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From garden ponds filled with Koi Carp to the humble goldfish bowl – the UK is a nation of fish lovers.
The Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association (PFMA) say there are an incredible five million indoor fish tanks in Britain.
Around 10 per cent of British households own pet fish – making them the third most popular animal to welcome into our homes after cats and dogs.
There’s plenty of choice when it comes to adding fish to (well prepared and correctly set up) home aquariums, with pet shops offering a bewildering range of colourful and interesting finned friends.
But if you’re setting up an aquarium and want to have a number of different fish, then you’ll want once that aren’t going to fight (or even eat) each other - in what is known as a ‘community tank’.
Here are the 17 best breeds of friendly fish for community aquariums.
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1. Neon Tetra
Neon Tetras are one of the world's most popular tropical fish, with the small, schooling fish known for their striking blue and red stripes. It's best to keep at least six so they have a group of buddies to swim around with. This is a fish that doesn't have an aggressive scale on its beautiful body. | Canva/Getty Images
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2. Dwarf Gourami
Dwarf gouramis are colorful and peaceful fish that thrive in a community tank with plenty of vegetation. The males can get a bit territorial so it's best to just have one boy fish per tank. These fish live in the wild in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. | Canva/Getty Images
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3. Guppy
Another hugely popular staple of community tanks the world over is the brightly-coloured guppy which happily co-exists with other similarly-placid species of fish. The only exception is if they give birth to babies - it's best to pop the baby fish into a different aquarium in case they become a snack. | Canva/Getty Images
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4. Platy
The Platy is a colourful and easy to care for fish that mixes well with others thanks to their complete lack of aggression. There are actually two species - the Southern Platyfish and the Variatus Platy - but they are hard to tell apart and most fish bought from pet shops will have been interbred from the two. They can live for up to three years and come in a variety of colours, including red, yellow, orange, blue, rainbow and white. | Canva/Getty Images