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caring about all life doesn't make you a softy. It makes you a good person. Never feel ashamed that you care about living things.

Me walking up to betta's tank: "HEY PRETTY BOI. MOMMA LOVES YOU. HI! YOU SO HANDSOME. HIIIIIIIIII."

Great advice. One thing to add to the "Don't feed your fish bugs you find outside," is that some may have stingers without seeming like they do and some may also carry internal parasites. You don't want a parasite living in your beloved fish.

Side note. Some sponges have chemicals in them from the factory to prevent freezing/ hardening. We work with 3m company and most sponges do have chemicals within them. Rinse and rinse a lot before using one out of the bag

On #6: You can't stress this enough. Releasing ANY pet into the wild where it does not belong can potentially destroy the ecosystem of that place. It's not just the aspect of intrusion but your pet can also introduce diseases to that area and the native fauna even when cohabitation with other species theoretically would be possible.

That moment when someone in your family tap on the glass and you try to remain calm telling them not to do it again...ha ha

You can actually tap on the glass right before feeding and this can train them that tapping means food. MD Fish Tanks does this with almost every one of his tanks.

I do cleaning for a living and the overspray tip is very important to remember. BUT - it is always advisable to spray product onto your cloth instead of the area and a good practice to get into for your household. For another example, did you know that spraying cleaner into your microwave can potentially break it? Always spray onto your cloth and then wipe :)

I had to LOL when Lisa said you never go anywhere on vacation. That hit home for me. I have fish tanks, dogs, cats, birds, rats, guinea pigs, snakes, and two 4 ft lizards, so, no, we don't go anywhere either!

Ok so I confess that sometimes(rarely), I give my tank a nice single tap. Its a final resort to test my fishes’s health, healthy fish tend to react one way or another based on their character but unhealthy or sick fish make no movement. Fish those out straight into hospital. Especially those internal diseases that show no external signs til its too late. Lucky I keep corydoras and tetra, don’t think its wise to do with a oscar.

I use those pill organizers for daily food feeders when I have a fish-sitter. They work great!!

"You have no idea where that worm has been..." Why does this sound like dating advice my mom gave me in middle school? 😂Seriously, great video. I am so guilty of tapping on the glass of my office tank when my betta is randomly harassing his shrimp friends. 😬I am working on myself daily. It's a process.

Number 3 - Trust no one. Me: wait, isn’t that just general life advice? 😅

Confession: I once accidentally murdered an entire tank when home alone in the middle of the night dealing with a whitetail spider. I'm extremely spider phobic, I can't even look at pictures of them without panicking, and whitetails are not only aggressive but they're also quite deadly. This one was on the wall getting close to my guinea pig cage and so I started spraying it with bug spray. Evidently, some of that spray got into my 20L tank and I didn't realise because I thought I was far enough away from the tank. Within 2 days my baby albino rainbow shark died (I was growing him before moving him to my big 90L tank) and all the corydoras fish died. To this day I still feel awful that my panic and excessive spraying killed all the fish in the tank and that was 3 years ago. I'm a big softie too.

The only people I trust with my tank is my grandma and dad, they know what they’re doing.

Pork chop comes to me when I gently tap the glass. I only do it when I feed him so he knows there's food waiting for him. While I do agree that hard tapping, even when used to train, or tapping just to gets it's attention, isn't good for the fish, you can use it as a training tool if done correctly.

Honestly- I’d hire that cleaning service you mentioned. Owning up to their mistake and certainly learning from it? Yes!! Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how they handle them that’s important. (I don’t even have an aquarium and I’m not in the us. I just loved that)

I'm a kid and keep an aquarium. It's actually on top of a cubard and I'm careful not to close the drawers too hard and scare the fish. I made some mistakes when I first got into the hobby, but I always knew not to jostle the tank.

Earlier this summer: I said "a pinch of food, you can skip a day or two, rather feed less than more, they will max eat from the plants if they are really hungry, they won't get hurt". When I came home the entire tank was fully brown with algae and I got a demonstration of what a pinch means to some people, it was enough food for 4 days at once. Plants and this algae prevented a major and very deadly ammonia strike (bless elodea) but I still needed to do the daily 30% water changes for a while, and scrub the algae off too.

when i was on vacation, i told the security guards in my apartment if they could take care of them! surprisingly they were all alive and still looked healthy!

John: * insists people are gonna make fun of him * Me: * holds algae scrubber like a baseball bat * "Gimme their names. I just wanna talk..."

"dont tap the glass"!! People that tap the glass drive me insane. I have a very shy Betta and my 3 year old saw adults tapping the glass at the fish store. You know how well that went 🙄 so now when we're in public I'm the mean shopper telling the adults to leave the fish alone and I had to reteach my child to not bang on tanks and just run her finger lightly on the glass. How hard is it to just look with your eyes and not your hands 🤦

Feeding fish while gone... I think my idea is even better, I was going to be gone for a week and my husband was left to feed my fish, so what I did was get one of those day of the week pill boxes and put the exact amount of food for each day in each compartment, that way he would be feeding them the right amount and also could see that he was remembering each day!

I sometimes lightly "tap" on the glass when I'm at the fish store. The key word is LIGHTLY; I just put my finger against the glass a few times so the fish notice without getting scared. Guppies, goldfish and rosy barbs always follow my finger around. On the other hand, I see kids and sometimes adults knocking on the glass with their knuckles, as if to make the biggest amount of noise possible. That drives me insane.

A few years ago I had my lfs bring in 12 cpd for me. I decided to to treat them with Paraguard. They weren't showing symptoms, I just wanted to speed up their quarantine. I misread the instructions and dosed near 5 times the proper dose. Needless to say disaster struck. I realized my mistake about an hour later and despite multiple 90% water changes, I lost all but one fish. So, #11 Read the instructions on medications very, very carefully.

#11 Do NOT include plants from out in your backyard/front yard into your aquarium. They could contain parasites/pesticides and other baddies that will most likely hurt/damage your fish/reptile/amphibian in the long run.

I just wave at my fish and all of them swim over to me. I’m shocked that putting untreated tap water into your tank wasn’t on the list. Literally the first thing I thought of when I clicked on the video.

My fishes come to me when i tap the glass they be like hey food delivery is here 🤣🤣

Man John Is so lucky to have found Lisa. She doesn't think fish are for nerds. NEVER LET HER GO😂

When we go on a vacation longer than a weekend I have the person come feed every other day. I also 3D printed an assortment of small scoops and found the correct size and leave it in the fish food container for them to use while feeding. I always do a water change the day of or the day before we leave and when we return in case they may over feed slightly.

I've learned that with the proper attention certain fish will react to finger wiggling. Especially Betta fish. What you do is move your finger back and forth slowly at first, then as the fish get used to it you'll be able to wiggle your finger a little faster. Bettas will typically come over to the finger. This has also worked with Tetras. Although not always. I have also used a slow grabbing hand motion as I approach the tank, as the fish get used to the motion they generally get the idea that I am something familiar and safe. So they are less likely to panic. Never, ever tap the glass.

Don’t forget about rambunctious pets! I had to move my aquariums to a closed off room when my dog (96 pounds as an adult) was a huge puppy interested in the moving things in the glass boxes.

I lost my five year-old Betta like in #6 . It absolutely broke my heart. Now when I go away I hire a company that deals with aquariums only it’s well worth the cost and I don’t lose any more of my treasured fish.

When I was a kid I used to climb into the aquarium to “play” with the fishes after my mom gave me bath. Can’t say she was thrilled about having to bath and change me again.

Haha, don't tap on the tank😂. I have an upturned tank sticking out of my koi pond and I tap it before every feed. And the second I tap it they all come rushing to the same spot every time.

John: *has a genuine respect for life* Lisa: “You’re such a baby”

Love the 10 things. Happy Mother's Day Lisa

I once helped a guy replace an aquarium that was broken by a billiard ball. He had his 175 set up at the long end of his pool table. A few weeks later I heard the new tank had me the same fate.

Great list. And AMEN to being a “softy”… caring about life is what it’s all about.❤️ I especially liked the one about “someday I’ll get a bigger tank”. Yeah. Right. I’ve heard THAT before. Now it’s my turn for story time: 😉 When I was little, I fell in love with my uncles Oscar fish. I would sit in front of that tank for hours on end… Absolutely amazed by how interactive and intelligent these fish were. I only got into fish keeping in the first place in the hopes that someday I could have my own pair of Oscars. I have kept all sorts of fish for decades… but it took me 25 years to be in a place in life where I was finally able to have a tank large enough to care for them properly. I started keeping fish back in the 90s as a young adult… It wasn’t until 2020 that I finally bought Jack and Sally. (And their 150gallon home) They are more than worth the wait. Because the heart of it is… These living creatures are not decorations. They do not exist simply for our pleasure. If we truly care, if we truly deserve to have these creatures in our life… We owe them the best life possible. It’s not just about surviving… It’s about thriving. (Pardon the cliche but it’s true). They deserve a proper amount of space, they deserve enrichment. Jack and Sally were everything that I had dreamt of since I was a little girl… I owe it to them to give them everything they need to be healthy and happy. TRUST ME…. It is worth it to wait. It makes the entire experience so rewarding… knowing that your patience paid off, knowing that you are giving these magnificent beings their best, most enriching life. THAT is something to be proud of. ☮️❤️🐠

When I leave town I put my fish food measure out in a pill keeper. The ones you can set up for the week. They are already labeled by day and work great!

No cleaning, no exercise... check and double check! Fishkeeping is easy! (LOL)

That "trust no one" i can feel that. One time when i was a kid my family leave for a week and trust my grandpa with everything. Went home and my tank was a total chaos! He used the water to mop the house and when i ask him wth happened, he just spat on my tank and said "everythings good kid". Till this day i still cant forget the proud look on his face when he spat and said that to my face. Dont ask bout hows the fishes.

When leaving for vacation I use those weekly pill containers and put ex amount of fish food for the day so when people come to feed our cats they know exactly how much fish food to feed as well ... FOOD FOR THOUGHT

When I started out, I always tried to give myself a backup plan. Meaning that I always had spares (heater, air pump etc) I often tried to ensure that I knew someone who would ha e a big enough aquarium to take the fish, should they get too large. Now that I've got a 300 gallon tank, I'm the one who often rescues those fish!

I tap my betta's tank, because he likes the attention, and he knows that it means either food or just attention. My mother and I don't go *BUM BUM BUM* on the glass either.

"You have no idea where that worms been" 😂😷

Here in the Philippines we also encountered an incident where someone threw their "Janitor fish" aka common pleco on a well known river in Manila thinking that it's fine because the river is huge but after several years those plecos grew huge and multiply crazily that it becomes invasive. I also heard that it happened in a lake in a nearby province.

No rough housing/ No Exercising actually makes sense to me because my grandma once had this beautiful huge aquarium with gorgeous tropical fishes and my uncle who was my age at the time (young adult) was lifting weights next to the aquarium and one day he took an extra step to the right and shattered my Grandmas Aquarium. She hasn’t had one since now so I definitely think that it’s not “over protective” of you two to put that in there!

You guys have helped SO MUCH!! Just discovered the fish keeping hobby i have learned so much and have so many tanks now I love the work that comes with the tanks too! changing my major (again) I hope to open a fish store of my own one day just to have as much fish and tanks as I can without overcrowding my house 🤣

Right after you said " its true...I'm a baby," An add for Pampers came on 😂😂 thank you John and lisa, love your funny and informative vids!

When cleaning tanks do you recommend keeping the fish in a clean container with their original water, replace 25-50% of the water in the tank, acclimate the fish in the tanks new water, then release them. back into the tank? I feel like that makes more sense than cleaning the tank while the fish are inside of it.

As soon as I heard "Vases being poured into the sink-" I *knew* where it was going to go with the Betta. A disaster.

"What did that cricket ever do to you?" "Kept me awake for the past four nights making that gawdawful screeching noise under my bed."

When we went on vacation last year, I put food in a pill minder, and told the person feeding my crayfish just to empty the day's compartment into the tank. I hid all the other food, so there was no chance of overfeeding, unless she opened the other days, which she didn't. But now I have an auto feeder, so I don't even have to feed them myself, except for treats.

I usually have acrylics on and I do a light tip of the nail tap, and almost all my bettas get super excited and swim up for food the minute I do it. I’ve only had one who didn’t like it and instead we made his cue “spirit fingers” I had a betta who really thought he was a cat or dog lol! He would come up to me when I walked into the room, would RAM the glass if I didn’t acknowledge his presence in the first 5 minutes of being in the room, he’d do tricks for me, play in filters not betta proofed, toys (he had a ping pong ball, laser pointer, dry erase drawings/games on his tank) and loved getting flowers outside his tank! He’d actually swim into my hands, look at what I was doing, try to get involved, and get in the way when I was cleaning and working on his tank! I literally had to gently push him away! Sadly, I had temporarily moved living situations for like 3 weeks and left him in the care of family. Despite my instructions, they did an awful job taking care of him and no matter what I did and how hard he tried I couldn’t bring him back to a stable health and he passed at only 2 1/2 years 😔 when he passed he came up to me, gave me his hello display one last time (after a week of not doing it) and then laid down and died. It was absolutely heart wrenching to lose him. I learned the hard way never to leave fish in the hands of non-fish people! Learn from my mistake, even if you don’t have a fish that’s very expressive, you DO form relationships with them and it’s sad to see them go 🥺

Why is Lisa's we never go anywhere so fricken hilarious 😂

I had a friend who once had to get a bunch of stitches because her brother was running around the house with his friends while she was standing in front of her aquarium and one of them knocked her into her aquarium. Apparently it broke and she got her arm and back slashed up from the glass shards, not to mention all of her fish died.

I feel for Lisa when she said, "...unless it's us, we never go anywhere..."

This was a super fun video to watch. Yall make a great pair. Love your personalities!

Great video! When I was a kid my parents took me to the circus. When I woke up the next morning I thought I was an acrobat and started jumping on my bed and did a flip right into my corner aquarium!! Not only did I go right through it but I had a serious injury to my foot and had a year of recovery. I was only 6... another situation was more recent when a friend came to my house with his dog and the dog started barking at my tetra tank and sent 2 of them darting into a dense plant causing them to die! So, you not only have to watch kids but curious animals as well!

9 “Rough Housing: “ One option is to use the earthquake and childproof devices for furniture. My son was a climber, so I installed earthquake straps on our furniture when he was a toddler. These are attached to the furniture and wall. The most the item can move is inches. One could easily attach these to tank stands. With a bit more creativity, one could attach devices capable of easy release to an aquarium. Thanks for the video, Jim

Lisa : your fish won’t come when you tap on the glass. Me that’s false, my severum does, that’s how I get him into the right place for feeding time.

My father had 2 Giant gourami's since the male one was biting the female we decided them to two tanks our main tank(Which had the male one) and on top of our 30 gallon tank it was wood planks to cover it and we was away for like 2 day away a cat has walked on the plank and it was unstable it fell inside the tank cracked it and all the water was leeked and the male one is rip. After so many year when we were moving out we had our other female one outside the home and we didn't much room inside our transportation so we had to leave it for one day there and when we got there to take it away it was dead to no suspects or reasons I just know it was dead and finally after all of these stuff and time and years father got me a 16 gallon tank where I have 41 glo fish tetras 1 male betta and a pleco❤❤❤(I know the pleco and the betta is not a wise choice but I just have it)

For "don't drain into sink" I did the same thing around 5 years ago. I had my first betta, changing the water, it fell out. We had a knife their too. Luckily the knife blocked the betta so it doesn't go down into the drain and it was on its side so it doesn't cut it either!

Definitely don't feed bugs or what ever you find in your environment... simply can't guarantee a good outcome from that idea

"trust no one" me, having left my aquarium to noobs and having lost fish to that: preACH

Came across this video a long while back from one of my betta fish groups on Facebook. I have 2 Betta fish tanks on a large desk next to my other desk that I do my IT work. I enjoy what you guys said and learned from you guys over the past year and a half having aquatics. Thank you :)

John we love the silly story's thats why we watch

Dogs count with the rough housing thing! I have to be very careful about having a border collie around my nano aquaria. A powerful dog is absolutely capable of knocking a filled 5 gallon tank, especially on a stand that just fits it.

My mom years ago would keep her bettas in half gallon "aquariums" I was deep cleaning the "tanks" because they had so much algae and uneaten food in them and she never cleaned them. I was pouring the water out into a net to catch the fish. Well one of her bettas decided to completely miss the net and go down the drain. We freaked out and got some tools to open up the pipes. He was just chilling there like "yes hooman i am here"

I love you guys so much, you guys seem like the friendliest people ever! I always watch your videos and when I got a betta, you guys were the first people I watched! Now I’m hooked into fish keeping! ♥️ love from Long Beach, CA 🏖

Thanks great advise.. i have the cichlid aquarium.. i love it

"No Exercising" done and done!

Don’t go to your LFS, before the bills are paid

#11 NEVER use water straight from the tap for water changes. Use Tap Safe or a Fritz equivalent to get rid of the harsh chemicals from the tap

I have to say this is one of my favorite videos of y'all's, very informative and made me chuckle lots 💕

Totally subscribed!! This channel has helped me with my fish hobby more than any other! Thanks, and keep them coming.

When I was 2 I accidentally broke a 4ft tank with a walking stick..... definitely keep kids away.

When my family goes somewhere we ask our other family members come to feed the cats and my fish. I draw a line on a cough syrup cup for each aquarium to indicate how much a "pinch" is

I moved the beginning of the month. I lost 4 planted tanks I started in Nov. Just before losing these tanks, I had just gotten a Betta. He came to me with ich. My first experience with ich. He was isolated in a separate tiny tank, and thought I'd lose him too. I had a freshly set up 5 gal I had put baby snails in, but they died. I decided more water, better heater, the Betta had a better chance of making it. I turned the heat in the tank to 94°. Unfortunately, my new place doesn't have heat evidently, and I could not achieve higher than 87°. I offered bloodworms, but he refused to eat, swim, much of anything. I added more almond leaves. I also added a bit of stress coat. Today is day 4 from the day I saw the spot. He looks so much better, and ate today. YAY! I am broke from moving and cannot refill my tanks with plants, I feel another move coming). I want to put a different Betta in a larger, rimless tank. I set it up days ago. I'm having trouble with the new heater. I am debating on using a filter or not, and does a deep substrate tank for a Betta need plants? I could add a few, but his tank now is full of melted plants.

We love your informative videos, we are newer to the hobby, and really needed your guidance, thank you!

I just noticed the thumbnail is my picture

The vacation feeding baggy advice is BRILLIANT! Thanks for that :)

thanks for the tidbit. I had fish in highschool and also about 20 years ago..a lot has changed regarding fish care. I am about to get into the hobby again this fall. thanks for the video

This has to be one of my favorite videos of fish keeping on KZfaq!

I'm watching all these videos because I'm currently in the process of setting up a Aquarium and wanna know everything I need to do to make my Aqua-Buddies happy

Y'all are genuinely so cool, I've learned so much from both of you and I've not once gotten bored. I do have a question though, I have a small 5 gallon tank that I've been trying to get started, I set it up with plants and let it chill out for about a month before adding a couple of mystery snails and about 5 assorted dwarf shrimp.. they promptly died. I have 15 gallon tank that I've had no issues water-wise and I use the same water and filter media. I got a water testing kit and as far as I can tell the water perimeters are about as they should be. any thoughts on what might be wrong?

I was gone every weekdays because of work and have to leave my fish in my brother's care but one time he's not around and our father was left in so he told our father to feed my fish while he and I are away. Once I returned home and see the tank I almost want to faint to floor when I saw that my father did feed my fish but instead of just a pinch he threw a full cubes of frozen dried tubifex and lots of pellets in the tank so it messes the surface of the water hindering my betta to gulp air I was furious and started to water change and ask my father why he throw lots of foods.

I walk into my aquarium stand on a regular basis although it’s super out of the way

Everyone should probably take some of this advice on board for outdoors too. I'm astounded at how many folks use pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers etc without thinking about what the runoff is doing to the aquatic life in local ponds and streams...fish can be really delicate.

Great tips. On what not to do. It's great to read care instructions,. But I always think the what not to do is always one of the best places to start. And learn from there.

When we go camping witch is just 3 days , I usually feed bevore we go, and I tell my mother inlaw dont worrie about the fish just the cat. But i have done this put the amount in a ziplock bag and taped it to the tank and what day. Long time ago I hade a 10 gallon tank with guppies and sortails, and my roommates friemds daughter decided to dump the whoal container in my tank.. they tryed to net out most of the food , but by the time I got home tank was so gross and I had dead fish not all maby half. So from that day I hid my fish food . Becouse ppl would just feed my fish , oh loock they are coming to the front they are hungry...... mkre dead fish.... 🤦‍♀️

Ive recently went on vacation and a friend was caring for my fish. I thouth he will figure it out and he could call me. When I came back all my fish had diseases and one died already. I try to treat them hope they'll get better

When I was a kid and I got my first goldfish I decided to clean the fish bowl out. I put the fish in another bowl and then proceeded to wash out the bowl. When I went to fill it back up and filled it with water from the sink checking the temp as I did. When I placed the goldfish in the water it went belly up right away. The problem? The water was goood to the touch for me but,way to hot for the fish!

Earthworms can be cleaned for feeding very easily. Just drop the worms into a container full of dechlorinated water. After an hour, the worms will have purged their waste and dirt into the water. Take them out and feed your fish. No problem.

I have one DONT LEAVE YOUR UNCLE WITH YOUR FISH 😭 I don’t talk about rainbow

I am going to remind my cleaning crews about this. Thanks!

I've kept my Goldfish alive for almost 3 years now. Little over 6 inches long at this point. Love him so much and I could never get rid of him. I put up with the expense and am currently working on getting him a bigger tank. After that I'll have a spare 10 gallon. Thinking of maybe starting a Betta tank. Always wanted to try caring for one.

14:20 She hasn't seen my minnows then. My daughter caught 20 wild babies, they are over a inch now, as soon as you go near the tank they go near you. When you look through one side they all go next to glass. They also follow your hands around the tank, just can't get them to roll over.