Fish

Set up a tropical tank and sooner or later you’ll want some cleaners. The tank light will cause the glass and decor to go green and detritus will start to build up in the gravel.

A pristine reef full of fish and corals looks idyllic, but alas many (very desirable,) fish species are there to eat corals or other fish and will do the same in the home aquarium.

Dwarf cichlids have big characters for such small fish, and they’re suitable for tropical community tanks. Just keep it to one pair of dwarf cichlids per tank.

Tankbuster is the term given to freshwater tropical fish which grow huge and outgrow their tanks. It’s also been known for big, powerful fish to actually break tanks.

Here’s the Swell Guide to the best algae eaters for your aquarium.

We are so lucky in fishkeeping that we have so much colour and variety in fish. There are 32,000 fish species that we know of and they have every colour and pattern.

Hardy fish are often recommended to new fishkeepers as they are tolerant of small mistakes here and there and are easy to keep.

An effective community aquarium features fish of all colours, shapes and sizes, but where they swim in the tank matters too.

Choosing marine fish can be a minefield, with most of the desirable ones like puffers and butterflyfish being unsuitable for reef tanks.