Mystery snails, and cherry shrimp! I love these guys so much, that I have 3 mystery snails and I think about 7 cherry shrimp. Their easy to feed and look after, and are quite cool
I love dwarf frogs! They were my desk pets for a while. Met a cute girl once who was also into fishkeeping, asked her if she wanted to stop by to check out my frogs, next day she came back to watch Star Trek the motion picture, and a year later we were married! Lol those little frogs were pretty great!
I’ve used a female Molly as my centerpiece fish! She was too hyper for my embers so now she lives with the African dwarf frogs and is a food hog but I’m pretty sure she believes she’s a frog now and has been accepted into the army of frogs!
That's so weird that the African dwarf frog stays aquatic its whole life. It goes through metamorphosis. It replaces it's fins with feet. All for what. For nothing 🙃😂 so weird
What I meant was since they remain in water for their entire lives, why grow legs with feet? They don't need them because they remain submerged in water like fish do.
theyre so unique! thinking of getting 2-3 for my 6 gal live planted. Not sur etho bc i might just end up getting another betta, lol. I just love labryinth fish
I kept fish when I was a kid (before I knew about proper fish care) and I had the bright idea to keep a yellow-only tank. I had a yellow betta, albino African Dwarf Frog, and a mystery snail. I kept them for months together until my snail went "missing" from its shell. Soon after the betta and frog died as well, but now I know it was probably due to improper care. Parents should not let tweens do whatever they want.
I agree. As a kid, I was allowed to have all kinds of pets but was never shown how to properly care for them. My parents didn’t take up the responsibility either, and it resulted in improper care and neglect. As I got older I realized this, and I now enjoy doing tons of research on my pets and doing my best to make them as happy as I can.
Bettas are awesome, they need no substitute. When I started out I had a similar "hipster" attitude about something being too common or normal or whatever, but then I actually got a betta and love them now. Easy to feed and a big personality.
same! they're so forgiving, very hardy, not messy in terms of bioload, and stunning. They also have more of a pet vibe because theyre usually kept alone and that personality +their tendency to follow u around their tank glass makes them such a joy to keep.
i was thinking kinda similarly once i started researching 10 gallon setups, but honestly am leaning towards a betta because i would love a fish with a big personality and a name that is easier to feed and less messy than a pea puffer. just seeing photos of others' bettas brings me so much joy. however i also love the idea of a honey gourami with schooling fish. so hard to decide!
The first fish i ever had were gouramis and still love them . Most gentle fish especially if 4 or more are kept in a community tank . Still have 4 in my main community tank and are the sweet hearts . Mine are banded gouramis . Local / endemic to our area . Colisa fasciata is the scientific name
@@Winnin737 my advice is to have a highly planted tank with plenty of places to hide. I have mine in a twenty with my betta. I can’t stress enough the ease of anubias gel glued to a lava rock or wood. They are so care free and beautiful in the tank environment. And since they aren’t planted the rock or whatever you glued them to can be moved as needed which comes in handy if you want to clean or change the tank around.
@@Winnin737 Chili rasboras are very small. Full grown, they're between 1.8 and 2cm. I would be concerned that a dwarf gourami could eat a chili rasbora.
@@cyndicombs1419 I spent the winter 2017/18 November till April in hospital. My family brought me a Walmart royal blue crown tail and a small tank half the size of a shoebox ( very bad size I know) . That fish and I went through a lot together,learning to swallow and move everything again. That’s why I will always have a soft spot for them.
Cosmo wants to let you know he's highly offended at the thought of any comparison! Shhhh, don't tell him my next 10 gal might be an all-male guppy tank! 💙💜💛🧡❤🤎🖤💜
Lol I also named my plakat Cosmo!! He’s white, black, and red with some shiny turquoise in his tail. I’ve accidentally made a space theme with my tanks- my female betta is named nebula and the harlequin rasboras that live with her have been dubbed the Guardians of the Galaxy. And then I decided to keep with the theme and named the stray cat who shows up at my house Hubble, like the space telescope!
Great to see you cover adf's! They are an absolute joy! I would like to say however, that it's best to feed them frog pellets like omega one frog and tadpole pellets as foods like bloodworms and black worms can cause bloat. I would also recommend keeping them in groups of at least four as they are very social. As for community tanks, depending on their temperament they could make great additions to a tank of bad ones. I personally have four adf's (two wild type and two leucitic), a betta fish, a few bladder snails that hitch hiked of of some aquarium plants and a small group of 6 endlers.
Do you know if they would eat Pygmy corydoras? My Betta sadly just passed. Was thinking of getting another for her 20 long tank she was sharing with Pygmy corydoras and rams horn snails but was thinking maybe adfs 🤷🏼♀️ corys were there first so anything I pick has to be compatible
You should do a pest snail alternative video, and make a list of all the snails that don’t breed out of control. You could even list pros, and cons of you wanted to
Betta fish are amazing and intelligent and interactive with their owner👌🏻 and they are so beautiful fishes and look beautiful in planted aquarium and I love them especially Dambo ear Betta fish my 1 favorite is Betta 2 Corydoras 3 Cardinal tetra
another thing to remember with dwarf frogs is filter size! they are a very curious species! the first time i got one, it was exploring the filter and unfortunately got sucked in. I have more now and made a switch in the filter!!
I have been thinking about dwarf frogs or pea puffers. My two bachelor Bettas are doing well. One is in a 7.6 gallon. The other is in a 5 gallon. I truly don't have room for another fish tank at the moment. I'll be sticking with my Bettas for now.
great list! I love my Pea Puffers! they're very personable and it's always nice to see them swim up to the front of the tank and follow you. little school of White Clouds or Ember Tetra in a 10-gallon might be cool too
Though my Angelfish are my favs for centrepiece fish, i would definitely vote for fancy guppies in a nano tank! They are so colourful and are super chill, even with my jumbo angels
I’ve had some success housing pea puffers with other fish, but it really depends, much like with gouramis! as long as the other fish are peaceful, fast, and not super prone to being fin-nipped. great video!
@@rdred8693 Not really. They’re cautious when first introduced to a tank, but take pretty well to frozen food. I just use forceps to swish a cube of blood worms or brine shrimp around so they flutter around like live food, and the puffers go crazy for it.
The Beta can live in a nano-tank, but their key downside (for me) is that tank needs to be heated. I prefer fish that do not need a heater and my favorite is the Japanese Rice fish (Medaka). Unfortunately, the Rice fish sold at Aquarium CoOp are JUMBO sized (Dean's doing) - and they are almost look too big for a nano-tank.
I think Sparkling Gourami would be a nice alternative for a Betta. They are very similar to each other in their way of life and are very beautiful as well.
I just recently got a little pea puffer for my planted nano, I love him so much ❤ though I'm not sure how well he's eating, since he's a little shy... Surprisingly he (Francis) hasn't eaten the cherry shrimp I put in for him, but that's okay because they clean up whatever he doesn't eat 😂
I have peabpuffers in a 6 ft tank with everything from an adult angelfish to bluenrams to guppies. Plant as hea ily as you can and try stuff you might be surprised who can liventogether
I personally LOVE keeping solo green anole lizards as hands-off pets in ten to thirty gallon tanks. They're often sold for cheap, or even as feeders but they have so much personality and are so vibrant
My fish store gets really cool bettas, and different from PetSmart/Petco stores. Which is awesome. The last betta that I got is super aggressive though 😅
My first pick would have been the dwarf and honey gouramis, too. I have two male dwarf gouramis as my showpiece fish (the pet stores only sell males), and would like to try honey gouramis as well. The Big Al's near me is the only local place to carry them, and they only have the wild type (brown in colour). Still, I would like to try them, but I'm worried that the dominant dwarf gourami in my aquarium would pick on them. (He picks on the other one a bit.)
Gouramis are related like cousins to the betta fishes, if nobody or you didn’t know about it. It’s because of how they breed and act. Just that bettas can’t be with each other except a certain wild betta can have many together. Mainly gouramis can have many together.
I just got some dwarf crayfish and i love them. I actually have them with female bettas ,non of which are very aggressive, and some guppies and every1 seems fine. The fish tend to stay away from the crayfish and if they get close the crayfish do a little lunge and the fish swim away so no problems so far.
I love my dwarf gourami. He’s beautiful and full of personality. I got lucky with his temperament, he’s very peaceful and has never harmed or acted aggressively towards any of the other fish, even though they are all smaller than him. I definitely recommend them.
You had some great suggestions on your list! I've always wanted a CPO. They're something different than what you usually see, and they have great color. I have a few green neon tetras in a planted tank and I think a CPO would really pop!
Seriously I kept one betta in a huge 78 gallon planted tank with glow and neon tetras he was living happily in there but he was completely happy with four gouramis
As a footnote to #1, sparkling gourami or croaking gourami would be awesome. For a #6 I'd go with a pygmy sunfish. The gulf coast pygmy is really pretty.
Get yourself a species only African dwarf frog tank! They like a densely planted aquarium with plants growing at the bottom and plants that grow up to the surface. Just look up and do tons of research on fungus and bacterial infections, as this is what they are very prone too when purchased from a store.
I've kept dwarf Mexican crayfish. The first two were killed by my male killifish before I figured out what was happening and the third one started attacking my cardinal tetras in their sleep, grabbing them by their tails. I would definitely not keep them with any species that rests toward the bottom. I'm sure it can really depend on their individual personalities, too.
Sparkling/pygmy gourami! Super small, look kind of similar to a female betta body type instead of other gouramis, and they have the most beautiful shining blue eyes! Also, they croak :D!
My favorite betta fish alternative is a algae eater but its a chinese golden algae eater they are loaches too btw these fish will sometimes chase others but its fine they also require tanks of 20 gallon i believe but its a cool fish it can stay with shrimp as long as theres many plants for them to hide in these fish are also cool fish and they are not too hard to keep. (i didnt do much research but mine looks very healthy but just do your own research to make sure) oh and dwarf frogs are like corydoras to me but they are frogs instead
I‘m really interested to keep a honey gourami but I only have an 8g cube tank and I‘m worried that might be too small for the fish. There isn’t any other stocking besides snails some shrimp.
I have two in my planted 5.5 gallon tank. It was a mistake because I didn’t realize they got as big as they do and the pet shop owner wasn’t extremely experienced with them. But I think if you just do one and 8 gallon cube may be okay. Especially if it’s heavily planted with lots of stuff.
Great video. I’m building a large nano tank style design. And was thinking of other fish than bettas that may work. It’s a community with shrimp so I have to be careful what I allow.
CPO are illegal in many states. The Paradise Fish would be a good choice for this list. It would need a 20g or larger tank and it is semi aggressive but you won't need a heater and they are beautiful fish.
My favorite wet pet besides my betta, believe it or not is my CPDs They come to the top when I feed them and get really excited, especially my runt female I named Bubala.
Raul and Alejandro, my Bettas, are wondering whtyanyone would consider an alternative. :) I have successfully kept a pair of Kribensis in a 15 gallon tank, and they are pretty easy to breed.
I kept a Mexican dwarf crayfish and I disagree that it is a true betta substitute. Bettas indeed don't need aeration, but my crayfish actually died in a 9-gallon tank only because I didn't notice in time that it started to feel bad due to aeration failure. I think the closest alternative to betta that is actually easier to keep is the paradise fish. Biologically it is very closely related to betta and is actually a lot hardier in terms of acceptable temperature.
I remember our school had two albino dart frogs in a paludarium! Really amazing habitat they had for them but sadly they passed when I left the school :(
I have a Mexican dwarf crayfish named Snippy. I got him and he was missing a pincher. Now he roams my shrimp tank and does just fine. You just have to remember not to mix colors if keeping more then one, otherwise they will fight.
fun fact for beginners: bettas fish are in the gourami family, so they dont need an oxygen pump but they do need a filter, bettas can take oxygen from above the water
I have 2 Scarlett Badis (in different tanks) and they are AMAZING. I bought they for 2 tanks that had cyclops, hydra and flat worm issues. All were gone within 2 weeks. I now hatch brime shrimp for them. They eat my bladder snail eggs and anything that lives on a spong filter. 1 lives with a long finned betta and 2 khuli loaches. They other use to live with my cherry shrimp. But when I put guppy fry there I had to move him to his own tank. He couldnt eat the guppy fry but was corralling them into corners.
I have a 20 Gal long tank (not high) with 6 African Dwarf Frogs, some nerite snails, a mystery snail, and a Betta, it's very exciting and amusing to watch ADF's. A few things I wanted to mention if you want to keep ADF's. If you're wanting African Dwarf frogs BE CAREFUL NOT TO buy African CLAWED frogs instead of African dwarf frogs. African Clawed frogs get much bigger and will eat your fish. African Dwarf frogs are a lot less shy with more of them in the tank, I would get a few, just don't overstock, and you'll see a lot of derpy action from these guys. ADF's need a tank that isn't too high up so they can reach the surface of the water easier because they can die if they can't get to air and they aren't the greatest swimmers... Also, the singing the males do isn't obnoxiously loud, you can youtube a video displaying it but it's actually quite subtle, in my opinion. It's not like croaking noises. They also prefer softer substrate, I have aquatic soil with lots of plants in this set up, but an old setup I had featured sand, and they would dig around the sand quite frequently and hide in it, it was super cute.
Hey Girl Talks Fish, I have watched pretty much any videos you have on feeding your bettas (liked all of em for ya and I may have commented on some of them) and I was wondering if I could maybe use a small, divided tank to breed blood worms or brine shrimp and one other thing bettas tend to eat. I’m wanting to find self sustaining foods I can raise on my own for my bettas because I am just a little crazy about caring for my little guy 😝 Got him in a well planted 20 gallon with ghost shrimp (he thankfully gets along with them and doesn’t actively try to kill them on a regular basis. I have had some die though from him killing them for a snack)
Search up a video on RU-vid labeled “Brine Shrimp Hatchery” and you should be good. I’ve never heard of anyone breeding bloodworms but that’s probably because I haven’t searched for it lol
@@apreil4821 I have seen the hatchery, but I was wondering if it’s possible to use the adults to propagate it and maintain an actual breeding ground for infinite supplies. I’ve seen them use larger troughs for bloodworms where they’ll let flies naturally lay the eggs there (I can’t coin the exact name used for the specific fly, but it’s not like an everyday house fly 😂) After sending that comment, I did even more research and have decided not to worry about the bloodworms
Actually, contrary to popular belief, Pea puffers are shoaling fish! They should be kept in groups of 6+ and the minimum tank size for a group of 6 would be 15 gallons. I used to keep a single one after thinking it would be fine. After she died, I did a ton more research on them & watched videos of them in their natural habitat. If you compare their behavior between keeping them alone & keeping them in groups, you'll notice they they tend to be more active when kept in groups, as they're supposed to be.
Another benefit with a Gourami, over a Betta fish, is it's streamline body. Less chance of exhausting itself, trying to swim. Which is one of the reasons, long fin Bettas die early. They have to fight the weight of their fins, and end up sinking to the bottom of the tank, within a few years. Not good, since they're a labyrinth fish. Gourami's live much longer.
About cpos ive kept them with rams and steurbai corydoras and now am keepin them with dario darios and african dwarf frogs and mine is completly peacefull with them but it depent on there personalety
This is perfect timing I have a 20 long and have always liked gourami, maybe I'll get a handful of those pretty blues. Would they be ok with a sand substrate and a large, flaking driftwood piece though? And I adore cories... Ah.. Dreams!
Female powder blues would be fine and honeys will be fine to but don't get male dwarf gouromi they are aggressive I just had to get rid of my neon blue dwarf
Hi can you say any reason my amano shrimp seem to be dying but my cherry shrimp are surviving... Got 2 tanks one with only rummy nose tetras, other with cardinals and a betta.... These were adult amano..
Hello there, recently got into this hobby. made a planted tank and kept some fish but I didn't have lid which was suitable due to hang on filter and light which is strapped in glass. Due to which I lost my Rasbora Harley Quinn. I bought 10 but now I can't find one. dont know where it went. searched on the floor, filter. Can you show me the aquarium lid behind you? or any diy ideas for aquarium lid. you can post it in your Instagram story. I will catch up in there. thanks alot for your videos.
I’ve wanted to get some African dwarf frogs for so long, but I don’t have space for another tank😅 Also, they’re not very common in my city for some reason.
