Peaceful community fish that actually get along

Short answer: a peaceful community comes down to three things — pick species with calm temperaments, keep the shoaling fish in groups of six or more, and give everyone enough room. Reliable, get-along fish for a standard community include small tetras, rasboras, corydoras catfish, most gouramis, and the common livebearers like guppies and platies. Match everyone to similar water and temperature, stock the tank slowly, and leave out the known fin-nippers and territorial fish. Do that and a 20 to 40 gallon community settles into a calm, busy tank rather than a running battle.

What "peaceful" actually means

A peaceful fish is one that minds its own business: it does not chase, nip fins, guard a territory, or treat tankmates as food. Temperament is a property of the species, not something you can train, so the whole job is choosing well before you buy.

Three traits go together in a good community fish: a calm nature, a manageable adult size, and water needs that overlap with everything else in the tank. Get those three lined up and the rest tends to look after itself.

Reliable peaceful community fish

These are the groups most keepers build calm tanks around:

• Small tetras — neons, cardinals, ember and rummy-nose are gentle shoalers that bring colour to the middle of the tank. Browse the tetras.
• Rasboras — harlequins and their relatives are peaceful, hardy and happiest in a group. See the rasboras.
• Corydoras catfish — busy, good-natured bottom dwellers that work the floor of the tank in a shoal. See the cory collection.
• Gouramis — honey and other small gouramis add a calm centrepiece; browse the gouramis.
• Livebearers — guppies, platies and similar fish are easy, active and endlessly variable in colour.

You can see the wider range of community-friendly stock in our freshwater fish collection.

Group sizes matter more than people expect

Most of the fish above are shoaling species. Kept alone or in twos and threes they feel exposed, colour down, hide, and sometimes turn nippy out of stress. Kept in a group of six or more of their own kind they relax, colour up and behave the way they are meant to. If a tank feels tense, too few of a shoaling species is one of the most common reasons.

Fish to be careful with

A few popular fish are not automatically bad, but they cause most of the trouble in a mixed tank:

• Fin-nippers — tiger barbs and serpae tetras can harass slow or long-finned tankmates. They are better in a species group than a gentle community.
• Territorial fish — many cichlids defend a patch of the tank, which does not sit well with placid shoalers.
• Fish that outgrow the tank — a peaceful fish that gets large will still eat anything small enough to fit in its mouth.

When you are not sure whether two fish will mix, ask first — it is a far cheaper conversation than rehoming a fish later.

Build it in the right order

Cycle the tank before any fish go in, then add stock in small batches over several weeks so the filter keeps pace. Add the calmest fish first and the bolder ones last, so nobody establishes a territory in an empty tank. Give plants, wood and rockwork so every fish has a line of sight it can break and somewhere to retreat.

New to all of this? Start with your first aquarium, and use how many fish can I put in a 10, 20, 29 or 40 gallon tank to keep your numbers sensible.

Written by the team at Tropical Fish Imports in Lethbridge, Alberta. Last reviewed August 2026.

Planning a community and want a second opinion on your list? Bring us your tank size and stocking ideas and we will help you make it work — drop by the shop, call 403-380-4506, or send us an email.