Top 10 Beginner Fish You Can’t Get from Petco 

*What's your favorite beginner fish you can only get from a local fish store?*

Kuhli loaches are such ninjas. I heard a story from a fishkeeper who had a large community tank. When he got tired of it, he sold off the fish and cared for large aggressive south american cichlids in the tank. A couple years later, he was relocating to a different country so he tore down the tank to sell it off. Lo and behold, the kuhli loach was still in the substrate. It was able to hide from the cichlids that would've made it a noodle snack, and it was able to live off the food scraps I wonder how Dean's super kuhli survived without food? Probably ate the larvae of mosquitoes that laid eggs in the water?

FYI: if you can’t find the fish you’re looking for at Petco, it’s likely that you can get them special ordered for you if you just ask! Petcos have more variety to choose from with their vendors than they actually have space in the store, so they just check and see if their vendors carry whatever you’re looking for and give you a call when it arrives.

A few years ago, I came across a fish called the Brilliant Green Rasbora at my LFS, and it quickly became one of my favorites. They remind me of a smaller version of Roseline Sharks (same family) with their torpedo shape and black line running along the sides, but they also have an electric-yellow line running alongside the black line, and the tail fin has a bright pop of red. I bought a dozen and put them in a 40 gallon breeder, and years later they're all going strong. Very hardy! I don't see them sold too often in my area, but I'd absolutely recommend them for new fishkeepers.

If you want your fish to REALLY color up. Setup some outdoor ponds, and transfer your fish out there when the weather stays pretty much above 50 at night. Bring them in in the fall. Your fish will have developed so much color it will amaze you. It's the variation in temperature, getting real food (bugs and insect larvae), and living in water infused with algae (great for smaller fish). Not only will they color up, but if you keep only one species per pond you will also have more fish at the end of summer than what you started with. You only need like 100 gallon rubbermaid tubs (stock ponds), and they're really cheap.

Great video, thanks! Coincidentally I got 11 Moskito/Chilli Rasboas yesterday. Initially I had two tanks, intended for keeping exclusivly dwarf shrimps - but then I adopted a Betta which got unsuspectedly gifted to somebody although they have not even an aquarium and got told to just keep it in a glass bowl with tap water and feed it with little pieces of cucumber.. Thankfully this person was smart enough to immidiatly understand that that's not how you keep a betta or any other living creature and looked immidiatly for somebody to adopt it, and so I came to have a betta. It sparked my interest in fish and after I set up a 14 gallons aquascape recently I decided to give it a go and get some schooling fish small enough to live a quality life in a smaller tank. I just introduced them, yet they are anything but shy - I'm watching them right now and it's a joy.

I think there is a local hobbyist in my area putting in regular special orders through my local Petco. They tend to have the same “beginner” fish from week to week, but there have been some gems I’ve found on occasion including green neons, cpds, orange Venezuelan cories, Delhezi Bichirs, red dwarf coral platies, various killifish (seems to change every week), hillstream loaches, khuli loaches, pea puffers, and green spotted puffers.

Thanks to you and your videos I can proudly say my first ever 5 gallon planted aquarium is thriving and my fish are happier than ever!! 🐠 😊

Kuhli loaches might be my favorite fish. They’re so much fun to watch and try to find around the tank. Them being super hardy also makes it much easier on a beginner.

I have learned that Kuhli loaches like to hide in every possible nook and cranny of any decoration you put in a tank. Whenever I decide to re-scape a tank, I make sure to put all decorations in a pail full of water for at least a week, to see if a loach has decides to hide in it. I recently moved a 15 year old 55g tank that I thought had no fish in it at all for over a year. I still put the large fake driftwood decoration in a pail full of water, and after a week of soaking FOUR Kuhli loaches finally came out. They are now enjoying a new aquascape.

The first time I found kuhli loaches was in a petco in 2016 and I bought two and one is still alive till this day, wonder long living hardy from fish

I had the green neon tetras before, they are sort of shy and have to be in larger schools to be comfortable enough to come out and they appreciate lots of tall plants to swim through and hide in.

The dwarf platties look amazing. Perfect colour and size.

Nice video as always!! In Singapore, there's wide variety of fishes in LFS for us to choose, going as cheap as 80 cent to 1.50. It's always so hard to make a decision!

Really nice fish you covered in this video, at the current moment I'm thoroughly enjoying my chili rasboras, they are a great, hardy little colorful nano fish.

0:27 I love aquarium and reptile depot! Go there every week Jason, Jeff and the staff are amazing!

I really love that you made this video and wish that more people did stuff like that! Usually any time someone looks up "beginner fish" it's always all the common and popular species you find in Petsmart and Petco, but there's nothing out there for the more 'uncommon' types of fish like the ones listed here, which is a shame because there's so many great options out there

Great video! I'd recommend this video to a beginning trying to get ideas for what to stock. Hillstream Loaches are the first I want most from this list.

I have no Local Fish Stores near me, but I’ve seen most of these fish in the nearby Petcos.

As for the HillStream, I was nervous too, but they adapted well to my tank, and I keep mine at 77-78, and they’re doing great, like flying saucers when they swim normally

I currently have Green Kubotai Rasboras and love them. I've been searching for some Chili's locally to add to the community tank also!

Irene: “Petco usually sells hardier fish” My tank of petco discus: Bet.

I would die to have some of those platies! They are so cute and I love the color

Great video as always! Totally agree with your choices, especially dwarf coral platies! Keep up the amazing work! 🐠

Great video,! Thank you!!

I have seen every single one of these fish except one at my local petcos. The one I haven’t see yet is chili rasbora. Probably bc of how tiny they can be.

Chili Rasboras are one of my favorites ever! I have them with panda corys and sparking gouramis (if you aren’t aware sparking gouramis are more passive than some other gouramis)

I’m going to save this list. You have quite a few interesting suggestions that I’ll want to look at when I start my tank. I love the look of the celestial Pearl danios but I’m concerned that they may have short lifespans. What has been the longest you have been able to keep one? Breeding egglayers isn’t something I’ll be ready to try until I get my first tank well established.

Pretty cool video, especially since I am usually a fan of recommending people to try to find sources outside of chains, mainly because even if they have good care they typically are still supplying their animals from mills/mass producers, meaning they aren't the best quality, so even if it's more expensive to order or find a local reputable established I'd say always go for the better as ultimately that higher cost has a reason and at the very least can give better chances for more well bred animals. And for anyone that sees this please never trust someone simply because they work at a pet store, it's not uncommon for some very unknowledgeable people to be working at a pet store, and sadly sometimes they can even be the heads of a section, so yea just because someone works at a pet store especially a chain, don't automatically trust them because of it, and instead do your own research and find knowledgeable people both through different websites, but also different social medias. Typically at least from my experience both buying and looking through various chains (different stores, but multiple at times from the same establishment), I find that some of the most trustworthy things you can get from them will be branded products, so if you're not fully knowledgeable on the ins and outs of a product, stick to the respected brands, it can be more expensive, but that's the pet industry for you, and in reality the off brand stuff that will save you money likely won't come form a pet store anyways, but actually at times gardening or even hardware stores. 😅 Plus, if anyone wishes to do more in-depth research, you can always ask the specific store of both chains and smaller businesses for the source of some of the animals more specifically the ones that you're into, just to make the information as useful as possible for you, they should give you the name, so you can do the research yourself and see how they operate to determine whether or not you'd wish to support them, as ultimately paying for any animals from a pet store is going to support their source, and ofc their care, as some stores could be guilty of purposefully putting animals in bad conditions to make people feel bad and "think," they are helping and rescuing that animal when sadly they are doing exactly the opposite and giving the store what they want.

You can actually get Celestial Pearl Danios at Petco but it's a rarer find and more common at larger petcos

Nice choices. I’ve been wanting CPDs for a long time, but can’t find them anywhere. I may have to order some online.

I got here early? WOOOO thanks for some more different beginner fish this will help me in my Aquascape tank with corydora and danios!

i work at petco and we have peacock gudgeons, CPDs, and kuhli loaches rn

Perfect ten for green neons! Stunning fish. They are in my ‘sparkle’ rank with cardinals and rainbows!

Thank you for sharing this video 👍⭐

CPD can actually be found at Petco, they're just labeled as Galaxy Rasbora and only certain larger Petcos carry them :)

I got my kuhlis, hillstream, and chili raspboras from the petco near me! neat “level-up” list though :)

i think petco is introducing kuhli loaches because when i went to buy some supplies i saw an acclimating group of them. pretty cool

Daisy's Blue Ricefish are another great beginner fish that I've never seen at my local Petco. They're also super easy to breed as long as you're prepared to have infusoria or green water to feed to the newly hatched fry.

I find the black khulis are a pretty cool depending on desired color variations of one's tank.🤔🤔💯✌🏿

Petsmart had green neons last week and on sale! I was on the way to work so I couldn’t get them

Not gonna lie, I legit got my celestial pearl danios from Petco. Have also seen hillstream loaches. My new petco is so much better than my old one though m, so who knows.

awesome video

I have basically lost every chili rasbora I've put into my tank and it's been established for over 2 months now. I got them from a LFS that carries generally quality fish but these have just been the bane of my existence and I'm giving up on them. I have great luck with my green neon tetras, my oto catfish, my endler guppies, and my amano shrimp. But I'm so over trying to figure out the chilis.

just got my peacock gudgeons and cpds from petco this week haha! depends on the location!!!

I got my peacock gudgeon from petco actually 💕 I’d agree with you she’s the best I love her sm

Maybe at your petco but I’m aquatic specialist at petco in md and I have all those fish + more

Crazy enough I recently went to my local petco and saw cpds, dwarf corys, blue rice fish, otos, and multiple species of dwarf rainbows it was surprising

My Petco has everyfish except for 8 and 9

this video came just in time for me to have an empty 10 gal just sitting there waiting to be filled…..👀

LFS arent usually opened during regular retail hours. theyll be closed on sunday and monday. some will have weird hours. most close before 7pm. and on top of that theyre more expensive all that added together usually hurts their chances. and i live in houston with more than a dozen LFS. meanwhile petco, petsmart, petsuppliesplus, petsupermarket are open every day usually til 8 some till 9. cant beat that for those of us that cant get there before 6. my 2 cents

My favorite types of fish are the small peaceful community fish and my most favorite fish is one of them: guppies

My local Petco carries galaxy rasboras/celestial pearl danios. 🤷‍♀️

Im watching from Singapore and over here, a lot of fishies are quite cheap. Mainly depending on the size. Knife fish is only like 4 bucks each and pea puffers are 80 cents each and with kuhli loaches are 1 dollar each. I have a friend I'm the US that bought a common goldfish for 120 and I showed her that over here it didn't cost more than 3 dollars

loved the video. thanks for all the info. Do you think I could keep millstream loaches in a 33 gallon community tank with corys and celestial pearl danios? Thanks

Hey I love your videos they’ve been super helpful but I’m starting a breeding tank for albino brittlenoses out of fun but struggling to make the 20g tank look semi decent any tips and advice thank you

Very much a beginner here although I used to keep fish a VERY long time ago. Im setting up a new Fluval Flex 15 and wanted to get some feedback from anyone on the fish I plan on getting. 1 hillstream loach, 4 albino dwarf corys, 5 platies and 1 dwarf guarami. Do you think these fish would all go together? I think temperment they would be fine, but what about water parameters, ph etc? No live plants to begin with until I can prove I can keep the fish alive and happy.

the dwarf platy looks like a mix of guppy and goldfish, two beginner fish in one!

You should try sword Tails there cool to watch the males are as they have this sword on there tail that they use to swim in zing zags lol

3:28 i heard about how hardy kuhli loaches are so i got some… but they kept dying for literally no reason. water was perfect. no bullies. lights off. they were eating and everything. then randomly a few days later theyd die after acting fine. 3 of them now are doing fine and have been here for months idk why five of them magically died. any tips?

another good fish is the golden tetra, they are extremelyyyyyy hardy and they beautiful

I like green neons but would they be easy to spot behind green plants?

where i live there is not a local store, so my question can I buy this online?

I have seen almost all of these at a Petco or Petsmart lol

Really nice vids! I would like some thing New. Something.. Ahh yes. NEW TYPE OF CONTENT. I still love this type of content but i would enjoy Something New. Like, The life of my fish. Weekly routine of my aquariums. PS:This was just a "tip" of Something more.. Exicting. Btw im not english so,sorry for maybe wrong spelled words.

Years ago when I first started and nit nice and definitely dishonest store owner sold me a Jack Dempsey as a community fish. He ate the other fish in a very short period of time. He was very smart dude…I named him Jack after Jack the Ripper. He ate at exactly 6PM. If I was 3 min late he spit water at me. Been a while since I had an aquarium, ready to get a small aquarium…disabled so would like it to watch the fishies. Thanks to RU-vid and the Internet, the “Jack’ incident will nit repeat!

MERRY CHRISTMAS IRENE LOVE YOU

Well hate to say it yea and no I get all of these from petco and I work there and do the fish section ordering and all not all petco’s can but experience stores can.

Beautiful

Beautyful...

I had a snail problem and i got a bby polar parrot and she annihilated them

Gimme more loaches....

dont be like me, eel like clarias, hiding all day, munching fish all night.. dont be like me, astronotus ocelatus, aka last cichlid standing deathmatch.. dont be like my wife bringind two of "get only one of them" pseudotropheus for that tank get kuhlis. get phenomenally schooling neon zebras and PLEASE get two pairs of titteya barbs! those are super sweet while showing off tgeir fins. and corries, obviously in case your kuhlis are shy

Now that snail darters are off the endangered list...someone should breed them. They stay small and eat freshwater snails how prefect is that!!!!

you can confine a greyhound in a small backyard and they'll live but are they living the good life?

If you can ,go to your local pet shops and stay away from the pet shop chains. For the most part the fish are more healthy.

I love my kuhlis. They are a joy to watch. Their crazy antics are just fun. And they arent difficult to care for. You just leave them alone and they will be fine. And they are a great cleaning crew. My CPDs on the other hand. They are supposed to be peaceful, but ended up tearing each other to shreds. SMH. My guess is there was one aggressive male among the 6 of them. Very aggressive fin nipping. Chilli rasboras are great for a well planted aquarium. I have a small school of 8, and they look great swimming together. If you want a bunch of super hardy fish that still stand out, dwarf red platies are your bet. They look great in a small aquarium filled with greens, and as long as they have a filter or air pump, they will probably be fine. I do want to get some bettas, but they will need separate aquariums. And a lot of partitions.

THE FIRST LFS IS MY LFS!!!!!!

I will never, ever buy another animal of any kind from a big box store. Buy supplies, equipment, but never an animal.

I want to be a memeber pls

You're kinda of a oddball and yet,nice to watch?!

Walmart and the big box stores really ruined the hobby.

no one loves the poor little almost extinct in the wild white cloud. . . . .