I have aquired a fish tank 80cm x 30cm x 40 cm (96 litres I think. I’m looking for some ideas on what fish to put in there. Was thinking about tiger barbs, anyone got any other suggestions?

Clown Loaches- lovely little fish that as the name suggests are like freshwater Clown fish. They can get quite big (up to large Red Bull can sized) and ph levels have to be kept an eye on.
Have a look in your local aquarium….

I’ve got two cave fish and two shrimp. Not much help I know but they are fun to watch because the cave fish are blind they don’t really stop swimming about. They did eat my other small fish when I first got them as they go for anything when they get fed. They don’t bother with the shrimp though?

I used to have some F8 Puffers and they were brill to watch. Just don’t like anything with big fins

Fishforums.net is a good resource be sure to read up on the ammonia cycle and stocking options. Clown loaches are brilliant fish to watch but will grown too big and prefer to be kept on large groups.

Fish shops want to sell fish to you even if they are totally unsuitable for your set up, read up first and make sure you know what you want before you go. Or go to have a look and read up on the fish you like the look of.

Warning…like bikes, One tank is never enough. And you’ll spend all your money upgrading bits and buying the newest kit and all your time reading about fish and posting on fish forums.

Danios, cory catfish, angelfish, gouramis are all hardy and relatively easy to keep plus will work in a community tank.

But make sure you cycle your tank properly and don’t add too many fish too quickly.

try a breeding pair of dwarf chiclid

Tiger barbs are great but will chase other fish so you’ll need to choose their tankmates carefully.

Gouramis always seemed to be quite agressive to eachother IME, leading to the weakest ones dying of stress.

Personally, I liked lots of peaceful fish – cardinal tetras and the like with some small loaches for the bottom. I’d avoid clown loaches for that size of tank though as they’ll grow to 6″ which is too big IMO.

A Bristlenose Plec. Interesting to watch, and they help keep the tank clear from algae.

Clown loaches are great. I’ve got three (the minimum) and they get so excited at feeding time, making loud clicking noises and swimming fast in close formation like the red arrows around the rocks. Mine like sleeping on their sides which was a bit odd at first.

The classic Tiger Bards are fin nippers but calm down in bigger shoals. Never trust them with any fish with long flowing fins no matter how many you put in the tank.

Green or Albino Tiger barbs don’t look as nice but don’t nip fins (as much)

Danio’a swim near the top
Showy fish such at Angles or (bold) Gourami’s below these
Tetra’s & (shy) Gourami’s just below the middle
Cory’s and smaller cat fish for the bottom
Octociclus to keep the Algae down

Never buy sucking loaches or any fish when fully grown with a mouth big enough to fit your smaller fish in it.

Used to have plenty of these when I was a kid.

Bornean Spotted Barb

Asian Climbing Perch

Three-spot Gouramy

I had a shoal of 20 clown loaches in a 5foot tank with 200 cardinals – full on CO2 injection and planted up.
Looked fantastic – then I got married……
Tiger barbs are famous for being nippy.

As many other have said Tiger barbs are nippy. My choice would be a shoal of rainbowfish – Praecox are nice, bosemans are better you should be able to get a nice shoal in an 80cm tank. In general a lot of small fish will look better than one or two big ‘uns.
Check out anything by Takashi Amano for inspiration!

Guppies rock. Pretty, breed like rabbits, easy to care for.

If you keep chiclids you pretty much can’t keep anything else in there.

I’d go danios, tetras, mollies – big shoals of a mix of black and white look great). All hardy fish for inexperienced fish keepers. When you get the hang of it go for more expensive fish like clown loaches.

Barbs are likely to eat the fins of other fish.

Thanks for all the ideas folks, keep them coming.
The plan with the tiger barbs would be to have Tiger barbs only in the tank, or possibly just the tigers and a red tailed black shark.
I do like the idea of a community tank, so i’ll look into some of the fish suggested here.