What fish didn't match your expectation- for good or bad?

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redmare

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I've had several fish now that have totally surprised me in their behaviour based on what I had read!
When I got my honey gouramis, I read they were very shy and would be hiding in the plants most of the time, and probably scatter if you came right up to them- totally opposite. They are always out and about, zipping around and playing games, and when I put my face up to the tank they all come check me out and try and touch me with their little arms. Adorable!
Similar thing with my bristlenose. I was warned I probably wouldn't see her much for the first several weeks or months, and after that still not all the time- but she is ALWAYS out. She's really the centerpiece of my tank! Always just sitting on the logs or rocks letting her fins blow around, and sassing the cories when they come too close to her algae wafer.
My betta is a sweet and gentle soul. He lives with cherry shrimp, which was originally two cherry shrimp and have now populated to a huge colony in his tank. He also has ember tetras and I'm pretty sure he loves them and their company.
And finally... I was told guppies were easy. They've been the most challenging thing I've faced in this hobby yet!!

So tell me about fish that defied your expectations, or totally don't do what the internet says they would?
I've added a photo of my pretty pleco princess on her favourite posing spot for your viewing pleasure.
137377586_3715283118579910_4497523454539451939_o.jpg
 

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My kribs have really surprised me. I was told they were going to be pretty aggressive, but they’re very peaceful. One I had in a 55g with a variety of community fish- minimal aggression at first, and none once territory was established. The other was in a 20g community and I never saw any aggression besides some minor fin nipping. I also had a fairly peaceful male krib, but he died early after I got him.

If just one of them was peaceful that would make more sense, but getting three peaceful ones from separate places just seems odd to me?
 

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I've a community tank that by all recomendations should be a blood bath. I keep everything from small mbuna chiclids to bettas to cherry shrimp in it that have gotten along perfectly. Theres dwarf gourami and blues. Common pleco, several types of tetra and danios. Clown and yoyo loaches lol20210123_212944.jpg
 
My cherry shrimp really disappointed me. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I frequently find myself looking at the fat otocinclus instead of them.
 
I've had several fish now that have totally surprised me in their behaviour based on what I had read!
When I got my honey gouramis, I read they were very shy and would be hiding in the plants most of the time, and probably scatter if you came right up to them- totally opposite. They are always out and about, zipping around and playing games, and when I put my face up to the tank they all come check me out and try and touch me with their little arms. Adorable!
Similar thing with my bristlenose. I was warned I probably wouldn't see her much for the first several weeks or months, and after that still not all the time- but she is ALWAYS out. She's really the centerpiece of my tank! Always just sitting on the logs or rocks letting her fins blow around, and sassing the cories when they come too close to her algae wafer.
My betta is a sweet and gentle soul. He lives with cherry shrimp, which was originally two cherry shrimp and have now populated to a huge colony in his tank. He also has ember tetras and I'm pretty sure he loves them and their company.
And finally... I was told guppies were easy. They've been the most challenging thing I've faced in this hobby yet!!

So tell me about fish that defied your expectations, or totally don't do what the internet says they would?
I've added a photo of my pretty pleco princess on her favourite posing spot for your viewing pleasure.
View attachment 760299
Click to expand...

Totally agree with pretty much all of this. My livebearer tank was nothing but grief. Guppies, platies, mollies. They just slowly wasted away. They were aggregating to each other, not really peaceful at all. And my sensitive species (rummynose, cardinals) are all amazing even in my high ph of 8.2
All of my bettas are/were super peaceful (even the ones who were with guppies and honey gourami). Ironically it was the ‘peaceful’ rummynose who nipped my betta even in a school of 11. They are now with a short finned female who takes no prisoners if fish try anything with her.
My honeys are also always out and about but they ate the floating plants they were supposed to love and are also much pickier eaters than my peacocks gudgeons and goby (who eat everything but are notoriously picky online).
None of my fish stay in their so called levels except my cories. Everyone else thinks that the other levels have tasty morsels that were missed. My gudgeons and shrimp and goby are always checking out the betta hammocks for food. And my tetras refuse to eat from the surface, instead they dive to the bottom because they know that’s where the cories get their food (which is often the same food just released below the surface to sink it). They all eat my snello...except the mystery snail it is specifically prepared for. And ALL of them know lights on means food...even the snails ‘race’ to the front of the tank.
 
  • I was also disappointed with livebearers. I had trouble keeping guppies alive, and the mollies had to go because they were bullying the corys. When it was a choice between the two I didn't have to think about it very long.
  • When I first started keeping fish I wanted a big school of neons, and had one . . . for a while. Then they started dying off one by one, and I finally gave the last of them away. Similarly, I struggled with cardinals.
  • On the good side of the ledger, I was surprised at how much I like corys. I have a different variety in each of my fish tanks. I've also been pleasantly surprised by how much I like some of the other varieties of tetra. I think black neon tetras are under appreciated in the hobby, both for appearance and hardiness, and serpae tetras are another of my favorites.
 

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All my experiencies are in 7g, 20g, 44g heavy planted tanks with high ph and little hard water. No CO2, some ferts, 1-2 weekly WC, 25 to 29C° in summer peaks. Positives:
- Honey gouramies: Had a trio and now a group of 5 and they are social, active and very inquisitive. Pygmy gouramis also, found them a little more conflictives in crowded tanks.
- Endlers: really fun and hardy fish, with the correct m+f ratio no problems at all.
- CP Giving them places dark and to hide, beautiful and interesting fish. They come by anytime I pass through the tank.
- Paleatus corydoras: Hardy, peaceful and fun fish in >6 groups. The more, the better.
- Neocaridina and Amano: really fun and low demanding, great for any tank.
Negative:
- Cherry barbs: Hyperactive fish for a community, specially males. They stressed out the 44g, it was a nightmare.
- Cardinal/glowlight tetra: Lot of problems with them (ich, swin bladder desease, bloated, fin rot, fin nipping..). Can't make them live more than 6-8 months.
- Guppy and platy: Always were some bully in the group. After rehoming the bully, a new one was born.
- Plecos: They are poop machines if there is driftwood.
 
Its wild so many people post about aggressive platys. I've had about 50 of them swarming in a giant community tank for years and theyve never showed the slightest signs of aggression
 
My endlers ended up being the best algae deterrents we have. Better than the snails or shrimp by far. I hadn't ever read that anywhere, but we had a bunch of algae in our 10gal which previously only housed plants, snails, and shrimp, and it was overwhelming the plants in there. We'd put the lights on a timer (4hrs on, 4 off, then off overnight) and that combined with regular scrubbing wasn't doing it. Finally we grabbed out a handful of endler boys from the growout tank and threw them in there, and bam! Now the plants are mostly clear of algae.

This is on top of all the time they spend gobbling up their flake food, the snail and shrimp pellets, and frantically dancing at each other to prove they're the most fabulous. 10/10, would get endlers as algae eaters again, lol.
 
I'm another one struggling with bullying platys. It seems to be inherent as well, not just one. Cos if one stops, another will start and they are all constantly looking for weakness in the others and pushing eachother around.

On the positive side; I got a little cloud of ember tetras originally purely as dither fish for my pygmy corydoras, but after a sad tank disaster where I lost my corys whilst the tetras were in quarantine, I popped them in with my platys. They are an utter delight. From a species I never really considered in their own right, they have become something I want an entire tank full of .
 
When I got my Raphael catfish he just hid and wedged himself in a corner whenever he got the chance. I guess that isn't very unusual for armored catfish, but I was expecting better.
 

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I'm with you on the bristlenose. I've been pleasantly surprised too.
 
My kribs have really surprised me. I was told they were going to be pretty aggressive, but they’re very peaceful. One I had in a 55g with a variety of community fish- minimal aggression at first, and none once territory was established. The other was in a 20g community and I never saw any aggression besides some minor fin nipping. I also had a fairly peaceful male krib, but he died early after I got him.

If just one of them was peaceful that would make more sense, but getting three peaceful ones from separate places just seems odd to me?
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I had the same experience with my kribs (RIP). They were the most peaceful fish in my tank!

Something I really didn't expect was my tiger barbs. They never bullied anything. They lived completely peacefully for 2 years with a long finned bristlenose and an angel. never a single nip.The long fins were always perfect.
 
Pea pufferfish surprised me by a lot. I always read they are aggressive dwarf piranhas and they would rip flesh off of each other and they are very territorial. I have 11 in a 10 gallon and i rarely see any aggression, the only kind of aggression i see is if one of the puffers is looking in the java moss or if one of them is hoarding a snail to themselves But other than that they are chill and they like to swim with each other. All of them are female except one.
 
Pea pufferfish surprised me by a lot. I always read they are aggressive dwarf piranhas and they would rip flesh off of each other and they are very territorial. I have 11 in a 10 gallon and i rarely see any aggression, the only kind of aggression i see is if one of the puffers is looking in the java moss or if one of them is hoarding a snail to themselves But other than that they are chill and they like to swim with each other. All of them are female except one.
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I think those stories are of people who keep like 2 or 3 in a small tank. Like many other aggressive fish, keeping a large group often deals with the aggression.
 
For me, the surprise has been my Harlequin Rasboras. Everybody says they are the hardiest fish out there but they are the ONLY fish who keep dying in my tank. I haven't lost any other fish, snails or shrimp other than my Harlequins.

And on a strange but funny note is my False Juli Corys. I have one that doesn't really hang out with the others. He gets along with them, but doesn't lounge near them like the rest do with each other. That one is a major introvert and usually hangs out alone instead of near the others.
 
My surprise has been Mystery snails. They are so fun to watch and I love my snail's personality. I was told that snails weren't active and you rarely see them moving about, but mine moves around all the time! I love feeding him boiled vegetables.
Another surprise was ghost shrimp. It is insanely fun to interact with ghost shrimp, feeding them and see them explore, defending themselves against Molly now and then. They really are something else.
 
"FishSupreme, post:
“My cherry shrimp really disappointed me. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I frequently find myself looking at the fat otocinclus instead of them.”
ha ha lol I ended up just watching my fat corys swim slowly. Cherry shrimps are honestly really boring
 
Bettas in general, I was surprised at how much personality each one carries and how intelligent they actually are.
 
I've had several fish now that have totally surprised me in their behaviour based on what I had read!
When I got my honey gouramis, I read they were very shy and would be hiding in the plants most of the time, and probably scatter if you came right up to them- totally opposite. They are always out and about, zipping around and playing games, and when I put my face up to the tank they all come check me out and try and touch me with their little arms. Adorable!
Similar thing with my bristlenose. I was warned I probably wouldn't see her much for the first several weeks or months, and after that still not all the time- but she is ALWAYS out. She's really the centerpiece of my tank! Always just sitting on the logs or rocks letting her fins blow around, and sassing the cories when they come too close to her algae wafer.
My betta is a sweet and gentle soul. He lives with cherry shrimp, which was originally two cherry shrimp and have now populated to a huge colony in his tank. He also has ember tetras and I'm pretty sure he loves them and their company.
And finally... I was told guppies were easy. They've been the most challenging thing I've faced in this hobby yet!!

So tell me about fish that defied your expectations, or totally don't do what the internet says they would?
I've added a photo of my pretty pleco princess on her favourite posing spot for your viewing pleasure.
View attachment 760299
Click to expand...
Zebra danios.
I got a school about a year ago. 2 weeks later I got a couple more so that the school wad bigger. I very soon started seeing signs of fins being torn. Then I found the smallest one dead. He looked beat up. I then lost another 5 zebras, one guppy, and two honey gouramis. I moved them and the biggest one died. After she was gone, everyone was peacfull. I'm now down to one zebra and he is perfectly fine with my endlers and shrimp.
 

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My betta fish. It never showed any signs of agrression towards the ember tetras. Was very nice to them when I am looking or recording a video(to ‘spy’ on the betta and to see if he is aggressive to the tetras when I am not there). At first, 3 just died, 2 missing bodies and 1 found with missing tail and one eye. I thought they just died and the betta just ate the dead bodies. I put the tetras back after buying 3 more. Now, 4 of the 6 has been bitten in the tail. I needed to remove them again. Such a cheeky little guy. Only harms at night. It’s always before I sleep when I check, all good. The next morning, injuries or death. Always surprises me with unexpected casualties.
 
My (only) current fish, peacock gudgeons! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t 2-3 inch cichlids. They are super personable, interactive, and smart. I call them my ‘swimming entities of sass’ :D
 
My scarlet badis. I thought I would like them but I LOVE them. They are super interesting, social and have their own personalities. They have quickly become my favorite fish ever.
 
Good:
Shrimp. I was half expecting cherry shrimp to get gradually hunted out by rosy barbs, yet they manage to repopulate so far. Amano and Bamboo shrimp also seem to be really hardy. Out of the animals that I bought a year ago, I only have 2 out of 6 barbs, 1 out of 7 Sewellias, but I still have at least 3 out of 4 Amano shrimps (hard to spot all at once and I can't tell the females apart) and 1 out of 1 bamboo shrimp, so shrimp survival rate is overall better than that of the fish.

Neutral: Rosy barbs. If I was totally expecting them to hunt shrimp, I was NOT expecting them to hunt snails. They grab ramshorns or bladder snails by their heads, and shake them out of the shells by hitting them onto glass or decorations. They may not be as voracious as some snail-eating loaches, but they nearly wiped out the ramshorns within a year, then I got some more snails, and they feasted on them non-stop until only the largest and most careful remained.

Bad: Snails. If I were to guess at the start, what is more hardy - snails or shrimp, I'd have definitely bet on snails. And yet. I had several mystery snails, all of which died in a span of a couple of months, appropriately mysteriously :D. Then I got a rabbit snail. It is so clumsy and slow and inactive compared to mystery snails, that I thought I accidentally picked a dying one :D. Not dead so far, so at least there's that, but it has zero personality, even by snail standards :D (It could be argued that bamboo shrimp is on the same level, but at least it's waving its arms all the time and has a random freak out episode now and then :D). Ramshorns are definitely hardy when it comes to water conditions, but as I said they're succeptable to predation, though that's not their fault. Malaysian trumpet snails may or may not be doing ok, I don't really know as I hardly ever see them, but the talks about their astonishing breeding seem to be widely exaggerated.
 
I thought corys would be boring. I was wrong. They are fun to watch and if you get 6 to 8 and get 2 pair per type of mask they look really cool with the differnt masks all schooling together. Was very pleasantly surprised.
 
Good:

So far I have had the best luck with Ember and Cardinal tetras of the tetra species. The Embers are so sweet and I love the Cards color. Hardiest tetras I have owned.
My favorite fish I have right now are my Scarlet Badis' They are so weird. Very interesting little fish. They flutter at each other and the way they look at food looses it for them to the Chili's. I love the tiny little Chili Rasboras too.

Bad:

I haven't had good luck with Bettas so far. :cool:
The worst I have had that were super irritating and traded back to the store were the Choprae Danios. They are the kid at school just running around and knocking everything over and breaking stuff. Too too busy for me.
The Peacock Gudgeons I have right now are pretty disappointing for me. They hide except when it is food time then the pigs come out and get all fat then go hide again. Not a fan.
 
Hmmm....snails overall have been the biggest shocker to me, they all seem to have their own little antics!

Bettas, well, each one is full of its own surprises. Mine have been everything from super chill to just plain murderous.

Bristlenose, wasn't expecting such attitudinal fish, or maybe mine just became that way because i spoil them for bugging my wife!

My peacock gudgeons surprised me because i expected mostly hiding, but mine mostly cruised around, occasionally trying to steal food from the spoiled plecos.
 
Bladder snails: That were supposed to reproduce!!! Mine just DONT!
Shrimp: They got eaten in a day :(!
 

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Good: Loaches.
Prior to stocking various types of Loaches some years ago, my clean up crew consisted of Synodontis Catfish & Plecos.
Botia Loaches, especially the YoYos, are non stop, class A, scavengers. Never a worry about uneaten food in the substrate, under rocks or driftwood. By far the best scavengers I've ever had.

Bad: African Cichlids
I've kept them for years. Beautiful & active, but most species are territorial killers & aquascape destroyers.
Constant stock adjustments are required, as well as hardscape & substrate reconstruction.
I still have a tank full of African Cichlids, but not buying anymore. Lol.
 
Good: Loaches.
Prior to stocking various types of Loaches some years ago, my clean up crew consisted of Synodontis Catfish & Plecos.
Botia Loaches, especially the YoYos, are non stop, class A, scavengers. Never a worry about uneaten food in the substrate, under rocks or driftwood. By far the best scavengers I've ever had.

Bad: African Cichlids
I've kept them for years. Beautiful & active, but most species are territorial killers & aquascape destroyers.
Constant stock adjustments are required, as well as hardscape & substrate reconstruction.
I still have a tank full of African Cichlids, but not buying anymore. Lol.
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My Amano shrimp are my hard core scavengers. They are savage.
 
Bettas are aggressive? Huh could’ve fooled me. Endlers snails and shrimp and he doesn’t bug any of them.
 
I've been surprised by how much interest fish that hide a lot can add to a tank. I've really enjoyed fishes like bichirs, kuhli loaches, plecos, and spiney eels. It's good to have the obvious, out-and-about fishes too, but I spend more time searching my tanks for the stealthy ones. And, I'm always excited when I see them.

I was once very surprised by how much it hurts to get poked by a madtom catfish. They are fun little fish to keep, but beware their dorsal spine....
 
Bladder snails: That were supposed to reproduce!!! Mine just DONT!
Shrimp: They got eaten in a day :(!
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Maybe the bladder snails are also being eaten? At least that is why I constantly run out of ramshorn and bladder snails, the barbs gradually eradicate them all. The shrimp are actually having more luck and are managing to keep up so far.
 
I've a community tank that by all recomendations should be a blood bath. I keep everything from small mbuna chiclids to bettas to cherry shrimp in it that have gotten along perfectly. Theres dwarf gourami and blues. Common pleco, several types of tetra and danios. Clown and yoyo loaches lolView attachment 760303
Click to expand...
Nice tank! How many gallons is it?
 
Our mystery snail, Enigma, is much more entertaining than I would have thought.

Same with our bamboo shrimp, Mr. Miyagi because I thought he looked like a martial artist flipping his fans.

Our ornery bn definitely has a personality we wouldn't have expected.

Peanut, the pea puffer, was fine for months and then quickly evolved into an **** murder bean.

and we've had problems shuffling guppies, platies, and swordtails; when there's more than one of them, at least one is always a douchebag. They're expected to be nice but they're not.

I'm relatively new to the hobby and surely could provide more examples because I don't know what I'm doing, but these were some that jumped out.

When we brought up a small tank, we were in the lfs and the wife liked the salt and pepoer cories (habrosus) , so I was like okay whatever. Now they're really cool!

I thought I bought lambchop rasboras, but they were glowlight rasboras. I was **** I didn't get what I expected, but they've grown on me, and now they're ****.
 
Well, newbie here, only have had tank up now for tad over a month.
Wanted schooling fish, so got 13 Black neon Tetras. They've been disappointing.
Very rarely school and they pick at each other and some have an established area of tank where will not allow others to enter.
Mystery Snail has been fun to watch and keep track on. Very busy and crazy how you turn your head and he's across the tank.
 
I had a whole group of green terror cichlids. They were given to me for free by an lfs owner. For nobody wanted them. They were of all sizes. I wasn't aware of it that even the small ones would be that aggressive towards another. A bigger fish wouldn't scare them off but instead they would just kill the bigger ones. And at some point, they would even attack their own species no matter their size.
At some point, I've put all of them outdoors in a tub in the backyard. Luckily, some german breeder was interested in them. We've contacted eachother and told him he could get them for free. But he had to catch all of them by himself. And so he did...
 
Convict cichlids, for the better.

I started out keeping green texas cichlids, and they really look beautiful. I never thought I'd enjoy the 'drab' convict cichlids, but 1.) there are some very beautiful lines out there, but more importantly, 2.) their behaviour is amazing. I have yet to keep any fish, fresh or salt, that gives me as much joy as convicts.
 

Random Great Topic!

A Beginners 55 - Aka My 2nd Big Mistake
Beginner 55 gallon tank

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