*What are your top 5 fish that you can't live without?* If you're curious what the top 20 bestsellers at Aquarium Co-Op are, check it out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d7FOJW99ESw.html
Can't live without having some sort of Rainbowfish now. Have a school of Bosmani and Kamaka rainbows in my 75 gal. Neon dwarfs are great in smaller tanks. They're super curious and come out to say hello anytime I'm near the tank.
I haven't kept as many varieties as a lot of people probably being limited to 25 gal so far but my top 5 are: 5. Pygmy corydora 4. Neocaridina shrimp 3. Green neon tetra 2. Either of the phantom tetras 1. Rummynose tetra Top on my someday wishlist is rainbow shiners.
I like that your Top 6 are all species that are generally available from most retailers, generally seen as ‘beginner fish’. I hate the way some people interpret ‘beginner fish’ to mean inferior, or something you need to progress from.
Several years ago I heard Cory talk about enjoying guppies and I was surprised that this guy who could have pretty much any fish he wanted would choose a 'beginner' fish as one of his favorites. It just goes to show that even the most common fish deserve appreciation regardless of experience.
@@drewzero1 I agree and the more I listen to Cory the more I respect him as a face for the hobby. Fish keeping shouldn’t be seen as competitive, or having stages that one is expected to graduate through. But some people have a competitive nature and that’s just the way of the world.
Honestly I prefer “beginner” fish simply because that’s the kind of guy I am. I like hardy, low maintenance, easy to care for, readily available, stress free, etc. Plus the fact they’re so common and popular makes it easy (and fun) for me to research and learn as much as I can about them
For me I like some beginner fish especially schooling fish like cardinals, black phantoms or lambchop rasbora. I would even argue that my bichirs are beginner level. They do grow big but besides that they are verry easy to care for. It's just livebearers that aren't my thing. I think it's a combo off their hyper behavior and the unnatural colors. I also have soft water so not ideal for them anyway.
This is GOATED wisdom Cory!!1 thanks for all this years of fishkeeping! in 5 years having fish, I´ve tried a lot and failed! This is a must watch video!
Wait wait wait 🫷🏼 I knew about Murphy but Ladybird is gone ? 😢 If so I'm sorry man, I know Murphy was a huge loss. I cut Murphy out of the sponge filter box and hung it on my wall in the fishroom to show some more love to the fella.
@@whitneyr4296 yeah this really sucks. I know how much he loved those fish and how all of us fans loved them and enjoyed seeing them in videos and the Murphy camera.
I stopped in at Aquarium Coop on my way home to Vancouver Island from the US and was looking forward to seeing Murphy again. Only to find that he was gone. Sad, but that’s the thing about most pets - you have to say goodbye too soon.
I'm surprised to hear that you fairly regularly re-home fish. I always feel supremely guilty if I have to re-home any of my fish for whatever reason, so this perspective is super refreshing!
I most likely have to do that with a humphead glassfish that we recently bought. I hate to do it but he or she is such a jerk to the rest of the fish in the tank that was so peaceful before. We had to rehome a killifish once that kept eating the smaller fish and our African dwarf frogs, that sucked cause that fish was so cool.
Here is my preferred fish that few seem to mention… but black neon tetra are my absolute favorite. A school of them are a blast to keep. They are super hardy, have tons of movement and their schooling behavior is a blast to watch. A close second for me a pack of albino corys. Could watch them all day cruising around the bottom.
My favorite fish are guppies, Bettas, Pea Puffers, Comet/Shubunkin Goldfish and Bristlenose Plecos. I also like Ramshorn snails and lots of live healthy plants.
If you get peapuffers, have tons of plants double whatever size you were told to keep them in. Also, before getting them, set up a 5 or 10 gallon separate aquarium as a bladder or pond snail farm. They are super picky eaters it took me 8 months before they would even attempt to eat any pellets or frozen food
Great video! Some of my favorites that really got me hooked on the hobby at a young age and I still keep and breed are swordtails,guppies and mollies. Some of my bucket list ones I still want to try again are discus and German blue rams.
I just got some blue eyed fork tail rainbowfish that are so fun. Every time I approach the tank, they rush to the frunt to say hi. I've never seen a tiny fish do that before. I also really love watching kuhli loaches when they get the zoomies at night. Snails are also alot of fun.
I love my group of 6 pea puffers - half male but they have established a hierarchy in a heavily planted tank. They are afraid of adult cherry shimp, and the shrimp are very happy to clean out old bladder snail shells
I'm a huge fan of goldfish and I love Shubunkin!! I wish more breaders in the U.S. would start to breed the Bristol Shubunkin. IMO they are the most beautiful with that big heart shaped tail that is sturdy but not too long or veiled. Please get some Bristols, Cory!!! : )
My favorite fish are: (1) Moonlight gourami - mine is like a friendly puppy dog who eats out of my hand. Love the platinum silver color! (2) Filament Barb - my filament barbs are beautiful irridescent green and very friendly. They always come to the front of the tank and greet me. They also have four babies who are growing very quickly. (3) Roseline shark (barb) - I prefer to call them roseline barbs because they are not closely related to sharks. They are so beautiful and serene. (4) Threadfin rainbowfish - These lovely fish look like they are from an alien planet--just strange with their pointed mouths and long slim physique. They are incredibly peaceful and the males put on stunning displays when they puff out their fins. (5) Angelicus loach - These loaches are peaceful and each one has a unique pattern of spot and line on its body. Sometimes they forget that they are bottom feeders and the swim up to eat with the other fish.
Loved this video, it's important to think about what we actually enjoy and prioritize that, it is a hobby for most of us after all. My list is smaller and shorter, since I live in an apartment and can only keep 2-3 tanks plus a few outdoor patio ponds in the summer. It goes like this medaka, platies, snails shrimp and corys (lots of overlap with yours). I like smaller tanks and t have them all planted.
This was a great list! You can hear the love in your voice especially with the clown loaches and thank you for mentioning the more difficult elements of their care! My favourite aquarium is my little kitchen planted aquarium with nerites and I'm about to add some cherry shrimp. It's like a little game of Where's Waldo everytime look at it 🤣🔥
Pea puffers are the one fish I really really want to try but haven’t yet. Will dedicate a small aquarium to them maybe this winter when I’m stuck inside (live in the northeast USA) Thanks for the list
I've been keeping fish for decades at this point and the favourite fish I've ever kept is a shubunkin! I posted a short of him on my channel, I've had him for 12 years or so
@@AquariumCoop thanks for the reply Cory, absolutely agree! I was breeding ranchus out of a 5ft aquarium and had a pretty catastrophic weekend as I lost them all one by one. I was ready to completely give up on the hobby, stripped the tank down ready to sell on. It was towards the end of the pond season and decided to bring the big guy in for the winter. I went really simple, undergravel filter using pvc pipe, running on a power head. The enjoyment I got from him over the winter kept me going in the hobby. I'm down to one set of shelves with planted nanos, but thoroughly enjoying the hobby again
As I was getting ready to move, I thought about this a lot. All my fish are in tubs outside now. I only have one nano tank inside and I’m currently growing out my betta spawn in it. I am planning to keep a large 6x2x2 of rainbows. I have a 100 gallon tub for my laprolofus multifasciatis with plans to add a rock dwelling lake tanganican fish later. Another 100 gallon is for my two Oscars that I grew up from around 1.5-2 inches. I plan to put some Kribs in the 50 gallon pond. I have one more 100 gallon that I want to be a huge community tank. I have one 40 gallon tank that I may turn into pea puffer land. Other than my Oscars, I prefer smaller community fish.
I plan on getting a small group of male platies in my 20 long and I think they’ll with how active and colorful they are they’d be just perfect for me Bettas, goldfish, angelfish and maybe even oscars are also kind of like dream fish of mine because I love their looks and personality and think they’d make great little wet pets if I had a suitable tank for them
My first tank I had when I was in Middle School and I caught wild fish from the bay. I caught two pea puffers and while they are very cute, they killed a big shrimp (think eating size shrimp) overnight. I decided I didn’t want to have puffers after that but they were pretty cool especially considering I didn’t even know puffers were in the bay. All fish would stay in my tank about a year or less then I’d release them back into the wild where I caught them. I lost interest in the tank and in the hobby - I think I didn’t look into it enough and didn’t appreciate it enough when I was younger. My ‘first’ tank years later as an adult was meant to be a mini patio pond for guppies but I was so stressed If the conditions were good enough that I bought a pet store betta to test it out and the patio pond was clearly good cause he lived at least 3 years, lasted multiple winters outdoors (I have a heater in the tank), got big, enjoyed eating mosquito larvae, and even wasn’t hurt when a water snake lived in his pond for a few days. Sadly I found my betta dead last week. I’m sad he’s gone but everyone is amazed he lived so long. He would come see me but he was still skittish and would hide between the rocks and plants so I still have yet to experience getting to see a lot of fish action. I’ve been wanting guppies really badly because I want to sit out on the back porch and watch them. I’m ready for more fish! And possibly a slightly bigger mini pond for Christmas!
Cory I think that you should put barbs in your 800 gallon tank. Filament barb, mascara barb, roseline shark, aurulius barb, etc. Of course being a barb lover I am just slightly biased. Of course it might be a bit of a challenge to find these barbs. They are not very common in the aquarium trade.
For an alternative to Clown Loaches try Angelicus Loaches. Same goofy behavior, Don't get very big, very hardy, eat the same as Clowns. I've had a group of 7 for 9 years in a wide range of temps from 62- 80° f with no illnesses.
I like Angelicus loaches as well. I just haven't kept as many or as for long as clown loaches. I love the colors on clowns a lot, but love zebra and angelicus loaches also.
Some off my can't live without fish: Bristlenose pleco's and blue phantom pleco's, they are the best pleco's in my opinion as they are decent algae eaters that stay small compared to some other pleco's. Cardinal tetra's and black phantom tetra's, the combo off those also looks verry good. Appistogramma's especially the high bodied ones like for example macmasteri. Their shape resembles more boisterous cichlids like oscars but they stay a manageable size, are calmer and can live in a planted tank. Also their are so many species all with diffrent colors and paterns. I also ordered some angelfish and if that goes well they might also make the list. Working in a LFS I really learned to appreciate angelfish, they are calm but still personable.
I’m getting a new 75g tank soon. I want it mainly for for AngelFish but I do want to add a few more fish. I absolutely love Clown loaches. Would they work with them? Also what do you guys feed them? I’ve never really done anything other than flake, algae pellets and frozen shrimp/blood worms. Also do they do well with yo-yo loaches? Thanks!
I prefer peaceful aquariums too. I have tried lots of different fish and many cichlids as I love their personalities but I have gotten so that I enjoy just watching fish peacefully going about their business. I have a 125 that I am going to set up and I don’t know what to do. Any suggestions will be gratefully considered?😊
Try some rainbowfish! Are you going for small or big fish? I tend to think that small fish in a big, planted aquarium is the most interesting, but know that everyone is different :p I'm currently starting up a 53 gallon aquarium, and will have 3 different types of smaller rainbows in it, and some shrimps and snails. (Then I will probably add something, but I don't know what yet)
My biggest dream for a big tank, which I can't keep for health issues, not mobile enough to do maintenance on big tanks😮💨, is a big tank full of large groups of nano fish. I love my few different Rasbora species and wish I could keep huge numbers. Chili Rasbora and Green Kubotai, maybe some Galaxy and add 30+ Pygmy Corydoras and a huge cohort of shrimp in a big planted tank! 😍
Love my shubunkins but i just lost my 8 year old one so im down to one in my 75, lost others in the last few years. Definitely seems like i cant do more than 3 adults in a 75 otherwise i start to encounter problems at somepoint within a year. Would love to see them in an 800 gallon tank. Wish i had the space for a 125 gallon so that i could have 4-5 of them as the centerpiece of my living room.
Love the video Cory! I have never kept guppies the thought has been there but I always end up going a different route. One question can guppies live with flow like a hob or is sponge filter only a better set up for them?
I'm laughing at the first fish in the list being a shubunkin and hearing "they get maybe 10 inches maybe" meanwhile my Shubunkin is about 14 inches from nose to tail in my 75 gallon 😂 he's definitely a monster, I didnt expect it when I adopted him from my mom I want to get a second or third shubunkin but definitely don't want three monsters, so we'll see
I had clown loaches for over 6 years and fell in love with them, but they got ich an the le lsf was out of ich x and super ich killed them at 1/3 treatment
Cory, have you ever kept Zebra Loaches long term in your home aquarium? How do you think they would do with ladybird? How do they compare to the clowns in behavior? (Loaches are awesome!)
I have kept them and love zebras also. I haven't tried them with a Mbu puffer though. So I don't know if they're a problem specifically. But In general any fish that also likes clams/shrimp have been a problem at feeding time. Clowns were also a problem when not feeding. They're too friendly and my mbu puffers didn't like being sat on by clowns.
I have 5 shubunkin and 2 fantails in a 55-gallon planted tank. At 4-6 inches, they are going to need to be moved to a future 75-gallon in a few months. I have a 29-gallon with dwarf frogs, white clouds, cardinal tetras, cherry barbs, albino corys and yoyo loaches. This is my issue. I only bought the loaches to eat some bladder snails that came in with some floating plants. I've heard they can get aggressive with smaller fish as they grow. I was going to move them to the 55 when the goldfish left and make a betta sorority, but heard they go after flowing fins. Would a 2" loach be fast and big enough to be safe if they stayed with the goldfish in the 75?
Sounds like the answer might be returning the yoyo's to the pet store. They get quite large as well, like 7 inches. Some can be mean, but usually decent laid back. However long fins, could be a problem. I'd just bring them back to the shop and keep what you are truly interested in today.
I have pea puffers as well, so hard to get them to eat anything that isn't pest snails. They never eat flake or pellet food and only sometimes eat frozen bloodworms.
I’ve heard a lot if fish get picky if they get used to live food , they turn their noses up at everything else . Which is why my fish almost never get live food !! lol!!
I also appreciate things that I realize I shouldn't have, because I'm better off admiring them without any personal responsibility. I want all my pets to reproduce. That way if my pets are doing poorly, but reproducing, it gives me a chance to improve their environment and judge if I made it better or worse. If my pets are unable to reproduce or don't reproduce, then if I mess up and they die, I feel like I've tortured a creature for no reason. Also, if you have 1,000 of a species and 10 of them die, it's a whole different experience than if you only have 2 males or only 2 females and 1 dies. With massive breeding, removing dead ones is just part of routine maintenance, rather than a depressing/traumatic/sad experience to cope with.
1500 gallons at the store. Canister filters. I find sumps to noisy and haven’t found a design I like to maintenance from them yet. Great for adding water volume, but messy to service
I have a question to anyone that could help. I used an algae ki!!er in my aquarium once a couple of months ago and now I'm thinking about putting shrimp in there. Can I do that or is it gonna be harmful for the shrimp? Thanks!
Try breeding Convicts? Ha, try NOT breeding Convicts. I had a pair breed with an Oscar and a Clown Knife in the tank. They would chase away an Oscar 3 times their size and the Oscar would run.
