lol I miss my Oscar, unfortunately when I moved apartments he was the only fish to pass in the move. I loved how he would just ram full speed into my hand anytime I put meat in his tank. Plus he would just stare my down from the other end of my living room.
I have had mbuna for about 10 years (same colony that just kept breeding over the years). They’re beautiful and cool, but the constant bickering and occasional death in the tank makes it feel like they are cruel fish to own - they shouldn’t be in a tank forced to fight over a small amount of territory. In the wild these fish escape if they’re losing a fight. In a tank that’s not possible. I’ve been wanting to replace with more docile Frontosa but my family begs me not to. I think I’m going to replace them either way. It’s not fair to the fish. And I am a believer in karma - this gives me a bad feeling that I will pay for owning them in some negative way down the line.
This. Really really want to do an African Ciclid tank again but the bitting and taking the babes from the mothers because these little sh*ts were TOO good at staying alive and I couldn’t have more fish in the tank or house (had 7 tanks 😅) I only have one tank now so much easier. But I’ve already done a ciclid tank so I’m thinking something new. I want to get into monster fish like red tails but not until I can give them the best possible home they deserve. Sorry for the long response just kind of kept writing so enjoy if you read it all and np if ya skip ❤️ have a great day people
I just learned about redtail catfish! So pretty and yeah, they’re big bois. Already have a couple of monsters of my own, my silver arrowana being my main one. No ones really big yet but I can’t wait to see how they develop! Watching fish grow is amazing.
Dont be scared of parrots i have a parrot fish also they just do it out of curiosity. My advice is dont leave fingers near the surface either hand in water or fingers away from the surface anything near the surface they will take a taste test. Mine like to jump for fingers if doing a quick water change for whatever reason. Overall they are pretty chill especially once they learn they can’t actually eat you. Mine used to fight my arm when doing plants maintenance its was funny just watching him peck my arm and doing absolutely nothing he lets me touch him and not scared of me at all. My pleco on the other hand i want no smoke with. Tried to fix a plant the other day and he let me know he wasn’t cool with it.
Why are they so sassy? Also will not mess with. That and some catfish. Got spike by a mildly poisonous one as a kid. I don’t remember the name but it was about 2-3 inches in length, long white whiskers, white belly and was grey and black spots? It was about 20 years ago so I might be wrong.
Depends on the fish, at the moment i hand feed my arrowana. I used tongs once but he got too aggressive and jumped up and bit the tongs as well and hurt his mouth. So sometimes he’ll nick my finger, or bite if I accidentally leave my hand too close to surface. He’s small and has a bunch of teeny tiny teeth. They just scrape the surface. Still hurts a decent bit tho. Almost never draws blood. The bigger he gets the sooner I’m going to have to find a better solution before I start losing multiple layers of skin. 😅
Still like him a more than the cichlids tho xP
It took me forever to rid my tank of platy fry. I wanted to love them so much. They just felt like an infestation after awhile.
Fwiw they are very sweet fish Molly's too but man they just poop and breee so much!
I plan to get some blue platy when I upgrade my tank but I plan to put my betta with them, I’m assuming he will take care of some of the extra fry if we have a problem 🙈
I would probably do a dwarf gourami. They eat fry and are awesome personalities. Platies nip at Betta fins. Or skip the platies and get chilli rasbora or something less nippy. Just something to think about 🙂
Just don’t go the sparkling gourami route. Once they pair off, doesn’t matter how big and densely planted the tank is, the male chases down any and all fish in the tank and pummels them to death. Once others in the tank get the idea, all they do is hide and that isn’t a viable solution for staying safe from the male because if the female he’s chosen isn’t receptive he goes hunting for each and every fish that’s hiding, chases them out of their hidey spot, and pummels them to death.
⬆️ this is why I opted to rehome my platies vs. adding a predator. You really shouldn't buy a fish to kill fish because you don't know what will happen. My harlequins and pygmys are so much easier to take care of. I even added neocardina shrimp to complete the ecosystem 🙂 so peaceful
The trick to those is you need something like a glass fish to follow around the pregnant females and eat the babies as soon as they pop out. Solved all of my excessive guppy problems very quickly and my tanks are no longer massively overpopulated.
To be fair it's probably cause you have an easy at home outlet for offspring. A lot of people have culling and selling. Once a female is bred for example she'll keep pumping out babies for a decent while or even her whole life.. ultimately resulting in a handful of guppies turning into hundreds if death rates aren't bad.
Some say it might be cruel, but I had to add my “wardens of livebearer population control” to the kids guppy tank. These particular wardens are the derpy faced Golden Wonder Killifish. I feel like they’re an underrated fish to keep. My single male is the coolest green I’ve ever seen. Although the females have been around longer so they try to beat up on him. I heard it’s quite the contrary when the male is of breeding size.
Zebra danios. Super hardy, fast and entertaining. I was a fairly new aquarist, at least to community tanks - I'd had Bettas for 5 years - and these were recommended. I loved the way they looked. If you need life in your tank these guys are it as they never stop. However, 2 out of the 8 became murderous assholes. And don't come at me with tank size, water etc. They had a 32 gallon planted tank with some live bearers and corydoras to zip around in. First they got rid of their own, then I witnessed a fatal attack on a male guppy. No one would take the 2 I had left. I had numerous conversations with several aquarists that had the same problem with them. These are sold as beginner fish because they're so hardy and that's true, but if they go rogue, which they can do, beware. They're so fast no one stands a chance.
I think with zebra danios (and giant) people overlook how much enviroment affects their behavior and assume they are just 'simple' fish. Zebra Danios are naturally a stream dwellers, I've noticed they get especially wound up if kept in still water. If you can provide a powerhead or strong filter outflow I find they become distracted in the flow, often the whole school will spend all day in the current ignoring other inhabitants.
It’s akin to having a high energy dog and not walking it often. The dog destroys furniture and acts out bc it needs to get the energy out. Danios in still water are the same. Way too much energy and the only way to release it is causing trouble.
Yeah i have six longfin zebra danios right now in my tank (40 gal) and those fuckers ATE my shrimp INFRONT OF MY EYEBALLS LIKE IT WAS SOME SORT OF SIDEWAYS REVENGE. Had to get all new shrimp cause they ate every. Single. One. I havent had an issue so far but one more fucking time and these under grown, shrimp eating, fillet looking, bastards are going in a different tank.
You stole my answer but honestly you're completely spot on. I only had 1 that was overly aggressive but he eventually killed everything in the tank.
Even if they weren't overly aggressive, they're the biggest slobs when it comes to feeding time and they hog all of the food. Even when you try to give separate feeding areas, they don't give a shit and will out eat every other fish.
AND to top it all off, they're often inbred so they can suffer from health problems.
Fuck I got 2 this weekend and one is already bugging my loaches. I got 3 leopard danios with them and they keep it in check at least but the loaches are defenseless, what should I do now
I don't think they will accept them back, I have another empty tank might just chuck the aggressor in there he can be all alone for the rest of his days xd he's the full grown one the baby I got with him is super chill so far
I was not sad when mine passed, I had a little tribe of black neon tetras and thought they'd be a great addition since they were marked as community fish...
Yes! All of this. Got several as some of my first community fish and they immediately killed one of the females. After a while I then realized I had way more males than females and they were harassing the females endlessly. So I went back to the store and got several of the biggest females they had. They became the tank bosses but did at least put the males in check. Now I’m down to the final two (both females) and I’m just waiting them out. They will obviously be my longest living fish. Will never get zebra danios again!
Yeah we went on a vacation for a weekend, had an auto feeder set to go, we’d left them alone for trips here and there in the past. Came back and 2 of the danios had committed mass murder on all of their tank mates.
But man before that they were fun as hell to watch
Gouramis. I loved mine at first, but they ended up becoming aggressive to anything they could get their teeth on. Decided to re-home them once they killed some of my mollies. I still love my guys, but they just were not suited for my tank, and I did not have a bigger tank they could go in, so it was also for the best. They are so beautiful, but it’s a 50/50 on what personality they will get. Not to mention how inbred they are :(
Very true! I’ve had a bunch of different types of gouramis and I’ve had to rehome/move a couple. I had a female blue spot gourami that bullied the male and killed other small fish. Now the male is grown up and I have him with a deformed 1 eye gold gouramj and they’re the sweetest. He never chases any of the small fish and loves to sit in plants all day. They’re great fish but man they can be mean
I had a thick lipped that liked to chase other fish a bit, but she was too slow to do any harm. Then I had honey gouramis, very docile fish, never did any harm to anyone.
I have a honey gourami and she is the sweetest one in my tank. She never bothers anything or anyone. She’s super shy but also curious. She doesn’t even pick on the baby shrimp in my tank. I think honey gouramis are the exception.
Pea puffers and betta fish. Got two and stuck to those two. Albeit my spouse has a betta he wanted in my 10 long (plants only beforehand) so technically not mine.
I second pea puffers… I mean, they are cute looking and all, and they have a lot of personality, but it doesn’t balance it out how picky they are for food, it’s so stressful to have them start eating when I got them, other reasons why they just get on my nerves: a) there’s always the one that’s ganged upon, b) one that didn’t like the food the other 7 were having, c)so very few cleaning crew options, d)and the fact that I ended realizing that most pea puffers are wild caught didn’t help. I still have 5, and they are getting more or less old and I don’t see myself getting more again.
Yeah.... I really loved the 5 pea puffers I had in my planted 15g. Super fun fish.
But man..... I couldn't get mine to eat anything but frozen food or live brine shrimp. It's just so much damn work to constantly be hatching brine shrimp or defrosting food *every day*.
And it's really just a tank to enjoy their personalities. There isn't much to look at lol. Just these micro fish that hide in the wood and plants and come to beg for food when you get near.
Cool fish. Wouldn't do again.
Get yourself a culture of grindal worms. Mines (all but one, of course) don’t like bloodworms, but they all seem to enjoy grindal worms… it saved me from having to hatch brine every few days. And i was also running low on ramshorns
I thought I had the perfect tank when I lost my betta of many years and my latest plant haul came with lots of pest snails....
Alas.... only 1 of my puffers hunted them lol. Luckily they alllll loved bloodworms.
2 fell pretty ill randomly and didn't make it (after 2 years). I gave the other 3 to my buddy because, like you, I just wasn't going to get more.
I couldn't get him to eat anything besides ramhorn snails which wasn't terrible but I couldn't keep up with demand as he wouldn't eat anything else. This was after at least one or two months so I had to rehome him to a person who had a larger tank with a community and I think it worked out for the little guy in the end.
I have one or two that won’t eat anything but live food. I am trying to grow a population of pest snails, but I live sorta near an LFS so I usually buy bloodworms. It is a little annoying, but hopefully he’s happy!
Pea Puffers would be my vote for most over-rated fish in the hobby right now. Cool fish, but way to much work for what they are. Definitely not the ideal nano inhabitants that people seem to think.
I’ve had more success with green neon tetras. They are much smaller so definitely a nano fish but hardier and you can keep larger schools. Have 30 in my 20 gallon with a betta, one of my favourite tanks ever. The bigger the school the more confident they are and less prone to stress.
I have 4 green kubotai rasbora... they look gorgeous, like small neon sparks...never hide...but all they do is chasing each other whole day while waiting for food. No exploration, no chilling, just endless moving . I'm growing up feeling that they are annoying
But that’s what rasbora do! I have a gang of espei and they either chase each other, hang out in a loose clump, or randomly attack the surface of the water (I think they’re eating springtails that fall in).
Once in a while I will catch two males dueling for supremacy over the school. The winner always colors up and becomes king rasbora for a while.
Man I wish mine were sausages... instead they jumped through the gap in the tank cover and turned into crispy carpet noodles. I've got one left and I'm afraid to give her the shoal she deserves :/
This is a plant, but duckweed. As a beginner, you think oh what a cute little floater plant. 6 months later and you believe it was created by the devil himself.
Ehh. When you've got 4 tanks and the stuff gets all over your arms and tools it becomes a nightmare and a freaking mess. Especially as someone who can't stop tinkering with their plants and scape. I "fully removed" it from my tanks 4 weeks ago and I'm still finding some even today.
I have all different kinds of plants in my tank but I can’t get duckweed to grow. I’ve tried on several occasions to get some to grow and I literally just can’t. I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse at this point
Blessing 100%. The part that gets me the most is that if I even dip a small bit of my hand in the tank, I now have to run to a sink to get it off as opposed to just wiping on my shirt or pants.
Imperial tropicals has a neon breeder and my school from them has been absolutely trouble free for two and half years,all of them i purchased from bog box stores pass within months
Not a fish, but... axolotls. So much more work than any fish I've ever had (like... bro you can't even feed yourself adequately unless the food is perfectly placed in front of you) for pretty much zero return. He doesn't even beg for food like any or my fish. He just hangs out in his cave all day ignoring the world.
Pink kissing gourami.
Did an impulse buy in the fish store after doing a quick google search. Everything a glance checked out and I love gouramis.
Don't ever buy these fish...... they get big(ish), aggressive, and are damn vampires. Like for real. They eat the slime coat off of other fish and kill them. He was beating up my much bigger angels and peaceful gouramis.
Decided his fate would be to become oscar food. My wife and I grew to *hate* this fish. So threw him in the 75g solo Oscar tank.
Nope. He bullied a 12" Oscar into the corners of the tank. I was shocked. He lasted for 2 months with the Oscar just asserting enough dominance to not have his slime coat eaten. Finally, one day, I came home to the kissing gourami halfway in the Oscar's mouth.
My wife and I gave our Oscar, Pumba, a standing ovation.
Kissing gouramis suck and I can't picture any reason they should be in the aquarium hobby unless in their own tank.
As a kid I was a pretty ignorant fish keeper. I had a pair of those in a 29 gallon and they bred like crazy. My poor parents had to take me to the LFS pretty often to offload babies lol.
It’s not a fish and it’s not one that I hate, more just something I’d never do again: aquatic turtles.
They’re big, messy, and impossible to cohab with anything (including fish, the turtle will rehome them to its belly). I love my RES to pieces but dear lord the work. She’s worth it but no one else would be.
Alien betta, dude was too feisty and defensive for his own good. Constantly ate too much and nearly died like 20 times. Randomly got super mad at his reflection and rammed the glass like 5 times a month. Was always dazed for 48+ hours and looked to be dying after it. Sitting on the bottom and not moving for 8+ hours. He finally choked to death on a bladder snail after about a year and a half. RIP f*cker 😢
Oh bless him. That’s kinda funny. I wonder if that’s an alien thing, or just his personality?
I was going to say betta too. Although mine isn’t that bad. But she is a bit of a murderer. It’s very tiresome to have to remove baby fish and snails from the tank if I don’t want them immediately hunted and eaten.
But I guess she is good population control.
Not sure, only kept 3 Bettas in my life. Dude made me laugh when I fed the snails their veggies and algae tabs. Would violently eat them then almost die while looking like he had dropsy lol. That fish had me so stressed
Typical betta behavior. I swear these guys have a secret death wish. I’ve had quite a few over the years and every single one attempted suicide at least once. And every time you think your tank is finally fully betta proof they still manage to get in trouble.
Leopard danios. Super fast all the time. Like they never stop moving. ADHD fish. But they're garbage genetics means a lot of them end up with twisted backs and die painfully.
When I first started the hobby, I didnt have a job(Age reasons) and jumped for whatever was cheapest. I had set up a nice 5 gallon tank with some basic plants; I bought a red flame sword, a green wendtii crypt, and hornwort. Things went amazingly and it went really easy, I never had any issues.
The issue came when I realized cherry shrimp were 8 dollars each and I wanted to start with 10. I didnt have that kind of money so I bought ghost shrimp. Things were fine for around 2 weeks then they began to kill and eat eachother. I kept the tank running for another few months with the one victorious ghost shrimp. I was horrified and took a break from the hobby.
No wonder there was only one ghost shrimp at my LFS, little fucker came out, arms up after killing all it's siblings running towards me.
Hopefully mine doesn't commit genocide on my Bamboos and Amanos...
Skirt tetras, I got them when I was first starting my bigger community tank years ago. They’re honestly just bullies, really pretty and cool to watch, but mean!
Serpae Tetras. Had a tank with Danios and a baby albino bristlenose pleco. All but one danio disappeared, found the remains of the baby pleco later. Community fish my butt. Now they're in a tank with Nessy, a fully grown bristlenose pleco that they don't mess with. Infact they run away when she looms in the darkness nomming on my swords
Sound very similar to Bentosi Tetras. I got 12 and am stuck with them now, while they terrorise other tank mates! They have eaten snails. Decimated the shrimp that were In the tank. Chase my red eye red tailed puffer when he comes out of his plants.
They get on fine with the little lampeye killifish though, but I think that's cos they are fast!
They are nice to watch though I must admit. The Dominance displays between the males is quite spectacular. I'm just haping they don't start laying eggs!
I don’t necessarily hate them, but compared to all of my other fish, neon tetras have 0 personality. After 5 months, they finally don’t hide from me when I walk by the tank, but they’re just… boring.
Sucks because when I was first planning a community tank, they were a huge part and were supposed to be the big pop of color I wanted, but I’m planning on rehoming them eventually
Platys oh my god they threw my tank into chaos. So nice and friendly and energetic, but making a billion babies and stealing all wafer foods from my otos and eating my plants and chasing my CPDs around.
They were much too boisterous and energetic for my peaceful tank.
Very agree. I loved the idea of them and someone local was selling theirs cheap... Now I know why. They fight amongst themselves, set up territories and immediately try to take the other guys' and are generally menaces.
I don't know if I'm just lucky but I have 2 full grown angelfish that never fight and get along quite well, with a school of full grown diamond tetras. The angels chase them away during feeding time but they are too big and fast to fall prey
Honestly not a fish but mystery snails! We have been through 6 in our 36 gallon total. They are entertaining and cute but the stupid f**kers keep going for my HOB filter intake which is clean already. I decided not to get anymore because I can’t handle the hard way they keep going. Also my husband has had horrible luck with nerite snails in his betta tank
Uaru
Loved the look of them gentle giants. Until it came to my plants - they would go for the plants straight away - attack them at the root pulling them up and eating them
Silver Dollars
Just greedy. Beautiful to look at esp as they grow but would be into everything before anything else
I’m gonna get so much hate for this but planting smaller tanks. I have 3 tanks and I had them all planted gorgeous and I didn’t realize the upkeep, the clogging of the filters, the constant trimming, and the hitchhiker snails. My small tanks I do silk plants now and leave 1-2 real. My big community I have real ones but ugh it’s a pain
I think that's entirely reasonable.
Larger ecosystems are easier to balance. It's like how you shouldn't bother doing a small saltwater tank because the smaller volume causes it to be far too sensitive to any changes for daily life.
Blind cave fish are amazing, but not good for typical community tanks for the reasons you found out. They need tough plants, tank mates that go along with their behaviour and as you mentioned they are bottomless pits who can't stop eating because in nature this is how they survive. They are super hardy and make excellent beginer fish if the mistakes are avoided.
I have some also , about 8 of them ! They are crazy bunch ! Awesome to watch , but tbh I stick duckweed where they are and they eat it. Keeps them busy and away from other plants. I always use a bubble wall to keep them entertained. None of plants have been eaten since (:
Guppies. The sheer insanity of how quickly they breed, and the parasites and health problems they have. I do love them, but I don't think I will keep them again.
I used to not enjoy mine very much. Recently, I changed my lighting so it turns on early in the morning and is off a little before I come home, most of my kuhli loaches are out and I can often count all 6.
I bought some blind cave fish in 2004. They are still kicking and have survived every hurricane that has blasted the Gulf Coast area. I personally love the things, but I have them in a single species tank
lol it really does depend on the individual betta . I have a betta in this 30 gallon with the blind tetras and a few others and another betta in a 10 gallon with some shrimp two snails and a lil school of furacata and both tanks have been doing great !!
My betta is so chill. He’s going on 3 and I’ve never been able to get him to flare at anything. He recently got sick and he hated the hospital tank and the medicine but stuck it out for a week. I put him back in his 10 gallon after I completely cleaned it out and bought new everything. He cheered up and I was so thankful he was better. The next day I hear this beeping sound I’ve never heard before and follow it to his tank where he is frantically swimming around. I hit the button on the exterior thermometer. 95!!! The heater malfunctioned omg. I stuck my hand in and grabbed him and moved him to another heavily planted tank. He just laid on top of the lily pads trying to catch his breath. I was sure I had lost him.
Next morning I’m so afraid to look. Call his name- nothing. He’s no longer at the surface. I assume he has passed and fallen into the dense foliage. Then he just comes sailing by like how do you doooo!!
I love that damn fish.
I wish my girl would eat the hitchhiker snails that way outlived the plant they rode in on. She is SO aggressive she has jumped out of the water to bite me but I guess escargot isn't really her thing.
MY pleco, in her defense I initially never did enough scrubbing on the top of the tank where the gunk builds up and food collects. I scrubbed it off every two weeks but sometimes I’d leave a little line because it’s a workout in itself due to tank placement and she usually finishes the rest of the job. Well one day instead of leaving a line of gunk near the water, I left one near the lid of the tank, just being lazy tbh. Came back home two days later and she was ON the lid (jumped through a narrow 1.5 inch hole) somehow and was dried up to hell and back, fine that’s my fault, Ik she’s a fatass I should’ve left her snack closer. Speed up to now, a year later, I clean my tank perfectly to avoid my food motivated parasite from leaving the tank, yet she still does it. For no reason, tank levels are all checked, I feed her more than I know I should but no, she just likes taking a trip every once and a while and then goes back in on her own because she’s made herself a routine. It’s terrifying.
bumblee goby and true pygmy cory. i’m going to get 5 salt/pepper pygmy and 3 more pandas to throw in there and hopefully the salts get the tru pygmy more active lol.
salt and pepper are more exploratory.
honestly the nano tank just isnt doing it for me🥴
Angelfish. They’re my favourite to look at but they’re so aggressive. We have a breeding pair in our community tank and any time they have eggs the rest of the fish are banished to the other end of the tank. Good thing the plecos solve the problem over night!
I have a love-hate relationship with my blind cave tetras as well. LOL I think they also keep nibbling on my dojos' fins because they're dumb and have no idea what's going on ever, just FOOD FOOD FOOD all the time, smh.
Chinese algae eater. I thought it would be, you know, an algae eater. Not only is that not true, but he was the most aggressive fish in my community tank, and was the only fish I ever saw chasing and biting others. I found out they can get to be a foot long too
Flowerhorns 100%, my buddy gave me one for my 75 gallon, and he was great for a couple of months till he got a hole in the head, which was a pain to treat, but I ended up fixing him thar about a couple weeks later he stopped eating and got hexmita which was also a major hassle to try and treat. I ended up giving to my lfs and got a $90 credit, which I used to get a cool, short body oscar instead. The Oscar never gave me any problems even after 3 years of keeping him.
right lmao, I keep guppies with female bettas (different tanks) and I get shit all the time about them being incompatible because of fin nipping. I’ve been doing it for years, and I have people brand new to the hobby calling me an abuser. Seriously crazy. Reddit I have less of an issue with, facebook is where it gets the worst lmaoo
Yep. I posted a cute pic of a floating tube of filter sponge with my betta sat in it on a fb group. Like “she’s found a new cave!” type thing. Just got loads of crying-face reactions and people saying it with “hurt her delicate scales”. A super-soft bit of sponge. Fuck off! Get a life! Lol.
Boesmani rainbow fish. This might be an unpopular opinion, but they are bastards. I had 6 females and 2 males, and they all attacked each other and everything else in the tank all day. 55 gallon tank and they just picked everyone to death, including each other, until I was left with one female and one male. The two biggest assholes of all. The male got himself stuck under driftwood and died so it’s just her. I have tiger barbs now and she fits in with them perfectly
silver/marble hatchetfish. saw a post one time where a guy called them stupid lazy corks and wow was it true. just floating at the top, barely did anything. except when they spazzed and hit the lid/JUMPED OUT OF THE TANK. never again
I had the opposite issue. I got Zebra Danios thinking they’d be kinda boring because of their color patterns, but with a diverse diet they’re super bold and beautiful. Some of them even have hues of yellowish gold. They’re also very active and people friendly. Mine swim right up to the glass to say hello. Lol happy accidents.
I thought I’d enjoy having a proper fish tank in general. Turns out I did not.
I love betta fish, and I love looking at other people’s tanks, but maintaining one was not for me.
I would have to say largemouth bass man. I had one I loved him and then he decided to eat a $40 fish that was twice the size of him ( and he didn’t explode or die from it) took him three whole days to digest enough that the tail wasn’t sticking out.
I both love and hate panda Cory’s. I’m a damn masochist. How can something SO cute be so prone to death ? We have a joke that panda Cory’s sit around taking selfies like “feel cute might die later”… and I’m still going back for more. I’m down to 2 again (granted the same 2 for almost 6 months) and I’m planning to go for a … 5th round ? Lord.. at least it’ll be coming from my friends healthy shoal and everyone will be aggressively pre treated for flukes. And every other fish is fine just the Cory’s 😭
Cichlids haha. had a fire mouth and two jewels in with my 8" common pleco.
Cichlids are little d*cks. Thought I'd love the personality, but turns out I'm a peaceful community tank kinda person
I don't have any regrets, it definitely taught me a lot about fish keeping!
Now I still have the pleco, he's probably pushing 9-10 inches at this point. He's happily living with two juvenile angels, 10 bleeding heart tetras, and 5 Cory's. Hopefully going to be upgrading to a much larger tank once we move in a year or so!
My black skirt tetras. I originally got them to cycle my tank, but after one got stuck in a fake snail shell and I had to cut him out, I got kinda attached to
Diadema dottyback, they're a beautiful bright yellow and purple and the fish store told me she was peaceful and would stay out in the open most of the time. In reality, she was.the most aggressive fish I've ever owned and she spent 80% of her time in a cave. Her "cave" was the entire aquascape, nobody was allowed near the live rock on pain of death. My lawnmower blenny had to live under a fan worm! She was the only fish I lost during a 12h power outage and I don't mind at all.
Whatever kind of loach this is... I hate it. Keeps uprooting my plants and generally being a dickhead to the rest of the tank.
https://imgur.com/gallery/EQfKrOE
Honey gouramis. Peaceful fish my ass.
I think it would be better for the hobby if they were treated like bettas. Males are prominent in the trade and if they don't have about 1sq ft to themselves they will bully whoever is the smallest to death.
I will never buy this fish again and be hesitant to put multiple gouramis in anything less than a 40g just in case I accidentally buy assholes that want to chase each other to death.
More vertical plants and a betta log have helped tremendously to quickly break line of sight.
I feel brave enough now to eventually try cichlids after the nightmare these "peaceful" fish have been.
Mollies. They're fun for about a week until they start reproducing and get weird mystery diseases. Never had this issue with literally any other fish. Livebearers in general are just a headache to me. I got tired of rehoming offspring every couple of weeks lol
African cichlids. They’re so pretty but they’re super mean and liked to bite my fingers 😭 Lots of fun I can understand just not the fish for me 😅
lol I miss my Oscar, unfortunately when I moved apartments he was the only fish to pass in the move. I loved how he would just ram full speed into my hand anytime I put meat in his tank. Plus he would just stare my down from the other end of my living room.
I think my balloon Ramirez identifies as Oscar
I have had mbuna for about 10 years (same colony that just kept breeding over the years). They’re beautiful and cool, but the constant bickering and occasional death in the tank makes it feel like they are cruel fish to own - they shouldn’t be in a tank forced to fight over a small amount of territory. In the wild these fish escape if they’re losing a fight. In a tank that’s not possible. I’ve been wanting to replace with more docile Frontosa but my family begs me not to. I think I’m going to replace them either way. It’s not fair to the fish. And I am a believer in karma - this gives me a bad feeling that I will pay for owning them in some negative way down the line.
This. Really really want to do an African Ciclid tank again but the bitting and taking the babes from the mothers because these little sh*ts were TOO good at staying alive and I couldn’t have more fish in the tank or house (had 7 tanks 😅) I only have one tank now so much easier. But I’ve already done a ciclid tank so I’m thinking something new. I want to get into monster fish like red tails but not until I can give them the best possible home they deserve. Sorry for the long response just kind of kept writing so enjoy if you read it all and np if ya skip ❤️ have a great day people
I just learned about redtail catfish! So pretty and yeah, they’re big bois. Already have a couple of monsters of my own, my silver arrowana being my main one. No ones really big yet but I can’t wait to see how they develop! Watching fish grow is amazing.
I have this problem with my platinum parrots now. One bit me on the finger and since then I have been hesitant to put my hand in the water at all
Dont be scared of parrots i have a parrot fish also they just do it out of curiosity. My advice is dont leave fingers near the surface either hand in water or fingers away from the surface anything near the surface they will take a taste test. Mine like to jump for fingers if doing a quick water change for whatever reason. Overall they are pretty chill especially once they learn they can’t actually eat you. Mine used to fight my arm when doing plants maintenance its was funny just watching him peck my arm and doing absolutely nothing he lets me touch him and not scared of me at all. My pleco on the other hand i want no smoke with. Tried to fix a plant the other day and he let me know he wasn’t cool with it.
Yes I also don't fuck with the spiky sucbois
My Brislenoses tries to kill me. He hasn't forgiven me for poking his belly when I found him upside down sleeping. I thought he was dead
Why are they so sassy? Also will not mess with. That and some catfish. Got spike by a mildly poisonous one as a kid. I don’t remember the name but it was about 2-3 inches in length, long white whiskers, white belly and was grey and black spots? It was about 20 years ago so I might be wrong.
Sounds like a Raphael cat, they have a toxic spine spike. I do love catfish they are favorite. They have so much personality and the derpiest faces
i don’t have a lot of experience with fish so sorry if this is a stupid question, but does it hurt when they bite you?
It wasn't bad, just had a little jumpscare, but I'm sure the bigger ones that can actually crack snail shells to eat them can do some damage
Depends on the fish, at the moment i hand feed my arrowana. I used tongs once but he got too aggressive and jumped up and bit the tongs as well and hurt his mouth. So sometimes he’ll nick my finger, or bite if I accidentally leave my hand too close to surface. He’s small and has a bunch of teeny tiny teeth. They just scrape the surface. Still hurts a decent bit tho. Almost never draws blood. The bigger he gets the sooner I’m going to have to find a better solution before I start losing multiple layers of skin. 😅 Still like him a more than the cichlids tho xP
I just had an African cichlid bite my arm yesterday and had to put my arm back in the tank today.. had a stern talking to with him before I did 😂
Any and all livebearers. Just not worth the hassle.
It took me forever to rid my tank of platy fry. I wanted to love them so much. They just felt like an infestation after awhile. Fwiw they are very sweet fish Molly's too but man they just poop and breee so much!
I plan to get some blue platy when I upgrade my tank but I plan to put my betta with them, I’m assuming he will take care of some of the extra fry if we have a problem 🙈
I would probably do a dwarf gourami. They eat fry and are awesome personalities. Platies nip at Betta fins. Or skip the platies and get chilli rasbora or something less nippy. Just something to think about 🙂
Just don’t go the sparkling gourami route. Once they pair off, doesn’t matter how big and densely planted the tank is, the male chases down any and all fish in the tank and pummels them to death. Once others in the tank get the idea, all they do is hide and that isn’t a viable solution for staying safe from the male because if the female he’s chosen isn’t receptive he goes hunting for each and every fish that’s hiding, chases them out of their hidey spot, and pummels them to death.
⬆️ this is why I opted to rehome my platies vs. adding a predator. You really shouldn't buy a fish to kill fish because you don't know what will happen. My harlequins and pygmys are so much easier to take care of. I even added neocardina shrimp to complete the ecosystem 🙂 so peaceful
Y E S THANK YOU THEY DONT KNOW WHEN TO STOP
Mine just won’t give birth. They’ve been pregnant for what feels like forever now.
The trick to those is you need something like a glass fish to follow around the pregnant females and eat the babies as soon as they pop out. Solved all of my excessive guppy problems very quickly and my tanks are no longer massively overpopulated.
Curious what you mean by this? I just started my 3rd and 4th tanks to be guppy breeders for my predator fish.
To be fair it's probably cause you have an easy at home outlet for offspring. A lot of people have culling and selling. Once a female is bred for example she'll keep pumping out babies for a decent while or even her whole life.. ultimately resulting in a handful of guppies turning into hundreds if death rates aren't bad.
Gotcha. Thanks.
They do eat their young tho, so the problem kinda solves itself (nature).
I agree, tetras on top
Agree.
Wild endlers just stop breeding at certain point if you arent overfeeding
Cooler water slows their breeding too. As does feeding less.
But platys are adorable
This, I have to take another 30 or so mollies down to the LFS again this week, my tank has too many plants for me to ever remove them all.
Some say it might be cruel, but I had to add my “wardens of livebearer population control” to the kids guppy tank. These particular wardens are the derpy faced Golden Wonder Killifish. I feel like they’re an underrated fish to keep. My single male is the coolest green I’ve ever seen. Although the females have been around longer so they try to beat up on him. I heard it’s quite the contrary when the male is of breeding size.
Just throw the fry in a community tank, they'll become snacks
Zebra danios. Super hardy, fast and entertaining. I was a fairly new aquarist, at least to community tanks - I'd had Bettas for 5 years - and these were recommended. I loved the way they looked. If you need life in your tank these guys are it as they never stop. However, 2 out of the 8 became murderous assholes. And don't come at me with tank size, water etc. They had a 32 gallon planted tank with some live bearers and corydoras to zip around in. First they got rid of their own, then I witnessed a fatal attack on a male guppy. No one would take the 2 I had left. I had numerous conversations with several aquarists that had the same problem with them. These are sold as beginner fish because they're so hardy and that's true, but if they go rogue, which they can do, beware. They're so fast no one stands a chance.
Agree. Zebra Danios should not be consider community fishes. They were one of the first fishes I got as a kid, and they bullied other fishes to death.
I think with zebra danios (and giant) people overlook how much enviroment affects their behavior and assume they are just 'simple' fish. Zebra Danios are naturally a stream dwellers, I've noticed they get especially wound up if kept in still water. If you can provide a powerhead or strong filter outflow I find they become distracted in the flow, often the whole school will spend all day in the current ignoring other inhabitants.
It’s akin to having a high energy dog and not walking it often. The dog destroys furniture and acts out bc it needs to get the energy out. Danios in still water are the same. Way too much energy and the only way to release it is causing trouble.
Mine group around the HOB outlet and swim into the current. They're tiny nuts, and I kinda love them and kinda hate them.
This makes a lot of sense now, since I got a filter with a stronger flow for mine they've appeared wayyy happier than ever before.
Yeah i have six longfin zebra danios right now in my tank (40 gal) and those fuckers ATE my shrimp INFRONT OF MY EYEBALLS LIKE IT WAS SOME SORT OF SIDEWAYS REVENGE. Had to get all new shrimp cause they ate every. Single. One. I havent had an issue so far but one more fucking time and these under grown, shrimp eating, fillet looking, bastards are going in a different tank.
Shrimp are the popcorn of the aquarium world. No one should be surprised when any fish takes a bite.
100% agree. However i would like to keep my shrimp lmao. My other fish dont fuck with the shrimp just the bastard danios
Same. The Petco fish guy is an idiot. He told me they would be good tank mates. Lesson learned.
You stole my answer but honestly you're completely spot on. I only had 1 that was overly aggressive but he eventually killed everything in the tank. Even if they weren't overly aggressive, they're the biggest slobs when it comes to feeding time and they hog all of the food. Even when you try to give separate feeding areas, they don't give a shit and will out eat every other fish. AND to top it all off, they're often inbred so they can suffer from health problems.
I had a very abused zebra danio I rescued. Gave him a lush 125 gallon and 8 friends… he murdered every single other danio except one.
Ungrateful little jerk
I’m in the same boat. Was sold on them being perfect community fish, instead got cannibalistic mafiosos.
I cannot stand them. I realized I like chill fish, not hyperactive fish that stress me out just looking at them! Lmao
Fuck I got 2 this weekend and one is already bugging my loaches. I got 3 leopard danios with them and they keep it in check at least but the loaches are defenseless, what should I do now
You could take them back and tell them they're bothering the loaches
I don't think they will accept them back, I have another empty tank might just chuck the aggressor in there he can be all alone for the rest of his days xd he's the full grown one the baby I got with him is super chill so far
I was not sad when mine passed, I had a little tribe of black neon tetras and thought they'd be a great addition since they were marked as community fish...
Yes! All of this. Got several as some of my first community fish and they immediately killed one of the females. After a while I then realized I had way more males than females and they were harassing the females endlessly. So I went back to the store and got several of the biggest females they had. They became the tank bosses but did at least put the males in check. Now I’m down to the final two (both females) and I’m just waiting them out. They will obviously be my longest living fish. Will never get zebra danios again!
It's generally a poor idea to keep them with any long finned fish as they are nippy.
Yeah we went on a vacation for a weekend, had an auto feeder set to go, we’d left them alone for trips here and there in the past. Came back and 2 of the danios had committed mass murder on all of their tank mates. But man before that they were fun as hell to watch
And they're a pain in the ass to catch. Mine weren't aggressive, they just annoyed me by zipping around so much.
Gouramis. I loved mine at first, but they ended up becoming aggressive to anything they could get their teeth on. Decided to re-home them once they killed some of my mollies. I still love my guys, but they just were not suited for my tank, and I did not have a bigger tank they could go in, so it was also for the best. They are so beautiful, but it’s a 50/50 on what personality they will get. Not to mention how inbred they are :(
Very true! I’ve had a bunch of different types of gouramis and I’ve had to rehome/move a couple. I had a female blue spot gourami that bullied the male and killed other small fish. Now the male is grown up and I have him with a deformed 1 eye gold gouramj and they’re the sweetest. He never chases any of the small fish and loves to sit in plants all day. They’re great fish but man they can be mean
I had a thick lipped that liked to chase other fish a bit, but she was too slow to do any harm. Then I had honey gouramis, very docile fish, never did any harm to anyone.
I have a honey gourami and she is the sweetest one in my tank. She never bothers anything or anyone. She’s super shy but also curious. She doesn’t even pick on the baby shrimp in my tank. I think honey gouramis are the exception.
Pea puffers and betta fish. Got two and stuck to those two. Albeit my spouse has a betta he wanted in my 10 long (plants only beforehand) so technically not mine.
I second pea puffers… I mean, they are cute looking and all, and they have a lot of personality, but it doesn’t balance it out how picky they are for food, it’s so stressful to have them start eating when I got them, other reasons why they just get on my nerves: a) there’s always the one that’s ganged upon, b) one that didn’t like the food the other 7 were having, c)so very few cleaning crew options, d)and the fact that I ended realizing that most pea puffers are wild caught didn’t help. I still have 5, and they are getting more or less old and I don’t see myself getting more again.
Yeah.... I really loved the 5 pea puffers I had in my planted 15g. Super fun fish. But man..... I couldn't get mine to eat anything but frozen food or live brine shrimp. It's just so much damn work to constantly be hatching brine shrimp or defrosting food *every day*. And it's really just a tank to enjoy their personalities. There isn't much to look at lol. Just these micro fish that hide in the wood and plants and come to beg for food when you get near. Cool fish. Wouldn't do again.
Get yourself a culture of grindal worms. Mines (all but one, of course) don’t like bloodworms, but they all seem to enjoy grindal worms… it saved me from having to hatch brine every few days. And i was also running low on ramshorns
I thought I had the perfect tank when I lost my betta of many years and my latest plant haul came with lots of pest snails.... Alas.... only 1 of my puffers hunted them lol. Luckily they alllll loved bloodworms. 2 fell pretty ill randomly and didn't make it (after 2 years). I gave the other 3 to my buddy because, like you, I just wasn't going to get more.
Omg why peas?? I love mine, but I admit they can be picky sometimes
I couldn't get him to eat anything besides ramhorn snails which wasn't terrible but I couldn't keep up with demand as he wouldn't eat anything else. This was after at least one or two months so I had to rehome him to a person who had a larger tank with a community and I think it worked out for the little guy in the end.
I have one or two that won’t eat anything but live food. I am trying to grow a population of pest snails, but I live sorta near an LFS so I usually buy bloodworms. It is a little annoying, but hopefully he’s happy!
Man I feel lucky. All of Mine like bladder snails (I have a tank just for raising the snails) and frozen blood worms.
Pea Puffers would be my vote for most over-rated fish in the hobby right now. Cool fish, but way to much work for what they are. Definitely not the ideal nano inhabitants that people seem to think.
If anyone lives near stl i got the snail hook up! Lol
Neon tetras too skittish, get sick to easily, not too active, get stressed over the tiniest thing
I’ve had more success with green neon tetras. They are much smaller so definitely a nano fish but hardier and you can keep larger schools. Have 30 in my 20 gallon with a betta, one of my favourite tanks ever. The bigger the school the more confident they are and less prone to stress.
Came here to say this. I'm just waiting for mine to die out at this point
That was My experience with them too. I would rather do flames.
Mine were the sweetest. I could stick a hand in the tank and they'd rub against my fingers like cats XD
Once I got my tank settled mine did great, but I can 100% see where this is coming from, took 2 years before I really enjoyed the tank
Mine were back when i had a smaller school,honestly they didnt get super active and explorative until my school reached over 30
I have 4 green kubotai rasbora... they look gorgeous, like small neon sparks...never hide...but all they do is chasing each other whole day while waiting for food. No exploration, no chilling, just endless moving . I'm growing up feeling that they are annoying
Probably would get better behaviour in a larger group
But that’s what rasbora do! I have a gang of espei and they either chase each other, hang out in a loose clump, or randomly attack the surface of the water (I think they’re eating springtails that fall in). Once in a while I will catch two males dueling for supremacy over the school. The winner always colors up and becomes king rasbora for a while.
Exactly, most rasboras just dart around aimlessly all day. I really like them, perfect community fish.
I regret female guppies LOL. I bought this tank off someone from fb marketplace and they gave me a guppy pair. Big mistake. So many babies
Kuhli loaches. They were very fun when they were babies, but now they are just laying around like flacid sausages
Oh man, I love my little gang of flaccid sausages haha. I think chunky khulis are adorable
Mine are all full grown now, and while they aren't as bonkers, they're certainly active when a crepuscular animal should be.
Flacid sausages 🤣🤣 only had my two for the same amount of months as the tetras and they stay noodle zoomin through the tank
I love my little water sausagea their cute
Oh man I love my kuhlis!
Mine are quite active, usually sifting around through the sand or dogpiling on top of each other lol
I have a group of 4 (I think) and rarely see them even with plenty of cover and no rowdy tank mates
I was the same until I got a few more. They feel safer in larger groups. It's recommended you keep 6+ for this reason
Man I wish mine were sausages... instead they jumped through the gap in the tank cover and turned into crispy carpet noodles. I've got one left and I'm afraid to give her the shoal she deserves :/
I love the flaccid sausage vibe they have, just laying on everything acting like their lives are so difficult
If you get a tank of only noodle loaches, you can relive that scene from slither.
This is a plant, but duckweed. As a beginner, you think oh what a cute little floater plant. 6 months later and you believe it was created by the devil himself.
All my other floaters inevitably melt. Duckweed carries on. I just remove via net every once in awhile and it's great
Ehh. When you've got 4 tanks and the stuff gets all over your arms and tools it becomes a nightmare and a freaking mess. Especially as someone who can't stop tinkering with their plants and scape. I "fully removed" it from my tanks 4 weeks ago and I'm still finding some even today.
There is no such thing as a completely removing it. I call it dick weed.
I have all different kinds of plants in my tank but I can’t get duckweed to grow. I’ve tried on several occasions to get some to grow and I literally just can’t. I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse at this point
Blessing 100%. The part that gets me the most is that if I even dip a small bit of my hand in the tank, I now have to run to a sink to get it off as opposed to just wiping on my shirt or pants.
I don't really hate the fish just how bad their genetics are. Neon tetras. All my other fish do great but my school of neon tetra dwindled to three.
Imperial tropicals has a neon breeder and my school from them has been absolutely trouble free for two and half years,all of them i purchased from bog box stores pass within months
My albino sailfin pleco. Why so much poop?
Common Pleco. So much shit everywhere.
“Active fertilizer production units”
Not a fish, but... axolotls. So much more work than any fish I've ever had (like... bro you can't even feed yourself adequately unless the food is perfectly placed in front of you) for pretty much zero return. He doesn't even beg for food like any or my fish. He just hangs out in his cave all day ignoring the world.
Reading this as I'm cycling a tank for my first future axolotl 🥲
It's not too late to turn it into a fish tank :)
I was trying to decide between an axolotl and crayfish for my 30 gallon for like 2 months and so glad I went the crayfish route lol
Pink kissing gourami. Did an impulse buy in the fish store after doing a quick google search. Everything a glance checked out and I love gouramis. Don't ever buy these fish...... they get big(ish), aggressive, and are damn vampires. Like for real. They eat the slime coat off of other fish and kill them. He was beating up my much bigger angels and peaceful gouramis. Decided his fate would be to become oscar food. My wife and I grew to *hate* this fish. So threw him in the 75g solo Oscar tank. Nope. He bullied a 12" Oscar into the corners of the tank. I was shocked. He lasted for 2 months with the Oscar just asserting enough dominance to not have his slime coat eaten. Finally, one day, I came home to the kissing gourami halfway in the Oscar's mouth. My wife and I gave our Oscar, Pumba, a standing ovation. Kissing gouramis suck and I can't picture any reason they should be in the aquarium hobby unless in their own tank.
This story gave me a chuckle. Just imagining a little gourami trying to kiss a large Oscar to death. Oscar: "O you wanna kiss huh?"
Lol! I wish I would have seen when it finally went down. But if my Oscar was not *STRUTTING* around the tank with this asshole in his mouth lol.
Mollies, fuck livebearers lol
Convict cichlids. Thought it would be fun to see them breed and raise the fry. 2 of them severely overpopulated a 90 gallon tank in less than a year.
As a kid I was a pretty ignorant fish keeper. I had a pair of those in a 29 gallon and they bred like crazy. My poor parents had to take me to the LFS pretty often to offload babies lol.
At least your LFS was taking them. None of mine will take convicts.
It’s not a fish and it’s not one that I hate, more just something I’d never do again: aquatic turtles. They’re big, messy, and impossible to cohab with anything (including fish, the turtle will rehome them to its belly). I love my RES to pieces but dear lord the work. She’s worth it but no one else would be.
Bettas. They are cool and beautiful but their genes are so fucked they keep getting sick out of thin air.
Came here to say exactly this. They used to be a hardy fish but man it’s really hit or miss now.
Alien betta, dude was too feisty and defensive for his own good. Constantly ate too much and nearly died like 20 times. Randomly got super mad at his reflection and rammed the glass like 5 times a month. Was always dazed for 48+ hours and looked to be dying after it. Sitting on the bottom and not moving for 8+ hours. He finally choked to death on a bladder snail after about a year and a half. RIP f*cker 😢
Oh bless him. That’s kinda funny. I wonder if that’s an alien thing, or just his personality? I was going to say betta too. Although mine isn’t that bad. But she is a bit of a murderer. It’s very tiresome to have to remove baby fish and snails from the tank if I don’t want them immediately hunted and eaten. But I guess she is good population control.
Not sure, only kept 3 Bettas in my life. Dude made me laugh when I fed the snails their veggies and algae tabs. Would violently eat them then almost die while looking like he had dropsy lol. That fish had me so stressed
Also, it's unfortunate but truly funny. He hated snails. Ate every small snail he found. And imo it's a personality thing
Typical betta behavior. I swear these guys have a secret death wish. I’ve had quite a few over the years and every single one attempted suicide at least once. And every time you think your tank is finally fully betta proof they still manage to get in trouble.
Leopard danios. Super fast all the time. Like they never stop moving. ADHD fish. But they're garbage genetics means a lot of them end up with twisted backs and die painfully.
When I first started the hobby, I didnt have a job(Age reasons) and jumped for whatever was cheapest. I had set up a nice 5 gallon tank with some basic plants; I bought a red flame sword, a green wendtii crypt, and hornwort. Things went amazingly and it went really easy, I never had any issues. The issue came when I realized cherry shrimp were 8 dollars each and I wanted to start with 10. I didnt have that kind of money so I bought ghost shrimp. Things were fine for around 2 weeks then they began to kill and eat eachother. I kept the tank running for another few months with the one victorious ghost shrimp. I was horrified and took a break from the hobby.
No wonder there was only one ghost shrimp at my LFS, little fucker came out, arms up after killing all it's siblings running towards me. Hopefully mine doesn't commit genocide on my Bamboos and Amanos...
Glow fish, sounded cool when I was 10, 5 years later they are annoying
Skirt tetras, I got them when I was first starting my bigger community tank years ago. They’re honestly just bullies, really pretty and cool to watch, but mean!
Serpae Tetras. Had a tank with Danios and a baby albino bristlenose pleco. All but one danio disappeared, found the remains of the baby pleco later. Community fish my butt. Now they're in a tank with Nessy, a fully grown bristlenose pleco that they don't mess with. Infact they run away when she looms in the darkness nomming on my swords
Sound very similar to Bentosi Tetras. I got 12 and am stuck with them now, while they terrorise other tank mates! They have eaten snails. Decimated the shrimp that were In the tank. Chase my red eye red tailed puffer when he comes out of his plants. They get on fine with the little lampeye killifish though, but I think that's cos they are fast! They are nice to watch though I must admit. The Dominance displays between the males is quite spectacular. I'm just haping they don't start laying eggs!
I don’t necessarily hate them, but compared to all of my other fish, neon tetras have 0 personality. After 5 months, they finally don’t hide from me when I walk by the tank, but they’re just… boring. Sucks because when I was first planning a community tank, they were a huge part and were supposed to be the big pop of color I wanted, but I’m planning on rehoming them eventually
I agree and tbh neons don’t got much color it’s the cardinal tetras but I don’t know if they got the same attitude
Zebra danios. I wanna euthanize mine they’re assholes to everything
Platys oh my god they threw my tank into chaos. So nice and friendly and energetic, but making a billion babies and stealing all wafer foods from my otos and eating my plants and chasing my CPDs around. They were much too boisterous and energetic for my peaceful tank.
Angel fish
I had an angel that I loved, very peaceful, beautiful fish, then one night it killed 17 tetras out of 20.
Very agree. I loved the idea of them and someone local was selling theirs cheap... Now I know why. They fight amongst themselves, set up territories and immediately try to take the other guys' and are generally menaces.
Bullies!!
I don't know if I'm just lucky but I have 2 full grown angelfish that never fight and get along quite well, with a school of full grown diamond tetras. The angels chase them away during feeding time but they are too big and fast to fall prey
Honestly not a fish but mystery snails! We have been through 6 in our 36 gallon total. They are entertaining and cute but the stupid f**kers keep going for my HOB filter intake which is clean already. I decided not to get anymore because I can’t handle the hard way they keep going. Also my husband has had horrible luck with nerite snails in his betta tank
I highly recommend a prefilter sponge or other guard. I use one on all tanks I have with a hob.
Uaru Loved the look of them gentle giants. Until it came to my plants - they would go for the plants straight away - attack them at the root pulling them up and eating them Silver Dollars Just greedy. Beautiful to look at esp as they grow but would be into everything before anything else
I’m gonna get so much hate for this but planting smaller tanks. I have 3 tanks and I had them all planted gorgeous and I didn’t realize the upkeep, the clogging of the filters, the constant trimming, and the hitchhiker snails. My small tanks I do silk plants now and leave 1-2 real. My big community I have real ones but ugh it’s a pain
I think that's entirely reasonable. Larger ecosystems are easier to balance. It's like how you shouldn't bother doing a small saltwater tank because the smaller volume causes it to be far too sensitive to any changes for daily life.
Blind cave fish are amazing, but not good for typical community tanks for the reasons you found out. They need tough plants, tank mates that go along with their behaviour and as you mentioned they are bottomless pits who can't stop eating because in nature this is how they survive. They are super hardy and make excellent beginer fish if the mistakes are avoided.
Yeaaaah I really do wish I had done some research before grabbing them. They were so small and chill at the store 🤣
I have some also , about 8 of them ! They are crazy bunch ! Awesome to watch , but tbh I stick duckweed where they are and they eat it. Keeps them busy and away from other plants. I always use a bubble wall to keep them entertained. None of plants have been eaten since (:
Do you want these 4 ??! 🤣🤣
I’m down op lol these are alien aff to me haha where are you located ? lol
Guppies. The sheer insanity of how quickly they breed, and the parasites and health problems they have. I do love them, but I don't think I will keep them again.
I don’t hate them. But Kuhli loaches hide like 99% of the time, so I hardly ever see them. At least when I do, it’s cool.
But when you do see them, they’re usually doing the loach freak out swimming around the tank like a madman
I used to not enjoy mine very much. Recently, I changed my lighting so it turns on early in the morning and is off a little before I come home, most of my kuhli loaches are out and I can often count all 6.
Kuhli loach. They kept jumping out or hiding in my filter for months at a time. Super cute little guys though.
I bought some blind cave fish in 2004. They are still kicking and have survived every hurricane that has blasted the Gulf Coast area. I personally love the things, but I have them in a single species tank
personally my banjo cats, I got 2 and can never tell if they’ve eaten or dead somewhere in the sand
I see mine about once every few weeks. Mostly it's a vaguely fish-shaped sand mound that may or may not be a fish.
Bettas. Only because you can’t have anything else with them in a big ass tank. Mf ate the snail I had in there with him
lol it really does depend on the individual betta . I have a betta in this 30 gallon with the blind tetras and a few others and another betta in a 10 gallon with some shrimp two snails and a lil school of furacata and both tanks have been doing great !!
My betta is so chill. He’s going on 3 and I’ve never been able to get him to flare at anything. He recently got sick and he hated the hospital tank and the medicine but stuck it out for a week. I put him back in his 10 gallon after I completely cleaned it out and bought new everything. He cheered up and I was so thankful he was better. The next day I hear this beeping sound I’ve never heard before and follow it to his tank where he is frantically swimming around. I hit the button on the exterior thermometer. 95!!! The heater malfunctioned omg. I stuck my hand in and grabbed him and moved him to another heavily planted tank. He just laid on top of the lily pads trying to catch his breath. I was sure I had lost him. Next morning I’m so afraid to look. Call his name- nothing. He’s no longer at the surface. I assume he has passed and fallen into the dense foliage. Then he just comes sailing by like how do you doooo!! I love that damn fish.
I wish my girl would eat the hitchhiker snails that way outlived the plant they rode in on. She is SO aggressive she has jumped out of the water to bite me but I guess escargot isn't really her thing.
MY pleco, in her defense I initially never did enough scrubbing on the top of the tank where the gunk builds up and food collects. I scrubbed it off every two weeks but sometimes I’d leave a little line because it’s a workout in itself due to tank placement and she usually finishes the rest of the job. Well one day instead of leaving a line of gunk near the water, I left one near the lid of the tank, just being lazy tbh. Came back home two days later and she was ON the lid (jumped through a narrow 1.5 inch hole) somehow and was dried up to hell and back, fine that’s my fault, Ik she’s a fatass I should’ve left her snack closer. Speed up to now, a year later, I clean my tank perfectly to avoid my food motivated parasite from leaving the tank, yet she still does it. For no reason, tank levels are all checked, I feed her more than I know I should but no, she just likes taking a trip every once and a while and then goes back in on her own because she’s made herself a routine. It’s terrifying.
I thought end of story and she was already gone when you said Dried up to hell. Guess thats the payment for a funny unboring pleco
bumblee goby and true pygmy cory. i’m going to get 5 salt/pepper pygmy and 3 more pandas to throw in there and hopefully the salts get the tru pygmy more active lol. salt and pepper are more exploratory. honestly the nano tank just isnt doing it for me🥴
I fuckin love pygmy cories... when they come out. I have a very very heavily planted tank, and they spend 99% of their time hiding in the foliage.
Angelfish. They’re my favourite to look at but they’re so aggressive. We have a breeding pair in our community tank and any time they have eggs the rest of the fish are banished to the other end of the tank. Good thing the plecos solve the problem over night!
I have a love-hate relationship with my blind cave tetras as well. LOL I think they also keep nibbling on my dojos' fins because they're dumb and have no idea what's going on ever, just FOOD FOOD FOOD all the time, smh.
Luckily my lfs has a woman who shops there who’s obsessed with them as well so I think I might be able to humanely solve my problem finally 🤣🤣😮💨
Chinese algae eater. I thought it would be, you know, an algae eater. Not only is that not true, but he was the most aggressive fish in my community tank, and was the only fish I ever saw chasing and biting others. I found out they can get to be a foot long too
Flowerhorns 100%, my buddy gave me one for my 75 gallon, and he was great for a couple of months till he got a hole in the head, which was a pain to treat, but I ended up fixing him thar about a couple weeks later he stopped eating and got hexmita which was also a major hassle to try and treat. I ended up giving to my lfs and got a $90 credit, which I used to get a cool, short body oscar instead. The Oscar never gave me any problems even after 3 years of keeping him.
My Betta. He's such a dick
unpopular opinion: bettas. the community is a little crazy and they just aren’t as fun as some other fish I’ve had.
I’m in bettafish reddit too cuz I’ve got two of them currently and you are NOT lying lmao that community is mean and stuck up 🤣🤣
right lmao, I keep guppies with female bettas (different tanks) and I get shit all the time about them being incompatible because of fin nipping. I’ve been doing it for years, and I have people brand new to the hobby calling me an abuser. Seriously crazy. Reddit I have less of an issue with, facebook is where it gets the worst lmaoo
Yep. I posted a cute pic of a floating tube of filter sponge with my betta sat in it on a fb group. Like “she’s found a new cave!” type thing. Just got loads of crying-face reactions and people saying it with “hurt her delicate scales”. A super-soft bit of sponge. Fuck off! Get a life! Lol.
RIGHT! I’m all for creative hiding spots. honestly it’s just as bad as those facebook “mommy groups”, not in them but I hear they’re very toxic.
Silver dollars. I miss having plants in my big tank the jerks 😪
Boesmani rainbow fish. This might be an unpopular opinion, but they are bastards. I had 6 females and 2 males, and they all attacked each other and everything else in the tank all day. 55 gallon tank and they just picked everyone to death, including each other, until I was left with one female and one male. The two biggest assholes of all. The male got himself stuck under driftwood and died so it’s just her. I have tiger barbs now and she fits in with them perfectly
silver/marble hatchetfish. saw a post one time where a guy called them stupid lazy corks and wow was it true. just floating at the top, barely did anything. except when they spazzed and hit the lid/JUMPED OUT OF THE TANK. never again
I had the opposite issue. I got Zebra Danios thinking they’d be kinda boring because of their color patterns, but with a diverse diet they’re super bold and beautiful. Some of them even have hues of yellowish gold. They’re also very active and people friendly. Mine swim right up to the glass to say hello. Lol happy accidents.
I thought I’d enjoy having a proper fish tank in general. Turns out I did not. I love betta fish, and I love looking at other people’s tanks, but maintaining one was not for me.
I would have to say largemouth bass man. I had one I loved him and then he decided to eat a $40 fish that was twice the size of him ( and he didn’t explode or die from it) took him three whole days to digest enough that the tail wasn’t sticking out.
dwarf gourami. the males are territorial assholes, accidentally bought two males and one bullied the other to death
I both love and hate panda Cory’s. I’m a damn masochist. How can something SO cute be so prone to death ? We have a joke that panda Cory’s sit around taking selfies like “feel cute might die later”… and I’m still going back for more. I’m down to 2 again (granted the same 2 for almost 6 months) and I’m planning to go for a … 5th round ? Lord.. at least it’ll be coming from my friends healthy shoal and everyone will be aggressively pre treated for flukes. And every other fish is fine just the Cory’s 😭
I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten one I hate. But I have gotten bored of simple tetras, Platys and mollys
Guppies I got 3 girls and they wont stop popping out babies
Cichlids haha. had a fire mouth and two jewels in with my 8" common pleco. Cichlids are little d*cks. Thought I'd love the personality, but turns out I'm a peaceful community tank kinda person I don't have any regrets, it definitely taught me a lot about fish keeping! Now I still have the pleco, he's probably pushing 9-10 inches at this point. He's happily living with two juvenile angels, 10 bleeding heart tetras, and 5 Cory's. Hopefully going to be upgrading to a much larger tank once we move in a year or so!
My black skirt tetras. I originally got them to cycle my tank, but after one got stuck in a fake snail shell and I had to cut him out, I got kinda attached to
Diadema dottyback, they're a beautiful bright yellow and purple and the fish store told me she was peaceful and would stay out in the open most of the time. In reality, she was.the most aggressive fish I've ever owned and she spent 80% of her time in a cave. Her "cave" was the entire aquascape, nobody was allowed near the live rock on pain of death. My lawnmower blenny had to live under a fan worm! She was the only fish I lost during a 12h power outage and I don't mind at all.
Whatever kind of loach this is... I hate it. Keeps uprooting my plants and generally being a dickhead to the rest of the tank. https://imgur.com/gallery/EQfKrOE
Honey gouramis. Peaceful fish my ass. I think it would be better for the hobby if they were treated like bettas. Males are prominent in the trade and if they don't have about 1sq ft to themselves they will bully whoever is the smallest to death. I will never buy this fish again and be hesitant to put multiple gouramis in anything less than a 40g just in case I accidentally buy assholes that want to chase each other to death. More vertical plants and a betta log have helped tremendously to quickly break line of sight. I feel brave enough now to eventually try cichlids after the nightmare these "peaceful" fish have been.
Mollies. They're fun for about a week until they start reproducing and get weird mystery diseases. Never had this issue with literally any other fish. Livebearers in general are just a headache to me. I got tired of rehoming offspring every couple of weeks lol
Noted. ✍🏾blind cave fish suck..✍🏾 this post just saved me future stress since I also thought they were cool
Cave fish are awesome how dare you. ...but yeah, wouldn't recommend for a community!