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INTERESTING IMPORTS
For those new to fish keeping, a tropical community tank is a great option. You don’t need a large tank and there is an impressive range of small, peaceful, and often colourful species, on offer from the importers. Most are schooling species and are best kept in groups of at least 6 fish. Your local fish store is sure to have a selection to suit most tastes. Livebearers are a good beginner’s fish. They are easy to keep and breed and come in an impressive range of colours and varieties. Male guppies are available in a great range of strains including blue lyretail, koi tuxedo, metallic rainbow, and platinum flora. Platy varieties include bumblebee, calico, Mickey Mouse/moon, tuxedo, wagtail (wag), and hifins, while their longer-tailed relatives, the sword tails are available in black, gold wag, red and white, red eye koi, tuxedo, and red. Molly varieties include black marble, dalmatian, gold, red leopard, and lyretail saffron. On the tetra front you are spoilt for choice with about 30 species of small
Red eye koi swordtail Photo: Robert Beke
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Red Beckford's pencilfish Photo: Robert Beke
tetras available, while other great options include pencil fish (red Beckford’s and tricolour are available), danios (Burmese and pearl), rasboras (emerald dwarf, emerald eye, harlequins), and small rainbows/blue-eyes (forktail and Gertrude’s). If you are after a small peaceful bottom dweller, it is hard to go past a cory and the importers continue to offer an impressive selection. There are the ever-popular albino bronze, bronze, peppered, emerald green, panda, sterbai, and pygmy corys, and if you are after something different then why not try an Axelrod, black sail (C. melanistius), false bandit (C. melini), gold lazer, or Venezuelan cory. And if the Apistogramma article has got you interested: Agassiz's dwarf cichlid A. agassizii is available in red and ‘gold’ fire red varieties, Cockatoo dwarf cichlid A. cacuatoides in orange and double red, and the three-striped dwarf cichlid A. trifasciata is also available.
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