depends on how big the bowl is. but most fish bowls are really not ideal. i think doctor fish get too big for a typical bowl. i have a 2.5 gallon tank and i think maybe one guppy and some shrimp would be ok. if you want something small i suggest a 2.5 gallon with cherry shrimp. they are neat to watch. you dont even need to buy a filter just change the water often. and if you add some live plants you dont need to change the water as much. problem is they breed very easily so you will be overrun with them and need to figure out what to do with them. maybe give em away or sell em.

No fish belongs in a bowl, not even the betta or goldfish, despite the popular “goldfish bowl” you often see.

Nothing can live in a bowl. A fish needs more than water, you have to create a whole stable ecosystem for it with filters and such, and maintain that system down to the tiniest detail.

“Doctor fish” (usually garra rufa) need quite specific water parameters, not physically possible to maintain in a bowl.

So the answer is no fish. Pest snails like ramshorns will grow and multiply but that’s about it.

no fish at all
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make a small community with
Malaysian trumpet snails (dont eat plants)
small shrimp
and live plants

Fish do NOT belong in a BOWL. You put soup or cereal in a bowl, not fish. I know you get mislead to think they can live in a bowl by carnivals and crappy chain stores like walmart, petsmart, petco etc… but this is misleading. All fish need filtration and you will not get that in a bowl. Even running an air stone in a bowl again is misleading because you cannot build up any biological filtration which all fish need as well.

Some are going to come tell you a Betta and Goldfish and both really are wrong answers simply because of what I’ve been telling you. Tropical fish need to be in a heated filtered tank, and goldfish are cold water fish which need to be in a filtered tank, but don’t need a heater. If this isn’t in your floor plans or budget, I’m sorry, but fish are not for you.