help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok so the other day me and my sister took our 7 year old cousin to the pet store to pick out a new dish, and he absolutly fell in love with a rope fish!!!! his eyes lite up !!!!!!!!!! so needless to say we did not leave the store with out that fish. he named him rex, but sadly rex died and my little cousin cryed for hours!!!! i was so sad to hear this. so im looking for some oppinions on some out of the ordinary fish a 7 year old boy would like. that is hardy!!!! extremly hardy!!!! and that have some personality!!! thank you guys sooo much for the help!!!!!! the sooner the ancers the better

ooooops sorry that dish was suppose to be fish

Guppies are colorful and quite hardy. What kind of tank do you have set up. As in the size and how long has it been set up. Have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates?

its a 10 gallon tank and its been set up for almost a year and we cant do guppies because we have had them before and he wasnt a big fan, but i personaly liked them.

tetras, mollies, rasboras, platys, killis or Dwarf Pea Puffer just not sure how much work a puffer is

thank you for the help butt i need some thing a little more out of the box then the neon tetras because he had those to and didnt like them . and i had a puffer and there realy hard to take care of.

what other fish are in the tank? A rope fish would have never worked in a 10g btw

Try having him catch fish in a local ditch to get him to say he caught them. You can always do something like a crayfish for a 10 gal.

he has 1 zebra danio, 3 little tiny feader fish and some ghost shrimp left over from feeding the rope fish

You say this is your cousin that wants a fish. My first question is who will be taking care of the tank? That person should be able to provide for whatever fish you decide on. As for something oddball, most oddballs get huge and even the ones that don't will require a lot of attention.

You say your little cousin got bored with other fish. My thought is he will get bored again as soon as the "new" wears off. I would suggest you explain to him that a fish is something to look at, but it's not a dog. Let him know that he shouldn't expect much because the fish pretty much sits still most of the time.

If you still think a fish is a good pet for him I would also suggest a crayfish. They can survive in almost any water conditions. Crayfish also shed to grow and they look weird enough to keep most boys attention.

he knows its not like a dog the neons and stuff were just very average with no personality. so he wants some thing a little unlike most fish. thanks for the crayfish idea its somthing to think about.and we taught him how to take care of the fish, b ut his parents help a lot so the fish are well taken care of and my sister and i help to

If you want personality try a group of cory cats they are pretty cool. I have Panda cories and they are great to watch as they tend to herd together.

What area do you live in?

that could work an florida

I have a school of 8 orange lazer cory's that are a trip. Another selection would be one of the easier rams. Bolivan's come to mind. They come to breeding age pretty quickly, have great personality.. Bill in Va.

I would not suggest Rams for an 7 years old as Rams can be difficult (even Bolivians). I would do an invert tank with different types of snails, shrimp, crayfish, etc....

Hey Vix.. my fish keeping skills are that of a 7 year old... And mine do fine.. plus they are spunky lil guys... LOL.. Bill in Va.

ya i have a german blue ram and so dose my sister. they are very easy to take care of but i dont know if he could keep it clean enough

The easy answer is a pleco. Either a regular one that will get to be about a foot long or a smaller bristlenose.

I've had my pleco for over 6 months and in that time he's grown from 4 inches to a good 10 inches and with his colorings he looks part terminator and part dinosaur... really creepy sometimes and the larger ones don't look anything like a regular fish. At the same time, I find plecos, or at least my particular pleco impossible to kill.

That would be my vote for a cool fish for a 7yo boy. I also happen to have a 7yo boy, so I might know a little something-something about their tastes and inclinations.

Runner up would be a pictus catfish. The looks are okay, but the behavior is hilarious to me. Definitely a neat little fish to watch.

Still thinking on this one both my boys have had a thing for plecs but a 10g doesn't allow the space the standard issues get so they have to enjoy thru my main african tank. Corys are a favorite of the one since they are for the most a funny lil' fish with lots of character after that they both like any of the cichlids specially my big girl since they can go bug & worm hunting with that though I'm not sure who enjoys it more the boys or Missy.

Ok here is my ultimate ten gallon boy tank. 1 either rubber lip pleco or bushy nose pleco, 6 panda cories, 3 of my fancy lyretail swords.

You should pm williemcd about the orange laser corys that he just got. Im a cory fan and a cichlid guy and those laser corys are positively the bee's knees!

Seriously, Bill should post pics of those sweet looking corys. The bright oranges and black mottling is almost neon in quality.

a group of 6 Cories is hilarious to watch.

I have to agree about the orange lazer corys. I have some of those and they are very active and fun to watch.

6 panda corys, give them an air stone to play in and he will love their antics!

Ok OK.. here are the laser orange cory's.... in with the rams and apisto's..