My Honest Review of 10 Beginner Fish from Petco

I feel like a lot of people get into aquariums because they went to Petco or PetSmart and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little fish tank?” But then you take the fish home, they start dying, and you’re like, “Maybe fish aren’t so easy after all.” Let’s talk about my experiences with “beginner-friendly” fish that you may find at major pet store chains and whether they’re worth it or not.

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#petsmart #petco #aquariumfish

0:00 Top 10 beginner fish from Petco/PetSmart
0:20 Fish 1
0:52 Fish 2
1:39 Fish 3
2:20 Fish 4
3:11 Fish 5
3:44 Fish 6
4:48 Fish 7
6:04 Fish 8
7:03 Fish 9
7:52 Fish 10

[GirlTalksFish]

*What's your favorite beginner fish from Petco, PetSmart, or other major pet store chain?*

[teens_dragon]

The betta really is the “gateway drug” of fish keeping🤣 I started with a betta fish…..15 tanks later….

[tsthemaster]

The mystery snail made me comment. I cannot recommend them enough. They are SOOOO much more fun than you may think. My wife and kids constantly go "omg look at what this snail is doing". It's hard to describe it without seeing it. You'll be like "what are you doing silly snail?"

[brken]

I love how you called Betta fish a gateway drug 🤣 my first fish was a Betta and I made so many unfortunate mistakes at first ..BUT have learned SO much since then to give my Betta and future fish and shrimp a better life 🙂

[mlqmdjw]

My cherry shrimp and mystery snails are literally so funny and quirky. They have SO much personality and I love watching them go about their day. I have thought about having a tank just for my shrimp because they steal the show so often! Oh they also love to ride the snails around lol!

[EchoGhost]

Corys are great for first-time fish keepers! Definitely recommend them. Just stay away from the more sensitive ones and look at getting either bronze or peppered corys - they'll tolerate any mistakes better and look awesome (plus they're very fun to watch).

Obviously, do research as corys can be a bit on the sensitive side compared to something like guppies or goldfish but they're still pretty hardy. One thing I also didn't know when I first got mine is that they're scaleless fish and sometimes can't handle treatments that other fish can.

I personally have peppered corys that spawn all the time but I've only let a few batches hatch since I already have a few too many. I was also lucky enough last year to get two albinos from my 'normal group' and I also got one this year. It's such a nice surprise. It's like getting a shiny pokemon XD

[ArticulatedDoom]

You don't strike me as a Unicron/Sunstreaker kinda person but your information has helped me TRANSFORM from an absolute movie to a better prepared absolute novice

[Bitterstone]

My first attempt at keeping an aquarium was a complete failure. I set everything up in one night a 10 gallon dumped about 8 different fish in and within a couple of week's all were dead. Except 1 Paradise fish he ended up in a fish bowl for about a year until I tried again. This time I had learned the correct way to set up a tank. He made it back to a ten gallon and even made the move to a new home a year later. That was back in 1979. The reason I bring this up is Paradise fish are very hardy. The are in the same family as bettas and can also take a gulp of air they also have a high tolerance to extreme different water temps. I read a story yrs ago of them being taken from ponds that were frozen and revived. . I think they would make good first fish though they can be quite combative at time's mainly with their own. I haven't seen any in the store's I shop in anywhere for yrs. They're rather pretty also.

[lillymeyer]

I can definitely agree with Betta, Amano Shrimp, Molly, Endler, Gourami and Mystery Snails. They are all really hardy and easy to keep.

But Neons are often wild caught and come with diseases, and additionally they have problems with hard water.
Albino Corys are extensively bred to look the way they do, so they are way less hardy than other Corys, but it really depends on the bloodline.
Cherry shrimp are really not as hard to keep as everybody thinks, but you definitely need a well established tank to put them in.

But still, great video, keep being awesome :)

[haleymorgan]

Betta fish for sure!!! So much personality and it’s so rewarding to bring them home and get them out of those awful little cups. Can’t wait to have a community tank one day though!

[angelokarlcanaleta]

Same thoughts with the Mystery Snails! They are so weird and dorky in an entertaining way. I love giving it my DIY sinking wafer and do a Timelapse of it eating.

[GuppyWagon]

Even after breading thousands of guppies and bettas for years they are my favourite ❤️. Great video by the way

[melissatrent]

I recently got back into getting an aquarium after 30 years. I got my 10 gallon back in October. I know I'm a bit overstocked but am saving up for a 20 or 30 gallon that I will be getting soon. I have neon tetras, black skirt tetras, albino corys, a mystery snail and nerite snails, all bought from both Petco and PetSmart. You're right about the neons, they tend to stay towards the bottom, I love their color so much. The corys are so much fun to watch as they go around looking for food. The black skirts are complete food hogs! I named my mystery snail Speedy because he really is fast for a snail. I think it's hilarious the way he "hangs" onto the leaves of my fake plants, lol. I had black and dalmatian mollies to start with, but they all died. Now that you mentioned the water hardness/softness I can see why mine died. I loved them though, they all had the cutest personalities!

[besthobbit]

I don't know how the "fish are easy" myth started, but it couldn't be farther from the truth.

[jaminhughes]

Guppies were the first fish I ever had. They were also the first fish I got as an adult getting back into the hobby. I did get away from them for a couple years because they're messy, but now have a large amount of them thanks to developing an interest in fish breeding. :-)

[donaldhall]

My wife and I both love our Mystery snails. We were quite fortunate to have gotten a Giant (over 3 inches) female that we named " Peach". She became our matriarch and we are now on the 5th- 6th generation of her progeny. Our LFS is ( I think) getting a little tired of us bringing them 50-100 juvenile snails every few weeks. We average about 6-8 klutches of eggs a week and have taken to floating them on a corkboard in one of our 40 breeder tanks.

[killercurio]

I work for Petco and i can say it really depends on the store you go to like my store we dont use petcos rules when it comes to our fish we all for the most part are in the hobbie so we all work togather to keep our tanks nice and healthy

[MegaMindyLou]

The biggest bulletproof fish I’ve ever had, I was never interested in until my daughter gave me hers. Black skirt tetras. They eat anything, live in any water conditions and practically live for ever. Sometimes I think they’ve died but they were just hiding in the thick plants.

[risingintheash]

I’m shocked you recommended mystery snails over nerites. I think it’s important to know to not get two mystery snails because of the high likelihood that they’ll breed. Nerites (while they do lay eggs everywhere) can only lay eggs but they never hatch unless in brackish water. Great video as always, Irene!

[awollsd]

something my mystery snail does that i find really interesting is they will go up to the top, and grab ahold of a piece of my dwarf water lettuce and pull it down to mid tank level and just float around on it like it's a ride at a park.. it's really interesting to think of a snail "doing something for fun" (not saying that is what they are doing but it sure seems/feels like it haha)