You might find this difficult to believe, but the employees working in some big box pet stores have no idea how to properly take care of fish (or lizards, or birds, but we’ll stick to fish here.) Hard to believe the 18-year-old kid is not an expert, isn’t it? Worse, occasionally I find myself about to ask a question that I realize (in time) this person will have no clue how to answer.
But then, I’m not a novice aquarist, and I wouldn’t expect most of them to know whether a goldfish is compatible with my Pachypanchax playfairii. (It isn’t.)
But I’m not writing this to bash the pet stores. Instead, it’s to offer some advice about what kinds of fish are sold as beginner fish, but really aren’t, and what kinds of fish are sold that are totally inappropriate for almost everyone.
A caveat is in order here. My answers will be biased toward my water. Places like New York or Seattle, where the water out of the tap is soft, will have different answers. I’ll post on that another day.
One other thing to note is that a person who researches these fish before buying can certainly provide an adequate environment to keep them healthy.
So, here we go.
Goldfish
Regardless of what you may have heard, and no matter what the common practice happens to be, goldfish do not belong in bowls. Adult goldfish can grow to very large sizes. The thing people don’t realize is that the fish you see in the store are not adults. They are babies, often only a month or two old. This means they grow, and goldfish are an extreme example. Yes, people keep them in bowls, it is an extremely bad environment for a goldfish. The harsh reality is, they belong in ponds.
Mollies
While mollies are common, and come in attractive colors, it’s a mistake to think of them as fish for beginners. Mollies kept in sub-optimal conditions are susceptible to disease, can sometimes have internal parasites that are nightmarish to treat, and finally, are really not freshwater fish at all. Mollies are happiest and healthiest in brackish water. That is, water somewhere between fresh and marine. There are a lot of nuances involved.
Plecostomus
This one makes my head spin. While there are plecos that are appropriate for beginners and for relatively small tanks, the pleco that the big box stores offer ain’t one of them. The pleco they commonly sell gets to 18 inches, and unlike a goldfish, it won’t stunt. These are literally tankbusters.
Oscars
They look so cool, and they have a deserved reputation for being smart. Unfortunately, they are also very large fish (upwards of a foot long), are carnivores, and are extremely messy eaters. They require excellent filtration, frequent water changes, and 55 gallons per fish.
Neon Tetras
This is a very popular fish attractive for their bright colors, and they are quite striking in a large school inside a planted tank. However, the neon tetra (and the similar cardinal tetra) is sensitive to water hardness. These fish should live in very soft water, and often people with hard tap water find these fish gradually dying off “for no reason.” They succumb to osmotic pressure. And while they can tolerate some degree of hardness, I’ve never known anyone keeping them for more than a couple months in hard water.
