As a current Petsmart employee, thank you for posting this. I enjoy and appreciate videos that help me sell fish/animals to healthy, loving, fitting homes. I will keep this information in mind when selling fish to people. ❤️
Oscars are really nice but you're gonna need a 100 gallon tank. Great if you do but that would mean you have some smaller tanks going as well. (This is in response to your post from a year ago. I just added to the page). I hope you are doing well.
I work at PetSmart and lemme tell you... it irritates me when customers come up to me and ask for an Oscar or any other cichlid for that matter and I ask how big their tank is and they always say 5 gallons and sometimes even 1 gallon! Customers hate me there cause I always refuse to sell them fish and other animals when they don't have adequate environments for them lol!
How We wish that the world would have more animal caring beautiful souls like you out there. Ever since when I was a teenager I read an expert stated that like in the fish natural waters, THE MORE SPACIOUS THE TANK,, THE BETTER. This became my guiding rule for separate housing small schooling fish like neons, danios, tiger terras, to fancy goldfish, to big cichlids like oscars, or angelfish. If we want to keep our fish happy and healthy, just study/google/ask experts in pet shops or other expert aquarists their living arrangements in nature and copy them as much as possible.
I have a 36gal tank what fish would u recommend I should get? And how many? Ide like to get a good amount and have all kinds of different types of fish. Is that possible?
You are the PetSmart employee that I wish I had at my local store. You are doing nothing wrong. Oscars definitely belong in larger tanks. The customer would find out the hard way at the fishs expense.
@@dbsti3006 I have no interest in getting oscars. I have 2 tetras, 3 guppies, 4 Corys (different types) and 2 frogs. I just want a lively tank with a lot of different kinds cool lookin fish
@@GunnyPA I have the same size tank, rn its doing very well I have 2 gouramis 1 male 1 female, 8 cory catfish, a gold pleco only gets to 4-6 inches long, and I have 2 killifish and 3 platys my tank thrives very well and everyone is happy, havent had any deaths or problems since I added my killi idk why but they get along great with my gouramis
My friend has a 29 gallon with 6 opaline gouramis 3 bala sharks and 12 tiger barbs. They didn't listen too me at all 😅 they say its working out well but wait a couple months when everything grows then they'll see
I have a dozen Rosy Barbs in with my tetras, no problems, theres enough of them so they keep the aggressiveness amongst themselves and leave everything else alone
So glad to see Bala Sharks on this list. They were the bane of my existence when I worked in a couple of the LFS's around here, as the boss always wanted to carry small ones but then 6 months later didn't want to deal with what they become. Great video overall!
I had actually tried keeping pea puffers with neon tetras and ember tetras , and it turned out to be just fine. They were not much aggressive towards each other nor towards other fishes. For reference i had a 30gallon tank.
its almost like they are tolerating each other for now you know. almost like he said in the video that they can be fine with others for years but one little aggresion towards the puffer and all the others are dead
I'd say roseline sharks are a great alternative to Bala sharks if you want the shark-like looks without the agression and enormous size. My four roselines are my favorite fish in my 75gal community tank and they've gotten along great with everyone, despite being the largest fish in the tank. They school together and are always exploring around. Their coloring makes them look like little fighter jets zooming around.
I breed very high end guppies but not in what many would think is the reason. I have worked in dna genetics for 22 years and exotic Veterinarian Medical for 15 years for two major zoos. Currently breeding rare Guppies in genetic testing but sell off the ones we do not need obviously cheap to help fund the progress. I do appreciate that you reach out to the public on not doing spontaneous buys as it leads to people releasing exotics into our water ways which is actually criminal and one can be arrested in doing so. It destroys the natural economy and resources while posing problems all around. With working in two zoos, this area had always disturbed me personally. So thank you for making this video sir.
Jason has some really nice Guppies so I encourage you both to check his first and if you like his, I encourage you both to buy his, if not I can provide you a list of strains but this is his channel and I would not respectfully sell on his channel. I encourage you both to post your own comment on both channels respectfully. But I will say Jason has some really nice ones if you check his website also.
@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 they are just standard guppies lol they are not exotic in any way shape or form. Which is why you won't sell them, you literally tryed so hard to look cool but over guppies🤣😭🤣. Nice I see what you did. "I breed rare guppies and they sell all the ones we don't need cheap". So people ask you for some and you say "no Jason has nice ones ask him"🤣😭🤣so it seems you were trying to brag or showoff since you can't give any away like you said you do in your post. Rare guppies 🤣 you are important I bet.
🐡 My pea puffers have lived in a community aquarium for over SIX YEARS with blind cave tetras, paradise gouramis, angelfish, male and female bettas, microcorys, and dojo loaches and guppies.
Not sure what it's like in the states, but in Australia most stores (especially basic pet stores) on the tags of the fish prices they do regularly list the full size of the fish once fully grown. We sell things like Murry Cod here and those get HUGE so having the fishes total size on the tags help people know what they're getting into. Some stores have the big fish on display to show how massive they can really get and it's a good way to show that they're not beginner fish.
I made the BICHIR mistake every time the light went out another fish went missing. Eventually it was just him and the pleco and I loved that fish so much that's just how I kept the tank. 1 bichir 1 pleco and tons of plants. I moved the survivors to another tank.
I had a similar experience with weather loaches. LFS sold them as a great community fish... I've had them 7 months, and they're now 8 inches long. Nothing else lives in their tank.
Ive read Pleco's are not good to keep with Bichirs. They apparently latch on to them at times. Have you noticed anything? Look into the Brittle nose Plecos, those are safe or other types of algae eaters.
Earlier when I was new to the hobby I kept buying single bala shark and eventually each one would die, but now keeping a school of 7 in my 300gallon… they are healthy and thriving…
If you need a small algee eater you can't beat otocinclus (think they also know as water monkeys). Those little guys are amazing and work so well in planted tanks
Hey i have dwarf hair grass in my tank they get algae so much and its no easy to remove ,i have two siamese algae eater but they dont eat them i guess please tell me are otto cinclus good for algae on Hair grass or i should buy a shrimp please reply
@@vikalawa5301 nope I'm afraid not. Try Putting tank in darkness for a week. No lights and wrap in bag to keep natural stuff out. That killed it off pretty fast when I had that problem. 👍
@@nobrainsnoheadache2434 that's sea monkeys mate. It may also be todo with location as that's what local shops have as common name in UK. I always just call em ottos tbh.
I agree completely. I did the mistake with #7 as a kid too in the 90's. The ones I got had the exact same shape but were grey. They grew. Slow but yes, they will eat anything they can catch. They do well with bigger fish. The ones I had in a tank were lungfish and would go to the surface to breath and then go back to the bottom of the tank. They liked to hang out with each others, very chill and non aggressive. But anything smaller will be eaten eventually. I made a lot of mistakes buying fish but back then it was a learning process, we didn't have internet, I used to go to the library to read about fish. My favorite fish was probably the elephant fish. It had such a "personality" not the most peaceful fish out there, it loved bullying my pleco. It would swim around it and stroke it with the "trunk" which had no effect but then it would go underneath to the belly and that would really make the pleco angry.
may I propose classic plecos? most people stick em in a 20 gallon and call it a day, despite the fact that they get like a foot long. they’re gentle giants with an emphasis on giant lol
We had 2 leopard Plecos and they were absolutely massive. They were gentle fish though and never had any issues with them apart from their massive size! Thankfully we kept them in a 40 gallon tank which did the job (surprisingly)
Kinda surprised my common pleco not really that big compared to many others I seen and he about 8 years old. While my sailing who only 2 already just as big as him XD
I don’t understand why as a sales person at a pet store you don’t just say like”you do know this fish can get up to a foot long” my husband bought me one and I had totehome it because I didn’t have a setup for its size but he didn’t know and they didn’t say anything
Common pleco is prob the worst offender that he didn't mention. People get them then dump them when they cant support anymore. Florda is overrun by the things. They get huge and are extremely resilient.
I have one common in my community tank that I was keeping for a friend but she decided she no longer wanted her and now I have a foot long monster that runs over everything but I feel bad that she was unwanted by the original owner
Let me know what fish you think are bad for community aquariums below. Need some ideas for a Ten gallon? Check out this video: ruclips.net/video/FR0YX5Uhj6c/видео.html
I had my pea puffer with 4 Molly's in 3 black skirt Tetris for 2 years and he hasn't did nothing he hangs out in some rocks that I have in comes out to eat and go's back the rocks
Here in Germany they sell little Ameiurus nebulosus / Brown Bullheads for aquariums. They look quite nice. Get amazingly tame. You can handfeed them and they let you touch them... And then they start eating every other fish in your tank as they grow :D
I actually kind of disagree with pea puffers, over the years I've experimented a lot and have kept many many pea puffers successfully in community tanks multiple times, but I've also had a couple who just didn't work in a community. It honestly just depends on the individual fish's personality, some are much more peaceful than others. When I buy pea puffers I watch for their behavior in the stores, ones that come up to the front of the glass and chase each other around tend not to do well in community tanks, while ones that then to keep to themselves often continue that behavior in your own tank adn do well with other fish, and they will usually thrive as long as they are kept well fed, are not outcompeted for food, arent kept with tankmates large enough to eat them, in well planted tanks to break their lines of sight and kept with others of their own kind to interact with. I've personally kept pea puffers with rainbowfish, short finned guppies, swordtails, platys, least killifish, mollies, plakat and longfin bettas, tetras, barbs, pencilfish, danios, rasboras, small gouramis, corydoras, baby and adult bristlenose, kuhli loaches, otocinclus, kribensis, apistogrammas, rams, gobies, small killifish, scarlet badis, neocaridina shrimp, amano shrimp, mexican dwarf crayfish, fire belly toads, and african dwarf frogs, with no problems.
My step dad has shown little interest in his puffers so I continue thinking about putting them in my community tank. The largest fish I have in there are 3 dwarf Gourami’s but I haven’t committed to the idea yet
Yes! I was about to reply about pea puffers. I put them in my community tank. And they’ve done really well. I added more plants for them so they can hide. I haven’t had any issues. They live with 3 Angel fish, 8 celestial Pearl danios, 20 cardinals, 6 cories and 3 ottos. Hopefully they stay peaceful but I’ve had them in several community tanks and haven’t had issues. I agree I think it depends on the fish.
Nice. I for sure think red tail/rainbow sharks should make an appearance. They can be pretty brutal in the wrong setup, but absolutely gorgeous in the right one lol
Yes I looked thru comments to see if anyone mentioned Red tail sharks. We bought two at Petsmart when we started our tank and they nearly killed each other. We separated them 1 to our Son’s tank and kept the other. Both started bullying all the other fish in the tank, the one in our tank starting bullying the Balla Sharks, and the one in our Son’s tank started bullying every fish in the tank and killing a couple of them. We ended up getting rid of both of the fish and now for the most part the two community fish tanks are going well. The two Ballas chase around every once in awhile but otherwise thrive in our 100 gallon tank.
I personally have a community tank and in there is- 4 bala sharks (2 biggest are 7-8 inch long), 3 angels, two parrots, 6 rainbow fish, 1 eel, 1 knife fish, two bigger fancy tail guppies and an albino pleco. They have done amazing together. Eventually, the balas and knife fish will go into a bigger tank I have on hold and the rest will stay where they are. I have 6 tanks. I have pea puffer tanks and I have tons of shrimps and baby guppies in the one and they don't ever bother any of their tank mates. I still have every single shrimp and guppy in there. There are two different types of pea puffers, I have both. The bigger ones with the perfect spots on them with the green like hue that need the more brackish water are the more aggressive and will eat anything in their path whole. The tiny pea sized puffers that are fresh water they won't bother tank mates- so far from my experience. You're lucky to get them to even eat the snails. People seem to get the two mixed up.
Never had a problem with Tiger Barbs in my community tanks. They are always in a schools of 8-12 and they rarely ever go after anything except themselves. I do keep them in 75 gallon tanks though so having the extra room makes them even less likely to nip. Just my experience with them. Tiger Barbs are probably the most misunderstood fish:P
THANK YOU For your clear explanation of what are really bad beginner choices. I also loved the fact that you had similar options for these fish that WERE community friendly!
Pretty accurate rundown on what fish not to keep in a community aquarium - Silver Sharks have a peaceful temperament, but they're easily spooked, are jumpers, and will outgrow the average aquarium, plus they're schoolers too, so you're going to need almost an industrial sized aquarium if you want to keep them! One leaped out of my tank when I wasn't there and landed halfway across the room; unfortunately, it was too late by the time I noticed it was missing and found it behind some clothes drawers. I had a lid and cover on the aquarium too. Tiger Barbs will dive bomb Cory Catfish and any bottom dweller mercilessly and will leave fish such as Angelfish and Pearl Gouramis in shreds - literally! So they should be kept in a species-only tank really. Thanks for uploading; very informative.
I have a community tank with Harlequin Rasboras, Tiger Barbs and Bronze Corys. I never noticed tiger barbs pestering any fish other than eachother while I've seen Rasboras Chasing Cories multiple times.
The common pleco. At the time I had a 29 gallon tank and was not told how massive they get. Unfortunately a year later I had to give him away because he was out growing my tank fast. It was a sad day because I watched him grow but I rather he go to a home in a bigger tank.
I found out the hard way about Chinese Algae Eaters. I was looking for another tank cleaner, and was talked into getting one for my community tank. When it was small, it was fine, but when it got older, it become violent to the other fish in the tank. When I called the pet store about the behavior, I was told to either rehome it or to add hiding places for the other fish since these fish can have attitude problems. So I bought more hiding places which worked pretty well, until I one day I saw the Chinese Algae Eater munching on one of my other fish. That is when I realized he was aggressive because he was hungry and didn't want algae. Another fish to be wary about are plecos. I currently have a common pleco that I got when it was only a couple inches long. It is now 13 inches and still growing. I only have a 29 gallon tank (he is the only fish in there) and will be upgrading here sooner rather than later to a 55 gallon. But when I got him I was told he would get maybe 6 inches or so but will not outgrow the tank. Yep, told nothing but lies lol.
Good thing I found this video, though I was going to research about them but I had great interest on Pea Puffers for my community tank. They are sooo cute! Great video!!!
Thanks for trying to get this information out there, in shops there are so many fish that grow to huge sizes that only a small proportion of people will ever have an aquarium big enough for them yet there's often no information/advice on the sizes they grow to, which must lead to so many unwanted fish. My parents bought 2 Chinese algae eaters for their small community tank. Thankfully a shop took them off our hands.
All beginner must watch this video, waiting for next ones in series.Wish all store owners give such information to their customers, but normally they don't.Many beginner people lose interest in hobby due such lack of information about fishes.
Unfortunately, they also lose interest due to the harsh criticism they receive if and when they make a mistake. Instead of people offering advice, they act like they are trying to make you feel stupid. It almost drove me out of the hobby. I understand criticism or a person not liking my aquarium set up. But there is a way to go about it.
I started my new hobby about 3 months ago. I bought some "little fish including 6 Zebra Danios. WELLLLLL, I had to buy a second tank and remove them. They chased and nibbled everything in the first tank. Little horrors! LOL. They appear to be quite settled on their own. I do enjoy learning from your videos, thank you.
I wish more people talked about this aspect of danios. They are little monsters, endless energy and all of it put towards worrying and chasing other fish. Zebras and giants, nipping anything with fins. Never again.
Some years ago I had Leopard Danios in a tank and got into a regular habit of introducing Harlequins into the tank as they mysteriously just disappeared.. one day I witnessed the Zebras attacking and killing the Harlequins.. no one believed me when I said but it’s true 😳🤷
I enjoyed this video, Bob. I had to watch to see how much crossover there was with the "10 Terrible Community Aquarium Fish" video I did a couple years ago. It was interesting to see which fish our lists had in common and which fish you selected that I didn't. I hadn't even thought about Rosy Barbs being more aggressive at warmer temps. Great video. Looking forward to the next two installments.
The store I bought fish from during the 90's loved to trick us into buying fish not "suitable" for a community tank. They'd show us smaller fish, a centimeter or so and they would look so cute. They got us to buy 2-3 yellow catfish like fish, not sure what they were called, they had long "whiskers" and were really small and super active. But oh boy... did they grow. In a month they were big. Had to move them out of the tank because their appetite for *anything* was very high. They were quick too. They did fine with bigger fish however as long they couldn't eat them that is lol.
Checking multiple sources - good ones, like this channel, Aquarium Co-op, Prime Time Aquatics, KG Tropical and more - for care guides and info on a species you're considering keeping is a good idea. And what I do is take the more conservative or difficult approach out of those recommended. If tank size suggestions range from 10-20g, I go with the 20. If minimum schooling numbers suggested are from 6-8, I get at least 8. And so on...
I must be very lucky. I’ve had 12 tiger barbs in my 75 in a very standard “community tank” for over a year and they only seem to bicker amongst each other. I have plenty of driftwood and plants in the aquarium so that when one gets tired, they have a place to retreat to. None of my fish have torn fins or signs of stress. Everyone’s tanks are different, just thought I’d share my experience with a very personable beautiful fish. Great video, Bob.
I'm guessing it may make a difference that you actually have a decent sized school of them. Have never kept tiger barbs, but I know when I first started, I got the bare minimum recommended number of schooling fish. Now that I've moved on to bigger tanks, and learned more, I keep fewer types of fish, in bigger numbers, and get to enjoy their more natural behaviours. Like my most recent addition (in 2 batches) of 16 pygmy cories in my recently re-scaped tank.
I think this is a great video other than the pea puffer thing. I've kept some for quite a while now and they just aren't typically aggressive. If u keep them with small schooling fish like danios, neons, or rasboras, they aren't gonna be aggressive towards them.
HIGHLY recommend golden bichir... but not for beginners and not for community tanks and not for small tanks. And yes, they'll get to 18"-22" if you take good care of them. (Careful, they have a primitive lung and will try to use it on occasion by jumping out of your tank).
Regarding Bichirs, there are two types that I have kept. The ones with a narrower mouth are much more docile and not aggressive at all, even to smaller fish. But the ones with a wider mouth, these will eat just about anything, even fish their own size. I made the mistake and added the wide-mouth bichir to the tank, and it tried to swallow a fire-eel bigger than itself, and choked on it... Both died.... 😔. So the narrow mouth bichirs are definitely community tank material.
When i first tried balas I put them in a 55 not knowing any better and they ended up dying at about 5 to 8 inches possibly from the tank size or from me being a low experienced fish keeper that rellied too much on a canister filter and not enough on water changes, 7 years later I'm trying them again now having a 150 with a custom 40gal sump I built
I once bought two platinum angel fish for my 15 gl community tank, soon I had to move out my community fish to another tank and separate the two angel fish because they were fighting everyone and each other. From 1 tank, it became 3 tanks. Nobody told me that I had to overcrowd the tank to prevent fighting. New fish enthusiast learning the hard way.
I had a barb tank and my black ruby’s were by far the most aggressive fish. More so than any tiger variant. Only the red tailed shark could sort it out. And that was fine with everything else.
I've had all kinds of barbs for years now and not one species has been a fin nipper. they've been in my community tanks also so I recommend any barb for a community !
If I could have an infinitely massive tank. It would have a school of balas. I got baby ones and raised them until they were about 4 inches. Had to rehome them because of IRL stuff and I miss them. They actually had personality and look so cool swimming together. I miss you all :(
Used to have a pair of oscars that were in a community (all large fish) included two sharks, two freshwater catfish and two large angels and a couple bristlenose. super calm and friendly to each other but anything else fish wise was viewed as food. Was a very large tank though. 8foot long
Love what you do Bob! Your love of fish, animals and the outdoors is heartwarming. I agree that many of the Gouramis for sale are too territorial for community tanks. Love the angelfish but they need a large tank and more numbers if you keep more than one.
Another great video Bob!! I love all the fish on these lists!! But definitely a lot you need to take into consideration before not knowing and adding them to a community!! Someday, I would like to have a dedicated tank for these little pea puffers, so I can watch them do their little pea puffer things 🤣♥️ And Oscars💔 it's just so heartbreaking. Recently I talked to a family at a big box co store. They had no idea what they were getting into. The store associate of course didn't let them know what was involved with keeping these beautiful fish!! All they saw was a cute little fish!! Instead they ended up going with some platys and corys for their children to enjoy ♥️ I made this mistake also with Oscars in the beginning! Another fish that I added to a community tank when I was just a little girl was a blue gourami! I absolutely thought it was the most beautiful fish in the world but it became very aggressive and took everything out in the tank 😭 Another mistake I made was the Chinese algae eater, when I was first starting out, a lot of these stores do direct you to these fish!I'm so thankful for you and videos like this over the past year! I've learned more about them and many of the fish on this list!! Thanks for sharing this, hopefully it will help beginners not make some of the same mistakes that I know I did!! Have a great weekend Bob and I hope you have a wonderful day! ♥️🙏🌿🐟🌿
Man that was a great rundown, my dad loves fish and I'm more into mountain biking. He had it playing this morning and I just had to take the laptop from him and tune in myself! Lol Thank you very interesting👍👍
I made the mistake of getting a pea puffer as I am a fan of puffer fish and I didn't have to worry about a brackish or salt setup with the pea puffer. After he got acclimated, he started going after my 3 gouramis and my 3 female beta. I stuck him in a small tank but my little heater stuck on and cooked him. I do have a rosy barb flying solo with the rest of the tank and haven't had any aggression issues.
I had two pea puffers in a community tank 40 gal for years with not a single issue ever. Not a nipped fin nada. Had a very interesting community tank with a bunch of odd ball fish that somehow blended together perfectly🤷🏻♂️. From pea puffers to bubble bee goby’s also a pair to fresh water flounder to pigmy water frogs also paired and also several other species of small unique fish including some fresh water clams. Somehow everything gelled together perfectly. I miss that tank could sit and watch it for hours. I only fed diet of live food and mixed it up to get them all their nutrients, had a large fluvial canister filter then went under stand. TONS of good bacteria from the beautiful porous Mexican pot rock to the biological filter media to the fine sand I used. It was perfectly cycled the and had a good amount of live plants. But years and meticulously added to it slowly. Sometimes I would go back and forth looking for a fish to add over weeks to a month looking for just the right fish. But anyway yeah all these weird fish/frogs/clams etc all lived in perfect harmony. Maybe it was because the tank was set up just perfect? They all had their routine and area and weirdly everything seemed to know and respect it. Maybe it was because I purposely only picked species that were very small or grew very very slowly so there was lots of space. For size of tank I definitely never came anywhere close to capacity. Will see if I get lucky again as I am back into the hobby having the time again now, and want to try and recreate that tank that was my favorite tank back when I was into the hobby before
What light are you using on that big tank? I have a 75 gallon and had a 48 inch Current USA Pro full spectrum and I had plants that just wouldn't grow. Could never get any grass type pants to take root and there was a ton of light hitting the bottom....
Had a roommate years ago that would cut the tail off the tiger barb that nipped the others. Worked until the tail grew back. Rinse and repeat. It would hide any time net in water.
I try to avoid putting any kind of cichlid into a community aquarium, due to the fact that they not only grow to a size that's not comparable to the other fish, but that they will effectively take over part of the aquarium and become territorial toward any smaller fish. Even the likes of Angel Fish, you have to be a little bit careful with.
I've never had Chinese Algae Eaters attack other fish... but they do stop eating algae the older they get. Mine all just turned into bottom scavengers.
When I was 23, I got a 55g tank and did everything wrong. Didn’t cycle, put all the fish in at the same time, and non compatible fish - guppies, mollies, swordtails, angel fish, convicts, Jack Dempseys, gouramis, a pair of bettas, and an Oscar. The guy who owned the store never said a word about his size. Surprisingly, not one fish died from my ignorance - until Oscar got bigger than everybody else and started eating them. It’s really a shame that some fish people withhold information like size, just to make a buck. I would have gotten other fish instead of Oscar. He still would have had a sale. He became the only fish in the tank, and I ended up giving the whole setup away.
What is the fish in front of the Bala shark right at the start of that clip? Some sort of Rasbora? Has a black lateral line running the length of its body, a red line half the length above that, a bit of red on its dorsal fin and orange and black spots on its tail.
Just the other day, I was at my LFS and listening to someone oohing and aahing over the size of a pleco in one of their tanks. "Wow, I didn't know they got so big!" she said. I casually mentioned the full grown size as I walked by, and her jaw dropped. 🤣 (I did tell her there are some types that stay small, if she was interested in getting one.)
i had some long fin tiger barbs just got rid of them for some more rainbow fish because they nipped each others fins up and the fins on my angel fish, the tank(55gal) is a lot calmer without them being mean all over the place
I wish I could do a rosy barb pond, but I don’t think they could quite survive a Canadian winter 🥶 Maybe an indoor unheated pond in the basement... I should just make my basement a giant fish room lol
I tried to keep native fish in a tank but it's so hard. For them to "thrive" you really need to somehow simulate that winter and I couldn't do it as a kid in the 90's. I had some native fish for a few years until I sold them to local aquarium store. The fish I had were carps, perch and one pike. I caught them as fry. The scariest one was the pike. That was a nightmare *monster* lol. The carps were super friendly and they would let me stroke them in water, always coming up to the surface happy. I had them in a BIG tank. Loved it but even then I knew it wasn't right to keep them in such a condition.
I have 6 rosy barbs at 25 deg C and are in a community tank and do not hassle or nip any other fish, ever, including themselves. Dont get between them and their peas though! But totally passive, they will nip your arms if you are rearranging the tank thinking its food.
My red tail female just died. 7 years. She was nice to my barbs, tetras, mollies and guppies... yes I have a 120 gal but she was nice just not to the shrimp lol
@@classychandu5090 The chief problem I've seen with clowns is that they's a schooling fish that will grow to about a foot long eventually. Otherwise all the ones I've seen have been pretty well behaved.
As an ex Aquarium shop owner in the 80s-90s, I totally agree with you. No way I'd recommend adding fish that keep on growing in a community tank because usually fish that are suitable for community tanks are smaller fish that match the size of the fish already in the community tanks. For example, like *Neon/Cardinal/Glowlight Tetras, Cherry Barbs, the ever friendly Zebra Danio, Harlequin Rasbora, the very popular and most peaceful catfish, the Cory (aka Corydoras), are the most preferred fish in every freshwater tanks, including the unbelievable little Pygmy Corydora of various locations in the wild. All the Corydoras get on with these fish and some non-aggressive larger fish, like the Bristlenose Pleco*, but this Pleco seems to be making mince mean of all my shrimps as there have been missing lots of shrimps. Not only that but in my tank, the Pleco seems to be lurking in the open at night, I don't know why, perhaps in search of food or in search of shrimps and I believe that's the quest to do so, it is bumping or chasing these fish, that next day I sometimes find Cardinals and Neon tetras on the floor, dead. Not only that, but I find small planted pots and areas of substrate shifted as if there has been a war in that tank. I decided to put a IR IP camera to run all night and discovered that it is the 'bully' Pleco chasing around flashy things and the flashy things were the startled Tetras, the Danios and other fishes who were asleep in the night. But the Pleco hunts by smell in the dark. So, when it tents to home on a fish, the little fish gets bumped by the surge of water that the Pleco is pushing forward and in panic, the fish then darts off into the unknown and ends up in the direction of the water surface, but because it is half asleep and confused as to know where it is headed in the dark, it finds itself out of the water and straight on the floor. I am asleep, I can't hear any splish-splattetty of the fish kicking on the floor until next morning when I see them dead and dry. So, the Bristlenose will be removed. Partly because it is getting big and becoming a bully, albeit peaceful. I've lost over 100 shrimps since 5 months ago when I put the Pleco in because of algae. In otherwords, this fish is eating me out of my pockets when you consider the cost of each Neocaridina shrimp. It's best to always add in a community tank fish that do not grow bigger than the others.
I have 2 Plecos, 21 BA Tetras, 16 Glo Tetras, 8 Tiger barbs, 10 dwarf cichlids and 2 Angel fish in a 55 gallon tank and all get along together perfectly fine. Would you recommend adding 20 zebra Danios to the tank? Genuinely curious.
I loved my Oscar. Absolute beast. He dominated my biggest aquarium. Fun to introduce him to new friends (translation: live food). If you love a fish that will devour just about anything, this is the fish for you. Word to the wise, do NOT introduce him to you favorite Jack Dempsey. Yep ... that was a mistake. I had to separate them FAST. (I was cleaning tanks.) I quickly put that task off foe a day and went and bought a new small temporary tank with a cover. They didn't even like seeing each other's tank.
I agree 100% about what you said about tiger barbs! I had few in the past but one in particular (female) was so aggressive. She stared attacking platies and other peaceful eating her eyes. I never saw something like that in my fish keeper hobby career ! I noticed what was going on when several (believe me) fish started appearing without eyes.
My rosy barbs attack and eat all of the red eyes balloon tetra's eyes, i thought it maybe happened after I installed the pink light into the tank, possible the red eyes looks like food to them?
From lots of experience keeping pea puffers I can confidently say they do well with otos, and you can manage ghost or large Amano shrimp, nerite snails given the low profile of their foot, and sometimes even get away with fast fish like small tetras but that’s on a case by case basis. My big male solitary in his nice planted tank after the rest dying off is fine with corys so that’s a possibility if you’ve got plenty of room. Growing out some pea females to add soon with a rescape but they’re surprisingly tolerant of some tankmates if you give enough territory in the scape and room for other fish to do their own thing. There are a couple of glow light tetras in the growout tank that have lived with them almost their whole lives and the others only died from other issues or age so they really have no problem staying out of the way. Dwarf puffers are notoriously messy eaters and it helps having some additional cleanup crew at the very least in ghost shrimp, nerites, and otos.
My clown loach has been doing quite well in my 55-gallon community tank for the past 10 years. Of course, he is in with silver dollars, a bushy nose pleco, Rafael cat and a Texas cichlid, and 3 giant Danios. Everybody does quite well but I do not think I would advise any of them for community tanks.
@[ 桂木優 ]KᗩTᔕᑌᖇᗩGI yep i actually put a pole on my yt channel to ask what fish i should add and one of my subscribers said an angel fish but then i explained and we agreed on platies
Are Odessa barbs good in a community tank? It would be a 20 long with 15 rummynose 4harlequin rasbora and maybe an electric blue acara or a pair of apistos.
One of my first tanks I setup had an Iridescent Shark, Red-Tailed Shark, Serpae Tetra, Rainbow Shark. Bala Shark and a Common Pleco. I had one of each species in a 50 gallon tank. The weird thing was the Serpae was the bully of the tank and he was the smallest fish! All of these should be on your next list and I should get the worst Community Tank setups of all time. The tank ran for three years like that and then I quit the hobby for awhile.
Yeah, we've got one. Hes about 6" and we call him bruce, or the torpedo. His aggression is currently under control w protein crumbles, but im guessing were gonna have to eventually find him a new home. Maybe if we ever get that pond...
I learnt most of these lessons the hard way. I had Bala shark (silver shark here in the UK) that were growing rapidly, puffer fish that were killing everything, and various wierd fish that kept dying. I've just ended up with an African cichlid tank now, although I am keeping cichlids that shouldn't really be together.
I bought the last one my fish store had and he has claimed a tiny section on the left side of the tank he will chase almost any tetra out of his territory but leaves the guppies, guppy fry, and Bolivian Rams alone. I've been waiting for them to get more in stock hoping he'll mellow out but he doesn't fin nip or hurt anything just chases them out if his area then retreats.
I love my bichir, he's got his own tank. They are definitely NOT even close to blind. He swims over to watch my rabbit, cruises over to see what I'm doing and will follow my finger around from his side of the glass. Also, what's with everyone not knowing how to pronounce the name? Thirty years ago we just called them bitchers, and no one batted an eye, now everyone drops the F bomb but tiptoes around the word bichir... literally pronouncing it four other ways but never the way it looks... heaven forbid. If you're squirmy about it, use the scientific name...polypterus. great list and great information. I'm glad people are getting real about this stuff
Bichirs are one of my long term goals. I just want to know who looks at a bichir and thinks "yeah, that looks like it wants friends." Some fish are misleading. Pea puffers don't look like they can do damage. A bichir looks like it was built to eat small fish.
@@charleslloyd400 they excel at eating small fish... and not so small fish. They will get one by the head and slowly work it down their throat, however long it takes. Stealth predators... but extremely efficient. I like to give mine earthworms, he also likes frozen gel food blocks.
I HATE pea puffers…. Bob is absolutely correct, I put in only one pea puffer, he was ok for about a week, and one day I woke up, turned on the light to my 35 hex, and was totally shocked, dead and dying fish all over my community tank!!!! I’d say this little bastard took out almost a dozen fish!!!! I scooped his butt out of there, and took him back to the store I got him from. He’s lucky I didn’t flush him down the toilet. To this day, if I see those freaking things in a store, I’ll warn others not to buy the devils…..
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As a current Petsmart employee, thank you for posting this. I enjoy and appreciate videos that help me sell fish/animals to healthy, loving, fitting homes. I will keep this information in mind when selling fish to people. ❤️
Sup.
Lol
Good for you sweetie truely caring for the fish and customers
Oscars are really nice but you're gonna need a 100 gallon tank. Great if you do but that would mean you have some smaller tanks going as well. (This is in response to your post from a year ago. I just added to the page). I hope you are doing well.
I work at PetSmart and lemme tell you... it irritates me when customers come up to me and ask for an Oscar or any other cichlid for that matter and I ask how big their tank is and they always say 5 gallons and sometimes even 1 gallon! Customers hate me there cause I always refuse to sell them fish and other animals when they don't have adequate environments for them lol!
How We wish that the world would have more animal caring beautiful souls like you out there. Ever since when I was a teenager I read an expert stated that like in the fish natural waters, THE MORE SPACIOUS THE TANK,, THE BETTER. This became my guiding rule for separate housing small schooling fish like neons, danios, tiger terras, to fancy goldfish, to big cichlids like oscars, or angelfish. If we want to keep our fish happy and healthy, just study/google/ask experts in pet shops or other expert aquarists their living arrangements in nature and copy them as much as possible.
I have a 36gal tank what fish would u recommend I should get? And how many? Ide like to get a good amount and have all kinds of different types of fish. Is that possible?
You are the PetSmart employee that I wish I had at my local store. You are doing nothing wrong. Oscars definitely belong in larger tanks. The customer would find out the hard way at the fishs expense.
@@dbsti3006 I have no interest in getting oscars. I have 2 tetras, 3 guppies, 4 Corys (different types) and 2 frogs. I just want a lively tank with a lot of different kinds cool lookin fish
@@GunnyPA I have the same size tank, rn its doing very well I have 2 gouramis 1 male 1 female, 8 cory catfish, a gold pleco only gets to 4-6 inches long, and I have 2 killifish and 3 platys my tank thrives very well and everyone is happy, havent had any deaths or problems since I added my killi idk why but they get along great with my gouramis
I watch in horror as I have put the first 3 fish you describe into my community tank - being new to the hobby. Thanks for the great advice.
The nice thing about this hobby is nothing is absolute. You could get lucky with them and have no issues =)
Ur not alone buddy
My friend has a 29 gallon with 6 opaline gouramis 3 bala sharks and 12 tiger barbs. They didn't listen too me at all 😅 they say its working out well but wait a couple months when everything grows then they'll see
I have a dozen Rosy Barbs in with my tetras, no problems, theres enough of them so they keep the aggressiveness amongst themselves and leave everything else alone
I have tinfoil barbs 6 of them in with neons and guppys and mollys and oleckys platys gorammys
So glad to see Bala Sharks on this list. They were the bane of my existence when I worked in a couple of the LFS's around here, as the boss always wanted to carry small ones but then 6 months later didn't want to deal with what they become. Great video overall!
Do jo from sh
My bala sharks are in a 55 gallon and had them for years and the biggest one is 3”
Instructions unclear: I now have a 20 gallon high with 5 Bala sharks and 3 Jack Dempsey chiclids
You really need to add a common pleco too. 😆
thought of getting an arapaima?
Have you considered adding about 6 Eastern bottle nose and a couple alligator gar too?
Wait, was this not the "Best community fish" video?
Add pine needles to the aquas cape they calm the f ish down
I had actually tried keeping pea puffers with neon tetras and ember tetras , and it turned out to be just fine. They were not much aggressive towards each other nor towards other fishes. For reference i had a 30gallon tank.
Many many people keep them with tetras no issues. But I'm sure things happen. So they get a bad name for that
its almost like they are tolerating each other for now you know. almost like he said in the video that they can be fine with others for years but one little aggresion towards the puffer and all the others are dead
I'd say roseline sharks are a great alternative to Bala sharks if you want the shark-like looks without the agression and enormous size. My four roselines are my favorite fish in my 75gal community tank and they've gotten along great with everyone, despite being the largest fish in the tank. They school together and are always exploring around. Their coloring makes them look like little fighter jets zooming around.
I breed very high end guppies but not in what many would think is the reason. I have worked in dna genetics for 22 years and exotic Veterinarian Medical for 15 years for two major zoos. Currently breeding rare Guppies in genetic testing but sell off the ones we do not need obviously cheap to help fund the progress.
I do appreciate that you reach out to the public on not doing spontaneous buys as it leads to people releasing exotics into our water ways which is actually criminal and one can be arrested in doing so. It destroys the natural economy and resources while posing problems all around. With working in two zoos, this area had always disturbed me personally. So thank you for making this video sir.
May I buy some guppies from you?
Are you selling some guppies now?
Jason has some really nice Guppies so I encourage you both to check his first and if you like his, I encourage you both to buy his, if not I can provide you a list of strains but this is his channel and I would not respectfully sell on his channel. I encourage you both to post your own comment on both channels respectfully. But I will say Jason has some really nice ones if you check his website also.
@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 they are just standard guppies lol they are not exotic in any way shape or form. Which is why you won't sell them, you literally tryed so hard to look cool but over guppies🤣😭🤣.
Nice I see what you did. "I breed rare guppies and they sell all the ones we don't need cheap". So people ask you for some and you say "no Jason has nice ones ask him"🤣😭🤣so it seems you were trying to brag or showoff since you can't give any away like you said you do in your post. Rare guppies 🤣 you are important I bet.
@@rapscallion3421 .. I am selling a lot thank you and have a steady customer base locally.
🐡 My pea puffers have lived in a community aquarium for over SIX YEARS with blind cave tetras, paradise gouramis, angelfish, male and female bettas, microcorys, and dojo loaches and guppies.
Not sure what it's like in the states, but in Australia most stores (especially basic pet stores) on the tags of the fish prices they do regularly list the full size of the fish once fully grown. We sell things like Murry Cod here and those get HUGE so having the fishes total size on the tags help people know what they're getting into. Some stores have the big fish on display to show how massive they can really get and it's a good way to show that they're not beginner fish.
I made the BICHIR mistake every time the light went out another fish went missing. Eventually it was just him and the pleco and I loved that fish so much that's just how I kept the tank. 1 bichir 1 pleco and tons of plants. I moved the survivors to another tank.
Get more bichers and maybe 1 more pleco i have 3 bichers but for some reason my bichers are the nicest fish i own
I had a similar experience with weather loaches. LFS sold them as a great community fish... I've had them 7 months, and they're now 8 inches long. Nothing else lives in their tank.
Ive read Pleco's are not good to keep with Bichirs. They apparently latch on to them at times. Have you noticed anything? Look into the Brittle nose Plecos, those are safe or other types of algae eaters.
@@Sean3D2Y I did notice my pleco latching on my Bichir a few times but more like trying then just leaving it alone
Earlier when I was new to the hobby I kept buying single bala shark and eventually each one would die, but now keeping a school of 7 in my 300gallon… they are healthy and thriving…
If you need a small algee eater you can't beat otocinclus (think they also know as water monkeys). Those little guys are amazing and work so well in planted tanks
Hey i have dwarf hair grass in my tank they get algae so much and its no easy to remove ,i have two siamese algae eater but they dont eat them i guess please tell me are otto cinclus good for algae on
Hair grass or i should buy a shrimp please reply
@@vikalawa5301 nope I'm afraid not. Try Putting tank in darkness for a week. No lights and wrap in bag to keep natural stuff out. That killed it off pretty fast when I had that problem. 👍
I tried keeping Otocinclus a few times. They never lasted very long and just kept dying
'water monkeys' are brine shrimp
@@nobrainsnoheadache2434 that's sea monkeys mate. It may also be todo with location as that's what local shops have as common name in UK. I always just call em ottos tbh.
Nothing is worse than the common Pleco. Thanks, Bob!
I agree completely. I did the mistake with #7 as a kid too in the 90's. The ones I got had the exact same shape but were grey. They grew. Slow but yes, they will eat anything they can catch. They do well with bigger fish. The ones I had in a tank were lungfish and would go to the surface to breath and then go back to the bottom of the tank. They liked to hang out with each others, very chill and non aggressive. But anything smaller will be eaten eventually. I made a lot of mistakes buying fish but back then it was a learning process, we didn't have internet, I used to go to the library to read about fish. My favorite fish was probably the elephant fish. It had such a "personality" not the most peaceful fish out there, it loved bullying my pleco. It would swim around it and stroke it with the "trunk" which had no effect but then it would go underneath to the belly and that would really make the pleco angry.
may I propose classic plecos? most people stick em in a 20 gallon and call it a day, despite the fact that they get like a foot long. they’re gentle giants with an emphasis on giant lol
We had 2 leopard Plecos and they were absolutely massive. They were gentle fish though and never had any issues with them apart from their massive size! Thankfully we kept them in a 40 gallon tank which did the job (surprisingly)
Kinda surprised my common pleco not really that big compared to many others I seen and he about 8 years old. While my sailing who only 2 already just as big as him XD
I don’t understand why as a sales person at a pet store you don’t just say like”you do know this fish can get up to a foot long” my husband bought me one and I had totehome it because I didn’t have a setup for its size but he didn’t know and they didn’t say anything
Common pleco is prob the worst offender that he didn't mention. People get them then dump them when they cant support anymore. Florda is overrun by the things. They get huge and are extremely resilient.
I have one common in my community tank that I was keeping for a friend but she decided she no longer wanted her and now I have a foot long monster that runs over everything but I feel bad that she was unwanted by the original owner
This is a good video. These can be great fish when kept properly.
My experience with rosybarbs is that as long as you keep 5 or more and you have them in a larger tank they will keep the nipping between themselves.
Got about 30 fully grown Bala sharks in my pond, absolutely love them! But yeah, too big for a tank.
Would love to see that
They get huge!
Could you post a quick vid of them? I’d love to see them
How do you heat it?
@@kingssuck06 I live in a place that’s not cold.
Let me know what fish you think are bad for community aquariums below.
Need some ideas for a Ten gallon? Check out this video: ruclips.net/video/FR0YX5Uhj6c/видео.html
I had my pea puffer with 4 Molly's in 3 black skirt Tetris for 2 years and he hasn't did nothing he hangs out in some rocks that I have in comes out to eat and go's back the rocks
Thoughts on rainbow sharks?
I have the golden algae eater in a community outdoor aquarium for over a year now. It does eat algae and has not caused any problems till now.
Here in Germany they sell little Ameiurus nebulosus / Brown Bullheads for aquariums.
They look quite nice. Get amazingly tame. You can handfeed them and they let you touch them...
And then they start eating every other fish in your tank as they grow :D
Beta fish!
I actually kind of disagree with pea puffers, over the years I've experimented a lot and have kept many many pea puffers successfully in community tanks multiple times, but I've also had a couple who just didn't work in a community. It honestly just depends on the individual fish's personality, some are much more peaceful than others. When I buy pea puffers I watch for their behavior in the stores, ones that come up to the front of the glass and chase each other around tend not to do well in community tanks, while ones that then to keep to themselves often continue that behavior in your own tank adn do well with other fish, and they will usually thrive as long as they are kept well fed, are not outcompeted for food, arent kept with tankmates large enough to eat them, in well planted tanks to break their lines of sight and kept with others of their own kind to interact with. I've personally kept pea puffers with rainbowfish, short finned guppies, swordtails, platys, least killifish, mollies, plakat and longfin bettas, tetras, barbs, pencilfish, danios, rasboras, small gouramis, corydoras, baby and adult bristlenose, kuhli loaches, otocinclus, kribensis, apistogrammas, rams, gobies, small killifish, scarlet badis, neocaridina shrimp, amano shrimp, mexican dwarf crayfish, fire belly toads, and african dwarf frogs, with no problems.
Mine are with a badis badis
My step dad has shown little interest in his puffers so I continue thinking about putting them in my community tank. The largest fish I have in there are 3 dwarf Gourami’s but I haven’t committed to the idea yet
@@andyalvarez5908 dope i have a pair of puffers living with a scarlet badis cherry shrimp and rocket killies in a 7 gallon and theyre all doing great
Yes! I was about to reply about pea puffers. I put them in my community tank. And they’ve done really well. I added more plants for them so they can hide. I haven’t had any issues. They live with 3 Angel fish, 8 celestial Pearl danios, 20 cardinals, 6 cories and 3 ottos. Hopefully they stay peaceful but I’ve had them in several community tanks and haven’t had issues. I agree I think it depends on the fish.
@@andyalvarez5908 I have a pair of puffers with a blue gourami and a dwarf gourami and they get along swell, granted they are in a 60 gallon
Nice. I for sure think red tail/rainbow sharks should make an appearance. They can be pretty brutal in the wrong setup, but absolutely gorgeous in the right one lol
Yes I looked thru comments to see if anyone mentioned Red tail sharks. We bought two at Petsmart when we started our tank and they nearly killed each other. We separated them 1 to our Son’s tank and kept the other. Both started bullying all the other fish in the tank, the one in our tank starting bullying the Balla Sharks, and the one in our Son’s tank started bullying every fish in the tank and killing a couple of them. We ended up getting rid of both of the fish and now for the most part the two community fish tanks are going well. The two Ballas chase around every once in awhile but otherwise thrive in our 100 gallon tank.
I personally have a community tank and in there is- 4 bala sharks (2 biggest are 7-8 inch long), 3 angels, two parrots, 6 rainbow fish, 1 eel, 1 knife fish, two bigger fancy tail guppies and an albino pleco. They have done amazing together. Eventually, the balas and knife fish will go into a bigger tank I have on hold and the rest will stay where they are. I have 6 tanks. I have pea puffer tanks and I have tons of shrimps and baby guppies in the one and they don't ever bother any of their tank mates. I still have every single shrimp and guppy in there. There are two different types of pea puffers, I have both. The bigger ones with the perfect spots on them with the green like hue that need the more brackish water are the more aggressive and will eat anything in their path whole. The tiny pea sized puffers that are fresh water they won't bother tank mates- so far from my experience. You're lucky to get them to even eat the snails. People seem to get the two mixed up.
Never had a problem with Tiger Barbs in my community tanks. They are always in a schools of 8-12 and they rarely ever go after anything except themselves. I do keep them in 75 gallon tanks though so having the extra room makes them even less likely to nip. Just my experience with them. Tiger Barbs are probably the most misunderstood fish:P
THANK YOU For your clear explanation of what are really bad beginner choices. I also loved the fact that you had similar options for these fish that WERE community friendly!
Pretty accurate rundown on what fish not to keep in a community aquarium - Silver Sharks have a peaceful temperament, but they're easily spooked, are jumpers, and will outgrow the average aquarium, plus they're schoolers too, so you're going to need almost an industrial sized aquarium if you want to keep them! One leaped out of my tank when I wasn't there and landed halfway across the room; unfortunately, it was too late by the time I noticed it was missing and found it behind some clothes drawers. I had a lid and cover on the aquarium too. Tiger Barbs will dive bomb Cory Catfish and any bottom dweller mercilessly and will leave fish such as Angelfish and Pearl Gouramis in shreds - literally! So they should be kept in a species-only tank really. Thanks for uploading; very informative.
I have a community tank with Harlequin Rasboras, Tiger Barbs and Bronze Corys. I never noticed tiger barbs pestering any fish other than eachother while I've seen Rasboras Chasing Cories multiple times.
The common pleco. At the time I had a 29 gallon tank and was not told how massive they get. Unfortunately a year later I had to give him away because he was out growing my tank fast. It was a sad day because I watched him grow but I rather he go to a home in a bigger tank.
I found out the hard way about Chinese Algae Eaters. I was looking for another tank cleaner, and was talked into getting one for my community tank. When it was small, it was fine, but when it got older, it become violent to the other fish in the tank. When I called the pet store about the behavior, I was told to either rehome it or to add hiding places for the other fish since these fish can have attitude problems. So I bought more hiding places which worked pretty well, until I one day I saw the Chinese Algae Eater munching on one of my other fish. That is when I realized he was aggressive because he was hungry and didn't want algae.
Another fish to be wary about are plecos. I currently have a common pleco that I got when it was only a couple inches long. It is now 13 inches and still growing. I only have a 29 gallon tank (he is the only fish in there) and will be upgrading here sooner rather than later to a 55 gallon. But when I got him I was told he would get maybe 6 inches or so but will not outgrow the tank. Yep, told nothing but lies lol.
Good thing I found this video, though I was going to research about them but I had great interest on Pea Puffers for my community tank. They are sooo cute!
Great video!!!
Thanks for trying to get this information out there, in shops there are so many fish that grow to huge sizes that only a small proportion of people will ever have an aquarium big enough for them yet there's often no information/advice on the sizes they grow to, which must lead to so many unwanted fish. My parents bought 2 Chinese algae eaters for their small community tank. Thankfully a shop took them off our hands.
All beginner must watch this video, waiting for next ones in series.Wish all store owners give such information to their customers, but normally they don't.Many beginner people lose interest in hobby due such lack of information about fishes.
Unfortunately, they also lose interest due to the harsh criticism they receive if and when they make a mistake. Instead of people offering advice, they act like they are trying to make you feel stupid. It almost drove me out of the hobby. I understand criticism or a person not liking my aquarium set up. But there is a way to go about it.
Ikr? I learned a lot from this as a beginner in fish keeping.
it's listed on the tag are all bigbox petstores
Very enlightening. This has been a helpful, informative video. Much appreciated.
I started my new hobby about 3 months ago. I bought some "little fish including 6 Zebra Danios. WELLLLLL, I had to buy a second tank and remove them. They chased and nibbled everything in the first tank. Little horrors! LOL. They appear to be quite settled on their own.
I do enjoy learning from your videos, thank you.
I wish more people talked about this aspect of danios. They are little monsters, endless energy and all of it put towards worrying and chasing other fish. Zebras and giants, nipping anything with fins. Never again.
Some years ago I had Leopard Danios in a tank and got into a regular habit of introducing Harlequins into the tank as they mysteriously just disappeared.. one day I witnessed the Zebras attacking and killing the Harlequins.. no one believed me when I said but it’s true 😳🤷
Odd, my leopard danios are nice. Favorite fish once matured especially.
Wow never knew danios could be like that
I had Zebra Danios and they were obnoxious with the other fish.
I enjoyed this video, Bob. I had to watch to see how much crossover there was with the "10 Terrible Community Aquarium Fish" video I did a couple years ago. It was interesting to see which fish our lists had in common and which fish you selected that I didn't. I hadn't even thought about Rosy Barbs being more aggressive at warmer temps. Great video. Looking forward to the next two installments.
I believe I watched that video when it was released. 🙂
The store I bought fish from during the 90's loved to trick us into buying fish not "suitable" for a community tank. They'd show us smaller fish, a centimeter or so and they would look so cute. They got us to buy 2-3 yellow catfish like fish, not sure what they were called, they had long "whiskers" and were really small and super active. But oh boy... did they grow. In a month they were big. Had to move them out of the tank because their appetite for *anything* was very high. They were quick too. They did fine with bigger fish however as long they couldn't eat them that is lol.
I didn’t know Pea puffers were related to R. Kelly genus as they tend to “pee” around 😂.
Awesome vid 👍🏽
Think you're about to stop me making some serious mistakes, I am definitely following this channel
Checking multiple sources - good ones, like this channel, Aquarium Co-op, Prime Time Aquatics, KG Tropical and more - for care guides and info on a species you're considering keeping is a good idea. And what I do is take the more conservative or difficult approach out of those recommended. If tank size suggestions range from 10-20g, I go with the 20. If minimum schooling numbers suggested are from 6-8, I get at least 8. And so on...
I must be very lucky. I’ve had 12 tiger barbs in my 75 in a very standard “community tank” for over a year and they only seem to bicker amongst each other. I have plenty of driftwood and plants in the aquarium so that when one gets tired, they have a place to retreat to. None of my fish have torn fins or signs of stress. Everyone’s tanks are different, just thought I’d share my experience with a very personable beautiful fish. Great video, Bob.
I'm guessing it may make a difference that you actually have a decent sized school of them. Have never kept tiger barbs, but I know when I first started, I got the bare minimum recommended number of schooling fish. Now that I've moved on to bigger tanks, and learned more, I keep fewer types of fish, in bigger numbers, and get to enjoy their more natural behaviours. Like my most recent addition (in 2 batches) of 16 pygmy cories in my recently re-scaped tank.
I think this is a great video other than the pea puffer thing. I've kept some for quite a while now and they just aren't typically aggressive. If u keep them with small schooling fish like danios, neons, or rasboras, they aren't gonna be aggressive towards them.
HIGHLY recommend golden bichir... but not for beginners and not for community tanks and not for small tanks. And yes, they'll get to 18"-22" if you take good care of them. (Careful, they have a primitive lung and will try to use it on occasion by jumping out of your tank).
When I was a teenager I made a mistake of buying African Cclides and they ate everything I had... they were so territorial and angry lol
That's racist man.
lol
I had a few Cicklids and all they did was fight, never again!!!!
@@donaldewert2402 why can no one spell cichlids lol
@@timmykkgb I only had one letter wrong but I guess I failed, still don't like 'em. I was afraid to try spelling it again HA!!!
Regarding Bichirs, there are two types that I have kept. The ones with a narrower mouth are much more docile and not aggressive at all, even to smaller fish. But the ones with a wider mouth, these will eat just about anything, even fish their own size. I made the mistake and added the wide-mouth bichir to the tank, and it tried to swallow a fire-eel bigger than itself, and choked on it... Both died.... 😔.
So the narrow mouth bichirs are definitely community tank material.
This is a super important topic. Thanks for your insight!
When i first tried balas I put them in a 55 not knowing any better and they ended up dying at about 5 to 8 inches possibly from the tank size or from me being a low experienced fish keeper that rellied too much on a canister filter and not enough on water changes, 7 years later I'm trying them again now having a 150 with a custom 40gal sump I built
I once bought two platinum angel fish for my 15 gl community tank, soon I had to move out my community fish to another tank and separate the two angel fish because they were fighting everyone and each other. From 1 tank, it became 3 tanks. Nobody told me that I had to overcrowd the tank to prevent fighting. New fish enthusiast learning the hard way.
LoL. Separated my angel fish today from others today
Your description of pea puffers had me wheezing: "These little RAGE MACHINES...."
I had a barb tank and my black ruby’s were by far the most aggressive fish. More so than any tiger variant. Only the red tailed shark could sort it out. And that was fine with everything else.
For algae clearing I recommend Otocinclus; they don't get over 2 inches and they are ravenous algae eaters. Get at least four.
I've had all kinds of barbs for years now and not one species has been a fin nipper. they've been in my community tanks also so I recommend any barb for a community !
My tiger barbs chase each other around from time to time, but not once in 3 years have I seen them mess with any of my tetras/zebra danios/cory cats
I had one rosy barb , and it was a crazy fish
I keep barbs with all sorts of fish and have 0 issues I think people run in to issues when they have 5 or less barbs in with other fish
Agreed
Funny enough I have 1 Bala 4 Barbs.. two tigers one golden one green barb..two African cichlids and a Pleco..two years
If I could have an infinitely massive tank. It would have a school of balas. I got baby ones and raised them until they were about 4 inches. Had to rehome them because of IRL stuff and I miss them. They actually had personality and look so cool swimming together. I miss you all :(
Instructions unclear sofa cushion did not fit in the 5 gallon tank.
You need a smaller sofa
No just try a smaller tank instead.
Used to have a pair of oscars that were in a community (all large fish) included two sharks, two freshwater catfish and two large angels and a couple bristlenose. super calm and friendly to each other but anything else fish wise was viewed as food. Was a very large tank though. 8foot long
Love what you do Bob! Your love of fish, animals and the outdoors is heartwarming. I agree that many of the Gouramis for sale are too territorial for community tanks. Love the angelfish but they need a large tank and more numbers if you keep more than one.
Another great video Bob!! I love all the fish on these lists!! But definitely a lot you need to take into consideration before not knowing and adding them to a community!!
Someday, I would like to have a dedicated tank for these little pea puffers, so I can watch them do their little pea puffer things 🤣♥️
And Oscars💔 it's just so heartbreaking.
Recently I talked to a family at a big box co store. They had no idea what they were getting into. The store associate of course didn't let them know what was involved with keeping these beautiful fish!! All they saw was a cute little fish!! Instead they ended up going with some platys and corys for their children to enjoy ♥️
I made this mistake also with Oscars in the beginning!
Another fish that I added to a community tank when I was just a little girl was a blue gourami! I absolutely thought it was the most beautiful fish in the world but it became very aggressive and took everything out in the tank 😭
Another mistake I made was the Chinese algae eater, when I was first starting out, a lot of these stores do direct you to these fish!I'm so thankful for you and videos like this over the past year! I've learned more about them and many of the fish on this list!!
Thanks for sharing this, hopefully it will help beginners not make some of the same mistakes that I know I did!! Have a great weekend Bob and I hope you have a wonderful day! ♥️🙏🌿🐟🌿
I would also like to one day have a dedicated tank to watch pea puffers do their little pea puffer things. One day... 😁
@@pjp9383 I love watching pea puffers do pea puffer things🤣💚🥰🐟
Man that was a great rundown, my dad loves fish and I'm more into mountain biking. He had it playing this morning and I just had to take the laptop from him and tune in myself! Lol Thank you very interesting👍👍
I made the mistake of getting a pea puffer as I am a fan of puffer fish and I didn't have to worry about a brackish or salt setup with the pea puffer. After he got acclimated, he started going after my 3 gouramis and my 3 female beta. I stuck him in a small tank but my little heater stuck on and cooked him. I do have a rosy barb flying solo with the rest of the tank and haven't had any aggression issues.
Might wanna rethink on the whole "the more the merrier" for pea puffers as they can be most aggresive towards other puffers if not in a harem
In the wild they are in giant shoals. More the merrier.
I have mine 8 peas which are in a group and they have been doing well since august last year in a 30g tank heavily planted tank.
I had two pea puffers in a community tank 40 gal for years with not a single issue ever. Not a nipped fin nada. Had a very interesting community tank with a bunch of odd ball fish that somehow blended together perfectly🤷🏻♂️. From pea puffers to bubble bee goby’s also a pair to fresh water flounder to pigmy water frogs also paired and also several other species of small unique fish including some fresh water clams. Somehow everything gelled together perfectly. I miss that tank could sit and watch it for hours. I only fed diet of live food and mixed it up to get them all their nutrients, had a large fluvial canister filter then went under stand. TONS of good bacteria from the beautiful porous Mexican pot rock to the biological filter media to the fine sand I used. It was perfectly cycled the and had a good amount of live plants. But years and meticulously added to it slowly. Sometimes I would go back and forth looking for a fish to add over weeks to a month looking for just the right fish. But anyway yeah all these weird fish/frogs/clams etc all lived in perfect harmony. Maybe it was because the tank was set up just perfect? They all had their routine and area and weirdly everything seemed to know and respect it. Maybe it was because I purposely only picked species that were very small or grew very very slowly so there was lots of space. For size of tank I definitely never came anywhere close to capacity. Will see if I get lucky again as I am back into the hobby having the time again now, and want to try and recreate that tank that was my favorite tank back when I was into the hobby before
What light are you using on that big tank? I have a 75 gallon and had a 48 inch Current USA Pro full spectrum and I had plants that just wouldn't grow. Could never get any grass type pants to take root and there was a ton of light hitting the bottom....
Tiger Barbs were the most aggressive fish I ever had. Had to return them to the pet store because they were biting the other fish and hurting them.
Had a roommate years ago that would cut the tail off the tiger barb that nipped the others. Worked until the tail grew back. Rinse and repeat. It would hide any time net in water.
Danios are good, White cloud mountain minnows . Silver dollars, will shred any green in your tank.
I try to avoid putting any kind of cichlid into a community aquarium, due to the fact that they not only grow to a size that's not comparable to the other fish, but that they will effectively take over part of the aquarium and become territorial toward any smaller fish. Even the likes of Angel Fish, you have to be a little bit careful with.
Nothing wrong with dwarf Cichlids in a community tank.
@@ddc2957 I never had any luck with Kribs or Rams. Even angel fish can be a bit tetchy with fellow tank mates, especially if they decide to breed.
I've never had Chinese Algae Eaters attack other fish... but they do stop eating algae the older they get. Mine all just turned into bottom scavengers.
me with a golden chinese algae eater: oh crap...
Yeah I have 2 and they are starting to harass my Golden Panchax.
When I was 23, I got a 55g tank and did everything wrong. Didn’t cycle, put all the fish in at the same time, and non compatible fish - guppies, mollies, swordtails, angel fish, convicts, Jack Dempseys, gouramis, a pair of bettas, and an Oscar. The guy who owned the store never said a word about his size. Surprisingly, not one fish died from my ignorance - until Oscar got bigger than everybody else and started eating them. It’s really a shame that some fish people withhold information like size, just to make a buck. I would have gotten other fish instead of Oscar. He still would have had a sale. He became the only fish in the tank, and I ended up giving the whole setup away.
I'd also add the Pacu . Wonderful fish but it grows way bigger than an Oscar - HUMONGOUS ! :)
I've seen these giants in ponds in every pet store I've been to. All donated because they got too big.
What is the fish in front of the Bala shark right at the start of that clip? Some sort of Rasbora? Has a black lateral line running the length of its body, a red line half the length above that, a bit of red on its dorsal fin and orange and black spots on its tail.
The common pleco in my opinion. They grow way to big for your community tank. Unless you have like a 120? Hahaha
120 is small for a 2ft fish
Just the other day, I was at my LFS and listening to someone oohing and aahing over the size of a pleco in one of their tanks. "Wow, I didn't know they got so big!" she said. I casually mentioned the full grown size as I walked by, and her jaw dropped. 🤣 (I did tell her there are some types that stay small, if she was interested in getting one.)
@@pjp9383 that's what she said, lol
@@HungQDang Not my type of humour, but I do get the joke. Have a great day.
I've never seen that Black Ruby Barb before. They're beautiful!
Lets not forget the Common Pleco! They should not be sold unless you have a tank big enough!!!
i had some long fin tiger barbs just got rid of them for some more rainbow fish because they nipped each others fins up and the fins on my angel fish, the tank(55gal) is a lot calmer without them being mean all over the place
I wish I could do a rosy barb pond, but I don’t think they could quite survive a Canadian winter 🥶 Maybe an indoor unheated pond in the basement... I should just make my basement a giant fish room lol
I also love rosy barbs. I used to keep them with green tiger barbs, diamond tetras, dwarf neon rainbows and giant danios.
I tried to keep native fish in a tank but it's so hard. For them to "thrive" you really need to somehow simulate that winter and I couldn't do it as a kid in the 90's. I had some native fish for a few years until I sold them to local aquarium store. The fish I had were carps, perch and one pike. I caught them as fry. The scariest one was the pike. That was a nightmare *monster* lol. The carps were super friendly and they would let me stroke them in water, always coming up to the surface happy. I had them in a BIG tank. Loved it but even then I knew it wasn't right to keep them in such a condition.
I have 6 rosy barbs at 25 deg C and are in a community tank and do not hassle or nip any other fish, ever, including themselves. Dont get between them and their peas though! But totally passive, they will nip your arms if you are rearranging the tank thinking its food.
Clown Loach, Black Ghost Knife Fish and Red Tailed Sharks should defiantly have been added to this list. But cool Video 😊
A lot of people have had success keeping red tail sharks in community tanks.
Yeah I haven't had a problem with clown loaches or Red tail sharks in my community tank.
My red tail female just died. 7 years. She was nice to my barbs, tetras, mollies and guppies... yes I have a 120 gal but she was nice just not to the shrimp lol
@@classychandu5090 The chief problem I've seen with clowns is that they's a schooling fish that will grow to about a foot long eventually. Otherwise all the ones I've seen have been pretty well behaved.
Never had a problem with clown loaches. Great aquarium fish!
Why not just keep Rosy Barbs with other schooling fish like danios, cherry barbs, white clouds, etc.?
As an ex Aquarium shop owner in the 80s-90s, I totally agree with you. No way I'd recommend adding fish that keep on growing in a community tank because usually fish that are suitable for community tanks are smaller fish that match the size of the fish already in the community tanks. For example, like *Neon/Cardinal/Glowlight Tetras, Cherry Barbs, the ever friendly Zebra Danio, Harlequin Rasbora, the very popular and most peaceful catfish, the Cory (aka Corydoras), are the most preferred fish in every freshwater tanks, including the unbelievable little Pygmy Corydora of various locations in the wild. All the Corydoras get on with these fish and some non-aggressive larger fish, like the Bristlenose Pleco*, but this Pleco seems to be making mince mean of all my shrimps as there have been missing lots of shrimps. Not only that but in my tank, the Pleco seems to be lurking in the open at night, I don't know why, perhaps in search of food or in search of shrimps and I believe that's the quest to do so, it is bumping or chasing these fish, that next day I sometimes find Cardinals and Neon tetras on the floor, dead. Not only that, but I find small planted pots and areas of substrate shifted as if there has been a war in that tank. I decided to put a IR IP camera to run all night and discovered that it is the 'bully' Pleco chasing around flashy things and the flashy things were the startled Tetras, the Danios and other fishes who were asleep in the night. But the Pleco hunts by smell in the dark. So, when it tents to home on a fish, the little fish gets bumped by the surge of water that the Pleco is pushing forward and in panic, the fish then darts off into the unknown and ends up in the direction of the water surface, but because it is half asleep and confused as to know where it is headed in the dark, it finds itself out of the water and straight on the floor. I am asleep, I can't hear any splish-splattetty of the fish kicking on the floor until next morning when I see them dead and dry. So, the Bristlenose will be removed. Partly because it is getting big and becoming a bully, albeit peaceful. I've lost over 100 shrimps since 5 months ago when I put the Pleco in because of algae. In otherwords, this fish is eating me out of my pockets when you consider the cost of each Neocaridina shrimp. It's best to always add in a community tank fish that do not grow bigger than the others.
Ruby Barbs have been a staple in my community tank for years now! Love those guys and happy to see them in here!
I have 2 Plecos, 21 BA Tetras, 16 Glo Tetras, 8 Tiger barbs, 10 dwarf cichlids and 2 Angel fish in a 55 gallon tank and all get along together perfectly fine. Would you recommend adding 20 zebra Danios to the tank? Genuinely curious.
7:02 good save
LOL, was looking for this comment.
I loved my Oscar. Absolute beast. He dominated my biggest aquarium. Fun to introduce him to new friends (translation: live food). If you love a fish that will devour just about anything, this is the fish for you. Word to the wise, do NOT introduce him to you favorite Jack Dempsey. Yep ... that was a mistake. I had to separate them FAST. (I was cleaning tanks.) I quickly put that task off foe a day and went and bought a new small temporary tank with a cover. They didn't even like seeing each other's tank.
Another dig on the albino oscar! Speaking of bullying!
😶🤫
Hey, wait a second.....that’s MY name. Joe (the other one)
I agree 100% about what you said about tiger barbs! I had few in the past but one in particular (female) was so aggressive. She stared attacking platies and other peaceful eating her eyes. I never saw something like that in my fish keeper hobby career ! I noticed what was going on when several (believe me) fish started appearing without eyes.
My rosy barbs attack and eat all of the red eyes balloon tetra's eyes, i thought it maybe happened after I installed the pink light into the tank, possible the red eyes looks like food to them?
Exodon Tetras. Ea .Bucktooth tetra they will tear small holes in all your other fish until they die.
But they are a blast to feed
What a great video mate, so easy to watch and listen to 10/10
me watching this after getting 2 alae eaters and a ball for my 20 gallon: 👁👄👁
From lots of experience keeping pea puffers I can confidently say they do well with otos, and you can manage ghost or large Amano shrimp, nerite snails given the low profile of their foot, and sometimes even get away with fast fish like small tetras but that’s on a case by case basis. My big male solitary in his nice planted tank after the rest dying off is fine with corys so that’s a possibility if you’ve got plenty of room. Growing out some pea females to add soon with a rescape but they’re surprisingly tolerant of some tankmates if you give enough territory in the scape and room for other fish to do their own thing. There are a couple of glow light tetras in the growout tank that have lived with them almost their whole lives and the others only died from other issues or age so they really have no problem staying out of the way. Dwarf puffers are notoriously messy eaters and it helps having some additional cleanup crew at the very least in ghost shrimp, nerites, and otos.
Clown loaches get big as well shouldn't be because they are schooling and get massive
Thats a really good one
@@SteenfottAquatics alternative, angelica and yo-yo loaches :)
My clown loach has been doing quite well in my 55-gallon community tank for the past 10 years. Of course, he is in with silver dollars, a bushy nose pleco, Rafael cat and a Texas cichlid, and 3 giant Danios. Everybody does quite well but I do not think I would advise any of them for community tanks.
Hi mate what do u feed your feed pellet..they look gorgeous
I'm confused, why are fish stores still selling chinese algae eaters when everyone 'hates' them? Is there even profit from that fish?😅
@[ 桂木優 ]KᗩTᔕᑌᖇᗩGI U see, this is what I mean and its wouldn't be considered a 'special' or 'pretty' fish
@[ 桂木優 ]KᗩTᔕᑌᖇᗩGI i would be so triggered if that happened to my betta. you wouldn't want to know what would happen to that algae eater after. :)
@[ 桂木優 ]KᗩTᔕᑌᖇᗩGI also i bet only the people who are ignorant and don't research buy whatever fish and put them together.
@[ 桂木優 ]KᗩTᔕᑌᖇᗩGI same not gonna lie. i had a betta in a 2.5 gal
@[ 桂木優 ]KᗩTᔕᑌᖇᗩGI yep i actually put a pole on my yt channel to ask what fish i should add and one of my subscribers said an angel fish but then i explained and we agreed on platies
Are Odessa barbs good in a community tank? It would be a 20 long with 15 rummynose 4harlequin rasbora and maybe an electric blue acara or a pair of apistos.
One of my first tanks I setup had an Iridescent Shark, Red-Tailed Shark, Serpae Tetra, Rainbow Shark. Bala Shark and a Common Pleco. I had one of each species in a 50 gallon tank. The weird thing was the Serpae was the bully of the tank and he was the smallest fish! All of these should be on your next list and I should get the worst Community Tank setups of all time. The tank ran for three years like that and then I quit the hobby for awhile.
Great video, thanks for the information!
Chinese Algae Eater is a bad choice for any aquarium IMO. Good list.
Yeah, we've got one. Hes about 6" and we call him bruce, or the torpedo. His aggression is currently under control w protein crumbles, but im guessing were gonna have to eventually find him a new home. Maybe if we ever get that pond...
I learnt most of these lessons the hard way. I had Bala shark (silver shark here in the UK) that were growing rapidly, puffer fish that were killing everything, and various wierd fish that kept dying. I've just ended up with an African cichlid tank now, although I am keeping cichlids that shouldn't really be together.
Emperor tetras. The dominant male goes after everything. Definitely not for the community. 👍
I bought the last one my fish store had and he has claimed a tiny section on the left side of the tank he will chase almost any tetra out of his territory but leaves the guppies, guppy fry, and Bolivian Rams alone. I've been waiting for them to get more in stock hoping he'll mellow out but he doesn't fin nip or hurt anything just chases them out if his area then retreats.
@@silverbuyer I never had any problems with my Emperors, but then again I only had a male and 2 females (it was a tiny tank).
@@malusignatius thanks for the reply. I was able to add a couple more emperor's and he's mellowed out now. 👍🏻
@@silverbuyer Not a problem. It's good to hear they're behaving now, Emperors are stunning fish, one of my favourite tetras.
I love my bichir, he's got his own tank. They are definitely NOT even close to blind. He swims over to watch my rabbit, cruises over to see what I'm doing and will follow my finger around from his side of the glass. Also, what's with everyone not knowing how to pronounce the name? Thirty years ago we just called them bitchers, and no one batted an eye, now everyone drops the F bomb but tiptoes around the word bichir... literally pronouncing it four other ways but never the way it looks... heaven forbid. If you're squirmy about it, use the scientific name...polypterus. great list and great information. I'm glad people are getting real about this stuff
Bichirs are one of my long term goals. I just want to know who looks at a bichir and thinks "yeah, that looks like it wants friends." Some fish are misleading. Pea puffers don't look like they can do damage. A bichir looks like it was built to eat small fish.
@@charleslloyd400 they excel at eating small fish... and not so small fish. They will get one by the head and slowly work it down their throat, however long it takes. Stealth predators... but extremely efficient. I like to give mine earthworms, he also likes frozen gel food blocks.
my first aquarium was an 8 gal with 8 goldfish, 4 angels, and 2 plecos. you can imagine the disaster already.
AHHHH
So rosy barbs aren’t okay with goldfish? Back then I put both together and they all seemed fine.
I HATE pea puffers…. Bob is absolutely correct, I put in only one pea puffer, he was ok for about a week, and one day I woke up, turned on the light to my 35 hex, and was totally shocked, dead and dying fish all over my community tank!!!! I’d say this little bastard took out almost a dozen fish!!!! I scooped his butt out of there, and took him back to the store I got him from. He’s lucky I didn’t flush him down the toilet. To this day, if I see those freaking things in a store, I’ll warn others not to buy the devils…..