Australian native fish rarely get the spotlight they deserve. Walk into most aquarium stores and you'll see wall-to-wall tetras, guppies and bettas — but ask about desert gobies, peacock gudgeons or blue-eyes, and you'll often get a blank look. That's a shame, because these are genuinely fascinating, hardy, and uniquely Australian fish worth building a tank around.
If you're considering a native setup, the question that trips people up first isn't "which fish do I like" — it's "which of these can actually live together."
Not all natives want the same water
This is the single biggest mistake beginners make with native tanks: assuming "native" means "one water type fits all." It doesn't. Some Australian natives — desert gobies among them — naturally inhabit slightly brackish water and do better with a small amount of aquarium salt added, while others, like peacock gudgeons, are strictly freshwater fish and shouldn't be kept in brackish conditions at all. Before combining any two native species, check whether they actually come from the same type of water in the wild — not just the same country.
Territory matters more than temperament
A lot of native species get labelled "peaceful" based on general temperament, but plenty of small bottom-dwelling natives — gudgeons and gobies especially — are territorial around their own patch of substrate, even if they're not aggressive swimmers in open water. Housing two territorial bottom-dwelling species together in a smaller tank is one of the more common compatibility mistakes, since the issue isn't aggression in general, it's competition over the same small patch of real estate.
As a general rule of thumb for smaller tanks:
Stick to one territorial bottom-dwelling species per tank, rather than mixing multiple gudgeon or goby types
Mid-water schooling natives, like blue-eyes (Pseudomugil species), are usually a safer pairing with a bottom-dweller since they're not competing for the same space
Keep an eye on more delicate, timid schooling species — some of the smaller blue-eye varieties are shy and can be outcompeted for food even by other small, non-aggressive fish, so tankmates need to be chosen carefully rather than just "anything small and peaceful"
Group sizes are not optional
Many native schooling species are considerably more stressed, washed-out in colour, and skittish when kept in twos and threes rather than a proper group. If you're building a tank around blue-eyes or similar schooling natives, plan for a real group from day one — this is a case where under-stocking causes more welfare problems than overstocking.
Our take
Building a genuinely educational native fish range is a long-term goal for us — not just selling fish, but helping people understand the habitats and compatibility considerations that make these species thrive, the same way we do with our habitat-inspired kits. If you're thinking about a native setup and aren't sure what will actually work together in your tank size, reach out before you buy — a five-minute conversation can save you a stressed, ill-suited tank down the track.