# Most Uncommon Freshwater Aquarium Fish



## Gorglefrumpf (Aug 20, 2012)

Most of the tanks I've seen (including my own) are filled with pretty common fish, fish you might find at your LFS. :icon_smil

On the other hand, what do you think is the most uncommon kind of freshwater aquarium fish?


----------



## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

centromochlus/tatia's seem to be the one fish that is super hard to get. Its an amazing fish too.


----------



## brainwavepc.com (Sep 27, 2011)

Freshwater puffers are my favorite. I've had a Congo/potato puffer and now have a hairy puffer who is completely badass.


----------



## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

My LFS was able to order me centromochlus species and a few other rare ones that I wanted. The funkiest stuff I have seen in my LFS are peruvian, african, south american lungfish; goliath and vittatus tigerfish; african butterfly fish; climbing perches; fugu puffers; they had a fish that almost looked like a sturgeon. I guess it depends on your area and how accessible it is to wholesalers. Me personally, rainbowfish are hard to find at LFS. All the ones I have gotten are from local breeders or friends.


----------



## fusiongt (Nov 7, 2011)

My LFS carries from what I've seen rarer apistogrammas such as the Diploetania and Elizabethae. In fact I can't even get me a female Elizabethae from them as they can't get it in at this moment.


----------



## grogan (Sep 13, 2011)

barilius canarensis

Hands down one of my favorite rare fish. They are an Indian fish that dwells in fast river waters. They temperament is very similar to danios. They are very busy fish and go well with rose line sharks. 
Stock photo








My tank


----------



## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

In my area I've only seen marbled hatchetfish in one shop. I've also never seen any of the Stiphodon gobies in a shop.


----------



## Yo-han (Apr 15, 2010)

All recently discovered fish! But serious, I work in a lfs and Tatia's, different kind of stiphodons and fish like that are on stock most of the time. The only fish we couldn't get yet that I would really like is Phenablennius heylegeri. We received one stowaway in another shipment, but till now where not able to order more.


----------



## WallaceGrover (Jan 15, 2011)

Some of the species of wild betta are hard to get...


----------



## jemminnifener (Nov 23, 2011)

grogan said:


> barilius canarensis
> 
> Hands down one of my favorite rare fish. They are an Indian fish that dwells in fast river waters. They temperament is very similar to danios. They are very busy fish and go well with rose line sharks.


Hey! I just saw these in a tank in a restaurant. It was a gorgeous tank. I was wondering what these fish were. Incidentally there were roseline sharks in the tank with them.


----------



## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

Centromochlus perugiae--best catfish in the world!


----------



## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

Amen to the honeycomb cats!  Come to think of it, a lot of the Centromochlus species are are rare too!


----------



## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

I think the rarest thing I have ever seen kept in a tank was a sawnose shark, which apparently was being kept in fresh water for a time. Same thing goes for a bumble bee grouper that was living in fresh water from when it was little to about the 18 inch mark.

Aside from those, I'm pretty sure that paddlefish are incredibly rare. But the rarest is probably a properly cared for Pacu


----------



## Bettatail (Feb 12, 2009)

Notropis welaka


----------



## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

Elephant Fish are pretty rare just due to the pain of trying to keep one.


----------



## kribkeeper888 (Oct 8, 2011)

What I consider to be my LFS has had at one point or another almost all of these species at one time or another, (Wetspot tropical fish) Ive even seen quite a few Victorian cichlids in there at one point. personally i find Poecilocharax weitzmani to be a hard fish to find


----------



## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Bettatail said:


> Notropis welaka


(jaw hits floor)
WHERE DO I FIND THESE?


----------



## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

That is a beautiful fish! WOW!


----------



## rainbuilder (Sep 21, 2011)

I'm pretty sure you can't get those Notropis welaka, if I remember correctly they are under protection because of their low numbers. They also are just about impossible to breed in aquaria as far as I understand. Let me try to find the link for that thread.

Found it:
http://plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=169458&highlight=native+fish


----------



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Species livebearers come in a great diversity. There are some serious livebearer hobbyists who breed lots of species. They can look really impressive if you keep them in large groups in a roomy tank, but you don't often see the species livebearers used as display fish.


----------



## oscarsx (Mar 15, 2011)

How about those freshwater stingrays?

- Oz


----------



## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Asian Arowana as well...would love to see one of those in a planted tank.
Imagine a planted tank with a few asian arrows, and then a ton of expensive shrimp...the arrows wouldn;t bother eating them because they'd be to small to be worth it, and it would look cool because no matter how close you are to the tank you'd have something amazing to be drooling over.


----------



## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

Haha too bad it's illegal  I looked up some pictures of the golden or red Asian arrowanas...Man they are beautiful.


----------



## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Yeah, it's a real shame how asian arowanas are illegal in the U.S. These days they're pretty much all bred on farms anyways. The farm-bred ones are legal in the UK and Canada, so I don't see why the U.S. should ban them. It's one of my dreams to have a planted indoor pond with a red or golden asian arowana.


----------



## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

FisheriesOmen said:


> Elephant Fish are pretty rare just due to the pain of trying to keep one.



Not as rare as you might think, I have seen them in petco.

http://www.petco.com/product/102896...t=LN_FishSupplies_LiveFishRock_FreshwaterFish


----------



## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I like the fish that do something different, or are somehow unique, even if they are commonly available. 
Ancient fish: Bichers: Survivors from a long long time ago. 
Many catfish: Swim upside down, make noise, sucker mouth and many other adaptations.
Hillstream Loaches and similar shaped: Body shape adapted so they can cling to the rocks in a torrent. Some can even climb water falls by clinging to the rock. 
Electrical fish like Knives. Sense their surroundings with an electrical field.


----------



## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

African Arowanas are pretty cool. I saw that Segrest Farms just got a shipment of them in recently. I had never heard of them before i saw them on their list.

But of course, my favorite fish are Centromochlus and Tatia species, for sure. Centromochlus schultzi and Tatia musaica seem to be impossible to find I the United States. Even in Europe they're hard to come by, but I have noticed that a few stores carry them sometimes, and they always sell for a pretty penny (euro? :hihi: ). I hope to acquire some in the future.


----------



## kingfisherfleshy (Jun 4, 2010)

HybridHerp said:


> (jaw hits floor)
> WHERE DO I FIND THESE?


_Pteronotropis welaka _to be exact.

Actually native to N. America - Found in the FL panhandle and the parts of the surrounding states near to it. 

There are also more northern isolated populations (in the afforementioned states) and also a more eastern population in FL. 

So that one actually isnt as bad as the others. Very cool fish. 

This thread really needs to be redefined. 

I have fish that are more rare I would say than anything listed thus far - however there is a certain scope to it. 

What is rare in an LFS might not be "rare" to someone who seeks oddballs. 

My murray cod is critically endangered, and endemic to australia. Try that one on for size. Not even a freshwater fish in the same family in the Americas. 

I have kept a handful of species of goodeid, and bred most of them. 

A lot of these fish are things that are somewhat common - you just have to know where to go. 

"Rarest Planted Tank Fish" might have worked slightly better - but this category is awful wide and has a whole lot of ins and outs as the dude would say.


----------



## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

OOOh, I've heard of australians keeping murray cod before, but never an american with one.
Now, if only you could get a nice barramundai, or even one of the gold or platnium ones lol
Then again, at that point you might as well deck the tank out with some black stingrays as well, and maybe some other predatory fish.


----------



## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I have a group of seven Microsynodontis sp. (1) from Nigeria right now. These guys don't have a scientific name yet...and no one is quite sure how they spawn yet. Heck, I don't even know when they're eating because they rarely come out and when I see them they're all stupidly fat.

It's hard to really pin a SUPER rare fish in aquaria...with the right certificates and background you could potentially find yourself in the possession of many endangered species such as native darters, a variety of livebearers and rare endangered madagascan cichlids.


----------



## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

If you are talking about rare to own, I haven't seen many arapaima owners haha  I agree, it's really a matter of context.


----------



## grogan (Sep 13, 2011)

These are some super rare peacock cichlids we imported to Ak from Thailand last week. Just about the closest colors to salt water I have seen in freshwater! Yeah our tanks are scratched, I know.


----------



## Preeths (Jan 29, 2008)

Glyptothorax. These hill stream catfishes are really Oddball and rare. Part of my hill stream setup.


----------



## suntiat (Jan 18, 2013)

*I bought two fish that the LFS gave some vague names for*

I havent ever seen them before. Any ideas as to what they could be?

Sorry the pictures are blurred. They move fast!

I mean the fish in the forefront of the images.


----------



## rainbuilder (Sep 21, 2011)

Golden wonder killifish and possibly a dwarf neon rainbow fish.


----------



## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

Toxotes blythii, and Betta Gladiator.


----------



## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

grogan said:


> These are some super rare peacock cichlids we imported to Ak from Thailand last week. Just about the closest colors to salt water I have seen in freshwater! Yeah our tanks are scratched, I know.



Hey that's a pretty cool looking fish.


----------



## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

suntiat said:


> I havent ever seen them before. Any ideas as to what they could be?
> 
> Sorry the pictures are blurred. They move fast!
> 
> I mean the fish in the forefront of the images.





rainbuilder said:


> Golden wonder killifish and possibly a dwarf neon rainbow fish.


The first is certainly a killifish. the second is most likely a hybrid rainbow somewhere in the range of splendida. Hybrids of this specific specie are very common. 

http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/splendida.htm


----------



## jonathan (Nov 29, 2012)

chaca chaca catfish. They're usually very inexpensive too. If you ever see one.


----------



## MiniFishRoom (Mar 23, 2012)

Corydoras hastatus


----------



## Tenor1 (Jan 15, 2012)

My favorite fish is the Chocolate Gourami. It's not as rare as many of the others mentioned here, but keeping one alive and healthy is. Mine is nearly 3 years old and reaching the end of it's natural life. I had wanted one for over 45 years and finally got this one. Others I've had died rather quickly. I will mourn when it dies.


----------



## Dx3Bash (Jan 9, 2013)

Its getting hard to find Zebra Plecos. If I understand, they are banned from being exported and also considered endangered. I long for the days when I saw them regularly at my LFS at affordable prices. Now it's hard to find them under $200 for an L46 Zebra Pleco. Very uncommon to see them in the "average" fish tank.


----------



## CPDzeke (Jan 4, 2013)

Sewellia Lineolata for the win!


----------



## danakin (Jun 8, 2007)

Sunfish


----------



## auban (Jun 23, 2012)

here in america it seems to be our own native fish...

i can just about count the number of people keeping warpaint shiners, or tangerine darters.

as for myself, i keep florida natives. i have encountered the Pteronotropis welaka, but its illegal to collect them in florida. im still looking for a source to buy them from. i want to breed them and spread them around. from what i understand of them, they really shouldnt be too hard to breed. 

anyway, here is a short video of my bluefin killifish:

http://s1242.beta.photobucket.com/user/sjveck/media/IMG_0747.mp4.html


----------



## smiller (Dec 4, 2011)

grogan said:


> barilius canarensis
> 
> Hands down one of my favorite rare fish. They are an Indian fish that dwells in fast river waters. They temperament is very similar to danios. They are very busy fish and go well with rose line sharks.
> Stock photo


Those are super. I have never seen them. Does anyone know an online seller who might have these?


----------



## Algae Beater (Jun 3, 2011)

pseudomugil tenellus

love em! 

but tragically hard to come by, its a good thing I am a man on the inside lol


----------

