Fish Compatibility Charts & Fish Profile Sources

When I'm doing research on a potential new fish or one of my current fish, I use several different sites since each one has different information. Please feel free to add your own favorite research site and I'll edit it into this main post.

I start with these General Compatibility Charts just to get an idea on whether the prospective fish or aquatic life are even remotely compatible:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/fwcompatibility_chart.cfm

http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/freshwater_compatibility_chart.php

http://www.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/Compatibility/index.php

http://www.aquaria.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=database&file=index_species (More of an advanced search for species based on water parameters, etc.)

Here is a download chart in Excel/Spreadsheet format that has tons of information about various fish, compatibility, etc.:

http://www.klsnet.com/fish.html or http://www.grizzlyrun.com/petedu/fishchrt.xls

Sorry.. the above two links no longer work but I did download these files a while back and I now have them hosted on my FileFront account so you can download them here....

http://files.filefront.com/13416948 (ODS file for Sun's Open Office)

http://files.filefront.com/13416958 (XLS file for MS Excel)

(If you don't have MS-Excel, you can download a viewer from MS or if you want a FREE full service MS-Office type suite, go to Sun Micro's http://www.openoffice.org/ and download their full suite which will allow you to create, view and edit MS-Office documents.)

This page has a few downloadable fishkeeping related programs... mostly Freeware... and includes two programs under the Software Column of links, for Fish Compatibility named "Can I Keep It?" and "More Can I Keep It?". I haven't checked these out yet but they were recommended by an advanced member of fishforums.net. There are also some other fish related freebie programs on the site. I'm not sure if this is Neal Monk's site but I see "nmonks" in the URL and he has been writing articles for a while about fish. http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/software/index.html

NOTICE: ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT COMPATIBILITY CHARTS ARE SUBJECT TO MANY VARIABLES AND MAY NOT BE AS ACCURATE AS YOU WOULD LIKE SINCE OTHER FACTORS IN YOUR TANK/SETUP MAY INFLUENCE FISH BEHAVIOR. WHEN A CHART SAYS TWO FISH ARE COMPATIBLE, IT MAY NOT BE CLEAR IN SAYING THEY NEED TO BE IN A HUGE TANK SO THEY EACH HAVE THEIR OWN TERRITORY. PLEASE CHECK YOUR TANK SETUP AND COMPATIBILITY IN A COMPETENT FORUM BEFORE RELYING SOLELY ON A CHART. LAST BUT NOT LEAST... REMEMBER THAT THE FISH DO NOT ALWAYS READ THE SAME THINGS WE DO SO THEY MAY NOT KNOW THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO ACT A CERTAIN WAY. ;-)

You can also get some "expert" advice on compatibility by visiting me and the many other fine folks at the one of the forums at the top right.

While getting live advice and suggestions is nice, I also check one or more of these sites for more specific details on the actual fish to learn the preferences and compatibility issues:

http://fish.mongabay.com/ (Use Search)

http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/freshindex.html

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/fishindx.htm

http://www.aquaria.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=database&file=index_species

http://www.tropicalresources.net/TR_profiles/ (Use Search if needed)

http://www.fishbase.org/search.php?lang=English (Use Search)

http://www.liveaquaria.com/ (Use Search)

http://www.fishindex.com/

http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/ (Use Search)

http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/Species_List.aspx

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/fishspecies/l/blfishlibrary.htm

http://www.aquariumfish.net/indexes/indexes.htmhttp://futurepet.com/cgi-bin/search.exe?BP=1&RCAT=300

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ (For Good Catfish & Pleco Profiles using various search options)
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/common_names.php (Using Catfish/Pleco Common Names)

Here is a general compatibility article:

http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/compatibility.shtml

There are many sites that I also use for information on Goldfish, such as:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/ponds/Wilkinson_1Goldfish.html (Best Overall Article I've Ever Seen On Goldfish Care)

http://www.goldfishparadise.com/

http://www.thegab.org/

http://www.goldfishinfo.com/

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/coldwater.php

http://www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/goldfish-guide.htm

http://www.koivet.com/

Between all of those "Fish Species Information" sites, you should find plenty of information to help you with setting up a tank with compatible species. If you still need more, use http://www.google.com/ and enter your species common name and/or scientific name.

There are many specialized sites on specific fish like Cichlids, African Dwarf Frogs, Snails, Plecos & Catfish, Shrimp, etc., and I'll be adding to this list as I go through my Favorites folder on my computer.

You are doing the right thing by researching your prospective fish first!

Thanks for visiting.

GoldLenny

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