*What nano oddball fish should I add to my bucket list? If you haven't seen which ones I've already kept before, here's my previous video: **ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C7FVuc3pJYM.html*
If you do plan on keeping African Dwarf Frogs, I would highly recommend either keeping them alone, or with fish that are not very small, such as small tetras. I've had multiple experiences where my african dwarf frogs attacked and killed my neon tetras and even small bristlenose plecos. One time, one of my dwarf frogs attacked a male platy, and it caused a huge, open wound on its body. Luckily, the platy was able to defend itself and survive. African dwarf frogs have extremely terrible eyesight, and would often mistaken these small fish/plecos for food. They would cling on to the fish, latch on, and drag them around aggressively. With that said, they are great frogs but just be careful with who you put them with.
I had 2 a male and female and they were fine with all my small fish they would bite at each other at feeding time so we would have to feed them separately
This has got to be a clawed because they dint get big enough ti est neon unless those neon are babies or underfed mine were laive fir 5 years never hurt my danios or my cherry shrimp
My pair just had tadpoles. In my area planted 20 long 9 out of idk how many but it was a lot have made it to become little baby adf’s 😊 I keep shrimp with them. Yes they do eat them but mostly just the babies because the adults are too large but I have seen them try, lol. I keep them specifically for this purpose. Feed them baby brine shrimp, daphnia, scuds, frozen beef heart, and food made for frogs and tadpoles 😊
Don't tell the other tankmates, but my bamboo shrimp are probably my favorites in my planted 29G. I highly recommend them if you have a "dirtier" tank with stuff floating around. They like to hang upside-down off floating plants near the HOB filter, sticking their fans in their mouths whenever they get a hand-full. They're also super chill - I practically have to pick them up before they'll move out of the way when I'm trimming, lol. I just wish they could be bred easily!
I keep a trio of Dwarf African Aquatic Frogs in a heavily planted bowl on my desk. I put a 2 inch diameter piece of black slate on the bottom, and apply frog food on top of it using a turkey baster. As soon as I sit down at the desk, they all swim over to the slate, and stare at me with their beady little eyes until I apply some food. When I feed them live Daphnia, they spend the whole day hunting them down and devouring them. They are hilarious, and very easy to keep.
I have African Dwarf frogs, highly recommend, they are awesome. Although, about the breeding… they definitely will breed in your tank, I’ve had two rounds of eggs. The first time I left them to let nature take it’s coarse, and a couple weeks later found 5 tadpoles swimming around, and I had a little heartache as I tried to raise them, so just FYI to those who would like to get them, that may happen, so do your research!
I bought a couple Amano shrimp from my LFS and they accidentally scooped up a bamboo shrimp. I was looking at my tank the next morning and I freaked out because I didn’t know what was wrong with its hands! Lol.
Maybe not that oddball, but I just got Orange Zebra Otocinclus. Kind of expensive but to me they look a bit like some kind of Pleco. Since Plecos get too big for a nano tank I was excited to see this rare fish in my local store.
I loved having African dwarf frogs! The only negative I had was they were tricky to feed as you said lol I had to feed them directly with tongs and it made a huge mess :/ they’re so cool tho!
Put a flat rock on the bottom of the tank, and apply frog food with a turkey baster. This keeps the food in one area, and they become trained to eat there. They are easier to keep if there are no fish in the tank, and a few snails to clean up the excess food. They like heavily planted tanks.
Bamboo Shrimp are awesome. But due to being filter feeders it has to be an established aquarium for them to survive. They have loads of personality and are great to watch, and because of their size can be kept with plenty of other fish. We kept ours with a Betta and had no issues at all.
good food for bamboo and vampire shrimps is to crush up a good quality tropical flake, mix it with a small amount of water and target feed with a turkey baster
that pencilfish is really a good choice. i have 15 of them in my 3ft tank with some rummy nose and zebra danios and they worked fine and they are beautiful once they get coloured up. they do seems to like to group together in a corner when they decided to sleep. so will probably see the whole bunch of them huddle together as they snooze. my first time keeping them though and they are really a good choice to try out. hardy and easy.
I think you’d enjoy African dwarf frogs. I know they’re the cheap little weirdos at the pet store but I’ve had mine for over 5 years and they’re so much fun to watch. Some of this repeats what you said but I wanted to share my experience for anyone considering ADF. I have mine in a rimless 20 long riparium with a large emersed driftwood, stones and planted with anubias & java fern. The riparium plant roots give them places to lay eggs & clean the water. I only use a large sponge filter because they do not like too much water movement. They can have other calm, non food aggressive tank mates if you just need more to look at but they do add comedy to a tank all on their own. Mine know if I tap the glass it’s time to eat & will come right up. They eat mostly Aquatic Frog & Tadpole Food micro pellets (I use Zoo Med) & occasional frozen food. No live food or anything difficult. I have not found mine to be messy eaters at all. Just don’t overfeed them. They need fine enough sand not to choke on as they will sift for food they missed. Any other substrate needs to be big enough they can’t swallow (almost anything bigger than medium sand). They can have a designated sandy eating area. You can even train them to eat out of a 4” bare terra cotta saucer if you can’t use sand. They stay quite small and can be found hanging out in all the crevices or floating weirdly around the tank. They prefer a warmer temperature and mine breed nonstop in 77-78 Fahrenheit. They are hardy but I do recommend anyone buying from pet store to quarantine & treat for everything. I did the trio meds (ich-x, E. M. Erithromycin, general cure) along with Furan because they tend to have fungus at the store & you can’t always see it. I treated mine with the trio all at once & then lost one to fungus while waiting on med to arrive. It wasn’t visible at the store. Anyway, that was over 5 years ago & they’ve been happy & healthy since then. They are silly & I ended up liking them better than most of my fish. They are quite easy and mine are breeding & laying eggs regularly. If you don’t want more just ignore it & they eat the eggs. I have raised the tadpoles & that’s a fun process to watch. Get tadpole food ahead of time as it’s only a few days between eggs & tadpoles. Edited to add: they come to the surface for air so about 12” is the limit for substrate to surface depth for these little guys. They are peaceful but fyi I started in a 10 gallon (four frogs) & two were fighting so I moved to a 20 long. I never had a problem again. I think the 1 gallon per ADF is not a good idea personally.
I love how everyone says that adf are hard to feed and only eat at the bottom, not mine they swim to the top and munch on some freeze dried brine shrimp
The only one on the list I've kept was the African dwarf frogs. My local group specifically to the care of these little guys recommend not to feed blood worms as it can cause severe bloat. They are fun little dirpy guys though lol my little niece caught the male and female.. umm.. well.. I called it "hugging" thankfully 4yo just think it's cute. lol
Dwarf frogs are escape artists!! But absolutely adorable. I have 4 living with my Betta Bob. I found out their super sensitive to ammonia spikes (they refused to eat their pellets) and like to escape from the tiniest of cracks. Mine will only eat frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. They refused 3 different frog pellets and one brand caused an ammonia spike. I read 16 inches of water is the deepest they can live in, they need to come up for air. My boyfriend and I enjoy watching them.
@@GirlTalksFish I wager, like cichlids, they vary a bit specimen to specimen, but I’ve got a loner in a tank and he’s always on the prowl harassing snails.
I've got the pencil fish and they are very colourful especially after a water change or when feeding. mine hang out with cherry barbs. they think they're the same 😆. I've also neon gobies and they are awesome. Great personality. the males do bicker but never do any harm. give each male a rock to sit on and you can have as many as possible 😉. but you should try the annies gobies. the same goby but white with the blue stripe. not albino though. love them. a top fish to own especially with the gobies is definitely pseudomagil red neon. love them. oh and I've a bamboo shrimp. I would definitely recommend 👌. if you get a couple of males your lucky. because the have amazing colours. literally like a rainbow
I used to keep Bamboo shrimp & they are awesome. They are subtropical so I wouldn’t put them in a heated tank. You can buy spirulina powder (food grade) to feed them. It disappears into the water column.
@@angelofmyheart1967 nope, they havent gotten bigger and they are quite small, you are probably thinking of african clawed frogs which do get very big not african dwarf frogs :)
Hi Irene! I have the same affinity for the odd ball nanos as you… they’re much like Pokémon where you just have to collect them all! I just bought the exact red beckfords pencil fish you were talking about this week. They are so much cooler in real life! And not shy at all. Perfect for a tank where the kids hang out all the time. And they’re inquisitive too. They investigate and interact the way dwarf cichlids do. Super cool! One fish I think you definitely should try are panda garra. They are my favourite. They are like a hillstream loach had a baby with an Otto cat. Not shy at all. My kids love that tank. They’re like a bunch of clowns goofing around. They come to see us, feed from my hand, so fun!
Have a pair of adf in 20 long. Fine sand bottom with wood and smooth rocks well planted. Love the singing. Had babies recently. 9 out of the about 50 tadpoles made it all the way to tiny baby frogs. So so cute. Baby brine and crushed flake was all they could eat as tadpoles but they can eat daphnia and bug bites and cut up frozen beef heart. Keep a large group of shrimp with them but never see babies. 🤔 lol. Completely on purpose. Can leave for a weekend and not worry about feeding. Not as hard to keep as I thought they would be. Pro tip: Have aqua soil in media bags under the fine sand. Feeds plants and no risk to frogs 🐸
Hi Irene, in my 55 gallon I've got stiphodon gobies, panda garras, Gertrude rainbow fish, lampeyes, bamboo shrimp, and ten glass catfish. Saw you haven't been feeling well recently, hope you're feeling better. Have a great 2024!!!
I actually have 4 Diptail Pencil fish in a 20 gallon aquarium right now, they share it with 3 marbled hatchetfish, 4 harlequin rasbora and 6 chili rasbora
I have actually have a Kuhli Loaches! It’s 8 years old, but unknown gender. Surprisingly it’s solid brown or dark brown, thought it was a rope fish that was stunted at first, but nope.
Those are great choices Irene. I've personally kept dwarf frogs and asian stone catfish. I really, really like the latter. They're pretty active as far as catfish go. They're easy to feed but can be outcompeted easily. They won't completely blend in as they change colors depending on the substrate. Now, dwarf frogs are cool but they're VERY lazy and can live for up to 10 years. I rescued mine (as I do all pets). I probably wouldn't keep them again if I had the choice. Like you said, they're messy. Mine took a lot of different foods like sinking pellets and frozen foods but they're easily outcompeted. They're good with slower-moving fish like long-finned female or male bettas or very small fish like badis. As for bamboo shrimp, definitely think about them first. Funny enough, they need plenty of floating food particles but also require pristine parameters, same with Stiphodon. Most require 15x turnover (which is unsuitable for most other fish) and, like bamboo shrimp, pristine paremeters. Bamboos would likely be easier for you than Stiphodon gobies but as always, the choice is yours. The only species on your list that's easy are pencilfish, next to anchor catfish. They're kind of like any schooling community fish. Cool to watch, if that's your interest.
Thank you for sharing all your experiences! Definitely sounds like there's pros and cons. That's cool to hear that you liked the Asian stone catfish, since the reputation they often have online is for being invisible.
Can you please do a video on blue cobalt goby care guidelines? What size tank did you keep yours in? I just got one from Aquarium co-op and I need more info.
Off the topic question for more advanced hobbyist than myself..im very much a beginner even though im 54 yo. I know not to put my aquarium near a window. My window that im going to put my tank is 8 feet away from the window. Is that far away enough? I will have 1 hillstream loach.
I have 2 African dwarf frogs right now with my betta fish, they are cute, don’t do much and my betta doesn’t hate them. Though I think my betta is indifferent to anything that isn’t food or scares him. I was told no bloodworms (frozen or live). They can injure the frogs while alive and while frozen the worms and bloat inside their stomachs a potentially explode inside if not thawed and hydrated correctly. Plus they aren’t that nutritious anyway. Tubifex worms, blackworms and white worms are better though I hate worms so no worms in my house. Brine shrimp are good but should be fed as a snack/treat not as a regular meal. Mysis shrimp is very nutritious and should be fed instead of brine shrimp. Aquatic Frog pellets work too to add variety. Daphnia is another good food source. (You should be feeding at least 3 types of food) No small substrate as they might eat it and get sick (sand is okay but is still risky) They are very sensitive to water parameters. They like lots of hiding places. They need to swim up to breathe air so don’t cover the entire surface with plants and large plants they can sit on are nice. Always have a lid on as they like to escape
African clawed frogs are a bigger sub species of dwarf frogs that eat fish so make sure you know the difference between the two otherwise all your fish will be gone African clawed frogs need atleast in my opinion a 40 gallon aquarium or bigger
You should feed African clawed frogs live or frozen foods I would know I owned 3 one male two females African clawed frogs are different than dwarf frogs
Was just thinking of options for my 6-7 G tank . It's been dead for awhile because of my neglect. Bamboo shrimp might be fun, though depends if my favorite local aquarium store has them.
When I went up to the daintree in northern australia, there would be Stiphodon gobies EVERYWHERE on the driftwood and vallisneria. Pretty cool to see them living along the saltwater crocs 😂
Hi Irene, this Stiphodon Goby is gonna be on my next list when buying an oddball fish now. Thank you for inspiring me and I am also keeping kuhli loaches and hillstream loaches thanks to you. And Oddball fish for you to try is also the Indostomus Paradoxus aka: crocodile toothpic. You should try it too. It's a really great choice. But it's super tiny😅 Only brine shrimps allowed.
I'd love to keep dwarf frogs one day, but it can be harder to find the more unusual fish n creatures in Australia - I never see these in my LFS. Although I wonder about the Goby, being an Oceania fish! Otherwise, an oddball I always love to see at my LFS is the pipefish.
Not really a true nano fish, but after keeping a 125 gallon aquarium for the last 25 years a 40 gallon breeder is nano to me. Once the tank is well established, I am going to be getting an African butterfly fish for it. Right now I am slowly adding plants and other fish to get it up and running, I have a red tiger lotus in each of the back corners that will provide coverage for the fish as they are a surface dweller, but do like to hide under surface vegetation. Then I have some other hardy beginner plants. As for fish, I have 5 Congo tetras, 12 panda cories and 3 otocinclus catfish(although I will be getting 3 more), then I have some nerite snails.
I have dwarf frogs in a 20 g heavily planted tank w/ a pair of German Blue Rams and a bunch of endlers, and a bristlenose pleco. They are very fun to watch, and easy to feed, of course they help themselves to endler fry. It works out well! I have seven of them, a couple years old. No babies yet. Also, I just capped the gravel substrate w/ caribsea premium sand, and they all love it, much better!
When I owned a 10-gallon aquarium, I use to have African Dwarf Frogs mixed with a small school of three Cardinal and three Neon Tetras. Sadly, when it came to feeding, the tetras went after every source of food that I worried about if the frogs were eating or not. To solve my worrisome issue, I had gotten a 5-gallon aquarium. Other than a snail to clean up algae, I kept no more than five African Dwarf Frogs. By giving them their own tank, I noticed a great change in their eating habits and behavior when they felt there was no need to compete for food.
hi irene, i am thinking about adding a diy yeast CO2 injector into my 50G axolotl tank because i want to make it into some kind of a jungle tank with good looking plants like anubias and javafern to make the aquarium more stable.
I just love pencil fish. Males tend to rub against each other. The way they fight and show off is so docile. Amazing, peaceful, hardy fish and as you said, they’re not shy at all.
I was so excited to see African dwarf frogs in the thumbnail, I adore them and was looking through your videos just 2 days ago searching for a video about them, lucky me!
So many cool ideas. I love my frogs and bamboo shrimp are so cool! Just make sure you keep a very tight and secure lid on its tank. A few days after getting it, I found my one shrimp several feet away from the tank on the floor. They can climb up the cord of a heater or tubing of a canister filter.
I was thinking I didn’t like how the anchor catfish looked at all in the still photo, but as soon as you showed the video of it moving around I thought, that looks so cool, it’s like a miniature freshwater hammerhead shark! First impressions from photographs are deceptive for some fish if they are particularly iridescent or hard to accurately photograph because of their shape or are more interesting for their behaviour when they’re moving around so it’s nice to see more than one example for fish I’m seeing for the first time.
I keep my ADFs with a Betta and some kuhli loaches. Since the fish aren't fast or voracious eaters, the ADFs have no problem getting their food. I do use a feed tube so they also know exactly where to come as well, while the betta gets fed at the surface.
Dwarf frogs are kinda hard to feed, but to make it easier you can keep the tank stocked with ghost shrimp, if the frogs get hungry enough they will hunt the smaller shrimp
I have a 4 gallon tank dedicated to dwarf frogs. I have 3 now, never more than 5. One minor problem is if I fill the tank to a normal level, they might crawl out trying to get to a nearby tank. (That's why only 3.)
I keep my Asians stone catfish on white substrate so I can see them! they're pretty awesome and I don't use a heater and highly recommend! awesome video!
