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With Respect, What Fish Don't You Like?


Fish Folk
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I was just flipping through an online magazine featuring aquatic garden items, and noticed a nice pond photo with Koi. This got me thinking: though I deeply respect the fish and can agree with others that it has beauty and many nice qualities, I really don't personally care for Koi. Now I do appreciate Goldfish a bit more . . . but I am not inspired by Orandas. For me, the only Goldfish I really like are common fantails.

Thinking about other species . . . I get the appeal of little Endlers, but I've never been able to get personally invested. My love affair with Bettas comes and goes. I am stunned by the playfulness of the Featherfin Catfish, absolutely love watching it -- but only in other people's tanks. I don't think I'd ever keep one myself. Now, I'm in love with my Discus. But my friend who specializes in Native US species could care less about them. 

I'm curious about my fellow NERMs: WITH RESPECT, WHAT FISH DON'T YOU LIKE? 

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Is it really a matter of dislike though? Like you said and I feel similarly there are lots of fish I think are neat and can see the appeal and I DO LIKE them- they're just not for me. For me this would be Bettas- can't keep them alive to save my life and I seem to be a decent fish keeper. They have beautiful forms in so many colors and wonderful little personalities. I'll enjoy others' Bettas, but no thanks, I'm good over here. 🙃

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First, I need you to know I stopped playing my game and therefore lost this round after reading this because I wanted to reply haha. 

Although I hit the ground running very fast, im still very new to this hobby. 

I seem to agree with you on the koi thing. My problem with goldfish in general is I think they are amazingly beautiful in their small, young state but they lose that appeal to me when they get full sized. 

My list will be purely looks based and none of which I have experience with so take that for what it is. 

I honestly don't understand the appeal of discus tbh. The colors are appealing but I can get that elsewhere. They just kinda look awkward to me apart from that. 

Honestly, most larger fish don't really appeal to me that much. One smaller than I try to get myself to like is BN plecos. They are weird looking to me. For some reason I wanna convince myself to like them but i just can't. 

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Not a fish, but shrimp weird me out sometimes. Too many legs 😅

I kept telling myself I wouldn’t get any, but I did end up with 3 Amano. They still creep me out a bit if I spot one when I’m not expecting it. Usually under a floating leaf or something equally odd. 

I just don’t inspect them too closely, lol.

It is entertaining though watching the BN pleco and panda garra plow through them during mealtime. 😆

Edited by SpacedCadette
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On 5/16/2022 at 11:20 PM, SpacedCadette said:

Not a fish, but shrimp weird me out sometimes. Too many legs 😅

I kept telling myself I wouldn’t get any, but I did end up with 3 Amano. They still creep me out a bit if I spot one when I’m not expecting it. Usually under a floating leaf or something equally odd. 

I just don’t inspect them too closely, lol.

It is entertaining though watching the BN pleco and panda garra plow through them during mealtime. 😆

Not a shrimp but a similar issue. Have you seen the videos of Leon that lobster a dude got from a grocery store and is raising? I had a similar reaction to the legs. And on a lobster you can see all the "hands" too. Kinda incredible and creepy at the same time lol. Now I need to look up how many appendages they actually have lol

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With great respect, I have to say guppies and neon tetras. Both are very beautiful and I do appreciate them, but I don't think I'd ever keep any myself. Before this forum, I thought neons were very easy to keep because my dad always added them to our tanks growing up. I think he was just lucky -- never tested the water, never did water changes, etc.

I think I just prefer more oddball and silly fish, which explains why I have pea puffers and am obsessed with creating a cory tank. 

@SpacedCadette I totally see what you're saying about shrimp. They are weird! But that's why I love them. All of those legs moving around just crack me up. I could watch them for hours. 

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I’m not a fan of fish that have been bred to have disabilities - balloon bellies (they look that way because of their horribly distorted spines - how painful must that be?), giant koks or wens so large they can’t see past them and can’t eat without a surgery to restore their line of sight, fins so abundant they can barely swim and have such pain from the fin burden they self mutilate from the pain and destroy their own fins.  There are other examples, but that makes my point sufficiently.

I can appreciate their beautiful colors and that people like to have something unique, but I just can’t understand why people continue to breed fish that are doomed to poor health and especially a life of pain.

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On 5/17/2022 at 12:29 AM, Odd Duck said:

I’m not a fan of fish that have been bred to have disabilities - balloon bellies (they look that way because of their horribly distorted spines - how painful must that be?), giant koks or wens so large they can’t see past them and can’t eat without a surgery to restore their line of sight, fins so abundant they can barely swim and have such pain from the fin burden they self mutilate from the pain and destroy their own fins.  There are other examples, but that makes my point sufficiently.

I can appreciate their beautiful colors and that people like to have something unique, but I just can’t understand why people continue to breed fish that are doomed to poor health and especially a life of pain.

In that discussion that's always the line for me. If it's adversely effecting the animal's life then it's bad. You can't get away from human intervention on their development period, it's impossible, but you can put up a line. A great example in dogs is short snouts. 

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On 5/16/2022 at 8:20 PM, Fish Folk said:

This got me thinking: though I deeply respect the fish and can agree with others that it has beauty and many nice qualities, I really don't personally care for Koi. Now I do appreciate Goldfish a bit more . . . but I am not inspired by Orandas. For me, the only Goldfish I really like are common fantails.

I'm exactly the opposite. I appreciate koi, ponds, and I feel really bad for a lot of the goldfish I see. I feel like they can barely function with all of the mutations.

I feel really bad for glofish, because I can appreciate the beauty of their normal versions so much more. Instead of a "coat of paint" I wish people that had glofish would be more exposed to focusing on the personality of the fish and not the colors themselves.

I also feel bad for a lot of cichlids. That's probably my answer to the question in the OP. I feel like so many of the tanks I see are either battlegrounds or far too small for natural behavior. I think back to a few YouTube videos and people that converted full size swimming pools to their cichlids. That's sort of where I feel like these fish thrive is in a pond scenario.

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On 5/17/2022 at 3:56 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'm exactly the opposite. I appreciate koi, ponds, and I feel really bad for a lot of the goldfish I see. I feel like they can barely function with all of the mutations.

I feel really bad for glofish, because I can appreciate the beauty of their normal versions so much more. Instead of a "coat of paint" I wish people that had glofish would be more exposed to focusing on the personality of the fish and not the colors themselves.

I also feel bad for a lot of cichlids. That's probably my answer to the question in the OP. I feel like so many of the tanks I see are either battlegrounds or far too small for natural behavior. I think back to a few YouTube videos and people that converted full size swimming pools to their cichlids. That's sort of where I feel like these fish thrive is in a pond scenario.

It’s interesting to think about cichlids especially in terms of recommended tank sizes. How large is any one type of cichlid’s “territory”? A 55 gallon is often recommended for a group of 5-6 angelfish and for a group of mbuna like a yellow lab or one of the “less aggressive” African cichlids, but having done both types of setups I’ve found the angelfish to be much better off despite being physically larger.

At a certain point, a bigger tank won’t make a difference to the fish. a 120 gallon tank is going to give a dozen zebra danios a pretty similar experience to a 2,000 gallon in terms of swimming space and territory, but big cichlids that are often 6”+  probably need much more space than is usually recommended if you want to keep a group and see natural behavior and pairing off, spawning, etc. 
 

 

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I personally don't fish like  fish bred with excessive long fins to the point they can't swim very well or dye injected fish just cruel and fish like balloon Molly's prone to swim bladder issue  

Edited by Colu
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I dislike any fish that has been heavily altered to look unnatural.  I enjoy colorful breeds that are bred to be slightly more colorful or have slightly prettier fins. Any fish bred or man made to be unnatural or things that cause health issues are not something I enjoy even looking at.  
 

second is aggressive fish. I don’t want fish that hate/attack me or each other. Both would stress me out. 

 

oh and high maintenance fussy fish that are hard to keep.  @Fish Folk I absolutely love looking at your discus but it’s that thing you said. I love them in YOUR tank not mine. 

Edited by Guppysnail
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On 5/17/2022 at 8:11 AM, Guppysnail said:

oh and high maintenance fussy fish that are hard to keep.  @Fish Folk I absolutely love looking at your discus but it’s that thing you said. I love them in YOUR tank not mine. 

I totally get this. And there’s other reasons to dislike Discus. They are funny-looking!

But I will hasten to add: I do not find Discus to be hard to keep. Basically, if you can keep Rams and Cardinal Tetras happy, I think you can do Discus. 

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I am just not a fan of cichlids. I worked at a LFS and that's all anyone ever wanted to buy. I just consider them boring, I don't think their behaviors are that interesting, and even if I find their colors pretty I don't really find the rest of the fish pretty. I don't even like angelfish, I just think they are overhyped. 

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On 5/17/2022 at 9:13 AM, hannah662parker said:

I am just not a fan of cichlids. I worked at a LFS and that's all anyone ever wanted to buy. I just consider them boring, I don't think their behaviors are that interesting, and even if I find their colors pretty I don't really find the rest of the fish pretty. I don't even like angelfish, I just think they are overhyped. 

I’m ORD, but I appreciate this! I’m a gigantic fan of Cichlids, but they definitely have a unique personality that only works with certain aquarists.

I’ve enjoyed branching out. Keeping Killis has introduced me to a whole other disposition in fish. Goodeids, too, are kind of funny to watch. Goldfish are hilarious too!

Most interesting to me, lately, have been my US Native Darters. They’re altogether different…

5909EC56-2AD2-4477-88F3-E454D14641A2.jpeg.b350fde77def310fc85deaeb63665e6c.jpeg

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On 5/17/2022 at 9:18 AM, Fish Folk said:

I’m ORD, but I appreciate this! I’m a gigantic fan of Cichlids, but they definitely have a unique personality that only works with certain aquarists.

I’ve enjoyed branching out. Keeping Killis has introduced me to a whole other disposition in fish. Goodeids, too, are kind of funny to watch. Goldfish are hilarious too!

Most interesting to me, lately, have been my US Native Darters. They’re altogether different…

5909EC56-2AD2-4477-88F3-E454D14641A2.jpeg.b350fde77def310fc85deaeb63665e6c.jpeg

Everytime I see darters mentioned I think they are just so cool! I love killifish too. I actually really wanted to like cichlids because that's what my dad kept in the 80's, but I just don't jive with them! Oh well, there are plenty of fishkeepers that do 🙂 

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On 5/17/2022 at 2:55 AM, timQ said:

telescope goldfish and pearlscale goldfish...not a fan at all. 

Add Flowerhorns, any other fish with bulbous features, or look like they were assembled from left over parts. (sorry Murphy)

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For me it's many of the heavily genetically modified fish for our enjoyment but their detriment—namely ones like the bubble eye goldfish. I used to be a big fan of the telescope eye goldfish, but now I can't bring myself to support that either.

Also Glofish really really get my gears going, and it really upsets me that they're just a marketing gimmick, and the fish suffer for it.

Genetically modified fish didn't ask to be that way, and buying such fish to "rescue" them only perpetuates their existence and ups the demand. Corporate greed and playing god simultaneously really rubs me the wrong way.

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On 5/17/2022 at 9:39 AM, Nyssa said:

For me it's many of the heavily genetically modified fish for our enjoyment but their detriment—namely ones like the bubble eye goldfish. I used to be a big fan of the telescope eye goldfish, but now I can't bring myself to support that either.

Also Glofish really really get my gears going, and it really upsets me that they're just a marketing gimmick, and the fish suffer for it.

Genetically modified fish didn't ask to be that way, and buying such fish to "rescue" them only perpetuates their existence and ups the demand. Corporate greed and playing god simultaneously really rubs me the wrong way.

Glofish are probably at the top of the list for me for a 'type' that won't ever be purchased or brought home solely on them being gimmicky.

In terms of bubble eyes, those are not genetically modified, but more so dedicated selective breeding. There are tons of species on this list. A majority of color variants of fish come from this as well as anything 'veil tail'. Wild Betta splendens (your common Siamese Fighting Fish) do not have long finnage naturally, but were selected to produce long and more colorful variants. 

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