*What mistakes did you make when picking out your first fish?* Let's learn from each other's experiences so we hopefully don't have to go through them ourselves!
My parents got me my first fish when I was 2. My dad made the mistake of getting too many goramis. When I got my first fish that I picked out, nothing really went wrong because my parents helped me lol.
I picked a betta when I was 11. My mom tried to wash the tank and used dish soap one day while I was gone. The fish died and I didn’t get new fish until I was 31. The sadness was real lol
As a beginner..I didn't know about fish comparability..my LFS sold me a pair of Tinfoil Barbs with Goldfish..the barbs harrassed the Gold Fish so much..I had to give away the Gold Fish back to the store..It's very important to know fish's requirements and compatibility
My first fish wasn’t my pick my family brought me a Betta when I was in the hospital. Every thing wrong that could be wrong but thanks to Cory and Aquarium Co Op videos he made it home with me and lived out his days in a fifty five with buddies. He was a Walmart fish with a plastic box half the size of a shoebox. Watching your bosses videos and taking care of him helped me through rehab and learning to walk,move arms and even swallow. My blood oxygen content had gotten way to low and they said after I was unconscious for a month that I would have gone to sleep and not woke up. That fish gave me a reason to get moving.
Oh my goodness, yes I've heard several stories about the "healing powers" of having a pet or something else to take care of. Glad that both you and your fish are doing well now. 🤗
My inner data geek was already thrilled when you talk about making the spreadsheet - then at the PowerPoint planner my brain just 🤯 You are a treasure to fishkeeping, Irene!
I love your process. It's amazing that the spreadsheet didn't prevent mistakes! LOL. My mistake was always going by minimum. 6 zebra fish since that's the minimum for a school. In a 10-g tank since that's the minimum for zebra fish. But when I got more and put them in a bigger tank it was clear that "minimum" is not the same as "ideal" - they were so much happier. My other mistake was trusting the internet too much. Sometimes you think you're reading 10 sources but really it's just the same info copied multiple times. I had bloodfin tetras eat my ghost shrimp, for example, even though multiple sites said they would be good tank mates. Turns out bloodfins can be pretty ravenous little hunters! Maybe there are some things you can only learn by actually keeping the fish?
I was maybe around 8 when I went to pick out my first fish, and I did almost no homework on it. All I knew was that I wanted something wicked cool with the word "shark" in its name. Fortunately, the pet shop owner figured out that I was a fish keeping rookie and talked me into getting my first betta instead. I was still a little disappointed that I didn't get to go home with the bala shark or red-tailed shark that I really wanted, but I got over it by naming my new betta, "JAWS". 🦈
Great video, Irene! I can't believe how similar our pre-aquarium research was. I had some previous experience raising tropical fish as a kid, but I didn't know many of the foundational things that you have talked about. In fact, you were one of my best sources of information in my research phase! For deciding which fish, I did almost exactly what you did - I made an Excel spreadsheet with a list of candidates, temperature and pH preferences, characteristics like schooling fish, fin nippers, etc., and then I found out which of these were available locally. My starting point was different from yours; I have this bias against heating up water to keep it well above ambient house temperature just to allow me to keep certain fish. That kept my list down to about 30 species. I also used AqAdvisor for loading estimates, which I think are actually pretty conservative with nano fish. I don't have long finned fish, but I nevertheless decided not to keep barbs because I was concerned with aggression. I had, and still have, the same aggression problem with dwarf gouramis that you had with Peyton Manning. I have two males (Ghost & Pete), and Pete is the aggressor, though only on ghost and not any other fish in my aquarium. I think your personality comment is important for beginners. Fish of the same species behave differently, and it's hard to anticipate which ones will be aggressive in your aquarium, event if you watch them in the store tank before buying. This is one thing I like about PetSmart - they give you a 14 day guarantee on any fish you buy from them, and you can return them for any reason. Unfortunately in my case, Pete the dwarf gourami wasn't so aggressive at first and by the time he became aggressive it was well past the 14 day period. I'm still debating whether or not to rehome him.
This video spoke to me so much because you literally said my story lol I have had several betas over the last 30 years and never had a problem with them and had one live for 7 years. That was 4 years ago and here I am starting all over again I brought home a betta fish when I went to Petco to pick up dog and cat food and got my old little tank out and it died in 2 days and I was heartbroken so now I have been doing as much research as I possibly can I found this video to be so helpful cuz the more knowledge the better chance survival for the fish against me lol
“Not to get fish of all the same color”- my Dwarf gourami, Ember tetra, Venezualan Cory dora, Nerite snail, and Cherry shrimp would say otherwise. I can say I enjoy my orange tank and the fish don’t look the same. I am starting my blue tank and yellow tank. :) of course with inspiration from your top colored fish ( I hope you continue that Irene)
I really loved your sketches. Also, that excel doc looks so helpful! Thank you Irene, your experience and advice is priceless and I really cherish all that you give 🐠
I'm usually not a fan of albino strains but love my albino corys. My emeralds & pandas tend to hide but adding the "HELLO WORLD" attitude the albinos have seems to lure everyone out
I am glad you have a lot of subscribers. You go above and beyond. I tried this process in my head and caused a headache. Will do paper. I have a ~3 gallon aquascape with 7 chili rasboras, 4 different colored shrimp, and two nerite snails. Filter but no heater. Everyone seems to be doing great!!!
My first fishes were when I was around 10 years old and were three feeder comet goldfish in a 10 gallon that had a filter, fake plants, and blue gravel. After a few months one died and we didn't know why, later a second one died by jumping out but decided to replace that one. After a while I decided I wanted transfer a dwarf frog with them to see if they got along a day later one of my goldfish died and the water was dark cloudy so I put the frog back to his tank. The original goldfish barely survived though after a few weeks he died too and that was the end hobby for awhile.
Wow, the spreadsheet is a great idea! I'm in the research phase too and plotting things in Photoshop, so far just with a shelf and light with plans to have plants and shrimp+snails grow out after cycling for a few months first (especially in case we move). I'd love a short finned female betta and she wouldn't share that tank with any other fish, but another tank I've got in the mental works is a (so far, single species as well) pygmy cory tank. I know you even had a video showcasing the difficulties you had with wild-caught ones so lots of learning still ongoing. I'd love the fish as much as I do any other pet, so I don't know if I'd have the heart to return or rehome any bad fits!
The thing is, if you don't rehome a fish that bullies others in your aquarium, you're allowing that fish to make your other pets miserable. You could put your troublesome fish in another tank if you have one, but not everyone has the luxury or the space to do that. You could also choose to rehome the fish that are being bullied, as that would give them the chance to have a better life.
@@michaelfox6820 Yeah, I could absolutely see myself succumbing to "multiple tank syndrome".. it's part of the reason I bought a shelf rather than a single aquarium stand. Hopefully as I establish networks within the hobby, I can feel better assured about the quality of homes any future fish might need to go to.
@@pinkdagger Yes, networks are important in the hobby. I live in a small city that doesn't have a fish club, and I only have two friends with freshwater tropicals. Still this has helped me rehome plants and fish with confidence, knowing that they were going to good homes. But I also have Kijiji (like Craigslist in the States), and I have used it successfully to rehome fish to good homes. I think I can tell by the tone of the reply or the answers to questions I ask whether my pet would be going to a good home.
Hey did you know I brought a sick dwarf gourami baby!! It looked healthy when I bought but after a week or so it died!! Thankfully it doesn't spread the disease to others. I am only 10 years old and it happened just recently.
That happened with a betta fish I bought too. If the aquarium environment is good, then it usually means the fish was sick for a while and there's not much you could've done. 😥
I just LOVE your background story about becoming a Aquarist!!! We ALL have horror stories to tell, that's for sure!!! 45+ years in the hobby, I certainly do! My most devastating one has to do with a Black Lyretail Molly, a Red Betta and a LIONHEAD FISH!!! To make it quick, I found my Betta and Molly in the belly of the beast! That was almost 43 years ago! No TH-cam, or internet to get help!!! I literally learned from real life errors!!! Today, I have over 30+ aquariums, over 100 species of fish, shrimp and snails and all with live plants, thriving happily ever after!!!
Oh no, that lionhead got the most expensive meal of its life! Yes, I love leveling up as an aquarist and constantly learning from others because things in the hobby definitely get easier eventually.
Wow Irene you really do your research. Spread sheets and drawings very organized! I could never do that! I do read up on fish before I buy. Not like the early days 30 years ago when I started keeping aquariums. I just dove in! Pun intended
Heh. I bought some guppies to occupy the top layer but they're just in everyone's faces at every level regardless. They're so cute! My cories (Venezuelan) also like to play around at mid-level when they get a burst of energy. They also do a greeting dance at mid-level when I come into the room in the morning. I don't even feed them then, I do other chores, then come back 30m later. The cories are just the cutest, friendliest bunch!
Hi Irene I have a question for you. I have a 5 1/2 gallon fish tank for my Betta and it’s currently leaking so I put in effort and try to fix the leak or do I just buy a whole new tank
i had the same experience w a dwarf gourami too >< currently have 1 in my community tank and the fish store staff and the internet all said that gouramis were peaceful community fish and he was for the first couple of weeks but after that he just started terrorising the other fish in there too despite giving him multiple timeouts throughout the month
Oh I'm glad the timeouts worked for you! Peyton Manning never learned his lesson, so I had to return him to the store. But my other two dwarf gouramis have been fine, so I guess it was just a personality thing.
I tried the timeout route with my aggressive dwarf gourami, too! He was only picking on the other male dwarf gourami in the tank, but I wanted that to stop. So I put him in a 5 gallon aquarium with no other fish for about 4 days, and then reintroduced him. It worked at first, but gradually he became his old aggressive self. As far as dwarf gouramis being peaceful, some of them are. The other male in my aquarium (looks just like Irene's) wouldn't hurt a fly!
@@GirlTalksFish the timeouts kinda worked for like a few hours after doing them 😅😅 idk what happened but he just simmered down so its God at this point HAHA 😭 omg also thanks for replying !!! rly rly obsessed w your videos 😍
The only thing i personally i think i did wrong was always overstocking my tank. I try to follow the numbers of small fish suggested by expert youtubers for my 15 gallon but after buying i somehow always feel the tank is overstocked. ive tried multiple combos in my 3 years in the hobby like 8 danios, 6 mollies and a betta, betta with 8 guppies, betta with 10 cardinals and an ottocinclus. Everything always felt overstocked
Just wondering, do you get rid of your fish each year or two and try having a different type of tank style each time or do you let the fish live out there lives before trying new fish? I only have one tank and I was thinking about how to maximize the different types of fish I can get.
My first fish was a betta and two cories shamefully crammed into a three gallon. Somehow, despite my ignorance, they managed to survive a whole year before I upgraded them to a heated, filtered, 20 gallon.
Always such great advice that’s very well delivered. I’ve stated this before but your camera presence is truly unbelievable, I wish I had you and Cory as a source back when I started keeping fish…
@@GirlTalksFish naw, that’s merely people use to people on video seeming robotic. That animation is what holds interest and attention! You would have been an awesome teacher… as you are now . I appreciate you
I am going for a low temp tank & not long bought a blue paradise fish. This was going to be my centre piece fish - it does nothing but hide in the tall plants all day - never hardly see it !
No way! The paradise fish I've seen at the fish store always seem to be swimming out and about. Sometimes you just never know until you bring them home...
I still have my shopaholic problems and I just buy 10 of each live bearer, such as mollies or guppies (since they can die and I at least have some extra fish and I can monitor what I should replenish to continue breeding projects) and I harvest any babies that are being born.
Have you ever used white gravel? I am looking at starting my first aquarium and I like the look of white gravel but everyone keeps telling me I will regret it because it starts to look dirty right away. What do you think? Thanks.
Hey, I have a goldfish and he is EXTREMLY old, I have a feeling that he is nearing the end of his life soon, and I’m thinking about getting a betta fish to put in his tank after he passes. However I want to know if I can take my goldfish out after her passes and just leave the tank for a few days before I get the betta or if I have to fully clean it and cycle it. Also idk if there are things that can kil my betta from my goldfish? (oh and also I know about heating it and stuff, but how long would I need it to have the heater in to make the water all ready? I have so many questions and would farther have genuine answers rather than Google. If anyone can answer my questions pls reply, thanks xx!
First let me say, sorry for the length of my answer lol. This is all "in my opinion." Never assume a fish died from old age, always test your water after a fish death. Better safe than sorry. I see nothing wrong with adding a fish after one passes (provided water was safe i.e. parameters were good and no visible illness on dead fish). If it was a community tank, you wouldn't remove all fish and clean tank everytime one died. Now, if you go too long without a fish in the tank it will have to be re-cycled. The bacteria need a food source. So if it's going to be longer than a few days I would sprinkle a little fish food in periodically to keep the tank cycled. Going from a goldfish to a betta shouldn't be a problem. Goldfish are notorious for being sloppy. So, if your goldfish tank is cycled then the bacteria can handle the bio load of a betta no problem. About the heater, the time it takes to warm the water is hard to answer. That will depend on the size of tank, how many watts of heat you are using, and the ambient room temp around the tank. I would plan on having the heater going for at least 24 hours. Hope this helps
does anyone have advice for not stressing your betta fish and the main things i need to know, and which bettas live longer? i don’t trust google and i’m ready to get my betta and i need help.
Added 4 endler livebears to my 10 gallon shrimp tank, since internet says endlers are shrimp safe. Six days and 10 dead shrimp later, I learned not all endlers are shrimp safe. They weren't even eating the shrimp, just killing one or two a day.
My first fish was a Dumbo ear female betta. The mistake I made is that I overfed it and it died in 2 days I thought that it wanted more food so I just kept giving it. Not to mention I had no filter yet and an air pump so ammonia may have been in effect too. Learned my mistake after that but still am doing mistakes til now but sometimes it's just unpredictable on how fish die. Yesterday my second betta(Male Veiltail) died due to the temp change it was fed after it died so it might have not digested the food well due to the cold temp. those two bettas of mine were buried on my backyard wrapped them in tissue a dug a grave for them. I'll definitely miss them both.
Learning about the fragility of fish lives was definitely a shocker to me. I had a betta fish named Loki who I've never mentioned on the channel because he got dropsy within a day of bringing him home and quickly passed away. He probably had been sick for a while, but at the time, I wasn't experienced enough to spot any symptoms when I picked him at the store. 😥
Hello, please help my betta lost one of his whole pastoral fin ,he was suffering from fin rot and that has been fixed however now he is not at all active most of the time lying down ,water parameters are in place, will he be able to swim with one pactoral fin ,tried everything, keeping water clean ,frequent water changes ,salt water bath and almond leaves,have heater and filter with very minimal flow ,not sure what else I can do to get him back to swim happily again.Please please help🙏
I dont think I'll every get a betta from a cup again, unless its for the purpose of saving the fish. My current betta had BAD finrot from the pet store almost died a few times, I'm only getting them from reputable breeders or my LFS.
I : bought a bowl overstocked the bowl with oranda and feeder goldfish did 100% water changes Flushing fish The orandas lived for a day (SIP Goldy and Molly ) Added 9 more feeders (i hate myself) Stayed away from fish ever since Got a betta for my bday put him in an even tinier bowl researched my head off dragged my dad to the store got a 5 gallon moved somewhere else got neon tetras put my betta in they had a happy life in the community tank until i saw 2 white spots on one of the neons Now my poor betta is back in the bowl until the tetras get better Plans to have a snail enclosed ecosphere the end . until i have MTS and I know i will someday .............
buying eight platys thinking they'd have a few babies here and there which survived. ended up with hundreds within two of three months and the adults were totally disinterested in eating them.
No way! My adult platies always ate all their babies until I got more plants. Now I've got tons of fry, so I added Unicron the powder blue dwarf gourami to keep the population more manageable.
@@GirlTalksFish When you took your extra platies into the fish store did you just donate them or get a little store credit? Guess I should check if my LFS would be interested in any
...dear lordy, here it goes.... My first fish weren't even my choices. I got the aquarium first...and my sister saw that I had an aquarium she decided to buy me goldfish... Uh, no filter, no heater.... I was checking the aquarium for leaks that is why it was filled.. Next day...there were 5 goldfish in a 20gal aquarium......... I rushed building my tank from the bottom up... Got my filter...heater...etc... Next day...all my fish were dead... My nephew wanted to feed my fish. There was an empty bag of sugar and Oreo cookies floating on top.... This all in the span of less then a week. I hadn't bought a fish since then. 10 years later...I'm starting small. VERY SMALL! And not telling anybody!
Talk about everything wrong, when I was 9 I got my first 20 gallon aquarium, I get a baby Oscar, datinoid, and a gold serum, what a mess,but too young to know. Also this is back in the old days, way before even pong!!
"Understocking is a really hard lesson to learn for beginners" Not for me lol. I put three guppies in a ten gallon. And one died because I didn't cycle the tank. So I had two female guppies all by themselves in a ten gallon until they started having babies and my tank ended up being overstocked.
aqadvisor is extremely conservative on stocking most likely assuming you will neglect the tank/wont take care of it asmuch as should so try to combat that by understocking tanks.
![The CLEANEST Fish Store I’ve Ever Seen [Tour]](/img/n.gif)
*What mistakes did you make when picking out your first fish?* Let's learn from each other's experiences so we hopefully don't have to go through them ourselves!
My parents got me my first fish when I was 2. My dad made the mistake of getting too many goramis. When I got my first fish that I picked out, nothing really went wrong because my parents helped me lol.
I picked a betta when I was 11. My mom tried to wash the tank and used dish soap one day while I was gone. The fish died and I didn’t get new fish until I was 31. The sadness was real lol
Just not doing enough research. Bought school fish in only pairs. Like neons and kuli loaches.
I didn’t get plants initially, but allowed me to do super low light which kept algae low
As a beginner..I didn't know about fish comparability..my LFS sold me a pair of Tinfoil Barbs with Goldfish..the barbs harrassed the Gold Fish so much..I had to give away the Gold Fish back to the store..It's very important to know fish's requirements and compatibility
Most people: **impulse buy first fish**
Irene: “ok so here’s my excel spreadsheet on fish compatibility”
My first fish wasn’t my pick my family brought me a Betta when I was in the hospital. Every thing wrong that could be wrong but thanks to Cory and Aquarium Co Op videos he made it home with me and lived out his days in a fifty five with buddies. He was a Walmart fish with a plastic box half the size of a shoebox. Watching your bosses videos and taking care of him helped me through rehab and learning to walk,move arms and even swallow. My blood oxygen content had gotten way to low and they said after I was unconscious for a month that I would have gone to sleep and not woke up. That fish gave me a reason to get moving.
Oh my goodness, yes I've heard several stories about the "healing powers" of having a pet or something else to take care of. Glad that both you and your fish are doing well now. 🤗
my old betta (ben) got me through a lot too! Im glad you are doing better❤
I'm actually interested on that excel file you made mind sharing the link with us?
yes please share it with us
My inner data geek was already thrilled when you talk about making the spreadsheet - then at the PowerPoint planner my brain just 🤯 You are a treasure to fishkeeping, Irene!
I love your process. It's amazing that the spreadsheet didn't prevent mistakes! LOL.
My mistake was always going by minimum. 6 zebra fish since that's the minimum for a school. In a 10-g tank since that's the minimum for zebra fish. But when I got more and put them in a bigger tank it was clear that "minimum" is not the same as "ideal" - they were so much happier.
My other mistake was trusting the internet too much. Sometimes you think you're reading 10 sources but really it's just the same info copied multiple times. I had bloodfin tetras eat my ghost shrimp, for example, even though multiple sites said they would be good tank mates. Turns out bloodfins can be pretty ravenous little hunters!
Maybe there are some things you can only learn by actually keeping the fish?
I was maybe around 8 when I went to pick out my first fish, and I did almost no homework on it. All I knew was that I wanted something wicked cool with the word "shark" in its name. Fortunately, the pet shop owner figured out that I was a fish keeping rookie and talked me into getting my first betta instead. I was still a little disappointed that I didn't get to go home with the bala shark or red-tailed shark that I really wanted, but I got over it by naming my new betta, "JAWS". 🦈
Great video, Irene! I can't believe how similar our pre-aquarium research was. I had some previous experience raising tropical fish as a kid, but I didn't know many of the foundational things that you have talked about. In fact, you were one of my best sources of information in my research phase! For deciding which fish, I did almost exactly what you did - I made an Excel spreadsheet with a list of candidates, temperature and pH preferences, characteristics like schooling fish, fin nippers, etc., and then I found out which of these were available locally. My starting point was different from yours; I have this bias against heating up water to keep it well above ambient house temperature just to allow me to keep certain fish. That kept my list down to about 30 species. I also used AqAdvisor for loading estimates, which I think are actually pretty conservative with nano fish. I don't have long finned fish, but I nevertheless decided not to keep barbs because I was concerned with aggression. I had, and still have, the same aggression problem with dwarf gouramis that you had with Peyton Manning. I have two males (Ghost & Pete), and Pete is the aggressor, though only on ghost and not any other fish in my aquarium. I think your personality comment is important for beginners. Fish of the same species behave differently, and it's hard to anticipate which ones will be aggressive in your aquarium, event if you watch them in the store tank before buying. This is one thing I like about PetSmart - they give you a 14 day guarantee on any fish you buy from them, and you can return them for any reason. Unfortunately in my case, Pete the dwarf gourami wasn't so aggressive at first and by the time he became aggressive it was well past the 14 day period. I'm still debating whether or not to rehome him.
This video spoke to me so much because you literally said my story lol I have had several betas over the last 30 years and never had a problem with them and had one live for 7 years. That was 4 years ago and here I am starting all over again I brought home a betta fish when I went to Petco to pick up dog and cat food and got my old little tank out and it died in 2 days and I was heartbroken so now I have been doing as much research as I possibly can I found this video to be so helpful cuz the more knowledge the better chance survival for the fish against me lol
Great vid, Irene!! Any chance you can share that spreadsheet?
“Not to get fish of all the same color”- my Dwarf gourami, Ember tetra, Venezualan Cory dora, Nerite snail, and Cherry shrimp would say otherwise. I can say I enjoy my orange tank and the fish don’t look the same. I am starting my blue tank and yellow tank. :) of course with inspiration from your top colored fish ( I hope you continue that Irene)
I really loved your sketches. Also, that excel doc looks so helpful!
Thank you Irene, your experience and advice is priceless and I really cherish all that you give 🐠
I'm usually not a fan of albino strains but love my albino corys. My emeralds & pandas tend to hide but adding the "HELLO WORLD" attitude the albinos have seems to lure everyone out
I agree albino Cory’s are awesome. Very active and the more you have the better.
I am glad you have a lot of subscribers. You go above and beyond. I tried this process in my head and caused a headache. Will do paper. I have a ~3 gallon aquascape with 7 chili rasboras, 4 different colored shrimp, and two nerite snails. Filter but no heater. Everyone seems to be doing great!!!
My grandpa gave me my first fish, a blue betta male. I fell in love with fish ever since that moment and now I have a 15 gallon tank and a 5 gallon.
that's awesome ! Grandpa's are great.
@@thehairywoodsman5644 yup!
Great video Irene! I was also bitten by the betta bug. =). And have been slowly accumulating “stuff” for a 20G. It’s good to know I am not alone!
My first fishes were when I was around 10 years old and were three feeder comet goldfish in a 10 gallon that had a filter, fake plants, and blue gravel. After a few months one died and we didn't know why, later a second one died by jumping out but decided to replace that one. After a while I decided I wanted transfer a dwarf frog with them to see if they got along a day later one of my goldfish died and the water was dark cloudy so I put the frog back to his tank. The original goldfish barely survived though after a few weeks he died too and that was the end hobby for awhile.
Wow, the spreadsheet is a great idea! I'm in the research phase too and plotting things in Photoshop, so far just with a shelf and light with plans to have plants and shrimp+snails grow out after cycling for a few months first (especially in case we move). I'd love a short finned female betta and she wouldn't share that tank with any other fish, but another tank I've got in the mental works is a (so far, single species as well) pygmy cory tank. I know you even had a video showcasing the difficulties you had with wild-caught ones so lots of learning still ongoing. I'd love the fish as much as I do any other pet, so I don't know if I'd have the heart to return or rehome any bad fits!
The thing is, if you don't rehome a fish that bullies others in your aquarium, you're allowing that fish to make your other pets miserable. You could put your troublesome fish in another tank if you have one, but not everyone has the luxury or the space to do that. You could also choose to rehome the fish that are being bullied, as that would give them the chance to have a better life.
@@michaelfox6820 Yeah, I could absolutely see myself succumbing to "multiple tank syndrome".. it's part of the reason I bought a shelf rather than a single aquarium stand. Hopefully as I establish networks within the hobby, I can feel better assured about the quality of homes any future fish might need to go to.
@@pinkdagger Yes, networks are important in the hobby. I live in a small city that doesn't have a fish club, and I only have two friends with freshwater tropicals. Still this has helped me rehome plants and fish with confidence, knowing that they were going to good homes. But I also have Kijiji (like Craigslist in the States), and I have used it successfully to rehome fish to good homes. I think I can tell by the tone of the reply or the answers to questions I ask whether my pet would be going to a good home.
Your videos are awesome!! Thank you!!
Nice work! Irene. Always a pleasure to view your videos.
I love how your videos always have great B-roll.
Hey did you know I brought a sick dwarf gourami baby!! It looked healthy when I bought but after a week or so it died!! Thankfully it doesn't spread the disease to others. I am only 10 years old and it happened just recently.
That happened with a betta fish I bought too. If the aquarium environment is good, then it usually means the fish was sick for a while and there's not much you could've done. 😥
I love your videos, yours and few other channels are my go to for information. You've helped me start my aquarium hobby! 😍
I just LOVE your background story about becoming a Aquarist!!!
We ALL have horror stories to tell, that's for sure!!!
45+ years in the hobby, I certainly do!
My most devastating one has to do with a Black Lyretail Molly, a Red Betta and a LIONHEAD FISH!!! To make it quick, I found my Betta and Molly in the belly of the beast!
That was almost 43 years ago!
No TH-cam, or internet to get help!!! I literally learned from real life errors!!!
Today, I have over 30+ aquariums, over 100 species of fish, shrimp and snails and all with live plants, thriving happily ever after!!!
Oh no, that lionhead got the most expensive meal of its life! Yes, I love leveling up as an aquarist and constantly learning from others because things in the hobby definitely get easier eventually.
I feel you Irene, i'm doing this right now.
Wow Irene you really do your research. Spread sheets and drawings very organized! I could never do that! I do read up on fish before I buy. Not like the early days 30 years ago when I started keeping aquariums. I just dove in! Pun intended
Wow great website. It’s helped so much thank you!
Heh. I bought some guppies to occupy the top layer but they're just in everyone's faces at every level regardless. They're so cute!
My cories (Venezuelan) also like to play around at mid-level when they get a burst of energy. They also do a greeting dance at mid-level when I come into the room in the morning.
I don't even feed them then, I do other chores, then come back 30m later. The cories are just the cutest, friendliest bunch!
I'm doing the same honeygouramis neon tetra setup in a 10 gallon but with khuli loaches instead of Corys. Do they breed crazy like corys and guppys?
Hi Irene I have a question for you. I have a 5 1/2 gallon fish tank for my Betta and it’s currently leaking so I put in effort and try to fix the leak or do I just buy a whole new tank
Ohh my a spreadsheet I wish I had your brain! You are amazing!
great video irene god bless you and your family
Tank is looking awesome! Any chance of another tank updates video? I enjoy seeing your progress. Long time follower :)
i had the same experience w a dwarf gourami too >< currently have 1 in my community tank and the fish store staff and the internet all said that gouramis were peaceful community fish and he was for the first couple of weeks but after that he just started terrorising the other fish in there too despite giving him multiple timeouts throughout the month
Oh I'm glad the timeouts worked for you! Peyton Manning never learned his lesson, so I had to return him to the store. But my other two dwarf gouramis have been fine, so I guess it was just a personality thing.
I tried the timeout route with my aggressive dwarf gourami, too! He was only picking on the other male dwarf gourami in the tank, but I wanted that to stop. So I put him in a 5 gallon aquarium with no other fish for about 4 days, and then reintroduced him. It worked at first, but gradually he became his old aggressive self. As far as dwarf gouramis being peaceful, some of them are. The other male in my aquarium (looks just like Irene's) wouldn't hurt a fly!
@@GirlTalksFish the timeouts kinda worked for like a few hours after doing them 😅😅 idk what happened but he just simmered down so its God at this point HAHA 😭
omg also thanks for replying !!! rly rly obsessed w your videos 😍
@@michaelfox6820 yea 😭😭 it’s really such a gamble w dwarf gouramis
LOL excel spreadsheet!! You can take Irene out of engineering but you can't take the engineering out of Irene!
🥰 me as soon as I saw the spread sheet.
The only thing i personally i think i did wrong was always overstocking my tank. I try to follow the numbers of small fish suggested by expert youtubers for my 15 gallon but after buying i somehow always feel the tank is overstocked. ive tried multiple combos in my 3 years in the hobby like 8 danios, 6 mollies and a betta, betta with 8 guppies, betta with 10 cardinals and an ottocinclus. Everything always felt overstocked
Excellent as always
Just wondering, do you get rid of your fish each year or two and try having a different type of tank style each time or do you let the fish live out there lives before trying new fish? I only have one tank and I was thinking about how to maximize the different types of fish I can get.
What is that yellow fish at 8:20? Thanks!
Neon green rasboras or Microdevario kubotai 💚
My first fish was a betta and two cories shamefully crammed into a three gallon. Somehow, despite my ignorance, they managed to survive a whole year before I upgraded them to a heated, filtered, 20 gallon.
I literally made that same mistake before in the past until I realized my mistake and returned the extra fish!
I got a new blue betta and some plants Yesterday
Always such great advice that’s very well delivered. I’ve stated this before but your camera presence is truly unbelievable, I wish I had you and Cory as a source back when I started keeping fish…
Awww, thank you so much! I've been told in the past that my face is quite expressive and I speak very animatedly, like a cartoon character. 😂
@@GirlTalksFish naw, that’s merely people use to people on video seeming robotic. That animation is what holds interest and attention! You would have been an awesome teacher… as you are now . I appreciate you
@@vincentalaimo7527 yes!
I am going for a low temp tank & not long bought a blue paradise fish. This was going to be my centre piece fish - it does nothing but hide in the tall plants all day - never hardly see it !
No way! The paradise fish I've seen at the fish store always seem to be swimming out and about. Sometimes you just never know until you bring them home...
How did your CoryDoras breed? Was it involuntary?
Absolutely love your videos! But I have to say you are a crazy fish lady lol! Thanks for sharing all your info with us!
I still have my shopaholic problems and I just buy 10 of each live bearer, such as mollies or guppies (since they can die and I at least have some extra fish and I can monitor what I should replenish to continue breeding projects) and I harvest any babies that are being born.
Have you ever used white gravel? I am looking at starting my first aquarium and I like the look of white gravel but everyone keeps telling me I will regret it because it starts to look dirty right away. What do you think? Thanks.
So EARLY this time :)
I would say looking by colours at the beginning.
I love your videos and celebrate your success
Hey, I have a goldfish and he is EXTREMLY old, I have a feeling that he is nearing the end of his life soon, and I’m thinking about getting a betta fish to put in his tank after he passes. However I want to know if I can take my goldfish out after her passes and just leave the tank for a few days before I get the betta or if I have to fully clean it and cycle it. Also idk if there are things that can kil my betta from my goldfish? (oh and also I know about heating it and stuff, but how long would I need it to have the heater in to make the water all ready? I have so many questions and would farther have genuine answers rather than Google. If anyone can answer my questions pls reply, thanks xx!
First let me say, sorry for the length of my answer lol. This is all "in my opinion." Never assume a fish died from old age, always test your water after a fish death. Better safe than sorry. I see nothing wrong with adding a fish after one passes (provided water was safe i.e. parameters were good and no visible illness on dead fish). If it was a community tank, you wouldn't remove all fish and clean tank everytime one died. Now, if you go too long without a fish in the tank it will have to be re-cycled. The bacteria need a food source. So if it's going to be longer than a few days I would sprinkle a little fish food in periodically to keep the tank cycled. Going from a goldfish to a betta shouldn't be a problem. Goldfish are notorious for being sloppy. So, if your goldfish tank is cycled then the bacteria can handle the bio load of a betta no problem. About the heater, the time it takes to warm the water is hard to answer. That will depend on the size of tank, how many watts of heat you are using, and the ambient room temp around the tank. I would plan on having the heater going for at least 24 hours. Hope this helps
how long have you had your betta fish
Looks at long fish list…yup I feel you
My betta is not making bubble nest can u suggest any simple way to do this
Does aquarium co op ship in Canada I really hope it does.
does anyone have advice for not stressing your betta fish and the main things i need to know, and which bettas live longer? i don’t trust google and i’m ready to get my betta and i need help.
Added 4 endler livebears to my 10 gallon shrimp tank, since internet says endlers are shrimp safe. Six days and 10 dead shrimp later, I learned not all endlers are shrimp safe. They weren't even eating the shrimp, just killing one or two a day.
I've learnt that any fish can be aggressive 😂 I had a crazy platy that was a bully when thr Internet told me all platies were friendly
Girl talks fish can you tell me if my female betta fish is blind becase even if it's food was at its eyes it gust swim past it
amazing video
I'm getting a 2 feet × 1 feet × 1feet for my little 2 goldfishes. Is it okay for them?
Also the goldfishes length is about 1.5 - 2 inch
My first fish was a Dumbo ear female betta. The mistake I made is that I overfed it and it died in 2 days I thought that it wanted more food so I just kept giving it. Not to mention I had no filter yet and an air pump so ammonia may have been in effect too. Learned my mistake after that but still am doing mistakes til now but sometimes it's just unpredictable on how fish die. Yesterday my second betta(Male Veiltail) died due to the temp change it was fed after it died so it might have not digested the food well due to the cold temp. those two bettas of mine were buried on my backyard wrapped them in tissue a dug a grave for them. I'll definitely miss them both.
Learning about the fragility of fish lives was definitely a shocker to me. I had a betta fish named Loki who I've never mentioned on the channel because he got dropsy within a day of bringing him home and quickly passed away. He probably had been sick for a while, but at the time, I wasn't experienced enough to spot any symptoms when I picked him at the store. 😥
Hello, please help my betta lost one of his whole pastoral fin ,he was suffering from fin rot and that has been fixed however now he is not at all active most of the time lying down ,water parameters are in place, will he be able to swim with one pactoral fin ,tried everything, keeping water clean ,frequent water changes ,salt water bath and almond leaves,have heater and filter with very minimal flow ,not sure what else I can do to get him back to swim happily again.Please please help🙏
My wife looks similar to you. I am both curious and scared while watching your video. 😂😂
Lol! Now I want to see my doppelganger. If she's okay with, email me a pic. (Email address is in the About tab of my TH-cam channel.)
@@GirlTalksFish just look at the mirror and imagine you had a bigger forehead
My first fish was an arowana in a 20 gallon tank. I feel so bad thinking about it now
how did u get introduced to the arowana?
@@elicuevas7 my dad bought it for me
I dont think I'll every get a betta from a cup again, unless its for the purpose of saving the fish. My current betta had BAD finrot from the pet store almost died a few times, I'm only getting them from reputable breeders or my LFS.
OMG... I read the title as "how I pickled my first fish" and I thought... "oh my gosh... how did you manage to do that?!?" 😂
Dwarf Gourami's are aggressive in my experience. Great advice!
You are really an engineer, I am too.
I :
bought a bowl
overstocked the bowl with oranda and feeder goldfish
did 100% water changes
Flushing fish
The orandas lived for a day (SIP Goldy and Molly )
Added 9 more feeders (i hate myself)
Stayed away from fish ever since
Got a betta for my bday
put him in an even tinier bowl
researched my head off
dragged my dad to the store
got a 5 gallon
moved somewhere else
got neon tetras
put my betta in
they had a happy life in the community tank until i saw 2 white spots on one of the neons
Now my poor betta is back in the bowl until the tetras get better
Plans to have a snail enclosed ecosphere
the end . until i have MTS and I know i will someday .............
buying eight platys thinking they'd have a few babies here and there which survived. ended up with hundreds within two of three months and the adults were totally disinterested in eating them.
Yep, started with 10, now I'd estimate over 100. Definitely need to add someone who's more interested in the fry buffet
No way! My adult platies always ate all their babies until I got more plants. Now I've got tons of fry, so I added Unicron the powder blue dwarf gourami to keep the population more manageable.
@@GirlTalksFish When you took your extra platies into the fish store did you just donate them or get a little store credit? Guess I should check if my LFS would be interested in any
@@adelesandry I got some store credit from the fish store. I also sold some at my local fish club auction recently for cash. 👍
@@GirlTalksFish Thanks! That gives me some ideas
Spread sheet and power point hahaha
Odd or organised 😉
Fast tetras and Bettas can work just try feeding in different parts of the tank 🤔
Back in the day, I used a lot of Microsoft Office for work. 😂
From which country you are.....???🤔🤔
United States, but my parents are originally from Taiwan
Great.....
Me from India...🙏🙏🇮🇳🇮🇳....You are making very nice videos... Thank you so much...😊😊
I over stalked my tank and I bought aggressive fish
Sucks for you
...dear lordy, here it goes....
My first fish weren't even my choices. I got the aquarium first...and my sister saw that I had an aquarium she decided to buy me goldfish...
Uh, no filter, no heater.... I was checking the aquarium for leaks that is why it was filled..
Next day...there were 5 goldfish in a 20gal aquarium.........
I rushed building my tank from the bottom up...
Got my filter...heater...etc...
Next day...all my fish were dead...
My nephew wanted to feed my fish. There was an empty bag of sugar and Oreo cookies floating on top....
This all in the span of less then a week. I hadn't bought a fish since then. 10 years later...I'm starting small. VERY SMALL! And not telling anybody!
Ha
can we do a collab video?
Talk about everything wrong, when I was 9 I got my first 20 gallon aquarium, I get a baby Oscar, datinoid, and a gold serum, what a mess,but too young to know. Also this is back in the old days, way before even pong!!
Haha, what a tank! I think a lot of people have a first tank that started out like that.
Wait wait wait. So your a tank nerd AND you like spreadsheets and powerpoints?! Guuuuurl, we peas in a pod. 😄 😄
Let's Go Brandon 🐠♥️
Bettas are known as a type of fish that are involved with cannibalism
"Understocking is a really hard lesson to learn for beginners" Not for me lol. I put three guppies in a ten gallon. And one died because I didn't cycle the tank. So I had two female guppies all by themselves in a ten gallon until they started having babies and my tank ended up being overstocked.
Haha
Only one? 😂
aqadvisor is extremely conservative on stocking most likely assuming you will neglect the tank/wont take care of it asmuch as should so try to combat that by understocking tanks.
First