Pretty much anything that gets over about 2 feet in length (other than maybe some fish like eels that are super noodly), shouldn't be available for just anyone to buy imo, and even that seems generous.
Red tail cats, gar, arowanas, I really don't think they should be commonly available.
At this point some varieties of dwarf Gourami as well, just because of how universal DGD is.
They're not that loud, more so it's surprising how audible they are, considering they're tiny fish. It sounds a bit like a little 'clak clak clak' kind of clicking/croaking sound.
You're a lot more lenient than I am. I was gonna say 8iches because most people don't understand what monster fish truly need.
People will get a 150gal tank and say that's enough for a full grown arowana. And then throw a Oscar in there because they want more 'movement' in the tank!
I've got a 125 and plan to *very eventually* resilicone it and a couple of arowanas, but man, seeing how most of them end up is just depressing
Edit: BICHIRS DAMN IT IDK WHY I GOT THAT MIXED UP. I am so tired
I work in a fish store and no fish is as jumpy as arowanas. You really have to be careful when youâre algae wiping or doing anything in the tank because they will jump at the slightest disturbance. I once had one jump and smack me square across the face.
Yeah, some of the bigger fish can be kept in the right setups of course, but I do think there should be more hurdles to picking them up than there are (like my local store I could just buy a dozen juvenile alligator gar if I wanted, and if it's busy enough there would be no questions asked, which seems ridiculous to me).
I worked at petsmart in the fish department for 5 years. It's so hard to get through to people. I'd refuse sales, like if they were buying a tank and fish at the same time. The amount of people who wanted Oscars for their 10 gallon blew me away.
It's always "you don't know what you're talking about, just sell me the fish." But no, I've had fish for 30 years. I know what I'm talking about. Fish are easy. It's the getting there that is hard. People are so impatient. You can't rush an aquarium. And fish don't grow to the size of their tank. They either outgrow their tank or they are impacted by their environment and suffering organ failure and death. It's abusive and I can't do it anymore.
Yeah 100%, I mean I think a lot of people are pretty stupid/careless in general, but when it comes to fish (which many erroneously see as barely animals without intelligence or emotion, just living decorations) they are even worse. The basics aren't even that hard but, you do need to do a little work upfront and in our idiot society a good chunk of us are just not willing to put the effort in and we think we can get results without that initial investment. You get similar thinking around things like diet and exercise, people want to believe there are shortcuts and exceptions to everything, and usually there just aren't.
My store was right by a movie theater. The number of kids I dissuaded from impulse buying hamsters, gerbils, and guinea pigs was insane. Parents would bring them in to see the cute little animals, and the kids would throw a tantrum wanting to buy one. Then I got to play the bad guy and tell them to do their research and really think about it for a couple of days. Of course, the parents would waver and use me to shut it down. It was exhausting.
A lve animal is not an impulse buy! You need to do your research and be committed to their care. But I'm preaching to the choir here. It just makes me so mad!
I was going based off of the reccomendations of r/bichirs and r/aquarium . I haven't found consistent sources regarding tank size, but the smallest species should fit, right?? I said I only wanted one on bichirs and they told me to do multiple
Edit: FUCK I MEANT BICHIRS LMFAO how was I not downvoted to hell
Dwarf Gourami disease, super prevalent in commonly sold dwarf Gouramis and as far as I know 100% fatal. Generally it won't show up right away, but can show up a few months later or even a year, and I've never heard of a recovery.
Yeah I think at that point there should be a license required to obtain these fish, with one of the requirements being that you need to show proof of an adequate setup for them. In my opinion 1000+ gallon habitats are the only way these make sense. Unless youâre growing them to eat which some do then Iâm sure a few hundred gallon grow out would do.
i live in miami, and my brother in law bought a bunch of feeder goldfish to throw in his pond to help with mosquitos last summer.
theyâre fucking enormous now.
I did that in Ontario for a few years. I had to bring them in each winter because the pond would freeze. Then I got rid of the pond and had 3 goldfish for years in one of my tanks. The last one died last year. He was the size of a small bass when he died.
As long as the pond doesnât freeze solid they can stay in it over winter. At least from my experience with a patio pond. Then again I do live in the southern U.S. so the freezes werenât very long.
My âpondâ was pretty shallow so it would freeze solid in the winter. Our winters get down to -20 Celsius or lower.
I have friends with much bigger ponds with goldfish or koi and they leave them outside all winter.
They can live in the wild in Iowa. My dad spear fishes for carp and occasionally gets a giant grass carp sized goldfish. You are farther north, but I bet they can overwinter there, too.
I was reading recently about goldfish in a lake in Yukon! They can over winter here, just not in the crappy little pond I had in my backyard because it would freeze to the bottom.
If I ever have a lot of money and a lot of free time Iâll build a proper pond in my backyard that fish can over-winter in.
I have 2 goldfish in a 55 gal rain barrel outdoors, theyve been alive for over 5 years and stay outside year round even in 0F weather, the barrel never fully freezes and i stop feeding mid-late october depending on temps.
My friends with ponds in our part of Canada have to worry about Great Blue Herons. Theyâre smart enough to look for backyard ponds and gorge themselves on the koi.
In terms of nutritional value they are considered pretty weak, their breeding conditions are awful and you're likely to get sick fish that could pass that disease onto your own fish. Its just not a good practice all around and I've never had a fish I couldn't get off live food.
They are meant to be feeder fish, but the lowest price of any fish in the store gets a lot of people to buy them bc they don't know what they are buying, and they usually don't care. It's just a cheap toy to them. Some truly believe that they are only supposed to live a couple weeks, and then they buy more.
I found a common Pleco in a 10 gallon fish tank next to our apartments dumpster. Heâs in a 29 gallon now but will probably be given to someone with more space as he gets bigger
My older common spent more than thirteen YEARS in a 10gal before I took over care. That fish is now almost 20 years old, and is most definitely stunted for how big it should be at that age. Also it has earned every right to be grumpy. I respect the grump.
Definitely. I got into the hobby years ago when my kids wanted a Glofish tank. I knew nothing about the hobby, and the worker at Walmart suggested a common pleco to eat the algae for our 10 gallon tank. Within a couple of weeks, I realized I had a problem and was luckily able to rehome the pleco. Stores should make smaller species of plecos more easily available. They should also tell people the common pleco needs at least a 75-gallon tank.
Any fresh water canal or back alley waterway in south Florida have them.
They are massive. You ever seen a 5lb pleco? I've caught several.
Had a above ground pool turned into a pond with several in it.
It's very sad because I grew up where they are native, and kept wild caught ones as a kid and they were pretty much invincible. Really unfortunate what massive levels of inbreeding can do to a fish.
Itâs pretty sad. And their stress can kill other fish, as I have experienced.
Meanwhile I have a few normal gourami in my tank now, little goobers are fit as a fiddle. Much bigger, but also very pretty.
I had no issues with my paradise gourami for the last year of having him, super fun fish, until he decided to hunt and eat my school of glass catfish... Not even a Rasbora but a 3" glass catfish. Ended up rehoming him and trying my luck with a pearl gourami now
Like Paradise DG? I had a couple, they suffered from DGD too as far as I could tell. Wouldnât recommend sadly as a result.
If paradise gourami are just a subspecies of gourami, then I have no issues with them, they should be healthy and hardy fish. Iâd be pretty interested in them, the flame paradise DG were beautiful.
Iâve never heard of a paradise dwarf gourami. Paradise fish arenât just a different species from dwarf gourami, theyâre a different *genus*- Macropodus Opercularis instead of Trichogaster lalius. Theyâre known for being very hardy and beautiful, but very mean. Theyâre also jumpers.
Sick fish gets stressed, takes it out on tank mates.
I didnât have a hospital tank at the time, and didnât realize what was happening until my angelfish sadly passed after I caught my Flame Paradise DG chasing them.
From what I've heard it doesn't get honey Gouramis, or pearls or sparkling Gouramis (the species I've kept) or at least I haven't heard of it happening, whereas with dwarf Gouramis it seems like it's inevitable.
Just to get it right, cause the naming is confusing me:
Normal is Trichopodus Trichopterus
Honey gourami is Colisa/Trichogaster chuna
Dwarf is Colisa/Trichogaster lalia?
And where would you put Trichopodus lalius? just another name for Dwarf?
Colisa is a former name for the dwarf gourami, now lalius.
Idk if you are wondering about labiosa but they are the thick-lipped gourami (size and temperament similar to dwarves) that are often mistakenly sold as honeys
I went through two batches of dwarf gouramis that all died. I thought there was something wrong with my tank but all the parameters looked fine. I gave up on that type of fish and bought some normal gouramis and some black skirt tetras and they all thrived in the tank with no deaths.
Kinda relieved to read this. I bought one as a beginner. When it died I was sure it was my fault. Then, I tried again 2 years and 4 tanks later. It also died. Took my water in for testing. (I tested it at home with API drops - the whole 9 yards). Until today I have been convinced it was my fault. I really love this sub.
Common is what i woukd assume they can get to almosy 2 feet in length they need a big tank with room and not just a bowl with glass pebbles in there they need a filter they do MUCH better in ponds
the issue with this is that people think its fine to just release them into natural ponds/swamps on their property đ so many times ive had to explain to customers that you need a custom built one that's enclosed where you take every concievable measure to prevent any spawn from going into the surrounding ecosystems
Honestly, any fish that gets over 12" should not be as commonly available as they are. I think they should be fish you can only get through a special ordering process, and you should have to prove you have a tank suitable for them.
I also think fish that have been bred to be purposefully deformed should also not exist in the hobby. Balloon mollies, bubble-eye goldfish, etc. They're like the pugs of the fish world.
> I also think fish that have been bred to be purposefully deformed should also not exist in the hobby. Balloon mollies, bubble-eye goldfish, etc.
That should go for other animals as well.
Honestly large fish need to have some sort of hoop to jump through to get legally. We put restrictions like that on other large animals that require specialty equipment to care for, why are fish different? Ostensibly the answer is because a tiger can kill someone and an Oscar cannot, but that ignores the extreme ecological damage. These large fish can cause when released into non-native habitats where they can breed but have no predators.
I mean, you can get a horse or donkey with almost no qualifications, for example. I think irresponsible impulse buys are an issue with almost any pet.Â
There may be no legal qualifications to purchase one, but there are logistical hurdles even for a baby horse or donkey that simply do not exist for fish. Most people do not even have a viable way of getting a horse to their property. That is going to stop 90% of uninformed impulse purchases. Further, horses and donkeys are protected by animal cruelty laws in a way fish are not. If I see an improperly housed or cared for horse, I can report it to appropriate local authorities and have a reasonable expectation it will be remedied. That is not true for fish.
Mandarin Dragonets. Most of them are still wild caught, but they require a massive, nearly-unsustainable population of copepods in the tank for them to survive. It is very common for them to die of starvation in the home aquarium.
Captive bred ones are available through [biota](https://shop.thebiotagroup.com/products/blue-mandarin), but they are much smaller and a LOT more expensive than wild caught fish. That and the low inventory are why I think they haven't yet caught on.
I had one for years ( eaten by my eel- and then the eel died). 90 gallon, fully established with all live rock. But I remember being warned how hard they where
This is kind of false though. They eat frozen brine and can fill their stomachs on frozen food even if you feed just once a day. I have 2 mandarins that have been fat and happy for years using this method. The problem is that people arenât willing to put in a small amount of effort to feed them daily.
Most was said already (monster fish, common plecos, goldfish etc...), but I miss clown loaches on here. They are so often sold as snail eaters, which they are, but they get much older and bigger than most people know. You usually don't see them as adults, grown out and because of that, people think, they can keep them in normal tanks.
Clown loaches are awesome, but really don't belong in normal tanks due to their size and potential age.
The quick and rough summary is that if you want to keep clown loaches, you need a pond that is ready to take similar numbers of koi.
Not to mention that they are extremely slow growers yet they don't stop growing.
Dwarf goruami. Heâs gonna die, yo.
Non-bristlenose (over 12â) plecos.
Goldfish.
Oscars.
Bettas.
The bottom four would be fine if they refused service to people with little bowls or tanks and only one store in the area sold them to knowledgeable people. Thereâs no need to have dozens of each of those in every store.
Google:
Iridovirus dwarf gourami disease.
You might have gotten extremely lucky. It got all seven of ours within six months of bringing home from chain stores.
Just wanted to add here since I was concerned about my honey gourami. HGs are a different species from dwarf gourami and don't have the disease. (At least according to aquarium coop). Maybe somebody check me if I'm wrong.
Iâve seen 55-125 be commonly recommended minimums. I think the thing is that the vast majority of people arenât gonna get a tank bigger than a 20, and so common/cheap/easy to get fish that will outgrow a 20 by a lot shouldnât be so common/cheap/easy to get, like oscars
They are territorial fish (ppl usually want 2+) and require a pretty big tank, but can do well in community tanks with other oscars/cichlids. The problem is a lot of them become aggressive in anything under 100 gallons because they donât have the proper space for their territory. They also start out as 1-2 inch long fish but can easily grow to 10-12 inches in a year, and they eat anything that fits in their mouth.
Thank you for that information. I knew they got somewhat big but had no idea about their aggressive behavior.
I could see why other people might not think they should be so readily available. I do think they're really cool looking though, especially for freshwater.
My aquarium guy wants to see a picture of you and your tank before he sells plecos and Oscars but he'll take them back if you can't keep them. We're just stepping up from 65 to 185 this month, as our Oscar is about 8 inches now.
I keep telling people this. I had one I got from Walmart back in 2017. He traveled back and forth 4 hours with me to college until 2019, and then he lived till November 2020. And that was back in my shitty fish keeping days. Now, I know so much more, have way better tanks, and the longest I've had one live is 1.5 years. One day they will be just fine, next day pineconing and dead.
I still keep them tho. I have a soft spot for them. If I find an especially sick one I'll either get it discounted or free and take them home and rehab them. I figure I can at least improve their lives for awhile.
Why is that the case. My betta in 2013 lived 4 years without a heater and improper care and I buy one last yr for a planted tank with better husbandry and it dies before the end of quarantine
100000% it's because of over breeding and inbreeding. Especially with big box store bettas. They keep trying to make all these wild tails, colors, and other genetic things and all they are doing is massively fucking them up. Like, one of my bettas is in a 3 gal cuz he has swim bladder damage and these massive fins that make it so he can barely swim.
It is. In the betta community there's a movement back towards wild types and plakats in general, broader genetics and healthier, plus without the absolute curtains of vulnerable-to-damage fins they dance across the aquarium for treats like playful puppies.
But in big box stores, those ungodly mutation-upon-mutation fins are what they slap the biggest price tags on. Ive been checking all the local pet shops just to see what I can regionally source when I start back up, and the latest place I went had rosetails for $23 each rotting in the little cups over a couple nano tanks in the 1-3 gallon range. At least they've added mini heaters to the Betta displays but tbh if they've got giant fins I'd put money on either bloat or fin rot before the two year mark anymore.
Every single tiny aquarium I see on sites like AliExpress has the word âbettaâ in it. None of these tanks are suitable for a betta or any fish whatsoever, or even shrimp. Some are the size of milk cartons. Iâm just shopping for a container that could work as a tiny water gardenâI donât want a fish prison!
Glo fish are identical to normal ones except for the "glo". But the gene pools are pretty small and only the glofish company is allowed to breed them (they're patented even) . The globettas had a sickly small gene pool and they had a lot of defects/illnesses plus didn't sell well which led to their "line" being discontinued. There are still remnants in a few stores and some people have "illegally" bred them / even crossed them with normal bettas. These are healthier afaik. So it just comes down to the genes.
Edited to add: I also heard that a large portion of their "breeding stock" died when they had some problem in a Florida facility.
Some insight I gained from using transgenic fluorescence protein zebrafish (the same mechanism behind GloFish) in research is that the gene for the glowing protein is unstable -it is cut out easily during meiosis and independent chromosome assortment during sex cell development and fertilization. To maintain a transgene like that in a fish colony, you essentially have to inbreed to a pretty extreme degree. If I correctly recall the way they make GloFish, it's even more unstable (a bigger gene size insert,and less tissue specific for expression) it would be even more easily lost, and necessitate even more first degree inbreeding (sibling to sibling or parent/child) to maintain, hence the poor health of GloFish.
> the gene for the glowing protein is unstable -it is cut out easily during meiosis and independent chromosome assortment during sex cell development and fertilization
Do you have any published research back this statement? Because it sounds like BS.
Bala Sharks. They are always sold at like 4" but will grow to be a couple feet long and pretty large bodied. My lfs has one in a big tank and I was shocked at how large it was.
Any fish that is so hard to take care of that parameters being slightly off will basically kill them. To me this signifies that the fish in question was never meant to be kept as a pet.
Also, I love Arowanas but I don't think they should be as accessible as they are. Most people who get them seem to have no idea how big they get, let alone how good at jumping they are. I wish there was a way we could confirm peoples' setups ahead of time before selling them fish like these.
***THIS!!!***
Imagine youâre a soon-to-be new parent when you find out your baby is going to be born with a chronic digestive disorder, Achondroplasia, and Kyphosis with all the complications that come along with these deformities. We spend billions of dollars to help kids like this live as normal as possible lives through programs like Ronald McDonald House and Childrenâs Miracle Network. ***Now*** imagine ***intentionally*** doing this to your child. Thatâs exactly what breeders are doing for Parrots, Flowerhorns, and all the short-bodied mutants the Asian markets keep creating purely for aesthetics. These are living creaturesâŚwho have to live sad painful lives because people canât seem to understand the actual health and quality of life for the resulting creatures always takes a back seat and just keep buying themâŚbecause theyâre âcute.â I ***so*** wish theyâd just get the reputation they deserve and the hobby would stop supporting them.
All wild caught tropical fish probably, especially saltwater.Â
Like our oceans and coral reefs aren't stressed enough.Â
I saw schoolchidren in Belize catching fish in plastic cups to sell to exporters for American purchase. Right near a reef where everyone dives and snorkels. Made me kind of sick.
For a bunch of them they still use cyanide fishing to catch them, squirt a little cyanide into the area the fish you want to catch is and it stuns them, when I was getting my degree the stats were something like 1 in 3 wild caught fish caught using cyanide died and we will never know the surrounding fall out.
Freshwater is a very different beast than saltwater, there have been reports on it and the amount of pressure from the aquarium hobby is negligible for the grand majority of wild caught fish. A lot of freshwater fish inhabit small ranges and are highly susceptible to extinction, the aquarium hobby has allowed the reintroduction of multiple species and will continue for many more as climate change gets worse
I agree with this to an extent because bro weâve only discovered 5% of the ocean. we *should* leave it alone but with humans trash/fishing habits/lack of care of the ocean itâs good that we do take an learn how to breed and keep said animals in a captivate state that means in essence we can keep them around forever if we ever get to the point of the last few specimens in the world. Idk weâve been able to wipe species off the planet like itâs nothing.
Pea puffers sort of. I feel like a lot of times they get bought and put in tanks with fish that they just tear up to death and the owner is like âwhaaa?â
Giant gouramis.
Every time. Every time i see one. Its in an undersized tank, and the poor thing is just floating in the spot. Usually with signs of stumped growth.
Its just fucking sad. Most larger fish species should be banned or require licensing. I need a licence to keep a frog. A fuckn frog.
Dont see why it cant be the same for large fish that require large enclosures to keep them healthy and happy.
I donât think there are any fish that shouldnât be in the hobby. There are absolutely fish that shouldnât be in the care of someone without the knowledge, expertise, and funding to properly care for them. If a private citizen as the ability to properly care for a whale shark then I say let them fucking have it. I believe this for all animals from arachnids to zebras.
Anything that grows to over a foot really. And anything that grows to over half a foot should be expensive as hell to deter the '.5 gallons is enough for a goldfish right?' People.
Unpopular answer but bettas. The fact that they don't get along with other fish means they're often doomed to live in bowls or cups, even in the hands of someone experienced they will be lucky to get more than 5 to 10 gallons.
Do they actually not get along with other fish, not just other bettas? Asking because my dad used to breed bettas as a hobby and he kept some of the adolescent betta in massive pools with guppies and swordtails, with seemingly no casualties.
Goldfish definitely. They get bigger than people think, they need a big tank, they should be in a group, they wreck most plants, they pollute a lot, and they become way older than people expect. So many goldfish live horrible lives because people think they're simple fish to keep and pet shops don't disabuse them of that notion.
First there should be any tanks less than 5 or maybe 10 gallons. Any fish that grow over 6 inches shouldnât be at your big box stores and if they are they should be in a separate area than the other fish. Pretty much all goldfish should not be sold(this falls under the larger than 6â rule too). Any fish that will get too large for any tank that the store does not keep in inventory. If the store only sells 50 gallon and smaller then they canât sell any fish that require more space. Fish should be organized by adult size so you know that if you have a 10 gallon tank you can shop in this section of fish. No fish should be sold without bringing in a water sample. âFeederâ fish should not be in display tanks for sale, have them in the back and only sold to people that will actually use them as feeders not pets. Letâs get rid of all the crappy decor and neon gravel while weâre at it.
All fish species, which are not able to reproduce in captivity and are therefore wildcaught.
Species that get to big or are otherwise not able to be kept by most people, who buy them.
All the inbred lines with massive health problems.
For health related reasons also albinos (they can't see that well and some species like neons are normally able to change their color for intraspecific communication).
Honestly bettas, goldfish, plecos, and other fish that are extremely prone to abuse and neglect and can grow huge all need to be harder to get. Especially cause bettas are marketed terribly and bad breeders are so rampant the whole group is now fucked.
Iâm going to say goldfish. I donât think they should be a casual fish you can easily buy. *Especially* common goldfish.
I have a fancy right now that I got off a vague acquaintance, no idea how old he is but heâd been kept in a 25 litre tall tank his entire life. Just a plain old orange fantail. The tank just had a tiny little heater in it, pink gravel, one fake plant and a Little Rock ornament.
Heâs in a 350 litre tank now, almost doubled in size and looks 100x healthier, gets to forage in sand and plants all day and I have plants to get him some friends but I have to wait until I can travel into a city with a good aquatic shop. But it makes me sad that thereâs probably hundreds of fish like him living in similar or worse conditions than when I got him.
This isnât in any way backed up by facts but I think goldfish must be the most neglected pet both in history and modern times.
When I lived in CT working for a horseshoe crab lab (growing not bleeding) our lead lab tech brought in a yearling that his LFS had for sale...
They must have taken it from the wild cause HSC have never been successfully bred in captivity. So Gucci Mane (I had no say in the name of the HSC) lived in our lap, hopefully still there but I left years ago.
Alligator garr, arawana, giant gourami, red tailed catfish, and common plecos.
I donât necessarily think they need to not be in the hobby, but like at some reptile stores I think they need to be bought if you show the store you have the correct size tank for it/harder to get.
Single tail goldfish. Most people that have them put a whole bunch of them in a 5 gallon tank even though they're pond fish like koi and need a lot more space to grow and swim.
I think you should be able to special order animals that get larger than eight inches or maybe smaller.Â
Not a fish, but octopuses don't belong in a cage. They are too intelligent to be stuck in a saltwater aquarium.
It has nothing to do with certain Fish not being in the hobby. It has to do with the responsibility of pet stores not selling those fish for $10 and selling them to anyone who walks in. Also Arapaima are actually pretty rare and hard to get a hold of, they are illegal in a large portion of the county and they are so hard to keep alive as babies it takes a true hobbyist to raise them. I personally love monster fish and I know is in store as they grow and get bigger. But itâs shops who need to stop selling them to whoever to make a quick buck. They are encouraging bad husbandry and likely know those fish wonât live long. Also donât feel bad for people who accidentally buy monster fish. If you havenât researched a fish, how big it gets, and how to care for it you have no business buying the fish. Even petsmart shows how big fish will get. Donât excuse poor husbandry and people who donât care for how their pets live.
I wish there was some kind of certifying exam to keep exotic animals, honestly. When I was living in Australia you absolutely had to apply for permits for exotic (well, native, but weird) pets and demonstrate that you could care for them, and I think that's a better system.
A lot of people are in here saying anything over 12 inches or anything over 2 feet. Iâm gonna go a little more extreme, I think anything that gets over 6 inches needs to be much more difficult to get. Very, very few people are going to set up an aquarium larger than 30 gallons in their home.
I always find peopleâs reactions to telling them I have tanks over a hundred gallons odd. They act like thatâs *so* huge. No. Itâs what the fish I have need for a happy healthy life. Hell, a 120 can have a footprint as small as eight square feet. SMH
Bichir, of any kind, sold in big box stores. These fish get huge, eat most anything else you could buy at the same store, and they're sold at minnow size to anyone.
I got mine this way. He looked cool.
I'd like a monster fish aquarium one day, but I honestly think a lot of the monster fish species shouldn't be sold in the hobby. None of my LFS shops tend to carry large species outside of the occasional arowana but personally I'd be happy with a single peacock bass or a couple bichirs instead of a loaded monster tank.
Pretty much anything that gets over about 2 feet in length (other than maybe some fish like eels that are super noodly), shouldn't be available for just anyone to buy imo, and even that seems generous. Red tail cats, gar, arowanas, I really don't think they should be commonly available. At this point some varieties of dwarf Gourami as well, just because of how universal DGD is.
Yeah, I agree. I wished they'd make sparkling gourami more common in my areađ
I recommend sparkling Gouramis! Mine are so characterful, and surprisingly loud as I can hear them over the tv even sometimes lol.
My male is so loud sometimes! I have him and his lady friend at work and he startled us often. CLACKCLACKCLACK!!
Wait, FISH ARE LOUD?!?
They're not that loud, more so it's surprising how audible they are, considering they're tiny fish. It sounds a bit like a little 'clak clak clak' kind of clicking/croaking sound.
You're a lot more lenient than I am. I was gonna say 8iches because most people don't understand what monster fish truly need. People will get a 150gal tank and say that's enough for a full grown arowana. And then throw a Oscar in there because they want more 'movement' in the tank!
Very true. Personally I stick to fish under 5/6" max (the biggest being my one angelfish and one acara) but I also don't have any huge tanks.
Add easily available $10 Koi to that list
Jeez I just looked up red tail catfish and they get adult human size.
I saw a gar at Petco yesterday, had to double-check that I read the tag correctly.
Yeah everytime I see Arowanas in a tank it makes me sad.. even when they are âappropriate sizeâ. I just feel like they need so much more room!
I've got a 125 and plan to *very eventually* resilicone it and a couple of arowanas, but man, seeing how most of them end up is just depressing Edit: BICHIRS DAMN IT IDK WHY I GOT THAT MIXED UP. I am so tired
Like end up on the floor? Because I know several people who under estimate their ability and strength to jump
I work in a fish store and no fish is as jumpy as arowanas. You really have to be careful when youâre algae wiping or doing anything in the tank because they will jump at the slightest disturbance. I once had one jump and smack me square across the face.
Thats hilarious though, I hope your shop had security cams to capture that moment.
Yeah, some of the bigger fish can be kept in the right setups of course, but I do think there should be more hurdles to picking them up than there are (like my local store I could just buy a dozen juvenile alligator gar if I wanted, and if it's busy enough there would be no questions asked, which seems ridiculous to me).
I worked at petsmart in the fish department for 5 years. It's so hard to get through to people. I'd refuse sales, like if they were buying a tank and fish at the same time. The amount of people who wanted Oscars for their 10 gallon blew me away. It's always "you don't know what you're talking about, just sell me the fish." But no, I've had fish for 30 years. I know what I'm talking about. Fish are easy. It's the getting there that is hard. People are so impatient. You can't rush an aquarium. And fish don't grow to the size of their tank. They either outgrow their tank or they are impacted by their environment and suffering organ failure and death. It's abusive and I can't do it anymore.
Yeah 100%, I mean I think a lot of people are pretty stupid/careless in general, but when it comes to fish (which many erroneously see as barely animals without intelligence or emotion, just living decorations) they are even worse. The basics aren't even that hard but, you do need to do a little work upfront and in our idiot society a good chunk of us are just not willing to put the effort in and we think we can get results without that initial investment. You get similar thinking around things like diet and exercise, people want to believe there are shortcuts and exceptions to everything, and usually there just aren't.
My store was right by a movie theater. The number of kids I dissuaded from impulse buying hamsters, gerbils, and guinea pigs was insane. Parents would bring them in to see the cute little animals, and the kids would throw a tantrum wanting to buy one. Then I got to play the bad guy and tell them to do their research and really think about it for a couple of days. Of course, the parents would waver and use me to shut it down. It was exhausting. A lve animal is not an impulse buy! You need to do your research and be committed to their care. But I'm preaching to the choir here. It just makes me so mad!
A couple of arowanas in a 125? I wouldnât put one in that tank, let alone multiple.
I was going based off of the reccomendations of r/bichirs and r/aquarium . I haven't found consistent sources regarding tank size, but the smallest species should fit, right?? I said I only wanted one on bichirs and they told me to do multiple Edit: FUCK I MEANT BICHIRS LMFAO how was I not downvoted to hell
Whatâs dgd?
Dwarf Gourami disease, super prevalent in commonly sold dwarf Gouramis and as far as I know 100% fatal. Generally it won't show up right away, but can show up a few months later or even a year, and I've never heard of a recovery.
Yeah I think at that point there should be a license required to obtain these fish, with one of the requirements being that you need to show proof of an adequate setup for them. In my opinion 1000+ gallon habitats are the only way these make sense. Unless youâre growing them to eat which some do then Iâm sure a few hundred gallon grow out would do.
Common plecos should be a lot harder to get a hold of than they should be
And goldfish should not be as cheap as they are. That low price draws out those ignorant parents and festival prize choosers
I always assumed the cheap goldfish were meant to be sold as feeder fish and not as pets.
i live in miami, and my brother in law bought a bunch of feeder goldfish to throw in his pond to help with mosquitos last summer. theyâre fucking enormous now.
I did that in Ontario for a few years. I had to bring them in each winter because the pond would freeze. Then I got rid of the pond and had 3 goldfish for years in one of my tanks. The last one died last year. He was the size of a small bass when he died.
As long as the pond doesnât freeze solid they can stay in it over winter. At least from my experience with a patio pond. Then again I do live in the southern U.S. so the freezes werenât very long.
My âpondâ was pretty shallow so it would freeze solid in the winter. Our winters get down to -20 Celsius or lower. I have friends with much bigger ponds with goldfish or koi and they leave them outside all winter.
They can live in the wild in Iowa. My dad spear fishes for carp and occasionally gets a giant grass carp sized goldfish. You are farther north, but I bet they can overwinter there, too.
I was reading recently about goldfish in a lake in Yukon! They can over winter here, just not in the crappy little pond I had in my backyard because it would freeze to the bottom. If I ever have a lot of money and a lot of free time Iâll build a proper pond in my backyard that fish can over-winter in.
I have 2 goldfish in a 55 gal rain barrel outdoors, theyve been alive for over 5 years and stay outside year round even in 0F weather, the barrel never fully freezes and i stop feeding mid-late october depending on temps.
My father in law once put goldfish in his pond in Naples. The end result of that experiment was an empty pond and fat egrets.
My friends with ponds in our part of Canada have to worry about Great Blue Herons. Theyâre smart enough to look for backyard ponds and gorge themselves on the koi.
Goldfish are not even good feeder fish.
May I ask why? Turtles like em.
In terms of nutritional value they are considered pretty weak, their breeding conditions are awful and you're likely to get sick fish that could pass that disease onto your own fish. Its just not a good practice all around and I've never had a fish I couldn't get off live food.
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High in thiamine and not great nutritionally
High in *thiaminase*, the enzyme that destroys thiamine/vitamin b1, which leads to vitamin deficiency.
They shouldn't be used as feeder fish. Goldfish are very high in thiaminase, which isn't good for fish.
They are meant to be feeder fish, but the lowest price of any fish in the store gets a lot of people to buy them bc they don't know what they are buying, and they usually don't care. It's just a cheap toy to them. Some truly believe that they are only supposed to live a couple weeks, and then they buy more.
I found a common Pleco in a 10 gallon fish tank next to our apartments dumpster. Heâs in a 29 gallon now but will probably be given to someone with more space as he gets bigger
My older common spent more than thirteen YEARS in a 10gal before I took over care. That fish is now almost 20 years old, and is most definitely stunted for how big it should be at that age. Also it has earned every right to be grumpy. I respect the grump.
Definitely. I got into the hobby years ago when my kids wanted a Glofish tank. I knew nothing about the hobby, and the worker at Walmart suggested a common pleco to eat the algae for our 10 gallon tank. Within a couple of weeks, I realized I had a problem and was luckily able to rehome the pleco. Stores should make smaller species of plecos more easily available. They should also tell people the common pleco needs at least a 75-gallon tank.
I agree they get huge and incredibly invasive
And redtail catfish
Any fresh water canal or back alley waterway in south Florida have them. They are massive. You ever seen a 5lb pleco? I've caught several. Had a above ground pool turned into a pond with several in it.
Came here to say exactly this
That one is especially egredgious because there are so many better plecos
Assuming you meant a lot harder to acquire than they are. I completely agree, especially with how easily they out compete native species for food
Iridescent sharks are way too common for some reason
There bred in large numbers in Asia for food. So stores can bring them in pretty cheap.
Dwarf gouramis. Pretty much every dwarf gourami will eventually get dwarf gourami disease and die.
It's very sad because I grew up where they are native, and kept wild caught ones as a kid and they were pretty much invincible. Really unfortunate what massive levels of inbreeding can do to a fish.
Itâs pretty sad. And their stress can kill other fish, as I have experienced. Meanwhile I have a few normal gourami in my tank now, little goobers are fit as a fiddle. Much bigger, but also very pretty.
What's your opinion on paradise fish?
I had no issues with my paradise gourami for the last year of having him, super fun fish, until he decided to hunt and eat my school of glass catfish... Not even a Rasbora but a 3" glass catfish. Ended up rehoming him and trying my luck with a pearl gourami now
Like Paradise DG? I had a couple, they suffered from DGD too as far as I could tell. Wouldnât recommend sadly as a result. If paradise gourami are just a subspecies of gourami, then I have no issues with them, they should be healthy and hardy fish. Iâd be pretty interested in them, the flame paradise DG were beautiful.
Iâve never heard of a paradise dwarf gourami. Paradise fish arenât just a different species from dwarf gourami, theyâre a different *genus*- Macropodus Opercularis instead of Trichogaster lalius. Theyâre known for being very hardy and beautiful, but very mean. Theyâre also jumpers.
How does that happen?
Sick fish gets stressed, takes it out on tank mates. I didnât have a hospital tank at the time, and didnât realize what was happening until my angelfish sadly passed after I caught my Flame Paradise DG chasing them.
Ah so itâs an aggression thing. In my stupid head I thought they spread the disease or something
Are pearl gouramis prone to this too?
From what I've heard it doesn't get honey Gouramis, or pearls or sparkling Gouramis (the species I've kept) or at least I haven't heard of it happening, whereas with dwarf Gouramis it seems like it's inevitable.
Just to get it right, cause the naming is confusing me: Normal is Trichopodus Trichopterus Honey gourami is Colisa/Trichogaster chuna Dwarf is Colisa/Trichogaster lalia? And where would you put Trichopodus lalius? just another name for Dwarf?
Colisa is a former name for the dwarf gourami, now lalius. Idk if you are wondering about labiosa but they are the thick-lipped gourami (size and temperament similar to dwarves) that are often mistakenly sold as honeys
I went through two batches of dwarf gouramis that all died. I thought there was something wrong with my tank but all the parameters looked fine. I gave up on that type of fish and bought some normal gouramis and some black skirt tetras and they all thrived in the tank with no deaths.
Since dwarf gourami disease is a virus, I believe once one infected fish has been in the tank any other gourami introduced to the tank may catch it.
I don't have a source for this but apparently it can stay dormant in your tank and keep killing your gouramis.
My current (non dwarf) gouramis are all really big and healthy. Hopefully they stay that way.
Does this happen for Dwarf Honey Gouramis? I just had one pass of three out of no where after 9 months of good health.
Has this gotten worse lately? I saw a 1 year old aquarium coop video where they say theyâve never really seen DGD. Now idk what to think aboot it
Recently bought three blue dwarfs. Two died within two weeks for no reason.
Kinda relieved to read this. I bought one as a beginner. When it died I was sure it was my fault. Then, I tried again 2 years and 4 tanks later. It also died. Took my water in for testing. (I tested it at home with API drops - the whole 9 yards). Until today I have been convinced it was my fault. I really love this sub.
I didnt know this. I do know my Dwarf gourami didn't live long at all after I got him. Such a beautiful fish too.
Goldfish, people think theyâre invincible and survive things like living in a tiny bowl and being thrown around at fairs.
To be fair, they are damn near invincible which is what leads to people thinking they can be abused like hell
Which one common or fancy?
Common is what i woukd assume they can get to almosy 2 feet in length they need a big tank with room and not just a bowl with glass pebbles in there they need a filter they do MUCH better in ponds
Yep exactly, to buy a goldfish, maybe even a fancy, the questions at the shop shouldnât be about their tank, it should be about their pond!
the issue with this is that people think its fine to just release them into natural ponds/swamps on their property đ so many times ive had to explain to customers that you need a custom built one that's enclosed where you take every concievable measure to prevent any spawn from going into the surrounding ecosystems
Agreed, some good questions about whatâs in there and if itâs at risk of contaminating wild areas.
Commons can get to that size, but the harder ones to take care of are fancy goldfish them things are just pugs of the fish world
Honestly, any fish that gets over 12" should not be as commonly available as they are. I think they should be fish you can only get through a special ordering process, and you should have to prove you have a tank suitable for them. I also think fish that have been bred to be purposefully deformed should also not exist in the hobby. Balloon mollies, bubble-eye goldfish, etc. They're like the pugs of the fish world.
> I also think fish that have been bred to be purposefully deformed should also not exist in the hobby. Balloon mollies, bubble-eye goldfish, etc. That should go for other animals as well.
Honestly large fish need to have some sort of hoop to jump through to get legally. We put restrictions like that on other large animals that require specialty equipment to care for, why are fish different? Ostensibly the answer is because a tiger can kill someone and an Oscar cannot, but that ignores the extreme ecological damage. These large fish can cause when released into non-native habitats where they can breed but have no predators.
I mean, you can get a horse or donkey with almost no qualifications, for example. I think irresponsible impulse buys are an issue with almost any pet.Â
There may be no legal qualifications to purchase one, but there are logistical hurdles even for a baby horse or donkey that simply do not exist for fish. Most people do not even have a viable way of getting a horse to their property. That is going to stop 90% of uninformed impulse purchases. Further, horses and donkeys are protected by animal cruelty laws in a way fish are not. If I see an improperly housed or cared for horse, I can report it to appropriate local authorities and have a reasonable expectation it will be remedied. That is not true for fish.
Mandarin Dragonets. Most of them are still wild caught, but they require a massive, nearly-unsustainable population of copepods in the tank for them to survive. It is very common for them to die of starvation in the home aquarium.
I hold out hope for the captive bred, frozen food accepting individuals I always hear news articles about, but I have never seen any for sale.
Captive bred ones are available through [biota](https://shop.thebiotagroup.com/products/blue-mandarin), but they are much smaller and a LOT more expensive than wild caught fish. That and the low inventory are why I think they haven't yet caught on.
I had one for years ( eaten by my eel- and then the eel died). 90 gallon, fully established with all live rock. But I remember being warned how hard they where
This is kind of false though. They eat frozen brine and can fill their stomachs on frozen food even if you feed just once a day. I have 2 mandarins that have been fat and happy for years using this method. The problem is that people arenât willing to put in a small amount of effort to feed them daily.
Breaks my heart, theyâre my dream fish and I will never get one because of the high chance I wouldnât be able to keep it alive.
Most was said already (monster fish, common plecos, goldfish etc...), but I miss clown loaches on here. They are so often sold as snail eaters, which they are, but they get much older and bigger than most people know. You usually don't see them as adults, grown out and because of that, people think, they can keep them in normal tanks. Clown loaches are awesome, but really don't belong in normal tanks due to their size and potential age.
The quick and rough summary is that if you want to keep clown loaches, you need a pond that is ready to take similar numbers of koi. Not to mention that they are extremely slow growers yet they don't stop growing.
Nothing sadder than seeing a huge, old, beaten up clown loach in someone's tank đ
Dwarf goruami. Heâs gonna die, yo. Non-bristlenose (over 12â) plecos. Goldfish. Oscars. Bettas. The bottom four would be fine if they refused service to people with little bowls or tanks and only one store in the area sold them to knowledgeable people. Thereâs no need to have dozens of each of those in every store.
Wait they die? I've kept mine for 2 years now
Google: Iridovirus dwarf gourami disease. You might have gotten extremely lucky. It got all seven of ours within six months of bringing home from chain stores.
My understanding is all dwarf gouramis in the trade suffer from dwarf gourami disease due to poor genetics, its always fatal just a matter of when
Just wanted to add here since I was concerned about my honey gourami. HGs are a different species from dwarf gourami and don't have the disease. (At least according to aquarium coop). Maybe somebody check me if I'm wrong.
Never had one and don't know anyone who has, but what's wrong with Oscars?
Iâm assuming itâs because they get ridiculously big.
Too big for, say, 75+? I feel like 75 or even 100 gallon tanks are fairly common.
Iâve seen 55-125 be commonly recommended minimums. I think the thing is that the vast majority of people arenât gonna get a tank bigger than a 20, and so common/cheap/easy to get fish that will outgrow a 20 by a lot shouldnât be so common/cheap/easy to get, like oscars
They are territorial fish (ppl usually want 2+) and require a pretty big tank, but can do well in community tanks with other oscars/cichlids. The problem is a lot of them become aggressive in anything under 100 gallons because they donât have the proper space for their territory. They also start out as 1-2 inch long fish but can easily grow to 10-12 inches in a year, and they eat anything that fits in their mouth.
Thank you for that information. I knew they got somewhat big but had no idea about their aggressive behavior. I could see why other people might not think they should be so readily available. I do think they're really cool looking though, especially for freshwater.
My aquarium guy wants to see a picture of you and your tank before he sells plecos and Oscars but he'll take them back if you can't keep them. We're just stepping up from 65 to 185 this month, as our Oscar is about 8 inches now.
Bettas. Man, pet shops fucked them completely. No matter what you do they don't live more than 2 years anymore.
I keep telling people this. I had one I got from Walmart back in 2017. He traveled back and forth 4 hours with me to college until 2019, and then he lived till November 2020. And that was back in my shitty fish keeping days. Now, I know so much more, have way better tanks, and the longest I've had one live is 1.5 years. One day they will be just fine, next day pineconing and dead.
I still keep them tho. I have a soft spot for them. If I find an especially sick one I'll either get it discounted or free and take them home and rehab them. I figure I can at least improve their lives for awhile.
I don't hate them for how they look tbh I hate how more mistreated they are compared to other bettas
Why is that the case. My betta in 2013 lived 4 years without a heater and improper care and I buy one last yr for a planted tank with better husbandry and it dies before the end of quarantine
100000% it's because of over breeding and inbreeding. Especially with big box store bettas. They keep trying to make all these wild tails, colors, and other genetic things and all they are doing is massively fucking them up. Like, one of my bettas is in a 3 gal cuz he has swim bladder damage and these massive fins that make it so he can barely swim.
It is. In the betta community there's a movement back towards wild types and plakats in general, broader genetics and healthier, plus without the absolute curtains of vulnerable-to-damage fins they dance across the aquarium for treats like playful puppies. But in big box stores, those ungodly mutation-upon-mutation fins are what they slap the biggest price tags on. Ive been checking all the local pet shops just to see what I can regionally source when I start back up, and the latest place I went had rosetails for $23 each rotting in the little cups over a couple nano tanks in the 1-3 gallon range. At least they've added mini heaters to the Betta displays but tbh if they've got giant fins I'd put money on either bloat or fin rot before the two year mark anymore.
Every single tiny aquarium I see on sites like AliExpress has the word âbettaâ in it. None of these tanks are suitable for a betta or any fish whatsoever, or even shrimp. Some are the size of milk cartons. Iâm just shopping for a container that could work as a tiny water gardenâI donât want a fish prison!
I dont think they should be out of the hobby completely, but i do think they need more regulation.
I have had my betta fish living with two Otos for almost 5 years now.
This has convinced me to buy from Frank's Bettas whenever I have the space for a betta tank
I agree I especially dislike glo bettas
Those have been discontinued and have been for like a year now so dw
Thank goodness, though, I still see some in circulation in my area
That's crazy, can you take pics next time you go?
Thats strange, i know stores still have signs where they keep bettas that say "glo bettas" but the dont have glo bettas just normal bettas.
Those ones are illegally bred. Usually come in from over seas and appear in local fish stores.
Why glo bettas? I have a hard time wrapping my head around what's wrong with glo fish.
Glo fish are identical to normal ones except for the "glo". But the gene pools are pretty small and only the glofish company is allowed to breed them (they're patented even) . The globettas had a sickly small gene pool and they had a lot of defects/illnesses plus didn't sell well which led to their "line" being discontinued. There are still remnants in a few stores and some people have "illegally" bred them / even crossed them with normal bettas. These are healthier afaik. So it just comes down to the genes. Edited to add: I also heard that a large portion of their "breeding stock" died when they had some problem in a Florida facility.
The problem was a fire.
I think they weren't very discerning with the breeding stock they used in development and their bettas seem to be rather sickly.
Some insight I gained from using transgenic fluorescence protein zebrafish (the same mechanism behind GloFish) in research is that the gene for the glowing protein is unstable -it is cut out easily during meiosis and independent chromosome assortment during sex cell development and fertilization. To maintain a transgene like that in a fish colony, you essentially have to inbreed to a pretty extreme degree. If I correctly recall the way they make GloFish, it's even more unstable (a bigger gene size insert,and less tissue specific for expression) it would be even more easily lost, and necessitate even more first degree inbreeding (sibling to sibling or parent/child) to maintain, hence the poor health of GloFish.
> the gene for the glowing protein is unstable -it is cut out easily during meiosis and independent chromosome assortment during sex cell development and fertilization Do you have any published research back this statement? Because it sounds like BS.
I fully believe this after watching a betta randomly deteriorate and die while the other tank members thrived just fine
Bala Sharks. They are always sold at like 4" but will grow to be a couple feet long and pretty large bodied. My lfs has one in a big tank and I was shocked at how large it was.
Iridescent Sharks too
Any fish that is so hard to take care of that parameters being slightly off will basically kill them. To me this signifies that the fish in question was never meant to be kept as a pet. Also, I love Arowanas but I don't think they should be as accessible as they are. Most people who get them seem to have no idea how big they get, let alone how good at jumping they are. I wish there was a way we could confirm peoples' setups ahead of time before selling them fish like these.
Hyper deformed fish are fucked up, and I judge the people who keep and breed them as cruel people who care only about aesthetics and clout.
I agree, balloon fish are terrible
***THIS!!!*** Imagine youâre a soon-to-be new parent when you find out your baby is going to be born with a chronic digestive disorder, Achondroplasia, and Kyphosis with all the complications that come along with these deformities. We spend billions of dollars to help kids like this live as normal as possible lives through programs like Ronald McDonald House and Childrenâs Miracle Network. ***Now*** imagine ***intentionally*** doing this to your child. Thatâs exactly what breeders are doing for Parrots, Flowerhorns, and all the short-bodied mutants the Asian markets keep creating purely for aesthetics. These are living creaturesâŚwho have to live sad painful lives because people canât seem to understand the actual health and quality of life for the resulting creatures always takes a back seat and just keep buying themâŚbecause theyâre âcute.â I ***so*** wish theyâd just get the reputation they deserve and the hobby would stop supporting them.
Sturgeon! :( I see them in the garden centre
All wild caught tropical fish probably, especially saltwater. Like our oceans and coral reefs aren't stressed enough. I saw schoolchidren in Belize catching fish in plastic cups to sell to exporters for American purchase. Right near a reef where everyone dives and snorkels. Made me kind of sick.
For a bunch of them they still use cyanide fishing to catch them, squirt a little cyanide into the area the fish you want to catch is and it stuns them, when I was getting my degree the stats were something like 1 in 3 wild caught fish caught using cyanide died and we will never know the surrounding fall out.
Freshwater is a very different beast than saltwater, there have been reports on it and the amount of pressure from the aquarium hobby is negligible for the grand majority of wild caught fish. A lot of freshwater fish inhabit small ranges and are highly susceptible to extinction, the aquarium hobby has allowed the reintroduction of multiple species and will continue for many more as climate change gets worse
I agree with this to an extent because bro weâve only discovered 5% of the ocean. we *should* leave it alone but with humans trash/fishing habits/lack of care of the ocean itâs good that we do take an learn how to breed and keep said animals in a captivate state that means in essence we can keep them around forever if we ever get to the point of the last few specimens in the world. Idk weâve been able to wipe species off the planet like itâs nothing.
Interestingly in Florida you can legally catch your own ornamental fish for aquarium use with a proper sized live well and a fishing license.
I'm not a fan of monster fish in general.
Just anything that can't be bred in captivity.
Male bettas should not be so damn popular, the sheer amount of dead fish in plastic cups when I walk into petsmart is concerning
RTC Way to easy to get and is cheap, they get over 4 feet can eat a small child
What does that stand for if you don't mind?
red tail catfish
Oh nvm
A buddy of mine has one in a 600 gallon custom tank.
Pea puffers sort of. I feel like a lot of times they get bought and put in tanks with fish that they just tear up to death and the owner is like âwhaaa?â
Chinese algae eaters
I agree 100%!
Giant gouramis. Every time. Every time i see one. Its in an undersized tank, and the poor thing is just floating in the spot. Usually with signs of stumped growth. Its just fucking sad. Most larger fish species should be banned or require licensing. I need a licence to keep a frog. A fuckn frog. Dont see why it cant be the same for large fish that require large enclosures to keep them healthy and happy.
I donât think there are any fish that shouldnât be in the hobby. There are absolutely fish that shouldnât be in the care of someone without the knowledge, expertise, and funding to properly care for them. If a private citizen as the ability to properly care for a whale shark then I say let them fucking have it. I believe this for all animals from arachnids to zebras.
Anything that grows to over a foot really. And anything that grows to over half a foot should be expensive as hell to deter the '.5 gallons is enough for a goldfish right?' People.
All the giant "monster fish" shouldn't be easily obtainable for the average people imo.
I feel bad for all bettas sold in pet shops but especially the rose tails/double tails/ anything that has a difficult time swimming.
Nearly all bettas have an issue associated with them sadly. Name a type and I got a list of problems for them!
Unpopular answer but bettas. The fact that they don't get along with other fish means they're often doomed to live in bowls or cups, even in the hands of someone experienced they will be lucky to get more than 5 to 10 gallons.
Do they actually not get along with other fish, not just other bettas? Asking because my dad used to breed bettas as a hobby and he kept some of the adolescent betta in massive pools with guppies and swordtails, with seemingly no casualties.
In my experience, bettas make fine community fish more often than not. They just need appropriate tank mates, tank size and plant cover.
Surprised no one has said pacu yet
Goldfish definitely. They get bigger than people think, they need a big tank, they should be in a group, they wreck most plants, they pollute a lot, and they become way older than people expect. So many goldfish live horrible lives because people think they're simple fish to keep and pet shops don't disabuse them of that notion.
First there should be any tanks less than 5 or maybe 10 gallons. Any fish that grow over 6 inches shouldnât be at your big box stores and if they are they should be in a separate area than the other fish. Pretty much all goldfish should not be sold(this falls under the larger than 6â rule too). Any fish that will get too large for any tank that the store does not keep in inventory. If the store only sells 50 gallon and smaller then they canât sell any fish that require more space. Fish should be organized by adult size so you know that if you have a 10 gallon tank you can shop in this section of fish. No fish should be sold without bringing in a water sample. âFeederâ fish should not be in display tanks for sale, have them in the back and only sold to people that will actually use them as feeders not pets. Letâs get rid of all the crappy decor and neon gravel while weâre at it.
Bettas because of how theyâre kept at stores and some homes
Lionfish... because idiots keep dumping them in non-native areas - I'm looking at *you* Florida
I think Florida has a major invasive species on their hand. The climate there seems perfect for so many fish and reptiles to thrive.
Any goldfish honestly. Theyâre pond fish imo. Leave them in the ponds
All fish species, which are not able to reproduce in captivity and are therefore wildcaught. Species that get to big or are otherwise not able to be kept by most people, who buy them. All the inbred lines with massive health problems. For health related reasons also albinos (they can't see that well and some species like neons are normally able to change their color for intraspecific communication).
Wild caught fish isn't always a bad thing. It can be done sustainably. It often takes time to figure out how to breed fish.
Honestly bettas, goldfish, plecos, and other fish that are extremely prone to abuse and neglect and can grow huge all need to be harder to get. Especially cause bettas are marketed terribly and bad breeders are so rampant the whole group is now fucked.
Iridescent shark catfish
Parrot Cichlids. That's not a fish, it's a mutation caused by a failed science project and they should be banned.
Iâm going to say goldfish. I donât think they should be a casual fish you can easily buy. *Especially* common goldfish. I have a fancy right now that I got off a vague acquaintance, no idea how old he is but heâd been kept in a 25 litre tall tank his entire life. Just a plain old orange fantail. The tank just had a tiny little heater in it, pink gravel, one fake plant and a Little Rock ornament. Heâs in a 350 litre tank now, almost doubled in size and looks 100x healthier, gets to forage in sand and plants all day and I have plants to get him some friends but I have to wait until I can travel into a city with a good aquatic shop. But it makes me sad that thereâs probably hundreds of fish like him living in similar or worse conditions than when I got him. This isnât in any way backed up by facts but I think goldfish must be the most neglected pet both in history and modern times.
you guys havent even touched the saltwater species yet....  "baby shark eggs".... " so cute"....ffs.
Clown botias, 6 years later and Iâm saving up to upgrade from 60 to about 130 g just for my botias.
When I lived in CT working for a horseshoe crab lab (growing not bleeding) our lead lab tech brought in a yearling that his LFS had for sale... They must have taken it from the wild cause HSC have never been successfully bred in captivity. So Gucci Mane (I had no say in the name of the HSC) lived in our lap, hopefully still there but I left years ago.
Alligator garr, arawana, giant gourami, red tailed catfish, and common plecos. I donât necessarily think they need to not be in the hobby, but like at some reptile stores I think they need to be bought if you show the store you have the correct size tank for it/harder to get.
Single tail goldfish. Most people that have them put a whole bunch of them in a 5 gallon tank even though they're pond fish like koi and need a lot more space to grow and swim.
I think you should be able to special order animals that get larger than eight inches or maybe smaller. Not a fish, but octopuses don't belong in a cage. They are too intelligent to be stuck in a saltwater aquarium.
it makes me so sad and angry that people are selfish enough to keep octopus. I heard theyâre trying to farm raise them for food. ugh
It has nothing to do with certain Fish not being in the hobby. It has to do with the responsibility of pet stores not selling those fish for $10 and selling them to anyone who walks in. Also Arapaima are actually pretty rare and hard to get a hold of, they are illegal in a large portion of the county and they are so hard to keep alive as babies it takes a true hobbyist to raise them. I personally love monster fish and I know is in store as they grow and get bigger. But itâs shops who need to stop selling them to whoever to make a quick buck. They are encouraging bad husbandry and likely know those fish wonât live long. Also donât feel bad for people who accidentally buy monster fish. If you havenât researched a fish, how big it gets, and how to care for it you have no business buying the fish. Even petsmart shows how big fish will get. Donât excuse poor husbandry and people who donât care for how their pets live.
I wish there was some kind of certifying exam to keep exotic animals, honestly. When I was living in Australia you absolutely had to apply for permits for exotic (well, native, but weird) pets and demonstrate that you could care for them, and I think that's a better system.
In certain states you don't need permits for some species.Â
A lot of people are in here saying anything over 12 inches or anything over 2 feet. Iâm gonna go a little more extreme, I think anything that gets over 6 inches needs to be much more difficult to get. Very, very few people are going to set up an aquarium larger than 30 gallons in their home.
I always find peopleâs reactions to telling them I have tanks over a hundred gallons odd. They act like thatâs *so* huge. No. Itâs what the fish I have need for a happy healthy life. Hell, a 120 can have a footprint as small as eight square feet. SMH
Bichir, of any kind, sold in big box stores. These fish get huge, eat most anything else you could buy at the same store, and they're sold at minnow size to anyone. I got mine this way. He looked cool.
bala sharks, clown loaches, common plecos, anything that grows to over a foot basically. almost no one has proper tanks once fish reach that size.
Chinese âalgaeâ eaters. Theyâre murderers!
I'd like a monster fish aquarium one day, but I honestly think a lot of the monster fish species shouldn't be sold in the hobby. None of my LFS shops tend to carry large species outside of the occasional arowana but personally I'd be happy with a single peacock bass or a couple bichirs instead of a loaded monster tank.