Favorite Less Common Fishes

Drop a picture of your favorite fish/Invertebrate that is not super common in the hobby. (Can include an uncommon color variety)

You can own it now (include what you really like about it + whatever you want to share)

Or want to own it in the future (keep it realistic, something that's actually IN the hobby)

Ready....set...GO!

 

True Red Terror!

 

Reticulated Hillstream Loach. Look like little stingrays.

 

Belontia hasselti, also known as the java combtail is one of my favorite uncommon fish in the hobby. It is a larger, peaceful community fish. I currently have a pair housed in a 180 gallon tank along with various tetras and bichirs.

 

Probably my fav that I owned would be either my halfbeaks, silver kuhlies or my pencilfish - they are uncommon!


Probably one I would love to keep are merah guppies - also known as combtail guppies.

 

Oh where do I begin.... Ah how about a common species in an uncommon form? These are longfinned tiger barbs. I am working on breeding them into the green color form, which you can see a couple of in these pics with normal fins.



I also love african butterfly fish. They have such an arrowana like face but stay a nice reasonable size for the normal aquarist to be able to house properly.

 

Not sure about you guys, but my LFSs never had sparkling gourami, and I literally jumped for joy when I found them. Easily my favorite fish!

 

Inverts you say??? Well I got two mosaik rennschnecke nerites, one lightning bolt nerite, and four red racer nerites. I got the first three at Petsmart (surprisingly. I didn't even know what they were called, they just looked cool) and I had to order the red racers from a fish store an hour drive from me. It was worth it though!
Here is a pic of all my snails, too lazy to crop out the unique ones lol. Spotty and Dotty are the mosaik ones. Ziggy is the lightning one. Edgelord, Beauty, Picasso, and Yang are the red racers.

 

Here is a pic of all my snails, too lazy to crop out the unique ones lol. Spotty and Dotty are the mosaik ones. Ziggy is the lightning one. Edgelord, Beauty, Picasso, and Yang are the red racers.View attachment 481483

AHHH! I want some of those nerites! All I can find in my area are the Zebra (like Zeb) and the Tiger (like Sam and Ringling), the fish shop didn't even know they were different types! Thought they were just different colors.
+1 to African Butterfly fish. They are just so stunning and NEVER available in my area.
I'd also really love an Axolotl, I don't know if they're necessarily uncommon in the trade. But they are for me.
Unfortunately I live in a pretty small area that isn't too big on aquariums.

 

White cloud minnows are one of the most common but easily one of my favourite.

The recent species I recently got my hands on is a smaller species of white clouds known as lemon white cloud minnows. They are quite rare from what I heard. They stay smaller, full grown about 2.5 to 3cm, and I think are stunning hardy nano fish. They have subtle colours and that's I like about them.

Some info here:


And a phone pic of some of my males displaying recently:

 

White cloud minnows are one of the most common but easily one of my favourite.

The recent species I recently got my hands on is a smaller species of white clouds known as lemon white cloud minnows. They are quite rare from what I heard. They stay smaller, full grown about 2.5 to 3cm, and I think are stunning hardy nano fish. They have subtle colours and that's I like about them.

Some info here:


And a phone pic of some of my males displaying recently:
View attachment 481492

Yeahhhh those are awesome

 

The rarest fish I own are oscura heterospila.

Rare fish is like to own one day are vieja breidohri, polypterus mokelembembi, and a group of guianacara owroewefi.

 

I don't have any and have never seen them in real life, but I'm fascinated by the different varieties of "blue eyes."

Aquatic Arts has a few different kinds.

 

OoooOooo I learning about all kinds of beautiful fish I've never heard of before! Keep it going!

 

The rarest fish I own are oscura heterospila.

Rare fish is like to own one day are vieja breidohri, polypterus mokelembembi, and a group of guianacara owroewefi.

It took me sooooooo long to find vieja

 

I absolutely ADORE pygmy sunfish and rainbow darters! Both smaller fish with HUGE personalities!

 

I absolutely ADORE pygmy sunfish and rainbow darters! Both smaller fish with HUGE personalities!

Those rainbow darters look awesome, I hope my lfs sells them....

 

They're cold water fish, so they probably don't. I think hogchokers or Blackbanded Sunfish. Maybe tadpole madtoms. I already have the Blackbanded Sunfish, and will get the hogchokers and tadpole madtoms eventually.

Those rainbow darters look awesome, I hope my lfs sells them....

 

Rope Fish...I don't have one but I think they are very interesting and different kind of fish.

 

I don't see many paradise fish in my lfs or on this forum. My favorite coldwater fish in the hobby.

 

My favorite odd balls Golden wonder killifish. Tons of personality!! If my hands in the tank there in it. Put a bowl in the tank there in it. Change the water and drop the water level they are splashing and jumping out of the water.
Red racer
electric blue gold faced bubble bodied ram. Lol that’s a long name. New edition sadly the only one of 4 to survive. Beautiful fish but very hard to keep.

 

forgot to add that darters are very pretty and Fundulus kansae look like they'd be fun to keep.

 

Rope Fish...I don't have one but I think they are very interesting and different kind of fish.

I have a few of them. In my experience they are a very peaceful, interesting fish.

 

I absolutely love catfish, all kinds. I had seen petricola cats on YouTube but never in person. My lfs got some donated by a customer and when I saw them it was love at first sight. They only had four so I bought all of them. Love these guys.

I really would love a blue phantom pleco but timing just hasn’t worked out for me so someday... also I’d love a breeding pair of blue panaques (spelling?) and I read about a purple cactus pleco on planetcatfish that I’d love to have. Purple is my favorite color and seems a pretty rare color for fresh water fish. Might be one of the driving forces of me getting ready to go salty, to get some purple.

 

Currently, my betta imbellis pair. No pics, blackwater and dI'm lighting, lol. They bred on the third day I had them, that was an accident. They're not show quality, but I wanted to try my hand at a natural biotope with natural looking fish. It's amazing how fast both of them can change into brilliant colors, then quickly back to light brown. Half the time I'll look in the tank and won't see them, freaks me out a bit

 

Pictures don't do it justice, but this is my newest killifish. I have a Male and a female.
Simpsonichtys Santanae

 

I don't see many paradise fish in my lfs or on this forum. My favorite coldwater fish in the hobby.

 

Those rainbow darters look awesome, I hope my lfs sells them....

They're pretty rare. I wish more stores sold them. I might have a couple, though, so if you're interested, shoot me a pm!

 

View attachment 481735 My favorite odd balls Golden wonder killifish. Tons of personality!! If my hands in the tank there in it. Put a bowl in the tank there in it. Change the water and drop the water level they are splashing and jumping out of the water. View attachment 481743 Red racer View attachment 481746 electric blue gold faced bubble bodied ram. Lol that’s a long name. New edition sadly the only one of 4 to survive. Beautiful fish but very hard to keep.

I have a GWK! So much personality! Her name is Infinity because she's currently four (turning five in three months), while we got her from Petco with some zebra danios. She's such a character!

 

I have a GWK! So much personality! Her name is Infinity because she's currently four (turning five in three months), while we got her from Petco with some zebra danios. She's such a character!

Wow had no idea they lived that long. Thought they were a year or two. Good news.

 

You can never go wrong with a Dario Dario aka Scarlet Badis ( one of the best nano fish )

 

Wow had no idea they lived that long. Thought they were a year or two. Good news.

I honestly don’t think they’re supposed to live that long? Tbh she’s been through everything, and I have her in my plant QT to eat up any snails that might try to get through!

 

Guess she’s white. I have a pair. Didn’t know they ate snails.

 

Got to be blind cave tetras- my lfs sells them and I want to set up a tank just for them. Cool little buggers.

 

Hovering zebra loaches. So hard to find but so cool.

 

My most uncommon fish, is a 7 inch, and growing, Red Texas Cichlid. Although he didn't fade to the desired red coloration, his blue pearling w/red highlights makes him one of the most beautiful fish I've ever kept. The only drawback is that he doesn't play well with others and has a pretty sharp set of teeth. Lol.

 

I have some turtle nerites which are pretty awesome. Appistos are always great and switching to saltwater (they aren’t super uncommon but not very commonly done in the hobby) my prawn goby and pistol shrimp pair is pretty great.

 

Peacock gudgeons. Definitely my favorite, not so common, fish.

 

Friendly reminder, please do not use s that are not your own, if needed for illustration then use a link to the site for members to follow.

 

As the title says, I'm curious to know what "unpopular" fish people like. Not in the sense as widely disliked fish, but rare fish that don't have heaps of info online and are a bit harder to find than, let's say, tetras and mollies and cichlids for example

I'll start: of course mine is the half-banded spiny eel.
It gets a bit frustrating how little info is out there about this beautiful little fish, which are way more manageable than the more common fire eels and tire track eels for example.