7 Terrible Fish for your Community Aquarium

hello everyone and welcome back to the channel today i want to talk about fish that just don't do well in community settings now when i'm talking about community aquariums i'm talking about tetras and rainbow fish and corydoras and planet tanks i'm not talking about like african cichlid tanks or big central south american tanks just your general community aquarium now i've definitely made the mistake of impulse buying and buying fish that i didn't know any better at the time and just didn't do that well and that's why i want to make this video someone new might be researching their first aquarium fish for their community aquarium and hopefully we can help them avoid some disasters so right off the bat i'm gonna go with one of my favorite all-time fish and that is the baller shark now just because it's my favorite doesn't mean that it's good for community aquariums obviously now when you're buying these or when you see them in fish stores they're only about two and a half to three inches and they look just beautiful they still have that black and white fin this silvery shiny sheen along their body and they just look awesome they're really active and a lot of people get drawn into them however the issue is is that they get over a foot long they're big and they also are a schooling fish so you need a giant school of these fish for them to really thrive and be happy so unless you plan on keeping these in a swimming pool definitely do not make the same mistake i did this poor guy has been with me for a very long time ever since i got back in the hobby he isn't an eight-foot tank but he's got no buddies there's just not enough room to get him any more buddies and i just feel terrible so don't do what i did not good for your average community aquarium so next on my list is going to be the rosie barb now rosie barbs they're not a terrible fish by any means as you can see they're insanely beautiful but they are notorious fin nippers and there's a reason for that so the rosy barb is actually a cool water species so when you buy them for your community aquariums a lot of people are keeping their aquariums in the upper 70s like 78 is pretty standard however when you keep a cooler water fish in warm water they tend to be more aggressive and that also is going to cause fin nipping you can see i keep mine outside where it's normally in the low 60s and they do just fine now there's definitely some tricks if you have them in your aquarium the more you have the less nippy they will be but in general the rosy barb is going to be fin nipper if you have angelfish or long fin anything with long fins they're gonna get nipped so it's a pretty common fish that you can find in just about any big box store and i would just highly recommend not putting it in your aquarium however if you're gonna do any outside tubbing or if you have an outside pond like i do they're awesome as you can see i've got green water and you can still see them from a mile away just a super awesome beautiful fish for outside however in your aquarium not so much so next up i want to talk about one of the worst fish you could possibly add to your community aquarium that's sold as a community aquarium fish by the big box stores ie petco petsmart etc and that is the chinese algae eater if you go in looking for a fish tank cleaner or an algae eater a lot of the times this is what you get pointed to and it's such a shame because they are not even algae eaters they only eat algae as young fish fry once they get older they turn to carnivores and they will wreak havoc on your aquarium and kill whatever they can catch also they get big between 6 and 10 inches just not a good fit if you're looking for something similar get the siamese algae eater which actually does eat algae and is not so aggressive however still gets fairly large at around six inches siamese algae eater yes chinese algae eater no next is the pea puffer probably one of the most common questions i get asked is what can i put with my pea puffer and the answer is nothing these little rage machines are very territorial they're pretty dang aggressive so you really should not put these with anything except themselves they do love being in large groups the more the merrier and that's it what is more adorable than a giant school or shoal of pea puffers as you can see they're all just peeing around doing pea puffer things and that's the way it should be don't uh don't add these to your community aquariums because they will shred anything at any time and it's not like one of those fish that as soon as you put them in there they're just gonna rage on everything you could have this fish just fine in your community aquarium for a year and then one day it's just like you know what i'm gonna kill everything because i'm bored so stay away from the pea puffer in your community aquarium do a species only tank with lots of them and you will not regret it now next up i want to talk about the oscar fish we gotta talk about it can't tell you how many times i've been in a petco or a petsmart and i've seen someone buying a little two to three inch little cute baby oscar fish for their community aquarium and next thing you know it's six months later it's the size of a football there's no other fish in the aquarium it's eating your plants and it's just wreaking havoc on everything now if you've been around the hobby for a while you know this is to be true but hopefully we can prevent some new hobbyists from buying this for their 55 or 75 gallon community aquarium or small i mean i've seen these in even smaller these fish get massive i'm talking 16 18 inches they get angry just do not buy them duplicate this tank you're seeing right now from kg tropicals you sent me this awesome beautiful oscar footage thank you john but this is how they should be kept not in your community aquariums no matter what the person at petco or petsmart tells you do not do it these are monsters and look at this guy right here he looks like a 70s sofa cushion oh this one's actually pretty cool here this orange one i gotta admit that is a pretty good looking fish right here so i want to talk about the tiger barb now this is gonna be a little more controversial as they are awesome fish for community aquariums but they have to be done right so if you look at this aquarium here every other fish in the aquarium is quite a bit bigger than the tiger barb and the reason you want it that way is because tiger barbs are some of the biggest bullies in the aquarium hobby especially when it comes to fish that people think are good for community aquariums they're bullies they're fin nippers even with each other they can just harass non-stop so it's really important with tiger barbs if you want to be successful species only or species that can handle a bit of bullying and fin nipping so again nothing with long fins or fish that are just larger and they're not going to go after them now if you want something that's going to be similar to a tiger barb as far as size the body shape and that's not aggressive fin nipper bully i highly suggest the black ruby barb super peaceful fish not a bully not a fin nipper and they just look amazing a much better alternative if you're looking for something peaceful so the next fish i want to talk about are bikers bickers by shears whatever you want to call them this is a very easy fish for someone that's new to the hobby to get sucked into if you're looking at this fish you know it's three to four inches it moves slow they're somewhat blind you think this would be an awesome little eel-like fish for my aquarium however outside of senegal bikers most of these fish get massive and while yes they move slow they're pretty blind they don't have the best eyesight at night it's very easy for them to pick off fish that are just sleeping floating around and if it fits in their mouth they're gonna eat it but again i've made the mistake of buying one of these as a beginner because when you see that i mean this is a beautiful fish how could you not want this fish however eventually it's going to be 12 14 even 24 inches plus depending on the species so best left for the monster fish keepers and not your community aquarium all right there you go part one of my bad fish for your community aquarium series we're gonna do a part two in a part three so make sure you're subscribed if you're not give me some suggestions down below on what you think is a fish that's commonly sold for community aquariums however it just does not do well in community aquariums check out these other videos hit the subscribe button and i'll see you all next time

Channel: Steenfott Aquatics

Views: 733,979

Keywords: Steenfott Aquatics, Fish Tank, Aquarium Fish, Aquarium Channel, community tank, bad community fish, community fish tank, community fish tank 10 gallon, community tank ideas, community tank setup, bala shark, pea puffer, tiger barb, bichir

Id: Ph-U5Hyscew

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021