[Judy]

Hi I'm Judy. My fiance and I have a 4 gallon aquarium and we're wondering if anyone could please tell us sme good freshwater tropical communty fish to try. Wewould also like some advice on plants. Thank you. Please let us know.

[Judy]

I mean a 40 Gallon Aquarium

[Hotspot]

Hi there

What are you interested in ? There are simply too much fish that fit a 40g .

An easy advice with plants: Vallisneria gigantea, Microsorium pteropus (aka the java fern), Cryptocoryne balansae and Ceratophyllum demersum will grow even completely without a green thumb if the water is not too polluted and you have a lighting at all .
Another thing is to avoid liquid fertilizers in fish-orientated tanks, the benefits are too little imho and you'll fertilize more algae than higher plants.

Peter

[Fruitbat]

If your 40 gallon tank has standard fluorescent aquarium lighting then Water Sprite (Ceratopteris) is an excellent choice for a background plant. Java fern (Microsorum) is definitely a good choice as well...just remember to NOT bury its rhizome (the root-looking things) in the gravel. Java fern is relatively slow-growing and does best when it is attached to a submerged object like a rock or a piece of waterlogged driftwood. Water sprite (also a fern) can grow VERY quickly and will occasionally need to be trimmed back to prevent it from forming too dense of a clump. Many of the Aponogeton plant species and virtually ALL of the Cryptocoryne species will grow under standard aquarium lighting without any fancy CO₂ generators.

As for fish...wow! That's a MUCH harder question because it depends so much on individual preferences! Obviously you don't want to have any voracious plant-eaters if you want live plants in your aquarium so things like silver dollars (Metynnis) which will mow a planted tank down to the roots are out of the question. Fish that like to excavate the aquarium bottom (most cichlids come to mind...especially the Central and South American varieties) probably will give you all sorts of headaches in a planted aquarium.

One of the biggest mistakes that beginning aquarists make is to overload their aquariums with fish (either numbers or varieties). A 40-gallon can hold a pretty decent number of smaller fish as long as you have adequate filtration and do regular partial water changes. I'll toss out a couple of MY personal favorites for a 'community' tank with colorful fish: 1) A school of 20 or so Tiger Barbs (Capoeta tetrazona) makes quite a sight and will provide almost endless entertainment. They are very active (and occasionally aggressive) fish that are very colorful in their normal form. A large school is important because it helps prevent any single individual from being singled out for bullying. Toss in a couple of loaches or armored catfishes (like Corydoras) as a clean-up crew and you'll have a simple yet colorful display; 2) I've always loved a large school of Cardinal tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi) or Neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi) accompanied by a few Hatchetfish (Gasteropelecus and others) for surface activity and a small group of Corydoras catfish on the bottom. You might toss in a couple of Otocinclus cats for algae control but keep in mind that those little gems will starve to death if they don't have some algae to nibble on. Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica) also do a pretty good job on most kinds of algae but don't include them in your aquarium if you have fish that will nibble them to death.

If you're more interested in 'oddball' fish...consider a tank with one or two Senegal Bichirs (Polypterus senegalus) or Armored Bichirs (Polypterus delhezi). Toss in an African Butterfly Fish (Pantodon buchholzi) or two and a couple of good-sized Synodontis catfish and you'll have yourself a very nice African specialty display. Keep in mind that the Bichirs are carnivorous and will happily swallow any fish that they can get in their mouth and that African Butterfly Fish are strictly surface feeders and can be difficult to maintain (most won't eat flake food). I've kept medium-sized bichirs like P. senegalus and P. delhezi with some of the larger African tetras (Congo tetras, for example) with only a few losses to the tetra population.

I'm sure that some of our other members will chime in with their suggestions as well but perhaps these will give you something to think about.

-Joe