Remember our discussion on picking the right fish store? Well here’s where that will come in handy when you go to buy your first fish. Check all the tanks and make sure that there aren’t any sick fish in them or any dead fish floating at the top. You don’t want to buy fish from an unhealthy tank otherwise the fish you buy could end up dead in just a short time. Get a good book beforehand or use the internet, and research the different species of fish that you may want to buy. Keep in mind when buying your fish the size of tank you purchased, cause some may get to be way too big for it. I mentioned earlier about the pet store employee trying to sell you 20 goldfish for a twenty-gallon tank, which is something I have seen happen, well this is a good example of fish that will get too big for the tank. Goldfish get to be around a foot in length, some even larger than that, and need at the very least 25-gallons of water per fish. Sure you have seen gallon bowls in the store labeled goldfish bowls, but what happens to the goldfish when you put them in it is that their growth gets stunted and they are put under a lot of undue stress. Now the end result is a fish that would on average live for 25 years in the proper size tank only lives for about a year, if you’re lucky, in a bowl. During that year they would most likely have one disease after the other, so you want to take a really good look at the size of the adult fish before you buy.

Another thing to keep in mind when buying fish is compatibility. A lot of fish simply will not get along with other fish. A good example of this is a betta and an angelfish. I had a friend who had made the mistake once of putting the two together, and after about a week the angelfish ended up killing the betta. Another example is don’t put two male betta's in the same tank, they aren’t called fighting fish for nothing and will fight to the death. In their native country Thailand people actually put betta’s in the same tank and wager which will be the victor. This is their alternative to cock fighting.

Also if you have purchased a rather large tank don’t get large carnivorous fish such as Oscars and put smaller fish such as guppies in with it. Oscar’s, like goldfish, get to be extremely large and will eventually eat the guppies. Try to keep the fish you buy close to the same size or within and inch or two of each other, or one day you may wake up to find some of your fish have been eaten.

When adding fish to a new uncycled tank it’s always best to buy hardy fish such as danios. Danios are more apt to handle the bad water conditions that will arise during the cycling period. Rainbows are another hardy fish that can tolerate the bad water conditions. These are just a couple to give you some ideas. Also when stocking your tank a general rule to follow is 1-inch of fish per gallon, but for extremely large fish such as goldfish, oscars, and plecos this rule does not apply. Fish like oscars will need about 120-gallons, plecos will need at least 55-gallons, and goldfish will need at least 25.

Before you buy your first fish it is a good idea to do some research on the different species you would like. Aquaria Central is a good place to start, and they have a wide range of species for you to look up. Also check out your local library.