a favourite for many aquarium keepers. With its interesting personality and with the proper conditions, your African Butterfly fish could pretty much be a centrepiece in your aquatic display.

Keeping an Oscar fish is one of the most rewarding experience any aquarium hobbyist could have. You would be amazed on the personality these fishes possess. They are very smart, personable and active. They have their way of charming their owners as they somehow behave like dogs and more often, family members.

If you keep an Oscar fish and plan to have a community aquarium, it would take a lot of consideration in choosing tankmates for your Oscar. Aggressive fishes like the Oscar fish could do well in large groups, but would tend to fight if there’s just a few of them. It’s either keeping one Oscar fish or many of them, but not a few. A few Oscars kept in the same tank would result for the stronger one to bully the weaker one. But the more Oscars that live together would divide the abuse of the strongest Oscar. Generally, Oscars do best if kept alone but a male and a female Oscar would pair up pretty well. Oscars of the same size will less likely result for the weak one to be bullied. These fishes are territorial and aggressive, they will eat anything that fits their mouth so adding in smaller fishes in your Oscar tank is not a wise idea. Because of their hearty appetite, smaller fishes introduced into his territory become quick snacks for the Oscar fish.

Oscars can be paired with other species as well, but only with those of the same size or larger ones. In choosing tankmates for your Oscar fish, caution should be observed as more aggressive specie may tend to bully your Oscar too. The Large Plecostomus is among those known to be best tankmates for the Oscar fish. They will also do well with some type of barbs, Synodontis catfish, Scavenger catfish and Black Lancer Catfish. Other large neotropical cichlids such as Jack Dempseys, Jade-eyed Cichlid, Chocolate Cichlid, Salvini and Texas Cichlids may also be considered. Other South American cichlids are also about the same size of Oscars, and sometimes could be larger, can be suitable tankmates as well. If you wanna go for Silver Dollars, Pecos, Severum,  Pumpkinseed, Banded Leporinu and Blue Acara, they are known to get along with your Oscar fish, and are possible additions as well. Clown or tiger loaches and sharks may also be added in.

The Oscar fish is an excellent choice for an aquarium and deserves to be the center piece of your showcase. Their personality makes them wonderful pets. Keeping them with other species may take a lot trial and error. It does pay to learn about these interesting creatures. If everything works out alright, your aquarium will result to a very beautiful display.