Most Disappointing Fish?

[drobbyb]

Tough one... I not only admire fish for their physical beauty, but for their behavior and uniqueness. Take a few closeup shots with a camera and you can find some beauty in the scale patterns of what some might consider unattractive species. Or observe their behavior at different times of the day while sitting stone still and you can observe some amazing things. Some people find bettas rather boring, but have you ever tried breeding them? Their breeding behavior is quite spectacular! At any rate, each species is unique so it's difficult to pick one that is truly boring if you take the time to really study each one.

 

[kylealastairlove]

hmm well i have a group of hengeli rasbora, they were great at first. great colour and schooling behaviour and i even seen them showing their pre spawning behaviour almost every day it was great to watch found them fascinating although i have lost a few since, they just seem to have become individuals and dont really school any more and i never see them show any spawning behaviour, i dont know wheather thats my fault or not due to my tank going under maintenance and moving stuff around but i was dissapointed at how they are now compared to how beautiful they were

 

[*pete*]

Well said drobbyb, you obviously have an eye for beauty in the natral world.

 

[FishBlast]

Tough one... I not only admire fish for their physical beauty, but for their behavior and uniqueness. Take a few closeup shots with a camera and you can find some beauty in the scale patterns of what some might consider unattractive species. Or observe their behavior at different times of the day while sitting stone still and you can observe some amazing things. Some people find bettas rather boring, but have you ever tried breeding them? Their breeding behavior is quite spectacular! At any rate, each species is unique so it's difficult to pick one that is truly boring if you take the time to really study each one.

I liked my bettas' behavior and color at first when I had 4 of them... They seemed to stay in a group all to their own and looked like saints, loved to eat bloodworms.
But then I found out that they were ganging up on my zebra danios, taking their eyes out and then moved on to guppies, shredding their tails and biting their heads.
I was disappointed when I saw that, but I didn't even know they were fighting fish, I just was told by my friend that they are Bettas and that's it. Apparently she never had problems with the bettas killing the danios or attacking the guppies while she had them, but it only took one week of me owning her tank and I was starting to see eyeless danios...
I was lucky the bettas were so used to each other (and in pairs too) that they never cared about each other.

 

[MBOU]

I think I have changed my mind... most dissapointing fish in my life... Cardinal Tetras, what a let down.

I just KNEW i wanted something that wasnt a bunch of complete pansies and that shoaled properly. Id happily have settled for the huge harlequins or espei copper harlequins... or the emerald eye rasbora.. or heck, id have dropped temperature a bit and settled for danios!!

But noooooooooo cant have a planted tank without Cardinals

So introduced 25 Cardinals with view to doubling that.... and after 9 hours, they are still cowering in the corner. Sissys. The just look lame in there.

Now I have to take out my lovely madagascan rainbows because the cardinals are scared of him. He is tiny, not much bigger than them!! Mind you.. they are scared of the otos and the cories!! Its not like the Bolivian Rams are exciting, they are hiding and have ben for days since i put them in but there is only the two of them and lots of plants and they are newly imported, the cardinals have been in for weeks.

Bah. Boring little pipsqueaks.

 

[mcqc4]

Has to be mollies. Nice fish, active, nice colors, BUT.... THE BABIES !!! They reproduce like rabbits!! And they don't have just one or even 10 but 100 at a time!! I've given away hundreds of them. It was so bad I finally gave away all the adults. Never again!! I'm so done with mollies. I'm still finding babies in my big tank and I haven't had mollies for monthes.

 

[FishBlast]

Has to be mollies. Nice fish, active, nice colors, BUT.... THE BABIES !!! They reproduce like rabbits!! And they don't have just one or even 10 but 100 at a time!! I've given away hundreds of them. It was so bad I finally gave away all the adults. Never again!! I'm so done with mollies. I'm still finding babies in my big tank and I haven't had mollies for monthes.

LOL! If my swordies wouldn't be eating them, I'd have a full tank by now. I still get survivors due to my hoplo being on guard and the bushes providing safety for fry. Recently I saw a lyretail fry venturing out of the bush but it's still small.

 

[TotallyTropical]

I DISAGREE WITH ANYONE WHO SAID KUHLI LOACHES!!!! I see all of mine every day, and they are content, energetic, and entertaining. Guppies are definately on the boring/disappointing list. When I was little, my Grandfather had a tank of plain guppies. Not Fancy, just grey, dull, bleck-ish guppies. I'd look and see like 20 of them pregnant. Also, all they did (agreeing with other guppy, I guess, dislikers?) was swim around and poop. He eventually gave them away, and he now has a Goldfish pond. WHICH brings me to the fact that Goldfish stink SO BAD (if you are stupid and put them in an unfiltered bowl), and, like guppies, wander aimlessly around.

 

[Mauigirl]

I DISAGREE WITH ANYONE WHO SAID KUHLI LOACHES!!!! I see all of mine every day, and they are content, energetic, and entertaining. Guppies are definately on the boring/disappointing list. When I was little, my Grandfather had a tank of plain guppies. Not Fancy, just grey, dull, bleck-ish guppies. I'd look and see like 20 of them pregnant. Also, all they did (agreeing with other guppy, I guess, dislikers?) was swim around and poop. He eventually gave them away, and he now has a Goldfish pond. WHICH brings me to the fact that Goldfish stink SO BAD (if you are stupid and put them in an unfiltered bowl), and, like guppies, wander aimlessly around.

and at the same time.. I LOVE KUHLI LOACHES!!! If you never see them it is due to either low numbers or a tank with few hiding spots... they are extremely entertaining and not afraid of light .. just nervous and need to know.. "I could hide there , or there, or there... or even if i had to maybe there", a lot of potential hiding spots makes your KUHLI much more bold
I love mine.
Mollies.. are like little carp.. and will skim the surface constantly,are strong for the size, and prolific, this could be good or bad depending on the keeper.. Guppies are kept not for the interaction at first. but rather big #17##### tails on males and no thought given to proper male to female stocking to achieve proper behavior.. so sad as they are a , not so expressive breed but extremely enjoyable one if kept right...
Disappointing is a personal, and totally viable question. I love this thread.. gives me a + and - to certain breeds from individual experiences.
It in no way sets a benchmark for anyone to make a decision..

Enjoy the pluses, accept the minus, and be a great keeper..

 

[Mauigirl]

See Above, as I posted duplicate..
Id blame this on you but you would just argue\.. LMAO /HUG

 

[TotallyTropical]

Speaking of Kuhlis and their wild behavior, one of mine is swimming in a fast circle on the side of my tank, while the others wake up the rest of my fish.

 

[FishBlast]

Swordies have their disappointing moments too. Even though I like them for their tendency to vary their colors with each generation and it's not just the tail, like guppies get, it's the whole fish and it's bigger.

The problems with swordtails:
- aggressiveness, even between females. If there's no second male, then it's the females arguing over stupid stuff. If there's only one female, she will either be harassed by the male, or the male will have his tail handed to him (my swordies' case). The good side is that they're not as aggressive as bettas or other mean fish.
- You get so many of them that you just got to have a population control.
- Each generation can have some that are rather plain looking / have no color at all on them. However, I spared a half-white half-black fry (which also has a tiger stripe on the middle of his body). But I don't usually like transparent fish.
- Tons of poop strings. Although they do clean up after themselves and it's basically the only food my plants get anyway...
- Skimming the surface for food. Before I did some research on this, I thought they didn't have enough air or something and kept changing water 90% (since I didn't have a nitrite tester back then), now I see why they do this: when there's food there, they suck it off the surface.
- Some of their fry are EXTREMELY STUPID! They are so tiny and yet dare to swim out in the open... and get eaten first thing. WHY must they leave cover like that? There's enough food falling in there, my hoplo's usually on guard around there... yet they just wander away and get eaten by the female swordies... And then there's this big fry I call Ninja... He gets bullied by a week-old fry that's half his size! That thing could pass for a flea next to him, but it chases Ninja all over the tank if they meet. *face-palm*

 

[TotallyTropical]

Swordies have their disappointing moments too. Even though I like them for their tendency to vary their colors with each generation and it's not just the tail, like guppies get, it's the whole fish and it's bigger.

The problems with swordtails:
- aggressiveness, even between females. If there's no second male, then it's the females arguing over stupid stuff. If there's only one female, she will either be harassed by the male, or the male will have his tail handed to him (my swordies' case). The good side is that they're not as aggressive as bettas or other mean fish.
- You get so many of them that you just got to have a population control.
- Each generation can have some that are rather plain looking / have no color at all on them. However, I spared a half-white half-black fry (which also has a tiger stripe on the middle of his body). But I don't usually like transparent fish.
- Tons of poop strings. Although they do clean up after themselves and it's basically the only food my plants get anyway...
- Skimming the surface for food. Before I did some research on this, I thought they didn't have enough air or something and kept changing water 90% (since I didn't have a nitrite tester back then), now I see why they do this: when there's food there, they suck it off the surface.
- Some of their fry are EXTREMELY STUPID! They are so tiny and yet dare to swim out in the open... and get eaten first thing. WHY must they leave cover like that? There's enough food falling in there, my hoplo's usually on guard around there... yet they just wander away and get eaten by the female swordies... And then there's this big fry I call Ninja... He gets bullied by a week-old fry that's half his size! That thing could pass for a flea next to him, but it chases Ninja all over the tank if they meet. *face-palm*

Lol, that's so true! One more thing: females can change genders. That almost turned me right off of them the first day I got them! And if you really want to breed them, you may be disappointed when you see that.

 

[fluttermoth]

They don't change gender. Some males are late developers and look like females for a long time, and very old females can take on male characteristics, but they don't actually change sex.

 

[FishBlast]

They don't change gender. Some males are late developers and look like females for a long time, and very old females can take on male characteristics, but they don't actually change sex.

Yes, although it's annoying with the old females if you want to keep breeding them. You end up with a cool-looking female going sterile and unable to pass their colors...
And the late developers are annoying for looking like females, however, it's pretty easy to spot them if they're transparent: their silvery belly is a slope where their gravid spot should be. It's shaped like / .
A true female has a round area where the spot should be. It's C-shaped.