7 Terrible Fish for your Community Aquarium 

How We wish that the world would have more animal caring beautiful souls like you out there. Ever since when I was a teenager I read an expert stated that like in the fish natural waters, THE MORE SPACIOUS THE TANK,, THE BETTER. This became my guiding rule for separate housing small schooling fish like neons, danios, tiger terras, to fancy goldfish, to big cichlids like oscars, or angelfish. If we want to keep our fish happy and healthy, just study/google/ask experts in pet shops or other expert aquarists their living arrangements in nature and copy them as much as possible.

I have a 36gal tank what fish would u recommend I should get? And how many? Ide like to get a good amount and have all kinds of different types of fish. Is that possible?

You are the PetSmart employee that I wish I had at my local store. You are doing nothing wrong. Oscars definitely belong in larger tanks. The customer would find out the hard way at the fishs expense.

@@dbsti3006 I have no interest in getting oscars. I have 2 tetras, 3 guppies, 4 Corys (different types) and 2 frogs. I just want a lively tank with a lot of different kinds cool lookin fish

@@GunnyPA I have the same size tank, rn its doing very well I have 2 gouramis 1 male 1 female, 8 cory catfish, a gold pleco only gets to 4-6 inches long, and I have 2 killifish and 3 platys my tank thrives very well and everyone is happy, havent had any deaths or problems since I added my killi idk why but they get along great with my gouramis

Sup. Lol

Good for you sweetie truely caring for the fish and customers

Oscars are really nice but you're gonna need a 100 gallon tank. Great if you do but that would mean you have some smaller tanks going as well. (This is in response to your post from a year ago. I just added to the page). I hope you are doing well.

The nice thing about this hobby is nothing is absolute. You could get lucky with them and have no issues =)

Ur not alone buddy

My friend has a 29 gallon with 6 opaline gouramis 3 bala sharks and 12 tiger barbs. They didn't listen too me at all 😅 they say its working out well but wait a couple months when everything grows then they'll see

I have a dozen Rosy Barbs in with my tetras, no problems, theres enough of them so they keep the aggressiveness amongst themselves and leave everything else alone

I have tinfoil barbs 6 of them in with neons and guppys and mollys and oleckys platys gorammys

You really need to add a common pleco too. 😆

thought of getting an arapaima?

Have you considered adding about 6 Eastern bottle nose and a couple alligator gar too?

Wait, was this not the "Best community fish" video?

Add pine needles to the aquas cape they calm the f ish down

Do jo from sh

My bala sharks are in a 55 gallon and had them for years and the biggest one is 3”

We had 2 leopard Plecos and they were absolutely massive. They were gentle fish though and never had any issues with them apart from their massive size! Thankfully we kept them in a 40 gallon tank which did the job (surprisingly)

Kinda surprised my common pleco not really that big compared to many others I seen and he about 8 years old. While my sailing who only 2 already just as big as him XD

I don’t understand why as a sales person at a pet store you don’t just say like”you do know this fish can get up to a foot long” my husband bought me one and I had totehome it because I didn’t have a setup for its size but he didn’t know and they didn’t say anything

Common pleco is prob the worst offender that he didn't mention. People get them then dump them when they cant support anymore. Florda is overrun by the things. They get huge and are extremely resilient.

I have one common in my community tank that I was keeping for a friend but she decided she no longer wanted her and now I have a foot long monster that runs over everything but I feel bad that she was unwanted by the original owner

Many many people keep them with tetras no issues. But I'm sure things happen. So they get a bad name for that

its almost like they are tolerating each other for now you know. almost like he said in the video that they can be fine with others for years but one little aggresion towards the puffer and all the others are dead

I had my pea puffer with 4 Molly's in 3 black skirt Tetris for 2 years and he hasn't did nothing he hangs out in some rocks that I have in comes out to eat and go's back the rocks

Thoughts on rainbow sharks?

I have the golden algae eater in a community outdoor aquarium for over a year now. It does eat algae and has not caused any problems till now.

Here in Germany they sell little Ameiurus nebulosus / Brown Bullheads for aquariums. They look quite nice. Get amazingly tame. You can handfeed them and they let you touch them... And then they start eating every other fish in your tank as they grow :D

Beta fish!

I believe I watched that video when it was released. 🙂

The store I bought fish from during the 90's loved to trick us into buying fish not "suitable" for a community tank. They'd show us smaller fish, a centimeter or so and they would look so cute. They got us to buy 2-3 yellow catfish like fish, not sure what they were called, they had long "whiskers" and were really small and super active. But oh boy... did they grow. In a month they were big. Had to move them out of the tank because their appetite for *anything* was very high. They were quick too. They did fine with bigger fish however as long they couldn't eat them that is lol.

Get more bichers and maybe 1 more pleco i have 3 bichers but for some reason my bichers are the nicest fish i own

I had a similar experience with weather loaches. LFS sold them as a great community fish... I've had them 7 months, and they're now 8 inches long. Nothing else lives in their tank.

Ive read Pleco's are not good to keep with Bichirs. They apparently latch on to them at times. Have you noticed anything? Look into the Brittle nose Plecos, those are safe or other types of algae eaters.

@@Sean3D2Y I did notice my pleco latching on my Bichir a few times but more like trying then just leaving it alone

May I buy some guppies from you?

Are you selling some guppies now?

Jason has some really nice Guppies so I encourage you both to check his first and if you like his, I encourage you both to buy his, if not I can provide you a list of strains but this is his channel and I would not respectfully sell on his channel. I encourage you both to post your own comment on both channels respectfully. But I will say Jason has some really nice ones if you check his website also.

@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 they are just standard guppies lol they are not exotic in any way shape or form. Which is why you won't sell them, you literally tryed so hard to look cool but over guppies🤣😭🤣. Nice I see what you did. "I breed rare guppies and they sell all the ones we don't need cheap". So people ask you for some and you say "no Jason has nice ones ask him"🤣😭🤣so it seems you were trying to brag or showoff since you can't give any away like you said you do in your post. Rare guppies 🤣 you are important I bet.

@@rapscallion3421 .. I am selling a lot thank you and have a steady customer base locally.

Yes I looked thru comments to see if anyone mentioned Red tail sharks. We bought two at Petsmart when we started our tank and they nearly killed each other. We separated them 1 to our Son’s tank and kept the other. Both started bullying all the other fish in the tank, the one in our tank starting bullying the Balla Sharks, and the one in our Son’s tank started bullying every fish in the tank and killing a couple of them. We ended up getting rid of both of the fish and now for the most part the two community fish tanks are going well. The two Ballas chase around every once in awhile but otherwise thrive in our 100 gallon tank.

Would love to see that

They get huge!

Could you post a quick vid of them? I’d love to see them

How do you heat it?

@@kingssuck06 I live in a place that’s not cold.

I would also like to one day have a dedicated tank to watch pea puffers do their little pea puffer things. One day... 😁

@@pjp9383 I love watching pea puffers do pea puffer things🤣💚🥰🐟

Hey i have dwarf hair grass in my tank they get algae so much and its no easy to remove ,i have two siamese algae eater but they dont eat them i guess please tell me are otto cinclus good for algae on Hair grass or i should buy a shrimp please reply

@@vikalawa5301 nope I'm afraid not. Try Putting tank in darkness for a week. No lights and wrap in bag to keep natural stuff out. That killed it off pretty fast when I had that problem. 👍

I tried keeping Otocinclus a few times. They never lasted very long and just kept dying

'water monkeys' are brine shrimp

@@nobrainsnoheadache2434 that's sea monkeys mate. It may also be todo with location as that's what local shops have as common name in UK. I always just call em ottos tbh.

I wish more people talked about this aspect of danios. They are little monsters, endless energy and all of it put towards worrying and chasing other fish. Zebras and giants, nipping anything with fins. Never again.

Unfortunately, they also lose interest due to the harsh criticism they receive if and when they make a mistake. Instead of people offering advice, they act like they are trying to make you feel stupid. It almost drove me out of the hobby. I understand criticism or a person not liking my aquarium set up. But there is a way to go about it.

Ikr? I learned a lot from this as a beginner in fish keeping.

Odd, my leopard danios are nice. Favorite fish once matured especially.

Wow never knew danios could be like that

I had Zebra Danios and they were obnoxious with the other fish.

Checking multiple sources - good ones, like this channel, Aquarium Co-op, Prime Time Aquatics, KG Tropical and more - for care guides and info on a species you're considering keeping is a good idea. And what I do is take the more conservative or difficult approach out of those recommended. If tank size suggestions range from 10-20g, I go with the 20. If minimum schooling numbers suggested are from 6-8, I get at least 8. And so on...

That's racist man.

lol

I had a few Cicklids and all they did was fight, never again!!!!

@@donaldewert2402 why can no one spell cichlids lol

@@timmykkgb I only had one letter wrong but I guess I failed, still don't like 'em. I was afraid to try spelling it again HA!!!

LoL. Separated my angel fish today from others today

Mine are with a badis badis

My step dad has shown little interest in his puffers so I continue thinking about putting them in my community tank. The largest fish I have in there are 3 dwarf Gourami’s but I haven’t committed to the idea yet

@@andyalvarez5908 dope i have a pair of puffers living with a scarlet badis cherry shrimp and rocket killies in a 7 gallon and theyre all doing great

Yes! I was about to reply about pea puffers. I put them in my community tank. And they’ve done really well. I added more plants for them so they can hide. I haven’t had any issues. They live with 3 Angel fish, 8 celestial Pearl danios, 20 cardinals, 6 cories and 3 ottos. Hopefully they stay peaceful but I’ve had them in several community tanks and haven’t had issues. I agree I think it depends on the fish.

@@andyalvarez5908 I have a pair of puffers with a blue gourami and a dwarf gourami and they get along swell, granted they are in a 60 gallon

Yeah I have 2 and they are starting to harass my Golden Panchax.

Had a roommate years ago that would cut the tail off the tiger barb that nipped the others. Worked until the tail grew back. Rinse and repeat. It would hide any time net in water.

In the wild they are in giant shoals. More the merrier.

I have mine 8 peas which are in a group and they have been doing well since august last year in a 30g tank heavily planted tank.

I had two pea puffers in a community tank 40 gal for years with not a single issue ever. Not a nipped fin nada. Had a very interesting community tank with a bunch of odd ball fish that somehow blended together perfectly🤷🏻‍♂️. From pea puffers to bubble bee goby’s also a pair to fresh water flounder to pigmy water frogs also paired and also several other species of small unique fish including some fresh water clams. Somehow everything gelled together perfectly. I miss that tank could sit and watch it for hours. I only fed diet of live food and mixed it up to get them all their nutrients, had a large fluvial canister filter then went under stand. TONS of good bacteria from the beautiful porous Mexican pot rock to the biological filter media to the fine sand I used. It was perfectly cycled the and had a good amount of live plants. But years and meticulously added to it slowly. Sometimes I would go back and forth looking for a fish to add over weeks to a month looking for just the right fish. But anyway yeah all these weird fish/frogs/clams etc all lived in perfect harmony. Maybe it was because the tank was set up just perfect? They all had their routine and area and weirdly everything seemed to know and respect it. Maybe it was because I purposely only picked species that were very small or grew very very slowly so there was lots of space. For size of tank I definitely never came anywhere close to capacity. Will see if I get lucky again as I am back into the hobby having the time again now, and want to try and recreate that tank that was my favorite tank back when I was into the hobby before

My tiger barbs chase each other around from time to time, but not once in 3 years have I seen them mess with any of my tetras/zebra danios/cory cats

I had one rosy barb , and it was a crazy fish

I keep barbs with all sorts of fish and have 0 issues I think people run in to issues when they have 5 or less barbs in with other fish

Agreed

Funny enough I have 1 Bala 4 Barbs.. two tigers one golden one green barb..two African cichlids and a Pleco..two years

120 is small for a 2ft fish

Just the other day, I was at my LFS and listening to someone oohing and aahing over the size of a pleco in one of their tanks. "Wow, I didn't know they got so big!" she said. I casually mentioned the full grown size as I walked by, and her jaw dropped. 🤣 (I did tell her there are some types that stay small, if she was interested in getting one.)

@@pjp9383 that's what she said, lol

@@HungQDang Not my type of humour, but I do get the joke. Have a great day.

I'm guessing it may make a difference that you actually have a decent sized school of them. Have never kept tiger barbs, but I know when I first started, I got the bare minimum recommended number of schooling fish. Now that I've moved on to bigger tanks, and learned more, I keep fewer types of fish, in bigger numbers, and get to enjoy their more natural behaviours. Like my most recent addition (in 2 batches) of 16 pygmy cories in my recently re-scaped tank.

I've seen these giants in ponds in every pet store I've been to. All donated because they got too big.

I also love rosy barbs. I used to keep them with green tiger barbs, diamond tetras, dwarf neon rainbows and giant danios.

I tried to keep native fish in a tank but it's so hard. For them to "thrive" you really need to somehow simulate that winter and I couldn't do it as a kid in the 90's. I had some native fish for a few years until I sold them to local aquarium store. The fish I had were carps, perch and one pike. I caught them as fry. The scariest one was the pike. That was a nightmare *monster* lol. The carps were super friendly and they would let me stroke them in water, always coming up to the surface happy. I had them in a BIG tank. Loved it but even then I knew it wasn't right to keep them in such a condition.

You need a smaller sofa

No just try a smaller tank instead.

Nothing wrong with dwarf Cichlids in a community tank.

@@ddc2957 I never had any luck with Kribs or Rams. Even angel fish can be a bit tetchy with fellow tank mates, especially if they decide to breed.

LOL, was looking for this comment.

My rosy barbs attack and eat all of the red eyes balloon tetra's eyes, i thought it maybe happened after I installed the pink light into the tank, possible the red eyes looks like food to them?

A lot of people have had success keeping red tail sharks in community tanks.

Yeah I haven't had a problem with clown loaches or Red tail sharks in my community tank.

My red tail female just died. 7 years. She was nice to my barbs, tetras, mollies and guppies... yes I have a 120 gal but she was nice just not to the shrimp lol

@@classychandu5090 The chief problem I've seen with clowns is that they's a schooling fish that will grow to about a foot long eventually. Otherwise all the ones I've seen have been pretty well behaved.

Never had a problem with clown loaches. Great aquarium fish!

😶🤫

Hey, wait a second.....that’s MY name. Joe (the other one)

Thats a really good one

@@SteenfottAquatics alternative, angelica and yo-yo loaches :)

My clown loach has been doing quite well in my 55-gallon community tank for the past 10 years. Of course, he is in with silver dollars, a bushy nose pleco, Rafael cat and a Texas cichlid, and 3 giant Danios. Everybody does quite well but I do not think I would advise any of them for community tanks.

But they are a blast to feed