One of the largest groups of fish available for the aquarium would have to be the Characins. The group includes many popular fish such as tetras, hatchetfish, and the red-bellied piranha, just to name a few. What makes the Characins such a unique group is that they have a special adaptation called “Weberian apparatus,” which connects the hearing organs and the swim bladder together. What this means is that the swim bladder will amplify sounds and provide the fish with an enhanced sense of hearing.
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Characins are also very aware of changes that occur in their environments, what this means for Characins in the wild is that they are extremely good at making schools, finding food, and evading their predators. Because they have the weberian apparatus make sure that the tank doesn’t have something that vibrates to much touching it, this will stress the fish. So in other words it’s not recommend that you put the air pump on top of the tank, that is, if you have a glass canopy.
Almost all of the Characins share these characteristics even though when you are looking at a glowlight tetra and a piranha they couldn’t appear more different.
Cichlids are an extremely diverse family (cichlidae). Cichlids range in size from about an inch up to almost 3 feet with many variations in color and shape. But the fascinating thing about the cichlids species is that there is one for almost all types food. Weather algae eating ones, or meat eating ones, there is a cichlid out there that is specialized for that type of food. Even with all these differing variations they all share one thing in common, and that is the care for their eggs and young. But first you should know that there are two different types of breeding that the cichlids species practices.
First, there are the egg layers:
Egg layers will lay their eggs on flat surfaces, or substrate-borders and will guard them and the fry that hatch from them.
And the second type is the mouthbrooders.
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A female will suck up the eggs that she lays into her mouth to protect them. So do you ever wonder why the males have those dots on their anal fins? Well this is why, the female mouthbrooder will try endlessly to pick up all the eggs and will mistaken those dots on the anal fins of the males for eggs. This is how the eggs get fertilized, because when the females mouth is by the males anal fin trying to pick up the “eggs” the male will be releasing his sperm which is actually what the female is taking into her mouth, which in turn is fertilizing the eggs.
It’s a fantastic thing that the cichlid species is such a good parenting one but there is a downside.
Defending the brood often means attacking other fish, even tank mates that are normally just fine around the cichlid.
Cichlids are found throughout the Americas and Africa with three species being found in Asia (India/Sri Lanka).
Anabantoids are considered by some to be the most diverse, and varied of all freshwater fish. In this group there are bubble nesting Bettas (siamese fishting fish), and the Gouramis from S.E Asia. The thing that makes this group unique is that they all posses an auxiliary breathing organ. So in addition to their gills they have what’s called a labyrinth organ, which consists of a series of folded membranes located in the head between the gills. What this allows for Anabantiods to do is breath atmospheric air, which they can take in at the surface of the water. This gives Anabantoids the ability to live in oxygen-poor conditions that would kill other fish that just rely on their gills.
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Just make sure that they have access to the surface of the water or they will drown.
The great thing about the Anabantoids group is that most of them can be integrated into many community tanks, where their colors and unique behavior will enhance any aquarium.
