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I have always loved snails of all sorts with the exotics being a favorite. But now that I have started keeping kuhli loaches, I am just fascinated by all loaches and cannot imagine a loachless life, even if they snack on some snails now and then. I am really close to diving into killifish(gardneri) breeding and I think that will consume the next decade when I start exploring the annuals!
Snails, I think I have a mix of pond snails and some little ramhorns , I got them for free, one of the LFS was cleaning and considered them plague, but I have them in all my tanks, some of them are gold and others have this pink hue and truth to be told I feed them some times to my Red eared slider 😬
The first person to successfully breed a line of _purple_ shrimp will have their name solidified in history for all eternity. Keep up the good work my friends.
@@aquaticcentral6341 The general consensus is that neither of those lines are actually purple the way we all think of purple. If you have to focus or strain to see the purple color then they aren't really purple as we know it. Close? Perhaps to some people, but a good start nonetheless. Jeez, I've said _purple_ so many times that it's lost all its meaning now. *_Purple_* Thanks for chiming in my friend. *Apologies for the double spacing - it's a well known internal RUclips error and I can't keep editing every post for repetitive issues they refuse to fix.
Yeah a lot of those lines need work genetics wise to get a solid purple but I would love to see a purple strain of dwarf shrimp as that would be my favorite
@@aquaticcentral6341 You're not alone my friend. When my wife discovered that we could get colored freshwater shrimp for our tanks, the first question she asked was if we could get some purple shrimp. Purple being her favorite color but also extremely rare in the freshwater aquarium community. Off the top of my head, I do believe the Emperor Tetra _(Nematobrycon palmeri)_ is the closest thing we have to purple in the freshwater realm. I have doubts that we'll ever see naturally occurring purple shrimp . Seems like that would require some genetic modification via human intervention. But I'm optimistic that Mother Nature has some tricks in that giant purse of hers. Keep up the good work my friend.
My absolute gotta have are herds of cories. They are so playful while not being a menace to anything. I love to watch them poke around and dog pile on each other.
@@robthefishhouse4395 I have a large group of bronze coreys in my 150gal that like to sit on top of a big piece of flat rock, all at the same time. Looks like a tiny aircraft carrier 🙂
Rachel's videos are dynamic, educational and rife with high definition visuals that accompany her concise narratives. I am compelled to keep watching; my ride or die species is the Pygmy live-bearer Specifically Heterandria formosa that I've kept continuously since 1998 with only two infusions of new stock over a 20 year duration.
Yoyo loaches. I got them to take care of a pond snail problem. But They're like little dolphins, they do something that makes me laugh every day. Seeing them tussle in this shiny ball of hyper wiggle is a sight.
I like those white cloud minnows. They are beautiful. They have an interesting story. They are easy to keep and just the perfect little fish. You can keep them in a 10 gallon tank. They need living plants, so there you can get your education. They are awesome. I also like those black neons. They are almost as tough as white clouds.
I have 3 honeycomb catfish in my 10 gallon. I absolutely 1000% love them. They have beautiful color and they just are so chaotic when i drop freeze dried blood worms in. Totally a awesome fish.
Dwarf chain loaches, Ambastaia sidthimunki. I originally got a few 15 years ago to eat snails, one lived through my partial hobby-hiatus for health reasons. Now I've retired, I've got back into it and given that elder survivor a whole new community of youngsters. She will have to teach the babies how to loach properly. The youngsters are very active and silly and so tiny, just today coming out of quarantine.
I love that I keep all five of your picks. My ride or die fish is fancy goldfish. They are the first fish that I kept as a kid, and they still make me very happy at 47.
Love Cories. Will always have a herd of em in my tank lol Also I love bettas. Particularly the girls. So much personality!! And last but not least Pea Puffers. The most adorable little killer
Have had one of the worst weeks that I can remember, but Rachel’s videos are such excellent therapy. Almost as relaxing and engaging as meditation. Thanks for helping center me Rachel, you have a magnificent calming ability.
Awesome colletion in your top 5. Unfortunately I suck with small fish, only one I could ever keep alive and breed is the Cross banded chocolate gourami. Awesome little fish. But I'm a rainbow freak. Just love them and will never be without them.
I'm with you on the rasboras and dwarf catfish types - I have tons of corydoras, schools of albinos, emeralds, paleatus, trilineatus, julii, pandas, and sterbai, can't live without them. I also keep the dwarf scissor rasboras and harlequins! But the only reason I have fish at all is because of betta splendens. I really don't even know how many I have, between community tanks, solo tanks, sorority tanks, split tanks, etc. And if I see one I want while I'm out, I have plenty of tanks sitting here cycled, planted, ready to go. I love not having kids to take care of. I get to spend all my money on aquarium stuff and musical gear and vinyl records. lol
That's a Dope A** list. I have Chili's in my home and office aquarium's. Righteous little homies.. My new favorite are the Zebra Otocinclus. Their super expensive, but super awesome. All time favorites are any flavor of week Cory Cats. I have Salt and Peppers, Juli's, Panda's, Spotted, albino's, but I need to get my hands on some Bronze, Bandit, and Skunk cats next. Maybe some Orange Laser's too. They seem hard to find. Thanks for posting. Have an awesome day....Peace...
Dwarf cichlids, corydoras of all types, and I'm in love with rummy nose tetras. Otos are a ton of fun if you keep them in a group, they get really outgoing and there's something cute about them. I would love to set up a 75 gallon with some oddball fish like African rope fish and African butterfly fish.
For me, it's angelfish and clown loaches. I've kept angelfish for decades, but clown loaches are much newer to me. Now that I've had a group of 8 for about a year, I wonder how I went so long without them.
I'm fairly new to the hobby, but Cherry Barbs! They are beautiful, active, funny (like when they try to swallow whole snails or big algae) and they always come to the glass and watch what I'm doing and reacting to my movements. I'm also keeping White Clouds and they're fairly neat, but the cherries are my absolute favorite.
Bonjour Rachel, I have a fleet of Tanichthys albonubes and Amano Shrips in my 200 liters tank, which is the first tank i ever had, started 2 years ago. I remember listening to one of your videos about tanichthys, which greatly helped me in my choice. I am very happy with my fish and I never have to worry about water temperature. I wonder if i could add a specie in it, I thought about maybe adding danios. Merci from France.
Surprised about the bamboo shrimp shout out considering that you mentioned in one of your livestreams about not wanting to keep them given the way they are shipped. Hopefully, you can expound on this in a future video! Also surprised that you didn't mention your big boys haha
I’ve haven’t been in the hobby long enough, but in my short experience anabantoids are my love!!! Love me some bettas i currently have one guy that was dying on a pet store and I couldn’t resist, i also have a sunset dwarf gourami on a 25g long with some serpae tetras and I’m absolutely in love 😍 I expected trouble from the serpae but so far so good!!! And I have a cycled black water aquarium waiting for some sparkling gouramis and maybe some cherry shrimp!!!! Love your videos!!!
Right now, I'm running four tanks (two 30s and two 20 highs) with Giant Danios, Black Skirt Tetras, Black Neon Tetras, Beacon Tetras (AKA Head-and-Tail Light Tetras) and Ancistrus. As much as I love my Tetras and Danios, I could probably replace them with similar species (Other tetras, rasboras, White Clouds, etc.) and not feel like I was missing out on much. However, I'd have a hard time finding a substitute for my Ancistrus. I have one in each of my tanks, while every other species I keep is limited to one tank. PS) My favorite plant by far is Anubias nana. It thrives and blooms in all my tanks while Java Fern, Bolbitis and even other species of Anubias all struggle.
Love everything on your ride or die list. Me... Cherry shrimp Heterandria formosa, the gold form Endlers Other fish and shrimp come and go, but those three are my forever fish and shrimp, never lose interest in them. 👍💕👍
Panda Corydoras. I have a Mr. Limpette retirement community tank and when all the larger fish in there swim through their years I will looking to do nano only and that is a 38.. thinking 20 CHiles and a dozen CPD's.
I'm new to the hobby but I must say I really look forward to the chance to own some of the purple catfish you have one day. They are so stinking cute I feel once I have some theyll be staying for a long long time
Golden dojo loaches for larger aquariums and the Panda Corydoras for smaller ones are my favourite common or garden fish. Both are very active fish in my tanks . My favourite schooler is the rummy nose. Keep coming back to that one. In large groups I think it looks great. Top of tank I love the Hatchets.
Love all the fish, but haven't had the chance to play with most, availability here isn't really good :o Never the less I can't live without Corydoras, and now bristle nose plecos, and getting back into angelfish, always liked them since my dad kept them when I was little. Also love livebearers and shrimp, but I'm trying to keep the MTS in check, so no special breeding tanks. Love the vids
I'm pretty new to the fishkeeping hobby, having only set up my first tank in June 2019; a 60 litre planted and 'scaped temperate tank; currently stocked with 8 x long-fin Leopard danios, 8 x Amano shrimp and 4 x Zebra Nerite snails. After months of (im)patiently waiting, I just got word this week that the longfin WCMM's I've been after for ages are in stock and reserved for me to pickup next weekend, 10 of 'em... :) :) :) p.s. as an aside, I also have a RCS species tank, which I stocked with 8 shrimp on 15th Nov 2019 (plus 1 x Zebra Nerite) and so far there's upwards of 30 babies of different sizes. While waiting for the WCMM's, just before xmas I set up a 40cm cube, with the intention of stocking (hopefully) a mixed colony of Blue Dream/Blue Velvet Neocaridina and Tangerine Tiger Shrimp - Caridina Mariae and then later adding a small group of CPD's. I also have a 34l Fluval Flex waiting to be set up for a Betta and a surplus to requirements 60 x 45 x 45 terrarium (15cm to the air vents, so about 40 litres watertight capacity) that was passed on to me and which I'm hoping to set up as a paludarium. Oh, and a pre-owned 55 gallon I haven't fully decided what to put in yet. Then there's everything else on my fish-I'd-love-to-keep-someday list, e.g. Dwarf Puffers, Kuhli Loaches, Fiveband Barbs, Boesmani and Dwarf Neon and various other Rainbowfishes (probably in the 55 gallon), Anchor catfish (Hara jerdoni), Corydoras, a Paradisefish.... MTS much, ha ha.
For a monster tank? Arowana. The King of all large Aquarium fish,elegant. For normal sized Aquariums. 4. Rainbow fish. 3. Angel fish. They are what everybody thinks a tropical fish should look like. 2 Bleeding Hearts- love that long- to- the- tail male dorsal fin and that mini piranha like form they have when large. 1??????....Suckermouth cats!..Any are a must have. They earn their keep and have tons of personality.
I am bout dwarf Cory babies like other people are about puppies please let me buy some from u. I have salt and pepper Cory’s which have spawned during a tank change with huge water change. Then I got the most ADORABLE baby striped black Cory’s (panda Cory’s) and the babies made me heart melt. 8 don’t even know why I ordered the other fish (other than my hunter gatherer koi angel who is using his/her hunting instincts in a tank with blackwater botanicals produced from tannin awuatic amazing South American River biotope pods, leVes, twigs and stems), as recommended by u miss jinx.
White clouds are my absolute favourite. I've got Tanichthys micagemmae at the moment in a 30 gallon and I'm really considering stocking my 100 gallon with them. Other favourites are angel fish, I've kept them ever since I came into the hobby 20 years ago, my home just feels wrong without a tank of angel fish :D German rams are my favourite dwarf cichlid , nothing fancy but super personable fish, like the angels.
Zebra danios... I know they're not very exotic or rare or anything, but they're a) very stylish-looking with their go-faster stripes and b) so much fun to watch! (And it doesn't hurt that they are also hardy as heck and ready to make any amateur feel like a master fish-keeper!)
At this point, I think my ride or die list consists of Siamese Algae eaters and Corydoras for my smaller tanks.. and my "couldn't imagine life without" list is a some monster/nearly monster aggressive cichlid... Right now it's a red terror. Always so full of personality, like having a water-puppy!
I've got a few from your top 5. I've got a few Chili Rasboras but I never have much luck with them so I have some Dwarf Rasboras to compliment them which are just as red and are hardier in my opinion. I also have Amano and Cherry Shrimp. I've had White Clouds in the past and can see why they are your number 1. They are soooo versatile with temp range, hardy, cheap and a pretty fish!
Only had bettas, Otocinclus, pygmy Cories, albino WCMW, harlequin/lambchop rasboras, and guppies as of late. I find guppies even though a pain to control, to be derpy, cute, and relatively decent as a therapeutic fish. They are super good (in large numbers) at figuring out that I am not a threat. The rasboras I had weren’t easy as they don’t go to the bottom to scavenge. The minnows, only had 3 now one is left, I’m thinking to try other minnows or catch some wild ones in a creek or lake.
I have all those species currently. I learned about them through your channel and through the Aquarium Co-Op channel. My current favorite fish is my multies. They are the most entertaining fish I have - always busy. I have them in a 33 gallon long. I put in a mound of rocks with a bonsai tree on top for decoration. I've got riccia growing in the bonsai tree and anubias stuck in the rock. What I found is they will use the spaces between the rocks as a home as well as the shells. I've had them for about 6 weeks. No babies yet, but I'm hopeful. I started with a colony of 10 fish and I have seen breeding behavior.
I absolutely love shrimp and guppies. My guppies are not the fancy guppies, but wild looking ones. I really like the ines with round circles, but I haven't had those in a while. I am currently working with a strain I am trying to duplicate... I call him spike because of the boys neon green doral fin looks like a spike hair-do to me. 😁
I'm super boring, but my two favs are danios and corys. I love them for being hardy, fun to watch in a group, but also won't be shy if exploring by themselves. Danios are so dang prolific too, if you have floating plants with a lot of roots for the fry to survive. I love the way Danios play peekaboo, through the floating roots. Just a real joy to watch.
I wish the pygmy catfish species were more readily available in local fish stores. I know they don't ship particularly well, and a lot of online companies don't ship them...Or they are always out of them!
I’m sure you get a ton of questions. So if you answer great. If not cool to. I have just started a 65 gal freshwater tank with live plants. How many dwarf catfish should I put in?
Such a great list! The long fin white cloud/meteor minnows are seriously my unicorn fish and I want some so bad, but they are VERY hard for me to find without paying a small fortune to ship from the east coast :-(
My go to is anything aggressive I have one community tank for the family to enjoy n I have several aggressive tanks which switch out from jack dempsey to Oscar to jags to dovii
Corys, Plecos, Geophagus, Severums, Danios (still have a school of Choprae from you), Tetras, Long Fin White Clouds, Rainbows, and most recently Marine.
Rachel, should chilli rasboras always be red? I'm located in Australia and I feel like I've been sold other species like Boraras merah or urophthalmoides as mine never really got red. Could you do a video on how to identify the different species?
Cryptoheros spilurus is my only ride or die being my first cichlid and im still learning and keeping different fish with German blue rams being very close second
Kuhli loaches are awesome. They are like water snakes or eels. I have had the same six for 2 years now. Half of my friends abosultely love them the other half completely grossed out by them. I guess you either love them or hate them.
My favorite is the otto cat number one with at least one Male betta :) I have guppies that are getting into my heart right now....but the mollies are cute too. I love live bearers!
Ive only got one tank (so far), but if i ever get more or another one in the future I'll have at least one species of dwarf catfish. Cories and oto's 5ever
Hi Rachel! Just watched your top 5 video and agree with some of your selections! I adore corys - don't care what species, I just love them. I was recently introduced to the white cloud minnow (won a tank at an auction and the livestock included were long finned WC). These fish are STUNNING! Super happy, always busy and the colors are amazing. Even my females have great color. The group that I have are a proven breeding set, so I hope to have fry soon and will put some outside in tubs for the summer. Super little fish. I think I may need to set up a tank for the purple oil cats as well. Those are amazing. Thanks for all you do and the info/education you share! Have a great day. --Rena
I've only kept Trigonostigma hengeli, but I absolutely adore them. 😊 Unfortunately many of the chain aquarium shops here mislabel them as T. Espei and bung both species in the same tank, which makes my teeth itch. 😂
Ive gotten (back) into aquariums because of shrimp too! I started with a cherry tank (just added a dwarf blue cray to it) and now have moved to a second larger blue dream shrimp tank with dwarf orange crays and, of course, my mystery snails. Next will be a pea puffer tank I think!
Love your top 5 Rachel. I have all of these in my tanks, mostly due to your fantastic tips. One I also like is Celestial Pearl Danio, although you must have many to keep them from hiding.
Morning Rachel I guess I beat you this morning have already had my coffee, but I think I have to have another one, as you and coffee go so well together. LOL Am loving the Little guys, and think that your diversity between your Big Guys and them is so interesting Have a wonderful aquatic/gardening day Rachael
What fish or invertebrate do YOU always come back to?
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Rachel O'Leary I always love angelfish. I just got some emerald eye rasboras yesterday and I’m digging how well they school, I got ten of them
I have always loved snails of all sorts with the exotics being a favorite. But now that I have started keeping kuhli loaches, I am just fascinated by all loaches and cannot imagine a loachless life, even if they snack on some snails now and then. I am really close to diving into killifish(gardneri) breeding and I think that will consume the next decade when I start exploring the annuals!
The Lambchops are one of my favorites as well! Have you ever thought of putting a school of 30 or so in the hill stream tank?
I always have barbs , Puntius titteya and Puntius semifasciolatus.
Snails, I think I have a mix of pond snails and some little ramhorns , I got them for free, one of the LFS was cleaning and considered them plague, but I have them in all my tanks, some of them are gold and others have this pink hue and truth to be told I feed them some times to my Red eared slider 😬
The first person to successfully breed a line of _purple_ shrimp will have their name solidified in history for all eternity.
Keep up the good work my friends.
That’s already happened blackberry shrimp and galaxy shrimp
@@aquaticcentral6341 The general consensus is that neither of those lines are actually purple the way we all think of purple. If you have to focus or strain to see the purple color then they aren't really purple as we know it. Close? Perhaps to some people, but a good start nonetheless.
Jeez, I've said _purple_ so many times that it's lost all its meaning now. *_Purple_*
Thanks for chiming in my friend.
*Apologies for the double spacing - it's a well known internal RUclips error and I can't keep editing every post for repetitive issues they refuse to fix.
Yeah a lot of those lines need work genetics wise to get a solid purple but I would love to see a purple strain of dwarf shrimp as that would be my favorite
@@aquaticcentral6341 You're not alone my friend.
When my wife discovered that we could get colored freshwater shrimp for our tanks, the first question she asked was if we could get some purple shrimp. Purple being her favorite color but also extremely rare in the freshwater aquarium community. Off the top of my head, I do believe the Emperor Tetra _(Nematobrycon palmeri)_ is the closest thing we have to purple in the freshwater realm.
I have doubts that we'll ever see naturally occurring purple shrimp . Seems like that would require some genetic modification via human intervention. But I'm optimistic that Mother Nature has some tricks in that giant purse of hers.
Keep up the good work my friend.
My absolute gotta have are herds of cories. They are so playful while not being a menace to anything. I love to watch them poke around and dog pile on each other.
Yes agreed, they are great to watch, mine line up at night and sit in the open sand area..
@@robthefishhouse4395 I have a large group of bronze coreys in my 150gal that like to sit on top of a big piece of flat rock, all at the same time. Looks like a tiny aircraft carrier 🙂
Rachel's videos are dynamic, educational and rife with high definition visuals that accompany her concise narratives. I am compelled to keep watching; my ride or die species is the Pygmy live-bearer Specifically Heterandria formosa that I've kept continuously since 1998 with only two infusions of new stock over a 20 year duration.
Yoyo loaches. I got them to take care of a pond snail problem. But They're like little dolphins, they do something that makes me laugh every day. Seeing them tussle in this shiny ball of hyper wiggle is a sight.
I like those white cloud minnows. They are beautiful. They have an interesting story. They are easy to keep and just the perfect little fish. You can keep them in a 10 gallon tank. They need living plants, so there you can get your education. They are awesome.
I also like those black neons. They are almost as tough as white clouds.
I have 3 honeycomb catfish in my 10 gallon. I absolutely 1000% love them. They have beautiful color and they just are so chaotic when i drop freeze dried blood worms in. Totally a awesome fish.
Dwarf chain loaches, Ambastaia sidthimunki. I originally got a few 15 years ago to eat snails, one lived through my partial hobby-hiatus for health reasons. Now I've retired, I've got back into it and given that elder survivor a whole new community of youngsters. She will have to teach the babies how to loach properly. The youngsters are very active and silly and so tiny, just today coming out of quarantine.
I love that I keep all five of your picks. My ride or die fish is fancy goldfish. They are the first fish that I kept as a kid, and they still make me very happy at 47.
Wow, that's was great.I Just started a 10 gallon tank. I have been looking for ideas. Not anymore.Thank you so much!
Love Cories. Will always have a herd of em in my tank lol Also I love bettas. Particularly the girls. So much personality!! And last but not least Pea Puffers. The most adorable little killer
Have had one of the worst weeks that I can remember, but Rachel’s videos are such excellent therapy. Almost as relaxing and engaging as meditation. Thanks for helping center me Rachel, you have a magnificent calming ability.
Here's to a better time this upcoming week
Awesome colletion in your top 5. Unfortunately I suck with small fish, only one I could ever keep alive and breed is the Cross banded chocolate gourami. Awesome little fish. But I'm a rainbow freak. Just love them and will never be without them.
I'm with you on the rasboras and dwarf catfish types - I have tons of corydoras, schools of albinos, emeralds, paleatus, trilineatus, julii, pandas, and sterbai, can't live without them. I also keep the dwarf scissor rasboras and harlequins! But the only reason I have fish at all is because of betta splendens. I really don't even know how many I have, between community tanks, solo tanks, sorority tanks, split tanks, etc. And if I see one I want while I'm out, I have plenty of tanks sitting here cycled, planted, ready to go.
I love not having kids to take care of. I get to spend all my money on aquarium stuff and musical gear and vinyl records. lol
That's a Dope A** list. I have Chili's in my home and office aquarium's. Righteous little homies.. My new favorite are the Zebra Otocinclus. Their super expensive, but super awesome. All time favorites are any flavor of week Cory Cats. I have Salt and Peppers, Juli's, Panda's, Spotted, albino's, but I need to get my hands on some Bronze, Bandit, and Skunk cats next. Maybe some Orange Laser's too. They seem hard to find. Thanks for posting. Have an awesome day....Peace...
Dwarf cichlids, corydoras of all types, and I'm in love with rummy nose tetras. Otos are a ton of fun if you keep them in a group, they get really outgoing and there's something cute about them. I would love to set up a 75 gallon with some oddball fish like African rope fish and African butterfly fish.
For me, it's angelfish and clown loaches. I've kept angelfish for decades, but clown loaches are much newer to me. Now that I've had a group of 8 for about a year, I wonder how I went so long without them.
Supercool video once again Rachel! My favourite fish are the Nannostomus species, Corydoras hastatus and some Tetra species 😍🤩
Always watching like a hawk for your videos ❤️
Neon tetras and gouramis especially pearl gouramis are my favorites.
Pearls are awesome but I prefer Cardinal to Neons.
I'm fairly new to the hobby, but Cherry Barbs! They are beautiful, active, funny (like when they try to swallow whole snails or big algae) and they always come to the glass and watch what I'm doing and reacting to my movements. I'm also keeping White Clouds and they're fairly neat, but the cherries are my absolute favorite.
Bonjour Rachel, I have a fleet of Tanichthys albonubes and Amano Shrips in my 200 liters tank, which is the first tank i ever had, started 2 years ago. I remember listening to one of your videos about tanichthys, which greatly helped me in my choice. I am very happy with my fish and I never have to worry about water temperature. I wonder if i could add a specie in it, I thought about maybe adding danios. Merci from France.
Love my albino corydoras! So funny to watch and they're very playful.
Keep up the awesome videos Rachel, you're one of my favourites 👌💙✌
Surprised about the bamboo shrimp shout out considering that you mentioned in one of your livestreams about not wanting to keep them given the way they are shipped. Hopefully, you can expound on this in a future video!
Also surprised that you didn't mention your big boys haha
Well, I cannot imagine keeping the big boys when I am super old
My favs are the old fashioned standbys like Neons, Cardinals, livebearers, Hatchets etc...
Fun vid. Thanks.
I’ve haven’t been in the hobby long enough, but in my short experience anabantoids are my love!!! Love me some bettas i currently have one guy that was dying on a pet store and I couldn’t resist, i also have a sunset dwarf gourami on a 25g long with some serpae tetras and I’m absolutely in love 😍 I expected trouble from the serpae but so far so good!!! And I have a cycled black water aquarium waiting for some sparkling gouramis and maybe some cherry shrimp!!!! Love your videos!!!
Right now, I'm running four tanks (two 30s and two 20 highs) with Giant Danios, Black Skirt Tetras, Black Neon Tetras, Beacon Tetras (AKA Head-and-Tail Light Tetras) and Ancistrus. As much as I love my Tetras and Danios, I could probably replace them with similar species (Other tetras, rasboras, White Clouds, etc.) and not feel like I was missing out on much. However, I'd have a hard time finding a substitute for my Ancistrus. I have one in each of my tanks, while every other species I keep is limited to one tank.
PS) My favorite plant by far is Anubias nana. It thrives and blooms in all my tanks while Java Fern, Bolbitis and even other species of Anubias all struggle.
Yayyy! White Clouds. White Clouds... yessss!!! =) Thank you for the video!
Love everything on your ride or die list. Me...
Cherry shrimp
Heterandria formosa, the gold form
Endlers
Other fish and shrimp come and go, but those three are my forever fish and shrimp, never lose interest in them.
👍💕👍
Panda Corydoras. I have a Mr. Limpette retirement community tank and when all the larger fish in there swim through their years I will looking to do nano only and that is a 38.. thinking 20 CHiles and a dozen CPD's.
Pearl Germany’s are one of my favourite fish species for fresh water aquariums.
I can't live without a splash of Captain Cranky in my life and his little dance for food 💓💓💓
I have some synodontus and three types of corys and have kept them for a while so I like small catfish, but I do terribly with shrimp and small fish.
hi rachel I"m from Philippines I love your style and your vidoes. thank you Rachel.
Thank you!
betta splendens!
Glass catfish!
I'm new to the hobby but I must say I really look forward to the chance to own some of the purple catfish you have one day. They are so stinking cute I feel once I have some theyll be staying for a long long time
Awesome Fish! My ride or die fish would indeed be Glowlight Tetras, Diamonds, and Corydoras. But the Glowlights are sooo adorable.
Golden dojo loaches for larger aquariums and the Panda Corydoras for smaller ones are my favourite common or garden fish. Both are very active fish in my tanks . My favourite schooler is the rummy nose. Keep coming back to that one. In large groups I think it looks great. Top of tank I love the Hatchets.
I was watching a few of my yoyo and clown loaches stack on each other last night. For no good reason. Guess that's just what they do now.
Bristlenose and some kind of dwarf cichlid
White Clouds White Clouds White Clouds, aplochielis dayi. (Ceylon panchax)
Corydoras
Ancistrus sp/bristlenose pleco
Cardinal Tetras
Angelfish
Love all the fish, but haven't had the chance to play with most, availability here isn't really good :o
Never the less I can't live without Corydoras, and now bristle nose plecos, and getting back into angelfish, always liked them since my dad kept them when I was little. Also love livebearers and shrimp, but I'm trying to keep the MTS in check, so no special breeding tanks. Love the vids
I'm pretty new to the fishkeeping hobby, having only set up my first tank in June 2019; a 60 litre planted and 'scaped temperate tank; currently stocked with 8 x long-fin Leopard danios, 8 x Amano shrimp and 4 x Zebra Nerite snails. After months of (im)patiently waiting, I just got word this week that the longfin WCMM's I've been after for ages are in stock and reserved for me to pickup next weekend, 10 of 'em... :) :) :)
p.s. as an aside, I also have a RCS species tank, which I stocked with 8 shrimp on 15th Nov 2019 (plus 1 x Zebra Nerite) and so far there's upwards of 30 babies of different sizes.
While waiting for the WCMM's, just before xmas I set up a 40cm cube, with the intention of stocking (hopefully) a mixed colony of Blue Dream/Blue Velvet Neocaridina and Tangerine Tiger Shrimp - Caridina Mariae and then later adding a small group of CPD's.
I also have a 34l Fluval Flex waiting to be set up for a Betta and a surplus to requirements
60 x 45 x 45 terrarium (15cm to the air vents, so about 40 litres watertight capacity) that was passed on to me and which I'm hoping to set up as a paludarium. Oh, and a pre-owned
55 gallon I haven't fully decided what to put in yet.
Then there's everything else on my fish-I'd-love-to-keep-someday list, e.g. Dwarf Puffers, Kuhli Loaches, Fiveband Barbs, Boesmani and Dwarf Neon and various other Rainbowfishes (probably in the 55 gallon), Anchor catfish (Hara jerdoni), Corydoras, a Paradisefish.... MTS much, ha ha.
White clouds...and Platys are super cool together and bronze corys for bottom
For a monster tank? Arowana. The King of all large Aquarium fish,elegant. For normal sized Aquariums. 4. Rainbow fish. 3. Angel fish. They are what everybody thinks a tropical fish should look like. 2 Bleeding Hearts- love that long- to- the- tail male dorsal fin and that mini piranha like form they have when large. 1??????....Suckermouth cats!..Any are a must have. They earn their keep and have tons of personality.
Love my chilli rasboras and barred pencilfish. Also green neons. Pygmy corys too. Got the inspiration from your channel. Thank you.
My Top 5 favorite fish
Microdevario kubotai
Galaxy danio
Apistogramma borellii
Otocinclus vitatus
Any small corydoras
I’ll always have a soft spot for neon tetras, turquoise rainbowfish, guppies, and mollies.
I am bout dwarf Cory babies like other people are about puppies please let me buy some from u. I have salt and pepper Cory’s which have spawned during a tank change with huge water change. Then I got the most ADORABLE baby striped black Cory’s (panda Cory’s) and the babies made me heart melt. 8 don’t even know why I ordered the other fish (other than my hunter gatherer koi angel who is using his/her hunting instincts in a tank with blackwater botanicals produced from tannin awuatic amazing South American River biotope pods, leVes, twigs and stems), as recommended by u miss jinx.
White clouds are my absolute favourite. I've got Tanichthys micagemmae at the moment in a 30 gallon and I'm really considering stocking my 100 gallon with them. Other favourites are angel fish, I've kept them ever since I came into the hobby 20 years ago, my home just feels wrong without a tank of angel fish :D German rams are my favourite dwarf cichlid , nothing fancy but super personable fish, like the angels.
Snails, bristlenose pleco, and Cherry shrimp for sure
No dwarf chiclids on this list? I was expecting some dwarf chiclids
Zebra danios... I know they're not very exotic or rare or anything, but they're a) very stylish-looking with their go-faster stripes and b) so much fun to watch!
(And it doesn't hurt that they are also hardy as heck and ready to make any amateur feel like a master fish-keeper!)
Rachel...what is the feeding disc that you use in the chili rasbora tank...? thanks, Bob
At this point, I think my ride or die list consists of Siamese Algae eaters and Corydoras for my smaller tanks.. and my "couldn't imagine life without" list is a some monster/nearly monster aggressive cichlid... Right now it's a red terror. Always so full of personality, like having a water-puppy!
I've got a few from your top 5. I've got a few Chili Rasboras but I never have much luck with them so I have some Dwarf Rasboras to compliment them which are just as red and are hardier in my opinion. I also have Amano and Cherry Shrimp. I've had White Clouds in the past and can see why they are your number 1. They are soooo versatile with temp range, hardy, cheap and a pretty fish!
Mine are chilli Rasboras Asian stone catfish pigmy Cody’s neocaradenea shrimp Malaya shrimp bettas honey gourami ramshorn snails zebra danio and dwarf barbs
Only had bettas, Otocinclus, pygmy Cories, albino WCMW, harlequin/lambchop rasboras, and guppies as of late. I find guppies even though a pain to control, to be derpy, cute, and relatively decent as a therapeutic fish. They are super good (in large numbers) at figuring out that I am not a threat. The rasboras I had weren’t easy as they don’t go to the bottom to scavenge. The minnows, only had 3 now one is left, I’m thinking to try other minnows or catch some wild ones in a creek or lake.
I have all those species currently. I learned about them through your channel and through the Aquarium Co-Op channel. My current favorite fish is my multies. They are the most entertaining fish I have - always busy. I have them in a 33 gallon long. I put in a mound of rocks with a bonsai tree on top for decoration. I've got riccia growing in the bonsai tree and anubias stuck in the rock. What I found is they will use the spaces between the rocks as a home as well as the shells. I've had them for about 6 weeks. No babies yet, but I'm hopeful. I started with a colony of 10 fish and I have seen breeding behavior.
My favorite too except they went by the name White Cloud Mountain Fish in the '60s. My favorite then and my favorite today.
I absolutely love shrimp and guppies. My guppies are not the fancy guppies, but wild looking ones. I really like the ines with round circles, but I haven't had those in a while. I am currently working with a strain I am trying to duplicate... I call him spike because of the boys neon green doral fin looks like a spike hair-do to me. 😁
I'm super boring, but my two favs are danios and corys. I love them for being hardy, fun to watch in a group, but also won't be shy if exploring by themselves. Danios are so dang prolific too, if you have floating plants with a lot of roots for the fry to survive. I love the way Danios play peekaboo, through the floating roots. Just a real joy to watch.
I wish the pygmy catfish species were more readily available in local fish stores. I know they don't ship particularly well, and a lot of online companies don't ship them...Or they are always out of them!
I’m sure you get a ton of questions. So if you answer great. If not cool to. I have just started a 65 gal freshwater tank with live plants. How many dwarf catfish should I put in?
Such a great list! The long fin white cloud/meteor minnows are seriously my unicorn fish and I want some so bad, but they are VERY hard for me to find without paying a small fortune to ship from the east coast :-(
My go to is anything aggressive I have one community tank for the family to enjoy n I have several aggressive tanks which switch out from jack dempsey to Oscar to jags to dovii
Corys, Plecos, Geophagus, Severums, Danios (still have a school of Choprae from you), Tetras, Long Fin White Clouds, Rainbows, and most recently Marine.
Rachel, should chilli rasboras always be red?
I'm located in Australia and I feel like I've been sold other species like Boraras merah or urophthalmoides as mine never really got red.
Could you do a video on how to identify the different species?
What kind of food is that on the glass? Your cuties seem to truly enjoy it.
Sera O nip tabs.... I assume.
I have a dumb question. How do you get the algae wafer to stick to the glass?? Is it a particular product?
Cryptoheros spilurus is my only ride or die being my first cichlid and im still learning and keeping different fish with German blue rams being very close second
What are you feeding the chilli Rasboras?
Hillstreams and blood parrots but not together of course.
Kuhli loaches are awesome. They are like water snakes or eels. I have had the same six for 2 years now. Half of my friends abosultely love them the other half completely grossed out by them. I guess you either love them or hate them.
I agree with you on the White Cloud minnows.Get a nice school and there is no Better Schooling fish to be had .Better than Neons in my book.
Zebrafish. And platy.
I feel like a person who does not understand the concept of keeping dwarf shrimp don’t understand the elegance of it cool video!
Love WhiteClouds they are totally awesome little fish
White cloud minnows are my favorite too
My favorite is the otto cat number one with at least one Male betta :) I have guppies that are getting into my heart right now....but the mollies are cute too. I love live bearers!
Ive only got one tank (so far), but if i ever get more or another one in the future I'll have at least one species of dwarf catfish. Cories and oto's 5ever
I kind of like white clouds too
But my bro called them ugly
Hi Rachel! Just watched your top 5 video and agree with some of your selections! I adore corys - don't care what species, I just love them. I was recently introduced to the white cloud minnow (won a tank at an auction and the livestock included were long finned WC). These fish are STUNNING! Super happy, always busy and the colors are amazing. Even my females have great color. The group that I have are a proven breeding set, so I hope to have fry soon and will put some outside in tubs for the summer. Super little fish. I think I may need to set up a tank for the purple oil cats as well. Those are amazing. Thanks for all you do and the info/education you share! Have a great day. --Rena
I've only kept Trigonostigma hengeli, but I absolutely adore them. 😊 Unfortunately many of the chain aquarium shops here mislabel them as T. Espei and bung both species in the same tank, which makes my teeth itch. 😂
Ive gotten (back) into aquariums because of shrimp too! I started with a cherry tank (just added a dwarf blue cray to it) and now have moved to a second larger blue dream shrimp tank with dwarf orange crays and, of course, my mystery snails. Next will be a pea puffer tank I think!
Mine are hatchetfisch, angelfish, corydoras and shrimp too
Corey’s and Shrimp Are mine favorite
pygmy cories. They are the cutest non-fluffy things you will find.
White Clouds for the win! Woop!!
White Clouds for the win! Great choice!
White Clouds. Ride or die, inside or tubbin' outside.
What about tank mates for honeycomb cats?
Ride or Die: goldfish, danios, shrimp. Starting to feel the same way about Red Tail Black Sharks.
Love your top 5 Rachel. I have all of these in my tanks, mostly due to your fantastic tips. One I also like is Celestial Pearl Danio, although you must have many to keep them from hiding.
Can you make a community take of just different types of catfish? Would the work it would it be to much ?
Absolutely love Cory cats, shultzei black being my ultimate fish.😊
Morning Rachel I guess I beat you this morning have already had my coffee, but I think I have to have another one, as you and coffee go so well together. LOL
Am loving the Little guys, and think that your diversity between your Big Guys and them is so interesting
Have a wonderful aquatic/gardening day Rachael
Mine are Discus, Bichir and Shrimps.
Discus being my go to piece de resistance, and
Bichir, since my first one, I've never not have one.
it's a stress reliever to watch them all... I feel like heaven haha lol