Sunshine State

What are the most colorful freshwater fish that do not get over about 4" when grown? Want a tank with interesting fish and lots of color. Suggestions

agabr123

german blue rams are very colorful and they only get to around 3 inches, but they are very sensitive. would this be for the 75 gallon in your aquarium info?

11yancazosj

i would have suggested tetras but according to your aquarium info you already have them. might i suggest guppies. you should look into them. They are also great breeders so dont overstock. Maybe 20-30 babies at a time.

Sunshine State

Oh, I forgot to mention the fish are for a new 120 gallon tank. I lots of time to plan my fish community since the tank will have to cycle for awhile. So the door is wide open for what kind of fish.

Amanda

Tetras, danios, rasboras, platies, mollies, guppies. All very colorful & they stay small.

Angela_96

There are some species of African CIchilds from Malawi that stay 4 inches and smaller that are very bright and colorful.
Also dwarf cichilds from Western parts of Africa.

JennDFK

tetras, platies and guppies are really colorful and small. I think that platies are one of my favorites...

Sunshine State

In my 75 gallon tank I have tetras, danios, rasboras, platies, and mollies. They are beautiful--don't know why I haven't thought of adding guppies to my 75. Are they compatible with the others? For my 120 gallon tank, I hadn't thought about cichlids--don't know much about them. Sounds interesting. Can I mix the smaller africian cichlids, dwarf cichlids and german blue rams in the 120? Also what about gouramies (spelling). Are compatible with cichlids and/or rams?

11yancazosj

if you were going to invest in cichlids, might i suggest electric blue or electric yellows. easy fish to keep but incredibly hardy. google these two cichlid types. They also look after there eggs. the female stores the eggs inside her mouth ntil they hatch or until the babies are ready to venture out. sometimes the mother is killed during this process.

Angela_96

Malawi cichilds cannot be paired with any other cichilds (from south america or dwarfs) they are super aggressive and require hard high pH water. However they are very hardy fish.
cichlid forum has a great cookie cutter for stocking cichilds, plus you can look at the options and profiles of the fish.

The dwarfs can be mixed with some of the south american as they require softer more acidic water and are more peaceful.

comment on the above about the african mothers I breed them and its not very common that the mother dies during the 2 weeks she holds the eggs.

thequietman44

I got some platies at my local Petsmart that were labeled "Sunburst" and they're pretty colorful. They're bright orange in the center, getting darker orange toward the extremities, with black tipped fins. As you probably already know, platies are hardy and don't grow much more than 2".

Of course, I also love neon tetras. I don't care if they're the most common tropical community fish, I still think they look awesome. Blue, red, flashes of silver-blue, they're just beautiful. With a 120g tank you could have a lot of them. Sometimes I think I'd like to have a big tank full of them, maybe 50 or so .

11yancazosj

mollys, guppies, platys, tetra's and bristlenose's are good starter fish. or if you prefer some real hardy fish then get some danios