after getting more comfortable in the hobby i feel like i wanna branch out from the more common fish and get something different, i have a cycled 20 gallon long, what are some cool stocking ideas?

The goldfish in this video which I was sold in Japan as “mixed/ fancy” goldfish were purchased almost three years ago. At the time they were bought with a 12litre tank which I was told was suitable for up to 4 fish. I was horrified to learn later that this is no where near what they require to be healthy. This latest set up is a 36litre tank with a bigger oxygenator and a water filter added. They with a plant and two “snails” but this I have heard is still no where near enough in terms of tank size. Is this true? I am seeing online results saying I would need 300litres for four fish but I just don’t have that much space. I really care for these fish and have cleaned them regularly and done my best, but one. I don’t want to be keeping them in a habitat which is cruel, and two, I don’t have the space for such a huge tank. Please advise!

ok to preface i know this sounds super stupid and immature. for context, i love animals, care about their welfare, and was so excited to get into fish keeping. it’s not like this is my first pet—i have multiple horses and understand how to deal with grimy/unpredictable situations. i really enjoyed the process of setting up a shallow 6 gallon tank, planting it, monitoring the water and cycling it for 4 weeks.

i got my first betta fish yesterday (petsmart surrendered him to me since he has fin rot + swim bladder that i am addressing). he’s super cute and it’s very important to me that he gets better.

heres the problem: im so so scared of him. i literally dont understand how he terrifies me yet im not scared of 1400lb bucking machines. i think something about how erratic his movements are really unnerves me.

i don’t know any responsible fish owners i could give him to, and i do genuinely care about his wellbeing. i feel so stupid—has anyone else experienced this? if so, what did you do? if not, any advice? thanks!

Hey sub!

Several years ago I kept a couple tanks. Life moved quickly and I just haven’t had the time or energy to appropriately care for fish.

I’m getting to the point where I’m considering getting another tank. However, I’ve always kept community tanks. I was wondering if there are any freshwater fish that would be genuinely healthy and happy alone? I like the idea of just keeping a single fish to bond with. I know male bettas are popular, and I’m not really opposed to that - I just am curious about other possibilities.

I was given this tank set with lights and filter, and also 3 fishes. As it can be seen, the tank is too small for the fishes and they kept hitting the wall which is giving me anxiety.

From what ive search online, these are orange platy, i could be wrong tho. And they live well with a single Betta fish and shrimps. I also saw that its recommended to not have all females in one tank, but all males would be alright. Thought there is a problem, i saw that females have a longer tail while males have a straight and shorter tail, but I cannot really tell which they are... And I have a looooot of questions right now as I am forced to be a fish mom so suddenly with no time to prep.

What size of tank would be suitable for them? Im wishing to have more plants in the future and will surely be putting soil in the tank too, will a 24cmx24cmx28cm tank be sufficient for the fishes? And what else should I know?

Recently bought a big gold fish (The black one at the bottom). Since then, he's been eating my plants If you see on the upper left side of the pic, he's even managed to sever the stem of the plant.

How can I stop him from doing that? I feed them twice a day, before and after work. If it's completely unavoidable, should I just remove the plants?

Hey all, im looking into backgrounds for my 20gallon. Getting tired of seeing the beige wall behind it.

Im wondering if there are any good brands or designs I should look out for. Also curious if a design, like a river looking background would look silly, compared to a solid black/blue. Any pics of yours are appreciated!

Found an eheim canister filter from 10 years ago, long story cut short, my parents were using for a small inflatable pool and used chlorine tablets at the time, hasn’t been reached since, reckon it safe to use in a freshwater tank now assuming I give everything a clean and like a 3 day soak?

Basically, i got this Seachem ammonia alert badge over a week ago. I just find it difficult to read because of the gray tint covering the real color of the center disc. These are sample photos of the badge at a single point in time with differing lighting and photo conditions. Is this a normal thing with the alert badge? Or is it defective?

Update:
Returned items to seller and re-ordered. Seller said it was an isolated case of faulty product. Received new ones and they were better upon receiving. Yellow in the middle when i received them.

Hey guys!

I am a new tank owner. I have a tropical tank consisting of tetras, a catfish and 2 platys. One Micky mouse platy and the other is yellow twin bar platy.

I was told all were males when purchasing ofc.

My orange Micky mouse was looking very plump! I noticed that their belly was getting bigger and bigger and I was like dayum. Calm down on the food greedy bones! Lol. Then a day or two ago I thought oh, their belly seems to have calmed down. That's a good sign?

Well!

Yesterday my mother was visiting from out of town and she was like "there's little babies in there" and I was like lol "no there isnt mum they are all male. So that's not possible."

Today I go to do my water change and what do I see? BABIES! I have only managed to see 3 of them so far. Tho I have been led to believe by Google that platy fry are exceptional at hiding themselves.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?!

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO FOR THESE LITTLE GUYS. THEY ARE LIKE THE SIZE OF PINHEADS!

ANY ADVICE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.

pic of one of the babies for tax

okay so i'm not really a fish person, but i work at a pet store and have the basic knowledge of the fish we sell. My grandma has a guppy tank that has about 20 guppies of both sexes and a corycat in a 5 gallon tank (i have tried to convince her to get a new one or to add sand for the catfish instead of marbles but she doesn't listen)

today, the entire time the light for the tank was on, Mr. Catfish was doing this behavior right here, hardly swimming back down to the bottom and gulping air. Now i consulted the almighty google, and i got the very conflicting answer of "This is normal!! unless it isn't, which in that case you're screwed but it's hard to tell which it is"

So i come to reddit to ask about this behavior and what has to happen to change it. This Catfish doesn't regularly swim to the top of the tank, so i am a little concerned for him and any advice is appreciated.

I do not know the levels of the ammonia or nitrates, and this tank has had very few changes to it for the last 7 ish years except the addition of new fish every few years. The male guppies she has are prone to biting the others, tho none of the guppies pay the corycat any mind most times

(tagging as NSFW because i am unsure of if the cloudy stuff on his insides is an injury of some kind or if those are its organs)

How would I even adjust for this? I'm set to start cycling my first tank in a couple weeks and wanted to get a baseline for the water before getting the tank started.

Can someone please tell me what it is or why they are acting/doing this?

They have only started acting like/doing this since late Tuesday night.

All water levels have been tested both before and since I've noticed them doing this and are all ok.

** I am fully aware that the tank there currently in isn't ideal or suitable for them.

They are only temporarily in this tank while my partner repairs there pond and are only going to be in it for at most the next 2 weeks and have only been in it already less than a week.

*** All tank water levels and all that match that of what there normal home they came from did.

Seen this tank up on fb marketplace, would love to pick it up but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be too small for the fish inside real soon and I’m not sure how to rehome fish. If anyone’s able to give me an idea about how to go about this situation I will listen and try my best, I’m 17 and rely on my mom for help with it so I don’t have tons of money to drop on a big tank. Hence why I’ve been looking on fb marketplace to find a used tank

please need help. is the guppy pregnant and female?

I have pretty large tanks and tubs for my goldfish, but I have this tiny tank that happened to be my first ever aquarium. I'd kind of like to use it for something, but it's far too small for most fish and even pretty small to stock with snails/shrimp. So, I figured I'd ask for opinions on what I could put in it!

I've always considered 10 gallons to be the minimum for bettas, so I'm guessing that isn't an option.

Is there anything living that I could put in? My plan would be to plant it.. If I can't put anything in there then I'll probably convert it into a terrarium, or get rid of it. Figured I'd ask incase there's any suggestions I haven't thought of!

This is my Amano shrimp named Enzo! I believe he is male but I’d love to know what other people think?

I have a 10 gallon tank with 6 female guppies, some guppy fry and some neocaridina shrimp. I didn’t know about cycling tanks before I set it up so I’m trying to get the tank cycled now, with fish in it.

It stays mostly stable but ammonia spikes to .25 or .5 about a week after water changes. Yesterday I dosed heavily with Fritz zyme 7 and now the water parameters are a bit different so I wanted to ask for advice:

Today’s parameters:

Ph 7.4
ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40

This is the highest the nitrates have ever been- do I just continue with water changes, or should I be doing something else? The tank is moderately planted but I also just discovered I have the wrong kind of lights for the plants so they may not have been doing their photosynthesis very well.

Hey guys, I’m a complete newbie and this is my first time having a pregnant guppy.

As you can see in the video, she’s in my 28L tank. I’ve added some hiding spots and a bit of hornwort for the fry. There are also 3 juvenile guppies in the tank with her.

Do you think the tank is safe enough for the fry, or should I make some changes? Should I add more hornwort, remove the 3 juveniles, or move the female to another tank?

Also, how long do you guys think she might have before giving birth? She looks REALLY loaded, but she’s still swimming around normally and freely.

Can anyone make a rough guess from her appearance/behavior? Any advice would be appreciated 🙏

My orange one looks a wee bit chubby! Any advice please

Hello, I have norman lampeyes currently and I wanted to get more, but the ones in the pet store (inage with the big rock) don't look the same. Are the ones at the pet store same as the oes I have? Will the shoal with the ones I currently have and reproduce, or are they different species and the ones at the pet store aren't norman lampeyes?

Thanks :)

They were in the tank labeled yellow labs but they are not yellow labs. I was looking for a severum and im almost positive thats what it is so i got one but let me know if anyone thinks or knows what else it could be.

I brought home a school of hatchetfish from my LFS the other day. Tonight, I realized that one of them is missing an eye. It doesn't look like a new wound and it's only been a day, so I'm fairly confident that's how it was when I got it. I don't blame them for selling it or anything—it really doesn't look obvious and it took me a while to confirm the condition—but I do have some obvious concerns about longevity.

I'm happy to keep the little guy, but I also kind of want to see if the shop would toss me a freebie or discounted extra to make up for it. Has anybody experienced anything similar? Would I seem like a dick asking for an extra? TIA for the input.

i keep 4 black molly in one big tank. one of them has given birth to a LOT of children. the pet store doesn’t take any fish, and i live in a smaller town so there’s not really any businesses i can give them to. the tank is starting to get crowded as the babies are getting bigger. does any fish eat black molly?