I think a huge controversy in the aquarium hobby is harvesting fish from the ocean/rivers/lakes for the pet trade. If a fish is captive bred and doesn't know what it's like to be in the river or ocean that's one thing. It's an entirely different story when you take a fish that has grown up with thousands to millions of gallons of space and water to swim in and then put them in a little clear box.
@@Chris-jh9vi I have fed them to my Oscars on ocassion. I don't see anything wrong with it, though I am in the process of trying, again, to get them onto pellets. Hoping for 50% pellet to frozen BW and BS. Would like to get them on actual shrimp as well.
Funny how the movie finding Nemo caused this boom in sales for Tang and Clownfish, yet in the movie, the poor fish are always trying to escape from their tiny tank to go back to the ocean. I totally agree with Flowerhorns being weird, I also won't raise balloon mollies, telescopic eye fish, etc. I will never get why people breed animals to look like they are sick.
My ex-wife won a goldfish at a carnival when she was a child. She treated it like family and we were over 30 when that fish finally passed. It was 21 years old. It only grew to 5 inches but was fortunate to live it's life in a 50 gallon tank. Luckiest goldfish ever.
I just rescued a HORRIBLY overfed Betta who was being kept with Mosquito Fish (terrible Betta tankmates). He has the sweetest personality and I'm currently doing all I can to lessen his terrible bloat. "Just being alive doesn't mean they're happy."
The tropical fish hobby doesn't ask "Should we?", it only asks "Can we?" If it's possible, someone will breed it, sell it, and tell you it will fit in your tank. Educate yourself. Don't rely on FB to tell you what it is, or if you can keep it. This kind of video is great.
My first ever fish when I was 4 years old were 2 feeder goldfish that my parents let me get, and I loved them and they lived for 8 years. Personally, I prefer the look of them over "fancy" goldfish.
@@lucieperchellet wow that's amazing, I had a similar experience, I rescued a tiny snakehead from a butcher shop and he was doing great, I released him in the local pond ( I'm from india and they are native here so there is no wrong in doing so)
I bought a feeder fish (actually several) as pet fish. I found a double tailed female goldfish in the 25cent feeder tank. She lived 6 years. She started off solid black so we named her Oddball. Then she turned solid gold. I had several rosy minnows I bought from the 10cent feeder tank. Started off with 6 & ended up with over 20. They lived almost 7 yrs. Also I rescued a goldfish from my friend who bought it from the feeder tank & he lived almost 10 yrs.
@Matt Reid no sir it was caught from the wild so it knows how to survive, he was so used to the wild that he didn't take any pellets and fed only on blood worms
I'm a manager at my local pet store, and I thoroughly encourage people buy a 5gal tank as the minimum size for betta fish, as I'm trying to cycle out all of the 1 gallon tanks/bowls in my store. And as a snake hobbyist, I understand the annoyance in hybridization. But also, I really enjoy how some hybrids come out to be. The only difference is, unlike dogs who are of the same genus, not all fish that are bred together are, so with that sometimes comes medical complications. Like when people breed a sun conure with a green cheek conure. Both birds are conures but they're of a different species, so a lot of their hybrids come out with severe feet problems usually causing death.
Unfortunately, issues come up in even when different dog breeds are hybridized. If they are similar breeds, no problem, but sometimes two very diverse breeds are combined and issues result. So I totally get what you're saying about fish and birds who aren't even the same species and/or genus.
@shane kearsley 5gal allows enough space for a sponge filter, live plants, and the amount of gravel necessary for live plants while allowing a decent amount of water volume. As well as a 5gal heater if necessary. That's why I recommend 5gal or more. They're usually only 10 to 15 dollars more than a 2.5/3gal kit.
When I was younger my dad used to always have aquariums and he would tell me how badly feeder goldfish were treated so I had a tank in my room that I would only keep feeder goldfish to give them a good life, I think I had them for like 8 years… one mans trash is another mans treasure.. I moved on from feeder goldfish but I still have a soft spot for them.
just to clarify I was being sarcastic lol hence the " :P " face I dont personally have an issue with hybrids its just a common answer ive heard over the last year about controversial fish or fish that people wish werent in the hobby
What about wild caught fish. I'm not a fan of that. I lived in Hawaii for many years and the reefs were devastated by too many people catching fish for aquariums.
Well, the fish should be happy. Plenty of food and no predators. Seriously, I really don’t believe that the fisk know or cares about the fact that they are in an aquarium and not mother nature. Fish has a couple of needs, eat and don’t be eaten and breed. Nothing more and nothing less. They don’t have a favourite reef or a favourite stream. They just demands relative clean water and something to eat.
People forget we’re nature too. Humans are here naturally. Humans aren’t the only part of the equation when it comes to reefs dying back, nor do we know that it’s not part of a larger dying back stage that will disperse all the nutrients needed for reef growth for later growth down the line - like we see everywhere else in nature. The reefs will grow back, don’t be so arrogant that humans can destroy nature, there’s more fish in lakes that had oil spills 20 years ago than there were when the oil spilled. Again, don’t be so arrogant to think that we’re capable of things we’re simply not.
Well, actually this is a very interesting topic in the Marine Biology world. There is evidence on catching wild ornament reef fish being good for the reef system when only a handful of individuals are removed. The main problem arises when they are over fished, which stops them from reproducing/increasing their numbers back to normal within enough time. Which is what is pretty much happening to all if not most ornamental marine species. Currently 90% of ornament freshwater species are farmed, and this has a much lower impact on the environment than wild caught fish. All we need is the same to happen for marine species, only of about which 5% are farmed sadly.
Not gonna lie, I love watching your views when I'm cleaning my fish tanks. They are not only informative but adds to the excitement of being in the hobby. I've been doing it for 4 years now and because of you I learn so much and now my $.10 goldfish is celebrating his 4th "buy" day and he is over 12 in now. Keep up the good work!
I don't have a problem with hybrids, but I do have a problem with the balloon and other deformed fish (like most fancy goldfish). I have a male balloon sailfin Molly that I got by accident (I was buying online "assorted sailfin mollies" - learned my lesson). He is adorable, so cute, and apparently happy - but he is also full grown and only about an inch and a quarter instead of 5" or so. The female died, unfortunately (I ordered six, received 3, and one was already dead when they arrived), but even before she died he was completely uninterested. If you know anything about live-bearers, you know that just isn't normal. So I'm letting him live out his life as happy and healthy as I can make him, but he has just reaffirmed my dislike of deformities that are need because they are "cute". Watching those balloon-shaped goldfish trying to swim makes me so sad. 😢
I love it when John said, "I am ready to make a whole lot of friends and also some enemies because... internet." It come back to the portion that he mentioned different kinds of police online.
Red tailed cat fish too!! Also with sharks you could’ve mentioned red tailed or rainbow sharks, I love those but so many people get them for small tanks because they sell them small at the pet store
I see red tailed catfish too often. There were a couple young ones at the pet shop I was at a couple days ago. There just can't be that many people in my area with huge indoor ponds. They also had a tiger shovelnose/red tailed catfish hybrid that was somewhere around 2 ft long labeled as sold. I wonder what kind of setup it is going into
Honestly - one of your absolutely best videos ever! I love calling out the abuse and the facts used to explain why somethings are or aren't okay. Thank you!
1st off, I'm impressed you both don't filter your thoughts on anything. Pretty sure we can all agree this hobby is full of judgy & borderline nasty people, which honestly makes me sick as I feel it makes people afraid to reach out for help or advice. And I can't stand how misrepresented bettas are. They're what got me started in the hobby some 20+ yrs ago. Shout out to my closest petco that has better care for their fish & bettas than any specialty fish store I've been in. They're healthy, active, & beautiful. Staff don't push those outrageous .25g cups, plus being mins away from a large university they will refuse sale to anyone they suspect of fighting bettas. I have another tank with glofish (not interested in oppositional comments, I have no aversion to either hybrids or genetically altered species. I find genetic manipulation more humane & efficient than selective breeding) but I will never not have at least a couple bettas. I'm so glad they were mentioned. They really don't get the credit they deserve!
I have glo fish as well. Specifically skirted tetras. Also have black and white skirt. Just love skirted tetras and figured at least with me they’ll live a happy life in a 55 gallon planted aquarium without black lights (though my daughter loves to turn on the blue night light in the evening to see them glow) Enjoy having lots of color in my species only tank, it has gotten my daughter interested in the hobby, they are treated well, and not going to apologize. Also can’t imagine not having a betta tank or two. My living room looks like a underwater playground. Best wishes.
@@angiebear8727 I live my glofish. Every once in a while I used to put on the light so they'd glow. But they're vibrant enough where the regular white light was more than efficient.
Contrary to popular belief, bettas dint fight to the death. There are actually rules to Betta fighting with the most important one being that a Betta fight is stopped as soon as one fish either runs or stops actively flaring (grew up in Malaysia around people and breeders involved in the Betta fighting scene but never got involved myself)
Flowerhorns.... 2 Years ago, I was meh about flowerhorns. Last year I actually bought one, and now I love them. All I can say is please, just keep one for a while, and you will change your mind. My Jefe is the most interactive fish I have ever had. If I'm in the room for too long and don't come over to say hi, he bumps the lid and splashes water on the floor until I acknowledge him. He truly is one of my favourite fish (I have a LOT of fish). Just give them a try. :)
Well said. Anyone who has ever owned a flowerhorn know that they are the fish with the best personality. I don't understand how someone can prefer a super slow moving betta over a FH which is full of life.
One time I almost got into trouble with a fish shop owner and helpers when I corrected their advise to a parents who impulsively buy a betta for their son's birthday. They say that tap water is fine and they have 2.5 and 5 gallon tanks sold their but isn't offered and also airpump and filters. They said that bettas are fine with small containers pertaining to less than 2.5g and also they are fine without oxygen circulating in the bowl/tank/containers because bettas can breathe air. So I corrected them and the piercing looks of the owner and helpers meet my eyes.
So been there, but with other species. I've had many a pet shop employee glare daggers at me after I correct their bad advice to someone. For instance, telling someone that that cute little baby oscar would be fine in their 29g community tank. I almost fainted when I heard that one. Having had oscars in the past, I knew they needed a BIGGER tank AND that the baby the customer was admiring would soon EAT its tankmates. I jumped right in and corrected that right away. I didn't care if it ticked off the LFS employee. Another one was a LFS employee who told a customer that a red-tailed shark would do great in a 10g community tank. Ack! I could keep going, but you get the idea, and I'm sure many of us have been there.
Every summer I rescue 4 feeder goldfish and keep them in my pond until it starts to get cold. Once the summer is over. They go back to my local pet store, where they are sold from anywhere 10-20 dollars depending on their size and they get to live happy lives in other fish keepers tanks
Years upon years ago I had a roommate who had a little probably 5 gal tank stocked with two plecos, 5 goldfish (bought from the feeder tank), and a female crayfish. Needless to say, it was a nightmare. He would rarely do water changes so the water was perpetually algae green and to this day I can still smell the fish corpses left behind by the crayfish. Especially the poor, poor plecos.
You mention the flower horn (which, admittedly, I've never even heard of one), and goldfish in general, but what about the goldfish with the bubbly heads? Or bubble-eyed goldfish? Or anything with a balloon belly? Or anything that is "glowy" or "painted". Just more to add to the list! Great video, loved the honest commentary!
Horror story time. In my local area I once heard of a betta fighting ring where they'd have 30 ~ 50 bettas for tournaments and fighting pits and they go on until 1 ~ 5 are left. Don't know if it's still happening but I equally hear local shops black list the people invalided but that part might just have been made up. I only know the fighting area was true.
I would put Betta with some type of oversize tails in the same category as the flowerhorns. The bigger the tail, the better, but it ends up as a huge handicap for the poor fish.
My betta is a little friend now there is no way I would want to see him fighting. And another thing that really sucks are the thousand of posts on social media showing them in tiny tanks or being held out of the water. My betta is really sociable and gets on fine with a group of WCMM's and cherry shrimp.
@@yosemi7429 Ohhh yeah that’s true but they arent a hybrid or genetically bred so I don’t see them as controversial. They do need to be kept in bigger tanks but anyone who is not a beginner and does research know that.
I bought tiny feeder goldfish for my 65 gal. I have had them for months. They are growing like crazy and they are So happy. I love them so much. They have great personalities. They are beautiful now.
I remember when I had my first aquarium, I had two mollies and I didnt know I had 1 male and 1 female and they started breeding like crazy. They're great fish, id keep them again if their bioload wasn't so high.
My top 3 most mistreated fish is Pengasius Red tailed catfish Silver arowana Im so sick of people putting them in a "big tank" but gets defensive when i told them they need to get a much much more bigger tank than the one they have them in because for god sake they huge and active.
Betta fighting for sure does happen in the U.S. About 10 years ago a neighbor got busted by the cops for having a gun in his car. When the landlord went over to clear the unit he found fish and asked if I wanted them because he knew I kept fish. What I found was disgusting! 6 tore up bettas in filthy Tupperware and a bucket with 8 large feeder goldfish! He also had a square tank that had been painted to look like a boxing ring, so I'm pretty sure he was fighting the bettas :( .... Not sure what the feeders were for but I put them in a 20gal. tank for a few months till they were healthy and gave them to a friend that had a fish pond. I lost one of the bettas but the other 5 healed up okay and were rehomed.
I'll never understand the fascination with fighting animals. I live not far from where Michael Vick had his dog fighting ring. The real kicker of it is that the locals knew and never did anything about it. Nobody reported it or said anything until the feds showed up.
I recently purchased 3 Blood parrots. In 30+ years of fish keeping I have found a new favorite!!!!!!!! THEY ARE WONDERFUL!!!!!! And about the hybrids? Mules are hybrids and often live as long or even longer than horses and donkeys (which are how you get them!)!
I actually chose to save and keep 4 of my feeders because I just liked the way they look, I fed them high nutrient food and kept them in 127, and I feel like it’s the best decision I made they’re wonderful energetic fish and highly personable, I feel like more people should do this, it’s honestly worth it
I upgraded my Betta (Sid Fishous) aquarium, last year and wanted to put my old tank to use. Well, I bought a feeder Comet Goldfish (Mr. Fish McMahon) and the little guy has been living his best life for, almost, a year now. Happy thanksgiving. Youre videos are the reason my new hobby was a breeze to begin. I can't thank you enough.
Love my flowerhorns, started with one now have 4. Have 2 smaller ones I just got and one is looking like a female so hopefully I find a fertile male and start breeding em
Mollies, at least mine, are also very interactive. They dance at the front of the tank for me when I walk in the room, and they LOVE watching me play fetch with my dogs. I LOVE my Mollies. They are a part of the family )me and my five dogs)
I love commet goldfish I bought 70 out of a 20 gallon tank and put them my 3000 gallon pond I remember putting all of them in and they all swimming around and jumping out of the water they where so happy
We save feeder goldfish, we have for several years! When my younger brother and I were littler, we would go to Petsmart and choose the prettiest and best feeder goldfish to put into our large pond with Koi, Sunfish, and other goldfish. We put them in a quarantine tank first then when they are ready, release them. Our pond has enough filtration to sustain them and we have never had an outbreak of disease and make sure to never overpopulate. I think that it is a great idea to save feeder goldfish and put them in a pond, they will be much happier. We also see at feeding goldfish that we put in there 5 years ago with distinct markings. It is so cool to see how big they have grown!
@@inevitability3269 Some of those feeder fish csn be just beautiful! Their unique patterns and long fins, they don't deserve to be treated like they usually are!
I bought 20 feeder goldfish 2yrs ago for $2.00 + tax. Now, they are 6-10 inches long, bright orange and healthy. I keep them in a 72gal tank with two 70gal capacity hanger on back filters. This disproves the myth that they don't make good pets.
My betta died last week. She was 3 years old and had been struggling quite a bit for the past month with eating and swimming. But she very much had her own personality that was very obvious and clear and I don't know how anybody could want to force betta fish to fight. They are very much pets as much as any dog or cat, and losing should be just as devastating. Of course, there are also sick-in-the-head people who like dog fighting too. We need to figure out what is going wrong in these people's lives and what can be done to prevent kids in the future from growing up in ways that they enjoy such horrific things.
They are bred in thousands and nothing we can do about it You'll end up over crowding your pond when all those tiny fishes get a growth spurt in that large space
Aww man...I feel bad now about the feeder fish thing....back in the 90's I used to have a 300 gallon full of predators - clown knives, bichirs, walking catfish, a redtail (i know....I know....the tank is too small and I did end up selling or giving away those fish)...but I fed them nothing but guppies. The place where I lived had creeks that were stocked with guppies to control mosquitos, so I would catch a few hundred and keep them in a fishpond to breed and use as feed....not sure if that falls into that same category...
Over the last few months I've been binge watching every video you've put out. Thank you for all the good info. One point of frustration that I have is that you often say "do your research". But then there is no link to a source. "Stay away from fin nippers... do your research " ok, can we do a top 10 fin nippers? Can you point me in the direction of a good source for my research? My local guy pointed me at the library but... idk where to start and Uncle Google often leads me astray. I had an epic failure on my first tank that I custom built. Now I'm trying to start again. I just want a planted tank with a peaceful community that has some wow factor. Thanks
This prompts a discussion on what I consider to be one of the biggest 'issues' with the hobby, one that isn't necessarily related to the attitudes of people: a lot of the information on fish behaviour and husbandry available to hobbyists is anecdotal. When we do a google search on whether a fish is, say, a fin nipper, practically all of the results will be forums where people give their experience with keeping a species or websites where such anecdotal information is collected and presented on a post, like blogs, etc. In theory, we could look at scientific literature to learn about the natural behaviour of a species and deduce how it could translate to aquarium environments, but figuring that out is a difficult endeavour for many hobbyists and such scientific literature is not easily accessible, i.e. is often behind a paywall (that discussion can be saved for another time). Even then, it could still only predict the risk of a certain behaviour manifesting. Ultimately, not all members of a species will behave a certain way. You may have a species that many people describe as being very peaceful, but then you get some of them and find that they're fighting constantly. I know I've had that happen with my lambchop rasboras. It can happen the other way around as well: someone might have a group of tiger barbs that never nip at anything. They might even go on forums and tell people about that experience and suggest that people should keep them because they can be peaceful, just like I could go on a forum and tell people to stay away from lambchop rasboras because I found them to be aggressive. We also have to wonder whether a species is labelled as 'peaceful' because hobbyists keeping them didn't notice aggression, or hobbyists just happened to not have aggression occur in their aquariums, or whether the species truly is typically peaceful. There are also so many other factors that can influence something like fish aggression, like tank size, level of crowding, whether the fish are attempting to breed, etc. and it just makes it so difficult to figure out what can be expected of a group of fish once they enter the tank. So yea. I hope you can find an answer to your question, but it's all about risk factors and unfortunately, determining even the risk can be tough, which I think you recognize already. I can say as a suggestion for what you might wish to keep in your tank that out of the relatively small number of different species I've kept, I've found cardinal tetras and corydoras to be the most peaceful, but again, that's just an anecdote and they could certainly cause havoc in someone else's tank. I still think they're lovely fish and perhaps you may consider them for your planted tank. Good luck!
The hobby mainly consists of research. In my opinion, the best way to do that is to take any information with a grain of salt (even that from experts) and to look up and compare the information you need from many different sources. These top 10... videos should only be a starting point for you because the hobby is extremely complex. If you want to minimise risks, it would probably be a good idea to choose one species you really want, do lots of research on that species including reading scientific texts or books specificly about that species, get the ideal setup for it and observe the animals and if you still want to add a new species, look for one that perfectly matches the animals and aquarium you have. A good and awesome looking cory to keep with cardinal tetras is corydoras sterbai, but they are relatively expensive. About 6 of them are the minimum, 10 would be great. Corydoras need a substrate without sharp edges and soil could cause a mess when they dig in it. The ideal substrate for them is sand and they like some current. Corys are very peacefull but also very active fish with no concept of personal space or territory which can cause conflicts with territorial fish like ciclids and labyrinth fish.
Wait John I had to say... Cattle are also raised to produce the most (milk, meat etc) for the lowest price and lowest standard of care possible. Litterally they have their daily nutrition calculated so the farmer doesn't feed a scrap more than will sustain life and produce a calculated amount of milk. I was just suprised when you said that.
While I'm very against corporal punishment (having been a victim of rather extreme abuse), I can definitely agree that people who think those poor, neglected feeder fish are good, should get a smack upside the head!
Hahahahahhaha that was such a funny video well done to you both you are an inspiration dont feel bad for speaking the truth but you were both so funny today 😄 well done to you both once again 👏 😀 😄 😊 😉 👍
I had a giggle about two of the biggest Betta police on RU-vid commenting on fish police. It was also interesting that none of the monster fish made the list. For example 90% of hobbyist don't have a set up for a silver Arrowana however most non big box stores always have one in stock.
@Thomas Hahn hey man be polite. People have differing views and that's okay. Be respectful. Yes I agree flowerhorns are one of the coolest fish out there but not everyone thinks that, and that's okay. She just doesnt like them which is okay. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I was sold a “mini” Oscar, and i was told it wouldn’t get much bigger - liars it is huge now and I only have a 35 gallon tank, oh and now I have no other fish!
Hey I spanked my kids and they grew up just fine. I'm a firm believer in disciplining kids. There's a HUGE difference in spanking your child and abuse of a child. Abuse is a horrible tragic real thing that needs to be prosecuted to all offenders. But just spanking isn't abuse. As long as you don't take it to far. You are right John.
