*What aquarium themes or stocking ideas you would recommend for a 20-gallon tank?* Comment below to share your experiences, and subscribe if you want to see more videos like this! goo.gl/4q2idY
Cool video ! If I were to do a 20 gallon tank I would colony Breed guppies and bristle nose plecos. At first I thought it’ll be boring another livebear but then I found it really cool to see new generations of guppy and bristle nose plecos come out from the foliage
@@GirlTalksFish Hey if you have people that already want to buy shrimp from You I know of this great app that you can use to send cash instantly I use it to send money to my Sisster who's in the Marines its very quick simple and the best part is that the money is directly transfered to the persons banck account like cash so the money isn't returnable when directly transfered.The app is called Cash App you can look for it yourself on google play,so if you have people like me who are intrested in buying your cool cherry shrimp just tell them about the app and your good to go who knows maibe you can end up sponsoring them with adds on your channel and give you extra profit for your bussines😃
I like how you're not ashamed that your fish died and are honest about it with us. Shows us the reality of the aquarium hobby rather than just the glamorous side
Belinda Ho I find it horrendous. Maybe more research upfront which fish can be setup together, less fake more real plants which helps create the right environment. Shouldn’t have fish tank at all.
Don't you just love people like neo nitro net that just sprung forth into the world with all the answers and never made any mistakes and wishes to cast judgement on those beneath them.
I really appreciate how you showed both your successes and failures. I like the blue background that you have, it is a refreshing change from the standard black background that is shown in so many planted tanks. Great video!
I really appreciate the fact that your videos are usually less than ten minutes and you pack a lot of good information into that short time frame. Some RUclipsrs have interesting relevant topics but they turn on the camera and ramble for 20-30 minutes. Thanks for being concise! You're obviously well prepared, and I always know you're not going to waste my time.
I like how honest you were with fish deaths and how you persevered through them. For 20 gallon ideas, I actually like a school of gold white cloud minnows with lots of dwarf sag or vallisneria. After a while, the novelty of new fish wore off for me, and now I prefer single species tanks.
I love the honesty about how your fish died. It really encourages me. Because everytime a fish dies I blame myself and think about quitting. I love watching honest videos with real people. Liked and subscribed.
I love that you showed your failures in the hobby along with your successes. Most hobbyists won’t admit that they had struggles in the beginning of the hobby
Thank you! Yeah, it's definitely an invitation for hate comments but I hope people can learn from my mistakes and not have to go through the same heartache I did.
Love the honesty of this video. Pretty much sums up my experience also. The truth is that fish keeping can be an unforgiving hobby! Even with youtube and taking my time, there is a huge learning curve and a lot of things are hard to control. I love to look at people's tanks, especially the planted ones. I have to continually fight the urge to try it again.
Omg you deserve hella more subs than that !! You gave me great idea on how to decorate my aquarium and also it came in handy that you included your mistakes .I began setting up my aquarium yesterday and I have done the very very basic . Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us 👍
My spouse never understood why I needed to change out my 29 gallon tank every year or so.... lol your videos really hit home! At one time I even did a tank to highlight vintage bubble ornaments since THOSE were what fascinated me as a child, and made me want an aquarium in the first place.
Finally, a short and to the point fishtube video which also ended up making me enjoy it. Good work. Im more of an oddball and bottom dweller guy. Id stock a 20 long with 6 Kuhlis, 6 Panda Cories, a Bamboo Shrimp, clams, an apple snail and a Neon Dwarf Gourami as the centrepiece
Great content! Hopefully we see another video with this kind of feature. Its interesting to see how many overhauls and trial and error you do as you go on in the hobby. Really awesome!
I know it’s an older video but I appreciate the honesty with your fish keeping struggles. I lost my first two platies this morning and it sucks because I had them for a year. I did a redesign of my tank with live plants and wood and I let the pH drop too quickly. Unlike the other rude people commenting, I tell myself that I gave the fish a better life than they would’ve had stuck at PetSmart or Petco. Which is true. I still hate losing fish due to my mess ups, but it’s the only way people can learn unfortunately. Fish are finicky creatures and in some ways are harder to take care of than my cat.
Great video; very informative. I like how you went from artificial-looking to natural. I have a 20 gallon long that I recently rebooted. It had two goldfish (artificial plants of course) that just got too big, and I was able to donate them to a retirement home 350 gallon aquarium! I always had tropical fish as a kid, and I wanted to try them again. I also wanted to keep the aquarium unheated, so I did a lot of research before picking my fish. I planted the aquarium with a variety of rhizome and root species, and used the goldfish gravel and water to keep it seasoned. I first added 6 black neons, 3 red wag platies and a hillstream loach. A week later I added 3 sunset variatus platies. Then I made my mistake. I was going for green tiger barbs, but the guy at the aquarium store warned about their aggressiveness, and suggested instead that I get a couple of powder blue gouramis. I told him my aquarium was unheated (house temp 20C by day, 16 at night). He said that the gouramis don't need a heated tank, and I took him at his word. I brought them back with a second hillstream loach and all was good for about 5 days. At that point, I could see white growths on the body of one of the gouramis, and it was swimming oddly. I removed him for treatment, but he didn't last a day. Less than a week later, the other gourami started swimming in the same funny way, so I removed him and tried to treat him (meds plus salt). He didn't make it a day later. I then went to the internet and found out about dwarf gourami iridovirus. I don't know for sure if that's what they got, and if so, if it had anything to do with the water temperature I was keeping them at. I did add a heater after that and moved the temperature up to 22. But I was afraid to buy any more dwarf gouramis, fearing that the virus might still be in the water. Four glofish tetras later, all is well.
Shellies would be awesome. They colony breed, are always in high demand, and are just fun to watch. They excavate the sand, move shells around, claim territories. Just active and fun to see such small fish moving piles of sand. 👍💕👍
Man your tanks were beautiful! I love it. I know you mentioned Petsmart, honestly they have good prices on certain things but I find when I buy live plants or even some fish I get diseases in my tank or weird algae, I started shopping private shop locally that understands quarantines and bacterial health of their tanks, they also tend to care more as they are owners rather than minimum wage aquarists.
I've been doing fish tanks off and on through out my life (I'm 50+), and I LOVE doing theme tanks! Right now, I don't really have the space, but I'm planning on setting up a planted betta tank (5 gallon). I prefer natural themed tanks... but there are 3 themed tanks I have always wanted to do. 1- An underwater river theme, using nothing but stone and wood in a planted tank. A ' Lost City of Atlantis' where fish can swim around an underwater ruins setting, and a saltwater coral reef.
How do you keep a sand substrate clean? I really like corydoras but I heard it’s really hard to maintain a sandy substrate, especially for a beginner. Thanks!
Great question! So I've never really had much trouble keeping my sand clean but I think the trick is I use a heavier sand that isn't very fine-grained. It's just regular black sand that I buy from Petco/PetSmart in the US (amzn.to/2MPQCAD). I vacuum it by sticking the siphon into the sand and then either raising the tube or slightly crimping the hose to allow the heavier sand particles to fall out (while the lighter detritus continues to get sucked up). With a finer sand, people siphon the substrate by using the tube to swirl the water above the sand and then they suck up any detritus that floats up. Hope that helps! I should make a video about this sometime...
I'm planning on redecorating my axolotl tank with a marimo moss carpet and a pile of large (8") river rock pile and some live plants (like a java fern) and i think it would be totally cool if you tried something like that.
Thanks for sharing that you made mistakes but persevered and learned. I’m struggling with BBA and sick fish right now. Getting lots of use out of my mag scraper!
ELR BBA is the worst, I’m working on overcoming that in my 120 gal. It’s 90% gone but I think it will probably be there to some extent forever. I took out most of the decor and soaked in a strong solution of Easy Carbon overnight, and then planted a TON of plants to help suck up the excess nutrients that were feeding the BBA. Good luck with yours!
Recently I went with a haunted sunken pirate ship theme. Decor was easy. Fish were glass tetras for skeletons albino Cory cats for phantoms gold BARbs for the pirate treasure and a school of RUMmy nose tetras for a good time.
I'm a big fan of double aquarium stands. They're a real space saver. ... If you go this route, keep in mind that the lower tank is often a few degrees cooler than the top tank. Also, you should probably avoid keeping surface dwellers in low tanks, since they'll be hard to see.
I appreciate you sharing all your challenges and what you've learned! The jungle tank is gorgeous. I am questioning the ethics of starting an aquarium after hearing about all these deaths tho. lol
It's a great hobby though! The trick is to really do your research. Watch a whole bunch of stocking idea videos for the size tank you have or want, then Google for care sheets for the fish you like best. Make lists to keep track of your options (bc your local fish store might not carry your top choice) and of different combos that could go together, based on what temperature they prefer, aggression levels, food, area of tank they occupy, etc. Check a few different sources, and lean toward the more conservative options. Then, when you go to the store, be prepared to stop and look up any additional options that might present themselves (and don't assume store employees - esp at chain stores - know what they're talking about). I was once googling something in the fish store, and the employee expressed surprise. Apparently no one does that! It just makes sense to me!
I love your video. I have had fresh water aquariums for about 32 years now. I got into saltwater aquariums for 13 years and for 2 months now fresh water shrimp. I think if you want a challenge try saltwater. But if you want to stay with fresh water go for the shrimps. I am enjoying them a lot now. Take care.
Awesome ideas! U have inspired me to ‘advance my aquarium’ to breed corydoras so i can actullay reach one of the things on my bucket lust! Thanks so much! Love your chanel!
LOVE, love , love this video. I am a 20 gallon person too ! TY so much for sharing these great ideas 🧡 Can you please do a video of community Beta fish tank. Because I have a Beta his name is ZERO and I call him that because he has no friends (booo hooo hoo). It makes me so sad. He is currently in a 5 gallon cube with a big plant that he loves to lay on and hide in. But wow I would even buy a bigger aquarium (20 gallon? if appropriate) if I can put him in a community tank. He was a foster/rescue Beta.
Hey there! I love your videos! Im wanting to get an aquarium but don't really know where to start. Tetra's are super pretty, I especially love the congo tetras. What would you recommend for beginners on things to get and how to start?
Great topic👍🏽, I offen tell people that if they want to get started in the hobby a 20g long is the best size to start with. Really like that you’re comfortable with touching on mistakes, most people will try to keep quiet on it but that doesn’t help anyone
I have 2 40 gallon breeder tanks, 1 75 gallon, a 6 foot long 90 gallon acrylic I built myself, a 20 gallon long tank for my betta and a 5 gallon shrimp tank. The smaller tanks are my favorite ones on maintenance day 😝
What did you say you had on the bottom of the tank for the corys? Is that sand, fine gravel? I can't decide what to use. I too want corys and a honey gourami...and some snails.
Great video. I used to struggle with Ick until I replaced my plastic plants with real plants. I do a 50% water change each week so that my plant fertilizer doesn't build up. That way I can over fertilize and provide maximum nutrients. I have fish that are over 10 years old - wow. I have no disease. I believe that disease will occur when fish are stressed - even in a tank that hasn't had any problem for years. Real planted tanks make a huge difference. I am now obsessed with planted aquascapes. I am considering CO2.
hey does anyone know if it’s ok to keep some kuhli loaches , cory doras and amano shrimp together? i love the idea of lots to look at on the bottom as well as like neon tetras or something? :)
I am glad I found your video on the 20 gallon tank with cories, green neon tetras, and a dwarf gourami because that nearly mirrors my planned stocking choices for my 20 gallon long! I am slowly adding fish at the moment and currently have 7 pepper cories (were sold to me as pygmy cories) and three pygmy cories which means I still need to add three more pygmies. I was originally planning to add ember tetras as my mid level schooling fish but after watching your video it gave me hope that green neon tetras may do well despite my pH of 7.4. Where the green neon tetras you got tank bred or wild caught? I think that may play a role in their adaptability to higher pH. I am also debating trying my betta as a centerpiece fish or going for a honey gourami. Thank you!
Crash! Bang! Zowee! oops.. Honesty and the mistakes can be avoided by others! YUSSS! I have a planted GoldWhiteCloud and Pacific Blue Eye with Cherry shrimp 23 Vista and Endlers in clone tank. Live your videos!
I just stumbled across you, and you totally rock! Keep up the the good work and don't be afraid to tell us when you screw up. We learn from everything. XD
Crunchy Kitcats Thats good bro! At the time I was going to get into it but I gave the tank away to my nephew. My apartment was getting a fix and somehow they kick everyone out of it so I had to move to a new place. I’ll start back up soon in this hobby. 🙏🏼
I love all the ideas, and also appreciate you sharing mistakes as well. We are doing lots of research as we get ready to start our first 20 gallon aquarium. This is a little off topic, but we are having a terrible time find a decent stand for our 20 gallon tank. Do you have an recommendations? We might end up recruiting someone to help us build one.
Thank you so much! I've got frogbit (Limnobium laeviatum) in that tank, and am loving it! Not so small and invasive like duckweed, and they make beautiful long roots. Unfortunately, the roots do seem prone to tangling and breaking if I'm not careful, so I'll make a care guide video on them once I've gotten more experience with them. :)
I also like Transformers and am a minimalist. I have a 20g tall that is newly planted and I'm considering what species to keep. Pure Endlers is a front-runner.
I love it! I hope you find some beautiful pure Endlers. Haha, so great to find another Transformers lover; how in the world do you keep your collection from getting out of control?
I started communication with The Endler Shop the day I started my tank. I'm so picky that it's well worth the wait to get it right. The collection thing can be a challenge. I only keep things that I truly love and if I can't resist a purchase just because it's cool I buy it to give away. Win-win. Junk is so gross that's it's easy to say no otherwise.
I love tank set up number 3 and that’s the 1 I’m about to do now, with same type of fish but instead of the gourami, I might do 2 female bettas, tetras and the some other type of Cory catfish 💪🏻
Thanks for letting us know what and what not to do. I would go with fake silk or plastic plants. As for fish 1 school of Cardinal Tetras, 1 school of Ember Tetras and 1 Betta. Clean up would be 2-3 small corys. I subscribed due to you honesty.
Love your video again you got into a nice topic. I hope you put that a columnaris worm disease....now sure if the same as mentioned in this video. But I lost 3 of my guppies due to that...very little I know about it ...got some medication and 4 of my red Barb's that I have left are still in quarentine. I wanted to move them to the my main 10 gallon but I noticed a little middle like think comming out from one of them ....so I am not sure if they worm is still there or they got resistance to the medication ......so I am stuck with them . But it would be fantastic to know more from a video and your experience.....thanks again for your videos.
Oh, columnaris is actually a bacterial disease, but Camallanus worms are commonly found in guppies. I know levamisole can cure it, and Greg Sage from selectaquatics.com sells it from his website. Hope that helps!
I highly recommend that you start a native species tank. Not only "native" but local. This will get you out familiarizing yourself with the habitats of your local fish. It will get you wading in nearby streams, rivers, gullies and ponds. You will likely be surprised at the beautiful varieties that can sometimes be found in a ditch. You really have o try this.
i just had an out brake of i don't know in my 20 gallon fish tank what should I do I only have a couple of survivors . all my fish had bulging eyes before they died but also my angelfish had white on his face idk if you can identify it
Apisto's, CPD's and Scarlet Badis. Not necessarily all in one tank but those three are among my favorite nano fish. My CPD's breed year round which is netting me a healthy profit and something I hadn't counted on occurring. But I'm thrilled nonetheless. It also forced us to get new tanks for the sake of survivability, which could be a legitimate excuse for MTS. Nonetheless, if something starts to breed for you while in captivity then it must mean we're doing something right on our part. If they're happy - then they will breed. Sadly we no longer have any _Dario dario_ (Scarlet Badis), but I found them to be quite intelligent for a fish and interesting to watch. I think of the Scarlet Badis as the mini-cichlid version of the Pea Puffer. Both are intelligent, inquisitive and fun to observe. Which brings me to a new addition - the Pea Puffer. I had a Pea Puffer that my wife named Gilbert. He was extremely possessive over one snail shell in particular. If you moved it while cleaned or grabbed it with the tweezers, he would immediately swim over and take it from you. I mean he would _literally_ swim circles around the shell while being held in the tweezers and attempt to snatch it back. He was fearless. Once he recovered it, then he would carry back to its proper holding spot. It always reminded me of the Golden Idol from "Indian Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark". That shell must never be moved and if it does then disaster strikes. It _must_ be placed perfectly back into position without fail. It was adorable! Lastly, _Apistos_ would make a nice centerpiece fish or breeding pair. It's actually our next endeavor which is currently in the works. We settled on _Apistogramma cacatuoides_ because my wife thinks they look like punker rocker fish with their mohawk-like dorsal fins and that anarchy scowl. I'm guessing she's going to name the male after a member of The Ramones. She's such a free spirit. Keep up the good work my friend. *Apologies for the double spacing. RUclips is aware of the error but chooses to ignore the problem. TY for understanding.
How fun! I've always been turned off by the Scarlet badis' requirement for live feed, but then again I had a pea puffer before and really enjoyed having her. Do you like the Scarlet badis or pea puffer better? Lucky you having breeding CPDs! What's your secret? Do you have to remove the eggs or fry?
@@GirlTalksFish That's a tough question. If I had to choose I'd say the Scarlet Badis over the Pea Puffer. I hear a lot of people are turned off by the live food requirement but that simply isn't the case with _Dario dario._ I fed ours frozen cyclops, daphnia. BBS, bloodworms and adult brine shrimp. Occasionally, they would eat the Bug Bites (small) Tropical Fish food with the light blue label. While technically, those are _frozen_ live food, I think people are under the impression that live food means *_live_* BBS that you must hatch or daphnia that's harvested from a tub outdoors, such as the one that Cory uses at his home. However, most of the time my Scarlet's would hunt for microfauna such as nematodes, copepods, rotifers, phytoplankton and an abundance of ostracods (seed shrimp). Nearly every planted tank has this microfauna which we simply cannot see (most of the time) with our human eyes. There was never an issue with starvation or fickle eating with the Scarlet Badis. Plus I find Scarlet's to be more interactive with you than the Pea Puffer. Both are highly intelligent (for a fish) but the Scarlet Badis seems more like a toy breed lap dog. Whereas the Pea Puffer is more along the lines of your typical independent house cat. You really can't go wrong with either choice. I think part of the secret to get CPD's to breed year round is attention to the seasonal light cycle changes. I match my timers to the season we're currently experiencing. Most people find that perfect balance of light cycle and nutrients in order to avoid algae blooms. Once that perfect balance is achieved, then they just leave the timer on the same cycle year after year. It just doesn't seem right to live with an unchanging, perpetual light cycle for the rest of your life. Imagine if we all had to live with Winter Time hours for the rest of our lives. That would be miserable! I will say that you are going to experience algae blooms when tampering with the light cycle but it also serves as a signal to the fish that Spring/Fall is here and the "need to breed" is upon us. Plus that algae provides even more microfauna for the entire tank. Obviously in the wild they breed approximately twice a year, so I'm not entirely sure why they're breeding year-round for me. Feeding them tiny frozen foods like BBS, Cyclops or Daphnia tend to help encourage breeding as well. My theory is that the CPD's see some food that is small enough to feed the fry. I did an experiment where I didn't feed any tiny frozen foods such as the ones previously mentioned and they didn't seem to breed more than once that entire year. Make sense if you think about it. No point in breeding some offspring if there isn't any food to feed them. I also feed Rotifers to all my tanks at least twice a month to help feed the microfauna that lives and breeds in our tanks. I also remove any of the fry that manage to survive the brood. They get placed in the QT/nursery tank if it isn't already occupied. However, I've also placed them in my Fluval Spec 3 that houses my _Boraras brigittae_ or better known as the Chili Rasbora's. They [the Chili's] are scared of everything so they don't mess with the fry. I think the CPD eggs are laid in the small patch of moss or the densely planted area with all the Baby Tears and Crypt Parva. That side of the tank tends to be fiercely protected by the dominant male and he usually doesn't eat much when there are some eggs that need to be protected. He'll wait for any food to pass by him, rather than leave the immediate area to join the others in the feast. Hope this helps and I do apologize for such a long response. Please feel free to ask anymore questions. I'm always happy to help. Keep up the good work my friend. EDITED for double spacing and grammar.
Great video! Could you maybe make a video on aquascaping? It looks like you’ve come a long way and I’m setting up a new 10 gallon aquarium soon and you’re one of the channels I can really trust.
You are so sweet! Haha I definitely don't consider myself a great aquascaper, but I'll put that on my list of topics to cover. Thank you so much for your trust; I'm truly honored. :)
Love the shy guys theme. Maybe try an Ugly Boi theme... A brackish tank with a Dragon Goby ;)... I had a lot if fun building his cave against the front glass. R.I.P. lost that whole 75g when I forgot to plug a heater back in.
*What aquarium themes or stocking ideas you would recommend for a 20-gallon tank?* Comment below to share your experiences, and subscribe if you want to see more videos like this! goo.gl/4q2idY
Tk this will realy be helpfull nolege for when setting up my tank.
Cool video ! If I were to do a 20 gallon tank I would colony Breed guppies and bristle nose plecos. At first I thought it’ll be boring another livebear but then I found it really cool to see new generations of guppy and bristle nose plecos come out from the foliage
@@ants7279 Awesome, so glad you found it helpful! :)
@@ryansucks-sucks395 Ooo, I have never tried this but have always wanted to breed both. Great suggestion!
@@GirlTalksFish Hey if you have people that already want to buy shrimp from You I know of this great app that you can use to send cash instantly I use it to send money to my Sisster who's in the Marines its very quick simple and the best part is that the money is directly transfered to the persons banck account like cash so the money isn't returnable when directly transfered.The app is called Cash App you can look for it yourself on google play,so if you have people like me who are intrested in buying your cool cherry shrimp just tell them about the app and your good to go who knows maibe you can end up sponsoring them with adds on your channel and give you extra profit for your bussines😃
I like how you're not ashamed that your fish died and are honest about it with us. Shows us the reality of the aquarium hobby rather than just the glamorous side
Thank you... the death count was shocking when I actually started tallying it up. 😥
Belinda Ho I find it horrendous. Maybe more research upfront which fish can be setup together, less fake more real plants which helps create the right environment. Shouldn’t have fish tank at all.
Don't you just love people like neo nitro net that just sprung forth into the world with all the answers and never made any mistakes and wishes to cast judgement on those beneath them.
Seriously fish dies is so stressful that I wish not to pet fish anymore.
@@shroomnoodlez_ my day wrote this using my account ages ago
thank you for including your mistakes in this video, makes the learning process feel more acceptable.
I really appreciate how you showed both your successes and failures. I like the blue background that you have, it is a refreshing change from the standard black background that is shown in so many planted tanks. Great video!
Thank you so much! Haha, I noticed in the videos that the blue background definitely lights up the tank better. :)
I really appreciate the fact that your videos are usually less than ten minutes and you pack a lot of good information into that short time frame. Some RUclipsrs have interesting relevant topics but they turn on the camera and ramble for 20-30 minutes. Thanks for being concise! You're obviously well prepared, and I always know you're not going to waste my time.
Thank you so much! I have very little time for myself, so I suppose I too like to make videos that are very dense. :)
It's cool that you admit your mistakes, and what you've learned along the way. Honest humility is so much better than idealistic pride in this hobby!
Thank you... it was hard to look back at all the mistakes I made but hopefully people will learn from it!
I like how honest you were with fish deaths and how you persevered through them. For 20 gallon ideas, I actually like a school of gold white cloud minnows with lots of dwarf sag or vallisneria. After a while, the novelty of new fish wore off for me, and now I prefer single species tanks.
Oh wow, that sounds _gorgeous!_ Would love to keep longfin white clouds someday.
That third setup is amazing honestly!
At last someone who tells of the truth of fish keeping I like your honesty and telling it as it is new sub
Thank you so much!
I love the honesty about how your fish died. It really encourages me. Because everytime a fish dies I blame myself and think about quitting. I love watching honest videos with real people. Liked and subscribed.
I love that you showed your failures in the hobby along with your successes. Most hobbyists won’t admit that they had struggles in the beginning of the hobby
Thank you! Yeah, it's definitely an invitation for hate comments but I hope people can learn from my mistakes and not have to go through the same heartache I did.
Love the honesty of this video. Pretty much sums up my experience also. The truth is that fish keeping can be an unforgiving hobby! Even with youtube and taking my time, there is a huge learning curve and a lot of things are hard to control. I love to look at people's tanks, especially the planted ones. I have to continually fight the urge to try it again.
Omg you deserve hella more subs than that !! You gave me great idea on how to decorate my aquarium and also it came in handy that you included your mistakes .I began setting up my aquarium yesterday and I have done the very very basic . Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us 👍
Those green neon tetras are stunning.
Thanks for your honesty! I want to do a community tank, and your honest advice was soooo helpful. Please keep updating us on these tanks!
I love this video. I've seen your videos before, they're really helpful. Thank you!
My spouse never understood why I needed to change out my 29 gallon tank every year or so.... lol your videos really hit home! At one time I even did a tank to highlight vintage bubble ornaments since THOSE were what fascinated me as a child, and made me want an aquarium in the first place.
I feel this! My 29 gallon tank has been restocked and rescaped so many times.
Haha, glad to know I'm not the only one who gets the itch for change. :)
Shy guys tank was my fave! Introverts unite!
Your tanks and videos are beautiful great info too. Thankyou new fan here.
Finally, a short and to the point fishtube video which also ended up making me enjoy it. Good work.
Im more of an oddball and bottom dweller guy. Id stock a 20 long with 6 Kuhlis, 6 Panda Cories, a Bamboo Shrimp, clams, an apple snail and a Neon Dwarf Gourami as the centrepiece
I keep finding your videos very informative. In every topic I research, I tend to find one of your videos.
Awww, that's so nice to hear. Let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in the future.
Great content! Hopefully we see another video with this kind of feature. Its interesting to see how many overhauls and trial and error you do as you go on in the hobby. Really awesome!
This video helped me some much. I didn't think about the start over & them dieing
I know it’s an older video but I appreciate the honesty with your fish keeping struggles. I lost my first two platies this morning and it sucks because I had them for a year. I did a redesign of my tank with live plants and wood and I let the pH drop too quickly. Unlike the other rude people commenting, I tell myself that I gave the fish a better life than they would’ve had stuck at PetSmart or Petco. Which is true. I still hate losing fish due to my mess ups, but it’s the only way people can learn unfortunately. Fish are finicky creatures and in some ways are harder to take care of than my cat.
Fish are 100% more difficult to take care of than a cat
So many cool ideas I love it
Man: Ima buy every fish of every color!
Colisa: Ima end this man's whole career...
Thanks for sharing your experiences
Fishman My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it. :)
Pristella tetras and bronze corydoras were my first 20g fish. The tetras were super active and fun to watch, highly recommend them
Great video; very informative. I like how you went from artificial-looking to natural. I have a 20 gallon long that I recently rebooted. It had two goldfish (artificial plants of course) that just got too big, and I was able to donate them to a retirement home 350 gallon aquarium! I always had tropical fish as a kid, and I wanted to try them again. I also wanted to keep the aquarium unheated, so I did a lot of research before picking my fish. I planted the aquarium with a variety of rhizome and root species, and used the goldfish gravel and water to keep it seasoned. I first added 6 black neons, 3 red wag platies and a hillstream loach. A week later I added 3 sunset variatus platies. Then I made my mistake. I was going for green tiger barbs, but the guy at the aquarium store warned about their aggressiveness, and suggested instead that I get a couple of powder blue gouramis. I told him my aquarium was unheated (house temp 20C by day, 16 at night). He said that the gouramis don't need a heated tank, and I took him at his word. I brought them back with a second hillstream loach and all was good for about 5 days. At that point, I could see white growths on the body of one of the gouramis, and it was swimming oddly. I removed him for treatment, but he didn't last a day. Less than a week later, the other gourami started swimming in the same funny way, so I removed him and tried to treat him (meds plus salt). He didn't make it a day later. I then went to the internet and found out about dwarf gourami iridovirus. I don't know for sure if that's what they got, and if so, if it had anything to do with the water temperature I was keeping them at. I did add a heater after that and moved the temperature up to 22. But I was afraid to buy any more dwarf gouramis, fearing that the virus might still be in the water. Four glofish tetras later, all is well.
Shellies would be awesome. They colony breed, are always in high demand, and are just fun to watch. They excavate the sand, move shells around, claim territories. Just active and fun to see such small fish moving piles of sand.
👍💕👍
You're the third person to suggest a shellie tank! Okay, they've definitely risen up my bucket list. :)
I really like your style, you got yourself a new subscriber :)
Man your tanks were beautiful! I love it. I know you mentioned Petsmart, honestly they have good prices on certain things but I find when I buy live plants or even some fish I get diseases in my tank or weird algae, I started shopping private shop locally that understands quarantines and bacterial health of their tanks, they also tend to care more as they are owners rather than minimum wage aquarists.
I’m trying the buy whatever and so far it’s worked pretty good
Already have the Chezch Blue Rams/Albino Corydora setup! Love the combo, the rams are so energetic and the corys all have their own personalities.
What substrate do you have?
I've been doing fish tanks off and on through out my life (I'm 50+), and I LOVE doing theme tanks! Right now, I don't really have the space, but I'm planning on setting up a planted betta tank (5 gallon). I prefer natural themed tanks... but there are 3 themed tanks I have always wanted to do. 1- An underwater river theme, using nothing but stone and wood in a planted tank. A ' Lost City of Atlantis' where fish can swim around an underwater ruins setting, and a saltwater coral reef.
omg i love the last tank so cool
Thank you so much! I love my jungle tank so much. :)
How do you keep a sand substrate clean? I really like corydoras but I heard it’s really hard to maintain a sandy substrate, especially for a beginner. Thanks!
Great question! So I've never really had much trouble keeping my sand clean but I think the trick is I use a heavier sand that isn't very fine-grained. It's just regular black sand that I buy from Petco/PetSmart in the US (amzn.to/2MPQCAD). I vacuum it by sticking the siphon into the sand and then either raising the tube or slightly crimping the hose to allow the heavier sand particles to fall out (while the lighter detritus continues to get sucked up). With a finer sand, people siphon the substrate by using the tube to swirl the water above the sand and then they suck up any detritus that floats up. Hope that helps! I should make a video about this sometime...
A Gamer's Wife thank you so much! This is really helpful☺️
Ive always had a betta as the star of my tanks. The betta Ive got now is my 1st who doesnt get along with other. Ive kept fish for more than 25 years.
I'm planning on redecorating my axolotl tank with a marimo moss carpet and a pile of large (8") river rock pile and some live plants (like a java fern) and i think it would be totally cool if you tried something like that.
any videos specific to the thirds setup and ideas behind it
? its seems like a great starting point, and would love any more details or info about it.
Thanks for sharing that you made mistakes but persevered and learned. I’m struggling with BBA and sick fish right now. Getting lots of use out of my mag scraper!
ELR BBA is the worst, I’m working on overcoming that in my 120 gal. It’s 90% gone but I think it will probably be there to some extent forever. I took out most of the decor and soaked in a strong solution of Easy Carbon overnight, and then planted a TON of plants to help suck up the excess nutrients that were feeding the BBA. Good luck with yours!
Ooo, great tips, Snowflake. Thanks so much for sharing!
Recently I went with a haunted sunken pirate ship theme. Decor was easy. Fish were glass tetras for skeletons albino Cory cats for phantoms gold BARbs for the pirate treasure and a school of RUMmy nose tetras for a good time.
I'm a big fan of double aquarium stands. They're a real space saver. ... If you go this route, keep in mind that the lower tank is often a few degrees cooler than the top tank. Also, you should probably avoid keeping surface dwellers in low tanks, since they'll be hard to see.
Ooo, good tip!
youve helped me with a good short informative video and i reallllly appreciate it thank you so much!
I appreciate you sharing all your challenges and what you've learned! The jungle tank is gorgeous. I am questioning the ethics of starting an aquarium after hearing about all these deaths tho. lol
It's a great hobby though! The trick is to really do your research. Watch a whole bunch of stocking idea videos for the size tank you have or want, then Google for care sheets for the fish you like best. Make lists to keep track of your options (bc your local fish store might not carry your top choice) and of different combos that could go together, based on what temperature they prefer, aggression levels, food, area of tank they occupy, etc. Check a few different sources, and lean toward the more conservative options. Then, when you go to the store, be prepared to stop and look up any additional options that might present themselves (and don't assume store employees - esp at chain stores - know what they're talking about). I was once googling something in the fish store, and the employee expressed surprise. Apparently no one does that! It just makes sense to me!
I love your video. I have had fresh water aquariums for about 32 years now. I got into saltwater aquariums for 13 years and for 2 months now fresh water shrimp. I think if you want a challenge try saltwater. But if you want to stay with fresh water go for the shrimps. I am enjoying them a lot now. Take care.
Great Tank Ideas! Thank you! 👍🏼
My pleasure! :)
Man I just love cories!
Me too! They're still one of my top three fav fish. :)
Your rainbow color tank was sort of the gamers wife equivalent of other people's clown puke gravel phase. It could have been worse!
Hahaha, I never thought of it that way but so true!
I really liked that one with the albino Corys the green neon tetras and the honey gourami planted tank
OMG PLEASE I need a full video about the shy guy tank!!!!!
Awesome ideas! U have inspired me to ‘advance my aquarium’ to breed corydoras so i can actullay reach one of the things on my bucket lust! Thanks so much! Love your chanel!
Yesss! Cory babies are the best. Let me know if you ever breed them. :)
A Gamer's Wife I will! Thanks so much!;)
It's interesting that all your 20 gallons are 20 high, while it seems the 20 long is the more popular one.
I have a 20 gallon betta tank along with 2 plecos regular pleco and a clown pleco as well as five different corydoras mystery snails and ghost shrimp
Check out my videos showing it off
Great video love the fish!
LOVE, love , love this video. I am a 20 gallon person too ! TY so much for sharing these great ideas 🧡 Can you please do a video of community Beta fish tank. Because I have a Beta his name is ZERO and I call him that because he has no friends (booo hooo hoo). It makes me so sad. He is currently in a 5 gallon cube with a big plant that he loves to lay on and hide in. But wow I would even buy a bigger aquarium (20 gallon? if appropriate) if I can put him in a community tank. He was a foster/rescue Beta.
Just read your BLOG posting on Aquarium Co-Op. Nice writing! We just got several Moss Balls for our Pea Puffer tank. YAY!
Oh yay! So glad you saw my article. The moss balls and pea puffers must look so cute together. :)
Hey there! I love your videos! Im wanting to get an aquarium but don't really know where to start. Tetra's are super pretty, I especially love the congo tetras. What would you recommend for beginners on things to get and how to start?
Great topic👍🏽, I offen tell people that if they want to get started in the hobby a 20g long is the best size to start with. Really like that you’re comfortable with touching on mistakes, most people will try to keep quiet on it but that doesn’t help anyone
Thank you! Hah, yeah I didn't realize how many fish had died with my first tank setup until I made this video. Yikes! 😲
I have 2 40 gallon breeder tanks, 1 75 gallon, a 6 foot long 90 gallon acrylic I built myself, a 20 gallon long tank for my betta and a 5 gallon shrimp tank. The smaller tanks are my favorite ones on maintenance day 😝
I love the black sand. What brand is it?
Hard to beat the Classic Planted Jungle Tank :)
I know, I love it! Wish I had tried building one earlier. :)
@@GirlTalksFish Planted tanks make babies happen. I'm a daddy again 😊😊😊 (my fish of course )
@@AussieAquatic Yes! I'm a believer now. Congrats on the fish fry. :)))
Little baby catfish...…..SO CUTE :)
What did you say you had on the bottom of the tank for the corys? Is that sand, fine gravel? I can't decide what to use. I too want corys and a honey gourami...and some snails.
Great video. I used to struggle with Ick until I replaced my plastic plants with real plants. I do a 50% water change each week so that my plant fertilizer doesn't build up. That way I can over fertilize and provide maximum nutrients. I have fish that are over 10 years old - wow. I have no disease. I believe that disease will occur when fish are stressed - even in a tank that hasn't had any problem for years. Real planted tanks make a huge difference. I am now obsessed with planted aquascapes. I am considering CO2.
3-6 dwarf puffers! Love those little guys. Heavily planted though
Oh man, I would _love_ to have a group of pea puffers like that. Thanks for the awesome suggestion!
hey does anyone know if it’s ok to keep some kuhli loaches , cory doras and amano shrimp together? i love the idea of lots to look at on the bottom as well as like neon tetras or something? :)
I am glad I found your video on the 20 gallon tank with cories, green neon tetras, and a dwarf gourami because that nearly mirrors my planned stocking choices for my 20 gallon long! I am slowly adding fish at the moment and currently have 7 pepper cories (were sold to me as pygmy cories) and three pygmy cories which means I still need to add three more pygmies. I was originally planning to add ember tetras as my mid level schooling fish but after watching your video it gave me hope that green neon tetras may do well despite my pH of 7.4. Where the green neon tetras you got tank bred or wild caught? I think that may play a role in their adaptability to higher pH. I am also debating trying my betta as a centerpiece fish or going for a honey gourami. Thank you!
Do you have to quarantine if they are the first fish in the tank?
What fish do you keep in your shy guys tank?! Great video!
plz tell me the best beautiful fish for 90 litre tank with power filter?
Great video. Good to see you didn't throw in the towel and go for gerbils instead. Really like the Shy Guys tank idea.
Lol, I can't remember where I mentioned the gerbils but good memory!
Where did you purchase the stone in the axolotl tank?
Crash! Bang! Zowee! oops.. Honesty and the mistakes can be avoided by others! YUSSS! I have a planted GoldWhiteCloud and Pacific Blue Eye with Cherry shrimp 23 Vista and Endlers in clone tank. Live your videos!
I just stumbled across you, and you totally rock! Keep up the the good work and don't be afraid to tell us when you screw up. We learn from everything. XD
Thank you so much! As my husband always says when I make a fish keeping mistake, "Well, at least it'll make for a good video." 😂
Beautiful setups! I’m about to get into this hobby myself. Just bought me a 30 gal tank to start. I’m just wondering what fish I’m get 😂
L . O . R I’m getting a 20 gallon and I’m going to get a pair of gourami, a school of neon tetras, and some platys
Crunchy Kitcats Thats good bro! At the time I was going to get into it but I gave the tank away to my nephew. My apartment was getting a fix and somehow they kick everyone out of it so I had to move to a new place. I’ll start back up soon in this hobby. 🙏🏼
I love all the ideas, and also appreciate you sharing mistakes as well. We are doing lots of research as we get ready to start our first 20 gallon aquarium. This is a little off topic, but we are having a terrible time find a decent stand for our 20 gallon tank. Do you have an recommendations? We might end up recruiting someone to help us build one.
Can you give the link for the spiderwood?
I enjoy your videos and your common sense solutions to aquarium problems. In your last tank in this video. What kind of floating plants are you using?
Thank you so much! I've got frogbit (Limnobium laeviatum) in that tank, and am loving it! Not so small and invasive like duckweed, and they make beautiful long roots. Unfortunately, the roots do seem prone to tangling and breaking if I'm not careful, so I'll make a care guide video on them once I've gotten more experience with them. :)
A Gamer's Wife
Thanks so much.
Nice video. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Lumpydog! I sometimes worry that veterans won't find my channel as interesting. 😅
I also like Transformers and am a minimalist. I have a 20g tall that is newly planted and I'm considering what species to keep. Pure Endlers is a front-runner.
I love it! I hope you find some beautiful pure Endlers. Haha, so great to find another Transformers lover; how in the world do you keep your collection from getting out of control?
I started communication with The Endler Shop the day I started my tank. I'm so picky that it's well worth the wait to get it right. The collection thing can be a challenge. I only keep things that I truly love and if I can't resist a purchase just because it's cool I buy it to give away. Win-win. Junk is so gross that's it's easy to say no otherwise.
@@sawyerthestarling Fun! Enjoy your new endlers when they arrive. :)
I love tank set up number 3 and that’s the 1 I’m about to do now, with same type of fish but instead of the gourami, I might do 2 female bettas, tetras and the some other type of Cory catfish 💪🏻
Good video
Thanks for letting us know what and what not to do. I would go with fake silk or plastic plants. As for fish 1 school of Cardinal Tetras, 1 school of Ember Tetras and 1 Betta. Clean up would be 2-3 small corys. I subscribed due to you honesty.
Dang you had horrible luck with fish lady lol I mean everyone has trouble but GAWDDAMN
Love your video again you got into a nice topic. I hope you put that a columnaris worm disease....now sure if the same as mentioned in this video. But I lost 3 of my guppies due to that...very little I know about it ...got some medication and 4 of my red Barb's that I have left are still in quarentine. I wanted to move them to the my main 10 gallon but I noticed a little middle like think comming out from one of them ....so I am not sure if they worm is still there or they got resistance to the medication ......so I am stuck with them . But it would be fantastic to know more from a video and your experience.....thanks again for your videos.
Oh, columnaris is actually a bacterial disease, but Camallanus worms are commonly found in guppies. I know levamisole can cure it, and Greg Sage from selectaquatics.com sells it from his website. Hope that helps!
@@GirlTalksFish , thanks for your response ....always learn something that send you a comment...!!
I highly recommend that you start a native species tank. Not only "native" but local. This will get you out familiarizing yourself with the habitats of your local fish. It will get you wading in nearby streams, rivers, gullies and ponds. You will likely be surprised at the beautiful varieties that can sometimes be found in a ditch. You really have o try this.
i just had an out brake of i don't know in my 20 gallon fish tank what should I do I only have a couple of survivors . all my fish had bulging eyes before they died but also my angelfish had white on his face idk if you can identify it
4 guppies, 5 Roberti tetras, 5 zebra danios, 5 black neons , 1mystery snail and ,3 panda corydora catfish my tank rocks
Apisto's, CPD's and Scarlet Badis. Not necessarily all in one tank but those three are among my favorite nano fish.
My CPD's breed year round which is netting me a healthy profit and something I hadn't counted on occurring. But I'm thrilled nonetheless. It also forced us to get new tanks for the sake of survivability, which could be a legitimate excuse for MTS. Nonetheless, if something starts to breed for you while in captivity then it must mean we're doing something right on our part. If they're happy - then they will breed.
Sadly we no longer have any _Dario dario_ (Scarlet Badis), but I found them to be quite intelligent for a fish and interesting to watch. I think of the Scarlet Badis as the mini-cichlid version of the Pea Puffer. Both are intelligent, inquisitive and fun to observe. Which brings me to a new addition - the Pea Puffer.
I had a Pea Puffer that my wife named Gilbert. He was extremely possessive over one snail shell in particular. If you moved it while cleaned or grabbed it with the tweezers, he would immediately swim over and take it from you. I mean he would _literally_ swim circles around the shell while being held in the tweezers and attempt to snatch it back. He was fearless. Once he recovered it, then he would carry back to its proper holding spot. It always reminded me of the Golden Idol from "Indian Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark". That shell must never be moved and if it does then disaster strikes. It _must_ be placed perfectly back into position without fail. It was adorable!
Lastly, _Apistos_ would make a nice centerpiece fish or breeding pair. It's actually our next endeavor which is currently in the works. We settled on _Apistogramma cacatuoides_ because my wife thinks they look like punker rocker fish with their mohawk-like dorsal fins and that anarchy scowl. I'm guessing she's going to name the male after a member of The Ramones. She's such a free spirit.
Keep up the good work my friend.
*Apologies for the double spacing. RUclips is aware of the error but chooses to ignore the problem. TY for understanding.
How fun! I've always been turned off by the Scarlet badis' requirement for live feed, but then again I had a pea puffer before and really enjoyed having her. Do you like the Scarlet badis or pea puffer better?
Lucky you having breeding CPDs! What's your secret? Do you have to remove the eggs or fry?
@@GirlTalksFish That's a tough question. If I had to choose I'd say the Scarlet Badis over the Pea Puffer. I hear a lot of people are turned off by the live food requirement but that simply isn't the case with _Dario dario._ I fed ours frozen cyclops, daphnia. BBS, bloodworms and adult brine shrimp. Occasionally, they would eat the Bug Bites (small) Tropical Fish food with the light blue label. While technically, those are _frozen_ live food, I think people are under the impression that live food means *_live_* BBS that you must hatch or daphnia that's harvested from a tub outdoors, such as the one that Cory uses at his home.
However, most of the time my Scarlet's would hunt for microfauna such as nematodes, copepods, rotifers, phytoplankton and an abundance of ostracods (seed shrimp). Nearly every planted tank has this microfauna which we simply cannot see (most of the time) with our human eyes. There was never an issue with starvation or fickle eating with the Scarlet Badis. Plus I find Scarlet's to be more interactive with you than the Pea Puffer. Both are highly intelligent (for a fish) but the Scarlet Badis seems more like a toy breed lap dog. Whereas the Pea Puffer is more along the lines of your typical independent house cat. You really can't go wrong with either choice.
I think part of the secret to get CPD's to breed year round is attention to the seasonal light cycle changes. I match my timers to the season we're currently experiencing. Most people find that perfect balance of light cycle and nutrients in order to avoid algae blooms. Once that perfect balance is achieved, then they just leave the timer on the same cycle year after year. It just doesn't seem right to live with an unchanging, perpetual light cycle for the rest of your life. Imagine if we all had to live with Winter Time hours for the rest of our lives. That would be miserable! I will say that you are going to experience algae blooms when tampering with the light cycle but it also serves as a signal to the fish that Spring/Fall is here and the "need to breed" is upon us. Plus that algae provides even more microfauna for the entire tank.
Obviously in the wild they breed approximately twice a year, so I'm not entirely sure why they're breeding year-round for me. Feeding them tiny frozen foods like BBS, Cyclops or Daphnia tend to help encourage breeding as well. My theory is that the CPD's see some food that is small enough to feed the fry. I did an experiment where I didn't feed any tiny frozen foods such as the ones previously mentioned and they didn't seem to breed more than once that entire year. Make sense if you think about it. No point in breeding some offspring if there isn't any food to feed them. I also feed Rotifers to all my tanks at least twice a month to help feed the microfauna that lives and breeds in our tanks.
I also remove any of the fry that manage to survive the brood. They get placed in the QT/nursery tank if it isn't already occupied. However, I've also placed them in my Fluval Spec 3 that houses my _Boraras brigittae_ or better known as the Chili Rasbora's. They [the Chili's] are scared of everything so they don't mess with the fry. I think the CPD eggs are laid in the small patch of moss or the densely planted area with all the Baby Tears and Crypt Parva. That side of the tank tends to be fiercely protected by the dominant male and he usually doesn't eat much when there are some eggs that need to be protected. He'll wait for any food to pass by him, rather than leave the immediate area to join the others in the feast.
Hope this helps and I do apologize for such a long response. Please feel free to ask anymore questions. I'm always happy to help.
Keep up the good work my friend.
EDITED for double spacing and grammar.
Great video! Could you maybe make a video on aquascaping? It looks like you’ve come a long way and I’m setting up a new 10 gallon aquarium soon and you’re one of the channels I can really trust.
You are so sweet! Haha I definitely don't consider myself a great aquascaper, but I'll put that on my list of topics to cover. Thank you so much for your trust; I'm truly honored. :)
Hi great video! can you put two schools of fish in a 20 gal tank? thanks
I love my 10 gallon Cherry Shrimp tank... I'd really like to do a 20 gallon with a Crayfish, or Dwarf Mexican Crayfish!
How fun! I have a friend who keeps crayfish and loves all the wonderful colors they come in.
@@GirlTalksFish definitely! They're my next tank I believe... I just got Pea Puffers this week... Haha
@@TrekOnTheAir Lucky! Pea puffers are the bomb. :)
Love the shy guys theme.
Maybe try an Ugly Boi theme... A brackish tank with a Dragon Goby ;)... I had a lot if fun building his cave against the front glass. R.I.P. lost that whole 75g when I forgot to plug a heater back in.
Lol, an Ugly Boy tank is such an awesome idea! Sorry to hear about your dragon goby though; I'm paranoid about doing the same. :(
What are those long fish in the jungle tank setup?
Very well done! Excellent speaking voice!
Cigar Instruction with Don Antonio Thank you so much! :)
I have three betta fish in three different tanks they are about two gallons do you need a heater for them
What was the name of the tree deco in tank #2?
What is the humangous wood called on the 2nd tank?
My recommendations on RUclips are psychic 😳
Lol, that RUclips algorithm is legendary.