*What's your favorite part of the fishkeeping hobby that you keep coming back to?*

After 36 years in the hobby what keeps me going is the satisfaction of a clean, pristine and thriving aquarium.

Discus. I raised them for 28 years in my 40 tank hatchery. They're beautiful but when all the different color patterns started showing up and I realized you had to feed hormones to get some of the more exotic ones I began to lose interest. I had many phone conversations with Jack Wattley and he pretty much felt the same way. His original blue and red turquoise are still some of the prettiest discus available. No matter if I had 10 strains people always wanted the one's I didn't have. Raising the fry can go wrong 100 different ways and keeping the adults healthy and vibrant just plain old required too much work. I wish I had all the hours doing water changes back plus all the money I spent on water bills, RO filters, conditioners, etc. I've always had aquariums since I was about 7 years old but got really burnt out when I was trying to keep and produce discus. It's been about 7 years and I've just now been looking at the smaller planted tanks with shrimp and small tetras. Keeping aquariums has to be one of the most rewarding hobbies on the planet. I just burned myself out.

Long Tail Bettas. They are very personable so you get attached, but they don’t age gracefully.

It is refreshing when a person of Cory’s experience and knowledge admits that even while loving a section of our hobby admits that he has not the time or wishing to face a particular type of fish. I agree that fancy goldfish are beautiful. But with the combination of selective and over breeding. They are essentially fancy carp with their own problems, and issues. My step mom loved seahorses. We got a batch and I looked after them for her. Every morning she would stand by the tank waiting for them to out from cover so that she could see her babies. One morning she saw nine seemingly dead seahorses on the bottom of the tank. She started to cry until the freshly moulted seahorses swam by. She kept every moult in a folder for years. I did get them to breed and managed the raise several batches of fry. My fondest memory when she saw one give birth.

Im really liking this format. Reminds me of the tangents that always happened during the daily dose videos years ago, but a little more focused.

I’m loving these sit down videos! It feels like you’re hanging with a friend! Thank you for all you do for the hobby!

Livebearers! They multiply very fast and it becomes a constant nuisance trying to give them away.

Neo Cardina shrimp and Fancy Goldfish were two of my biggest failures in the hobby lol. Add live plants and you have my top 3. Sometimes watching Aquarium Co-op videos are depressing lol.

I will never go back to fancy goldfish as well. Spent thousands of dollars on beautiful fish and pampered them with excellent water conditions, but still had incurable illnesses that ended up killing them all over time. I think if you're interested in them, you should buy them as babies and raise them in your water. However, I found my love with Mbuna cichlids. Extremely easy to breed, fun to watch, and I haven't had one illness in over a year. Started with a group of thirty from Tampa Bay Cichlids and now I have close to three hundred thriving fish that I will be selling to my LFS for credit.

I had to laugh at the story about the shrimp grabbing a piece of food and running off to eat it. I've seen that happen in my tank several times. They are fun to watch and can be comical. I have more cherry shrimp than sense. They don't need much but they're in my fish tank where no one bothers them, so they keep breeding (and doing the food grab when they can!). Totally cute!

Almost certain I'll never do bettas again. The only exception is if I decided to try a wild betta, but for the most part I think they were fun as a gateway fish, but they don't fit my style of fishkeeping.

I kept reef tanks for about 20 years and don’t think I’ll ever go back. My fish room now is filled with large tanks. One with a single Umbee, one full of Columbia tetras uaru and cories, and a planted tank with gourami. But my favorite fish recently is my two sarasa comets on the floor in 100 gallon trough. Never thought I’d get into goldfish. Bought 75 as feeder fish years ago when pellet training my Umbee and the two I was left with are now somehow my favorite fish.

My first fish tank was a 10 gallon, and I was 4 I'm now 64 so I have had a fish tank in my life for 60 years and still love it the new fish from around the world that are coming in all the time I love my fish tanks and will have one till the day I part from this wonderful world we live in BIGLOVE Cory

Discus. Took way to much time and attention away from my family and personal life. When they breed its like a full time job for water parameters

Big agree on the fancy goldfish.

I’m loving this style of content. Feels more personal

Unlike a lot of comments discuss is something I plan on doing again. For a reef aquarium keeper they are actually quite easy to take care of as long as you use RODI water. Especially if you have wood to also make sure the water stays at 7.0 or less. But then again. Us reefers don’t like any changes more than 0.001 on any number. Why we got all the high tech gadgets.

I really like these vids. Not too long like a podcast, not too short like a 5 min vid.

Totally agree on neocaridina shrimp - they're surprisingly easy and SO fun to watch. I've found that a "benign neglect" approach actually works best with neos; as long as their water parameters stay stable, the tank keeps itself in good order and the colony size is self-regulating.

Since the 60’s I’ve had aquariums off/on. Most times it was the constant upkeep, all the chemicals, etc that got me discouraged . I started with guppies and have kept most community fish in diff setups over the years. Game changer was learning the deep substrate dirted/sand cap/heavily planted way. I am retired now and have 8 tanks and am loving how healthy and lively all my shrimp, fish, plants are. My water parameters stable with no fiddling with chemicals. Rarely do water changes, top offs with my well water. Like you, cherry shrimp in all but 2 tanks(male betta in his own, breeding colony of orange eye blue tigers in own tank). I’ll always have red cherries and tetras and Cories. I still have guppies-all males😆 But I am considering trying glass belly guppies, maybe😁 This is my last betta, they are wonderful, beautiful and personable, but I’ve never had one that would allow any other fish in with them (nor shrimp nor snails). And longest lived one I had 2 years. I somehow only know how to pick the mean ones😅 thanks for the stream Cory and congrats on the newer warehouse and all that entails 😊☮❤🐠🦐🪴

I will always come back to rummynose tetra, they everything i like when watching my fish tanks, they active fish great schoolers with a fun feeding response and they not as shy as some other tetras, i have the rathbuns tetra right now and they are super pretty and active fish but are very shy

I'm never going near Dwarf Chain Loaches again. They are great at taking care of snails in your tank, however they also bullied all my other fish, to the point where they couldn't even eat. The local fish store said they were like playful puppies and I would love them. I didn't.

Unfortunate about the fancy goldfish. I just got into to them recently, and you're absolutely right about the lack of information. I've had to resort to learning from chinese and japanese goldfish keepers/breeders but I'd imagine communication becomes an issue at a certain point. Most of the old heads with the knowledge don't speak english and most of us don't speak mandarin or Japanese.

Cherry shrimp are amazing! I bought a group of 12 off Ebay about 6yrs ago and those dozen shrimp are now 3 separate colonies each consisting of 10s of thousands! My Fahaka puffer loves when I put a few dozen in his tank for him to hunt.

These no fish I’d never go back to again, but every time I take break from Rift cichlids I always go back

Neon Tetras. They just die. I love my Albino Corydoras. They are bomb proof and the clown cows of my aquarium.

Totally agree. I had three fancy goldfish (one ranchu and two pearlscale) that were so fun and interactive and cute but toward the end of their lives really had some major health problems. Probably will not do it again.

13:58 i recently saw a shrimpy grab a large flake of food like he was repelling backwards off a cliff with a parachute. :D it was so great. (my neighbor gave me a male and a female of the clear red ones and now i have a colony. BUT they were breeding so much i thought nano fish might be a good idea, to keep the numbers down juuuuuust a little. well, might now be regretting that. the guppies are going NUTS. once quarantine is done, i'm moving them.) i really want to keep some blue ones.

Breeding and raising angelfish. Watching tiny fry eat BBS. Adults picking their mates and tending their eggs.

While you were explaining, Jenny was in the back of my mind - then you said her name.

I will always keep a school of green neon tetras. The more the merrier. Just love these hardy little fish. I probably never keep cichlids again. I like planted community tanks.

I'm with you. Over the course of my 66 years, I've kept MANY types of fish, including fancy goldfish. While I love the way they look, they create a HUGE bio-load. I've found that I prefer something much smaller. I also find that the conformation standards that they're bred to makes them so much more susceptible to various health issues. I'm just not willing to do it any more.

"SHRIMP WITH A VENGEANCE." Now THAT should be a tee-shirt :)

Man cherry shrimp really are bulletproof I’ve found a few in my canister filter, hob’s just chilling, they would have been in there for months! Totally fine and healthy

Lion Fish... If you've never been stung by one keep it that way...

Axolotls. Making sure you keep males and females separated. Feeding red wigglers. And they poop a ton.

Love the video. Two very good questions.

The fish I would never own again are: dwarf neon rainbows, and platies for overpopulating too fast. Don't want any babies. Another fish I will never get - is dwarf gourami. Being beautiful "centerpiece" fish, it didn't survive for too long. Several of them died bloated, and when I opened the dead gourami, I found its liver yellow. These fish seem to be bred in a very poor water conditions which makes their liver sick from the start. Other fish I kept in my tank leaved perfectly well. I have been keeping barbs, danios, tetras and guppy males - all were fine and lived their normal life time.

Goliath Tiger Fish .. Back before the internet, someone thought it was a good idea to import these to Canada and sell em in Pet Stores ..

Yellow Neocardina shrimp for whatever reason they’re very finicky. Any slight change and a few just decide to die a new rock or plant and several dead overnight, So yea those specifically never again.

Getting my fish to breed and successfully get some of their fry to maturity. That is my favorite part of the hobby. Well besides sitting and watching them for hours each day.

My thought process of how one would breed goldfish to be healthier and hardier: 1. Start with a genetically diverse breeding group of 1 specific breed (ranchu, tamasaba, comets etc). You could achieve this by buying from a variety of sellers from states and even countries, like Japan and China, if they can be imported. Look for breeders who breed their fish outdoors all year round, specially if the fish come from climates that have hot summers and freezing cold winters. People who have fish that overwinter tend to have fish that are physiologically sound than a fish that is sheltered in an aquarium or indoor facility. 2. Have those fish breed together, then let Mother Nature (winter season) cull off the offspring. Nature is best at culling off weaker animals early on, as a breeder, then you can start culling off fish for appearance, AFTER overwintering does its job culling off weaker fish. Being able to overwinter in a pond requires a certain amount of fitness and physiological soundness, a fish that becomes weakened (while the rest of its peers remain strong) probably has some kind of immunity weakness, or some type of organ issue. While a breeder can see external physical issues, they really don’t know what’s going on inside the fish. This is why goldfish hardiness is variable, because fish mass-produced indoors don’t go through that same culling filter. They are sheltered and don’t have the same stressors that would root out unhealthy fish. The only culling filter is stuff that can be seen externally, like deformities or colors, even growth rates. So to summarize #2, let winter cull first, then the breeder culls for appearance. 3. Sell off most of the offspring, keep the best to continue the generation. Use the $ earned to outsource more unrelated bloodstock. Rinse and repeat.

Medaka and Neo cardina shrimps are great for beginners. CORY GANG GANG‼️‼️‼️‼️

For 10 aquariums or fewer, I would think in 2 directions. First - what provides the most display interest - tanks all the same height and same depth, 1x cube, 1x golden ratio, 1x 2:1, 1x 3:1, 1x 4:1 - you now have 5 display tanks. Then 1x oversized display, you already have 800 gallon. You now have 6 tanks. Now 2x, 2 row tank racks will suffice for everything else. Probably 75 gallon tanks for ease and flexibility. Add and subtract dividers as interest changes

I love my cherry shrimp! One of my favorite things is when I feed flake food and a big shrimp will zoom up to the top, grab a flake, and race away with it to munch on it somewhere in the tank.

@15:25 Spot-on!!! Neos are SO EASY and they’re just WONDERFUL little water-bugs! I have them in a 90G community which I feed twice a week. The tetras may pick off the smallest shrimp, but I’ve called the “cockroaches” too. I have HUNDREDS of them in there. I even put four in my 5G-betta tank…& I’ve taken out at least as many berried-females but always have more. My betta leaves the adults alone but must be picking-off the little-ones.

Hillstream Loaches... Went through about 6 of them dying in the first week from online retailers. Thought maybe its a water perimeter issue or trying to get them to acclimate, so I figured I would look locally and see if we could find some that might be more accustomed to our water perimeters. The LFS owners said they started refusing to stock them as they were constant problems and always resorted in them losing money in store credit for DOA. Not messing with them again... especially given the cost of them too.

Discus - were an absolute nightmare for me to keep personally! Tricky to feed, wouldn't grow from being youngsters to the nice one you see elsewhere and were all dead within a few months! 😢

Lifebearers and most fish from random source. Guppies from a breeder are some of the most hardy fish on the market, they don't need a heater (unless the tank is in a cellar), their population don't dwindle down that easily and so on. I've got swordtails from a hardware store, possibly from a wholesaler and I was so close to losing them all multiple times, because they are so prone to getting sick (be it Ich or digestion). My first fish were guppies and despite keeping that population for 10 years (give or take), they had similar issues (tanks had to be clean, no mold on the glass and better not at room temperature).

Totally agree…

I Really Only Care for Bichirs. I LOVE How They Look!! I Have 4 in a 125-gallon along with 4 Black Neon Tetras. They're Senegal Bichirs so they aren't too big. Not Really Interested in Keeping too Many Fish.

I love these short, thoughtful and personal videos. Keep them coming. Can you speak about overstocking. I am 8 months into the hobby. I have guppies, mystery snails and corydoras. They all are breeding in 10, heavily planted 9 to 32 gallon tanks. My LFS is giving credit for 20 mystery snails a week. They will take guppies soon. But I am daily checking ammonia, nitrates, etc. with the occasional cloudy tank. No losses yet, but any hints for keeping these tanks going with out daily parameter checks. Or are the daily checks just going to be necessary.

After several years of raising fancy goldfish, heres what I can say. I definitely agree with Cory that a lot of the goldfish we see out there generally aren't the most healthy to begin with due to their genetics. Fancies particularly can be predisposed to a variety of health issues, including swimming and buoyancy issues. I've also learned that especially if the fish are imports and are not used to your areas water, they can diminish very quickly due to having weak immune systems. I myself am still trying to perfect my own way to keeping them successfully, but my number one thing besides filtration and water changes is now keeping them stress free as much as possible. I also choose to not import in anymore and to see the fish in person to see their health and how they swim. My only advice to anyone who is interested in keeping quality fancies is to buy from someone reputable and make sure your water is always pristine.

Fancy goldfish are the sweet spot for me. I had to sell my entire setup last year to facilitate a long-distance move, and I miss them dearly, but I look forward to starting a new aquarium in the future, and it's definitely going to be another fancy tank.

I won't go back to Pictus Catfish. The one we had was super skiddish, and it was so hard to avoid stressing it. Eventually it got Ich which spread to the whole tank. I also avoid getting fish from big box stores in my area because of how they're handled, particularly when an employee is netting them. I stick to fish farms and Aqua Huna.

I love to keep shrimp. I have only been in the hobby for 2 years but I love my blue dream shrimp. I have health issues and being as shrimp don't require as much maintenance, feeding and daily care they they are ideal for me.

Guppies. They do NOT eat their own fry as ppl told me they would. 😅. I went from six to HUNDREDS in less than a year!

Awesome shrimp passion

I love single tail goldfish! I wish Bristol Shubunkin would become popular in the U.S. The U.K. breeders have made this variety my favorite goldfish!!

Hoping a comment you might want to touch on, especially in western WA. I notice your outdoor ponds are all above ground. Mine are all in ground. Instead of doing the regular goldfish, shubunkin, koi, I’d like to try the medaka rice fish to see if I can winter them over. BUT, the problem I have dealt with in the past is garter snakes eating my fish. Yes I have actually seen them do it. The black snakes with yellow stripe. So, have you had that experience and how to fix that issue. I’ve used snake away but it smells like rotten eggs!!

Loved this video just sit down n real talk. I miss your 800g fancy goldfish tank was my favorite back drop aquarium even though people gave you such unreasonable crap about them

My answer on never coming back to fish is larger cichlids. I prefer smaller non-aggressive plant-friendly fish.

I couldn’t agree with you more in regard to goldfish. I’ve had standard goldfish for a few years and just picked up four fancy goldfish, and I worry about the fancies every day. They are definitely not nearly as hardy seeming, they don’t swim as well, and they will come up to the top much more. This will be the only time I ever keep goldfish, but I probably won’t have another opportunity because I’m already 53 lol. The other fish I worry about every day is my female betta sorority. Every time I get them they seem to have a sickness and they need eurythrimycin. if they don’t have symptoms right away, then they get them in like two or three weeks when they’ve made it into the community sorority aquarium, and every other species in there stays healthy. The fish I would probably never keep again is the polar blue tiger parrot Cichlid. I have two now but I just will never buy them again. A fish I would always keep would be the otocinclus

Luke’s Goldie’s breeds good quality ranchu goldfish and teaches others how to care for them!

I would not keep fancy goldfish again. I think they are breed beyond the point where you can give them a good life, you can only give them a more or less bearable existence. I have kept them and even loved them, but my feeling about overbreed fish, and other animals for that matter, have changed. I'll gladly keep some of the regular goldfish. Awesome fish! And they can be hold with a great quality of life.

So when we started, we asked our locally owned fish store owner what we could keep that was tough. Gave us Platys. Oh, Lord, they just pooped and would eat it off each other. Was insane. They got pregnant too! Those fish could survive a nuclear fallout. No disrespect to Platys they are awesome just not for us.

Silver & Jardini Aros , Oscars , Pictus Cat , Convicts , Bala Shark , Bronze / Albino Cory's , Yo Yo Loach Mystery Snails and Siamese algae eaters . 🖼️ I absolutely agree with you about Neo's other than feeding them , and I have been enjoying every time I see my first colony of cherries and I don't know what the next one will be, but Blue ______? Caridina

Hi Cory! Good stories! We really identified with the "walking into walls" LOL. Have you changed your mind about Aquashella? You should come to the Schaumberg one. Same place The Renaissance. We are excited about that and then, the following weekend, Metallica is coming for their No Repeats Weekend, Friday and Sunday. We are attending both shows. For a bit we thought it was the same weekend and calling it AquashellicA. That is our big planned triple event of our summer. We'd love to see you there again like we did two years ago!

Great question, looking forward to this one. Makes me really said but for me it's fancies, just too many problems for me, kept them for years and years. The most recent disaster nearly had me completely out of the hobby. Edit: promise I wasn't copying 😂. Where do you come down on the fringe fancies like wakin or jikin, or even Bristols?

Bettas. Don't live long, need high temperatures and are fairly pricy.

Reading the comments, and it is interesting how one person’s trash is another’s treasure. I’m enjoying keeping live bearers, but I am selective breeding, sexing and separating the subadults as soon as to li it how many fry they create. I plan to get a fish I can feed the surplus to, but have not chosen one yet.

You know, if you'd live in Europe for a few years and set up a shrimp tank or two, there are very cute little aquariums and scaper tanks available for cherry shrimp. Even some of the Superfish models look nice.

Never touch guppies again as they aren’t very strong, I would defo go for Danios as they are gorgeous and hardy.

Great talk on the shrimp, Cory! I'm trying to figure out how much to ask at the local fish shops. I know they need wholesale. So I guess my question would be do they need a 200% markup or is it more? Thanks! ~Ron

Off topic, but considering the rough location you're filming in, some extra stability for that rack of tanks might be a wise consideration. They look ready to topple the bricks with even a little shaker of a quake.

Jeff Thompson breeds amazing Top View Rachus. maybe u could get him touch with him? but i agree fancy goldfish is HARD. and very heart breaking :( thanks for sharing your experience

I feel the same way about fancy goldfish. Every goldfish I have kept has been a struggle and don't live very long. Every tropical freshwater fish I've had has thrived. They're breeding. My plants do great! Sadly something about goldfish just hasn't been successful for me. Open to learning in the future. I'll stick to tropical fish for now.

Zebra Danios, they are many times more aggressive than I imagined, and I am sick of having them abuse and terrify my other fish. I'm about to become a livebearer only keeper.

I've found black moor fancy's to be much more hardy than any other fancy goldfish, certainly if you keep black moors outside which you can't with other fancy's. That is probably what causes issues long term.

Pea puffers, never again.

I’ve never wanted try breeding betta splendid they have a lot of deformity. I love doing planted tanks

Jimmy Goldfish premium source for fancy goldfish. Never had issues with his fish.

Got ammano shrimp from Petco and they all disappeared. Tried cherry shrimp and they all died. Tried once more with a bunch of cherry and dream shrimp from eBay, divided between 3 tanks. The 10 gallon died off. The 16 gallon slowly disappeared. But the 5 gallon somehow survived with multiple batches of babies. Sadly this winter, I think the tank was too cold (cold house) and all but 2 died off. 😢

You have told us to use the comments for future videos. I have an interest in hearing you discuss why you chose Lexington, Kentucky for yor warehouse? What quality of life issues were in your assassment? You had previously said that the convenience of working out of Seattle's port was crucial You focused on mailing price, but certainly the lower vost of the expansion must have helped. What port are you shipping from to your new warehouse? Could you discuss this more?

I would never own Frontons again ever. Even in a 200 gallon tank one big male ended up killing its tank mates and started digging like crazy... he would literally pile up ALL the gravel in one side of the tank, even putting in a risk of breaking up the glass because of the weight transfer into one side. Fish grew to over a foot in length

Where is girl talks fish? It’s been 5 months since she uploaded a video and she is the reason I discovered aquarium co-op I love her videos…

I am never going to keep crazy, fancy goldfish again. Too much failure and heart break. The only goldfish I would ever keep again are comet or shubunkin. I also don’t like short bodied or excessively long finned in relation to body length fish. I just moved from TN to AL. I gave away 90% of my fish. I brought to AL multies. I love those little shell dwellers. I also kept my two 8 yr old oscars that I raised from about 2 inches to about a foot. Part of my endler/ guppy colony came along too. As well as my rainbow cichlid colony that I got from Bob Caylor. And finally my betta fry that I had been growing out.

Do you recommend any books or magazines other than Amazonas magazine?

@Cory... quick question not related to video at all but what is the purpose of the tiny ceiling fan in the corner or yer fish room

Luckily my Sterbai corys are thriving but in the past most corys i cannot keep not sure what i was doing wrong they would tank early. Almost gave up but thank goodness my sterbais are awesome

banded leporinus get massive and aggressive, but they look cool and are cool while small.

Hey Cory, I have a question regarding small-ish outdoor ponds in southern Canada. Would a walkway de-icing mat placed underneath and an airstone be enough in a 10g space to prevent the water from freezing? I am considering keeping rice fish but I am not sure if our winters are mild enough for them.

Yeah all I keep are goldfish but I agree with you fancy goldfish just aren’t the move spent 200 on a fancy oranda for it to die due to some really horrific swim bladder issues that were 1 million percent a genetic mutation the other two goldfish in the 75 (2 moors) that it was housed with have not shown a single issue and are currently 3 months longer living than said oranda

didn't the last video say you might do goldfish in the 800? I might have misheard that though.

I probablywill never do African Cichlids again. I've had a few tanks but I got sick of the constant issues of bullying and fish death that dont seem to improve regardless of what method or approach you take (& I tried them all). I'm into SA Cichlids now - still aggressive but I generally have much more success with SA's vs AC's! That's been my experience anyway.

Fancy goldfish are very specialised that’s for sure 😊

I agree about the fancy goldfish 100%. It is disheartening. I have a 65 gallon planted tank with a thriving colony of cherry shrimp and goldfish I raised from eggs but I don’t plan on keeping them ever again after they live out their lives. ❤ On a lighter note, agree that the cherry shrimp are the cockroaches of the aquarium world 😂, they get into every nook and cranny and always manage to show up in new tanks when I move plants around

Electric catfish. Ouch. I loved the little sausage with fins, but he had a heck of a kick to him, even through a net handle.

Scene where fishery is thinking about making a pressurized fish tank so he can raise up and down atmospheric pressure to attempt spawning.