
Emerald Brochis (Brochis splendens)
Emerald Brochis is a high-backed, metallic-green Amazon callichthyid that outgrows pandas and eats like a herd. Extra dorsal rays, real bulk, and a…
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This Freshwater hub on Fishy Friends gathers practical freshwater fish guidance for keepers who want clear answers before they change water, livestock, or gear.
Use these articles to match species to tank size, plan filtration and feeding, and troubleshoot water chemistry without guessing. Each guide is written for home aquariums and links to related reading when you need more depth on freshwater fish.
Start with the basics — stable parameters, quarantine habits, and a feeding schedule that matches the livestock — then browse the profiles and how-tos below. When you are ready to branch out, jump into neighbouring topics so your freshwater fish plan stays consistent across the whole tank.
Whether you are stocking a first community tank or refining an established scape, bookmark this page and return as questions come up. Healthy aquariums are built from small, repeatable routines more than one-time upgrades, and freshwater fish success follows the same pattern.
Explore next: all guides, aquarium plants, water chemistry, feeding guides.
Fishy Friends publishes species care sheets, plant and invertebrate notes, aquascaping ideas, and water-care explainers so freshwater fish advice stays easy to find. Read one guide thoroughly, apply it slowly, and use the linked hubs above when you want a second angle on the same problem.
Before you buy livestock or rethink filtration, skim two or three freshwater fish articles here and write down target numbers for temperature, hardness, and feeding. That short checklist prevents the most common resets and keeps your aquarium closer to the calm, healthy display you are aiming for.
Come back after water changes or new additions: compare what you see in the tank with the freshwater fish checklists below, then follow one recommended next step instead of changing everything at once. Steady improvements compound, and Fishy Friends is built to support that pace.

Emerald Brochis is a high-backed, metallic-green Amazon callichthyid that outgrows pandas and eats like a herd. Extra dorsal rays, real bulk, and a…
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Pantanal Corydoras wears a gold net in clear, planted wetland water — not Amazon tea. Seasonal floods, sand, and a vegetated tank show the specie…
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Cruz's Corydoras is C012 from Bolivia's Santa Cruz department: a small golden mosaic from Madeira-basin streams. Short-snouted, uncommon, and not a…
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Seuss's Corydoras (C027) is the long-snouted, orange-spined Mamoré fish — not Sterbai with a stretched face. It likes warmth, a group, and sand,…
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Zygatus is the rusty Peruvian cory with a dark yoke along the back. Side by side with rabauti the cape is the ID. Keep a saddle-matched troop on sa…
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Reticulated Corydoras is the Ucayali network catfish with a dorsal blotch — Peruvian mesh, not a Brazilian stamp and not leopardus. The lace fade…
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Aurofrenatus is the gold-bridled, long-snouted cory of the Paraguay basin (ellisae is the same fish). The pointed snout probes sand; gravel files i…
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Weitzmani is the Peruvian fox cory: ivory body, dark mask, orange in the fins. It is not Adolfoi's blaze. Buy a group, keep the water soft, and fee…
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Natterer's Corydoras is a steel-blue coastal Brazilian fish, cooler than Amazon blackwater corys. Keep the sheen with clean, well-oxygenated water…
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Rabauti Corydoras is the uniform rusty Amazon catfish, not a faded bronze and not zygatus with a dark cape. A copper troop on pale sand is the whol…
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Hastatus is the Paraguay pygmy cory that schools in midwater like a tiny tetra, with a spear-spot on the tail. Huge numbers, micro-food, and plants…
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Leopard Corydoras is the larger, long-snouted Amazon cat with coarse blotches — not julii, not trilineatus. Give it a wide sand paddock and a gro…
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Schwartzi Corydoras is the Purus spotted cat whose dots line up into stripes. It is the busy, available patterned cory — still a sand-working gro…
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Similis Corydoras is a pale Madeira-basin catfish with a caudal smudge, often mixed up with caudimaculatus. It wants a sand troop and quiet water,…
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Corydoras duplicareus is the Negro lookalike named for doubling Adolfoi: same gold blaze, a more continuous dark stripe along the back. Buy the sad…
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Adolfo's Corydoras is the Rio Negro sand-sifter with an orange nape, a black mask, and a dorsal saddle that does not copy duplicareus. Soft, staine…
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Petitella bleheri’s crimson face is a water-quality instrument — the true rummynose of Negro blackwater, a school of ten-plus, and a nose that…
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Nannostomus trifasciatus is the photographed pencil: three lines, red in the males, and nipping that stays inside the school if you keep twelve in…
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Nannostomus eques hangs at 45 degrees in stained Amazon water — the hockey-stick pencilfish of the top third, shy, particular, and not a tetra th…
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Nannostomus beckfordi is the pencilfish that forgives: a level-swimming Guiana characin whose midwater fencing looks like a school at eight fish an…
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Melanotaenia splendida is the Australian rainbow with a shoulder: a deep-bodied river schooler that needs a metre of swimming room, a real filter,…
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Pseudomugil signifer males grow filamentous fins for a surface dance — a thumbnail Australian blue-eye that only works as a covered school with f…
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Bedotia madagascariensis is Madagascar’s zona, not a New Guinea Melanotaenia: a surface school with a red-tailed male, a lid with no gaps, and an…
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Melanotaenia praecox is the rainbow that actually fits a modest tank — 5–6 cm of blue and red that appear when the school is eight or more and…
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