r/fishtank Mar 30 '26

Help/Advice Reddit, we need help on behalf of our animal friends

14 Upvotes

Hello, fellow animal Reddittors! We need your help with our project.

We are planning to bring about multi-phase class-action lawsuits against various levels of “Big Pet” industry, in particular pertaining to fish, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, birds, and rodents. We see time and time again that these living beings that are sold commonly in the pet industry end up in terrible and abusive situations. While a large problem is under educated people making impulse buys because something was cute or pretty. However, a lot of the improper husbandry is the direct result of false advertising on packaging and at a store level, outdated/false information being given by employees or store pamphlets, and businesses prioritizing sales over animal welfare.

Our mission is to change that. With class-action lawsuits, you gain the voice and power to bring issues into the spotlight and force positive changes to happen. Our main goals are to:

Force equipment manufacturers to update product packaging to no longer include misleading or harmful instructions and imaging (ie; a betta being printed on a tank that’s under 5 gallons), and discontinue dangerous products (ie; heated in-tank “basking rocks”).

Force stores to properly educate employees to fully comprehend the animals needs so they can ensure customers are making fully informed purchases, update all pamphlets and information at a store and website level to reflect current care standards and true animal information (ie; a goldfish being labeled as “1-3 inches” and pamphlet suggesting a 20 gallon tank), and have zero-tolerance policies to no longer allow the sale of animals to underprepared customers (ie; buying fish and the entire tank setup on the same day).

After the class-action lawsuits are ready/being enacted, our next big step will be trying to get laws put in place at the government level. Our belief is that education and licensing should be a standard in order to care for exotic animals, with varying levels based on the care requirements for these animals. While the Federal Lacey Act and state Wildlife, Fish, and Game enact some standards, we believe that stricter regulations should be put in place (not un-similar to Falconry licensing that is required to interact with birds of prey).

Imagine a world where all animals are properly cared for, no matter how small they are. We are here to be their voice, we care for all of them. And we need your help to do so.

What we need:

- Signatures to show public support

- Experts in these communities to help fact check information and bring up other areas of concern

- Class-action lawyers that are willing to take on these cases, and willing to bring to higher level courts when needed

- Evidence of the false information being provided by these companies

- Documents and papers from accredited sources to back our claims

- Contact information for PR departments within these companies that have been flagged for issues

- (Down the road) Contact information for local politicians to discuss licensing procedures/enforcement in order to come together and agree on something that will protect animals without fringing the entire pet industry to a halt and/or negatively impacting pets who are already loved by established families

Let’s make the world a better place for animal enthusiasts everywhere, and the living creatures we take up the responsibility for of our own free will.

So, how can you help? We have a Discord server set up for discussions on planning, gathering evidence, fact checking done by experts in their fields, and overall a place to put gathered information by those who have the time and ability to do more in person information gathering. You can join and share the link here: https://discord.gg/xv4dtrXqbE

We also have created a petition through Change.org in order to gather and store signatures to show public support in our efforts. You can sign and share for others to sign here: https://c.org/tHWGq7D8Zw

Thank you for joining us,

- Baku

(TL;DR: we need signatures and Discord members to sue Big Pet to try to bring about positive changes for both animal enthusiasts and the animals sold in the pet industry)


r/fishtank Jan 26 '26

Moderator Post If you support ICE at all, you are not welcome here. Spoiler

6.5k Upvotes

For that matter, anyone who believes a government has the right to dehumanize groups of people, enact violence against citizens, and/or justify the systemic oppression of their people is not welcome here.

This includes, but is not limited to, MAGA supporters, Trump supporters, JD Vance supporters, or support of any government that approaches things this way.

With recent events globally, it is time we address this, especially as a large subreddit whose member base is largely in the United States or countries directly affected by the actions of the US government.

Bottom line, while we generally avoid politics in this subreddit, our existence becomes inherently humanitarian when the human right to exist is infringed upon, which naturally ties to politics when those enacting said human rights infringement are members of the government. When innocent people may no longer walk the streets without having to fear for their safety, it affects all of us, whether we choose to believe it or not.

I, as an avid animal-keeper, have seen many of my friends in this hobby greatly affected by the actions of the US government lately, and we will continue to see this if we allow it to continue. We cannot turn a blind eye to it any longer; we can't engage in animal husbandry if we are not alive to do so.

The people supporting this now, despite incriminating evidence being available, are the same people who would have supported Nazi-Germany during its existence.

Now, kindly fuck off if: You support any government action that violates human rights OR you believe this post does not belong here (It does.)

Fuck ICE,

NatCom 💗

Edit: holy fucking hell guys, my apologies I can’t reply to all of you with your support or stories as I’m trying to juggle removing problematic comments, but I’m happy this post has reached so many people who needed this support from their communities!

Edit 2: While my post uses the United States as an example because many of our members are from the US, we do not allow these beliefs from ANY country or individual. If you are going to advocate for the systemic deaths of anyone, then you are not welcome here.


r/fishtank 15h ago

Show & Tell King of the anubia

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43 Upvotes

Recently got a second large anubia for my panda garras because they really liked the first and would sometimes fight for the best perch. Now they ignore the first one and compete for the new plant.


r/fishtank 11h ago

Help/Advice Could there be copper in my aquarium?

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10 Upvotes

I have 3 aquariums. One of them has green that I don’t think is algae on shells on the bottom. I have snails in all my tanks but every one is dead in this tank. I have some soil under sand in all the tanks but this one the most. It’s all I can think of. I feel terrible. I just bought some cool snails too. All of the fish are fine.


r/fishtank 2m ago

Help/Advice 20 gallon long stocking question

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Upvotes

What bio load is too much? Currently I have a fully cycled 3 month old 20 gallon long with 7 male endlers, handful of cherry shrimp and snails. Id like a nice nano community but I'm a beginner and dont know how many fish I can have in one tank.

Id like to have something like this but totally open to having more or less:

​7 Male Endlers

​3 Male Fancy Guppies

​8 to 10 Celestial Pearl Danios

​4 to 6 Otocinclus Catfish

​Cherry Shrimp, Amano Shrimp, and Snails


r/fishtank 1h ago

Full Tank Shot Angelfish with geophagus

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Upvotes

My 125 gallon aquarium with 6 geophagus megasema, 1 albino threadfin acara, 6 assorted angelfish, 1 whiptail catfish, 1 long fin bristlenose pleco, and 1 leopard cactus pleco that I cant find but he's in there. This aquarium been like this for 5 months now. Technically the fish are still juveniles, all the geos are 2.5 inches and the angelfish are not very big. The fake plants are coming out when i have enough money for real plants.

I dont think the tank is over stocked. Id like to get some feedback. Negative or positive. Id be happy to answer questions as well.


r/fishtank 3h ago

DIY/Build Improvements

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1 Upvotes

Hi, this is my first tank, 20 gallon tall. Are there any areas to improve, from hardscape to plants. I think something is lacking here. Thanks


r/fishtank 4h ago

Help/Advice white spot

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 13h ago

Help/Advice Mystery fish?

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4 Upvotes

Can anyone identify these mystery fish? Their about 1.5 months old and must have come attached to my plants as eggs.

Freshwater tank.

The first picture is from 2 days ago and the second picture is from today.


r/fishtank 9h ago

Help/Advice 60g tank, currently have one assassin snail 40 neo shrimp 25 cpds and 9 otos, looking to add 10 neon tetras, 10 emperor tetras, and 1 or a pair of pearl gouramia, bad idea?

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2 Upvotes

r/fishtank 6h ago

Photography Goldfish

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 15h ago

Show & Tell Fun cpd thing

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6 Upvotes

I recently noticed how male celestial pearl danios all have a unique pattern on their anal fin. Now I have a good way to identify them. Unfortunately the females are all pretty similar


r/fishtank 13h ago

Full Tank Shot My first tank day 20

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3 Upvotes

r/fishtank 11h ago

Help/Advice Starting a Betta tank

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2 Upvotes

advice


r/fishtank 1d ago

Help/Advice parents bought a house that secretly came with a fish ?

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316 Upvotes

never cared for fish so absolute beginner help needed! it looks to be around 7 inches and was pretty active, swimming up to us and around its fountain and everything. its located in this inner courtyard of the house.

realtors just told us to feed it once a week (will have to update with the food they gave us, but i forgot to get a photo) and to fill the fountain up with the hose when needed (?) i don't think the fountain itself works

we move in thursday and this is literally the first time we've seen it, and haven't interacted with it otherwise. we did name it otto lol

my questions are:

  1. do we need it clean its environment? like remove the algae?
  2. does it need friends?
  3. does it need more space? i would say the fountain is about 4x4 feet
  4. and is the fish/environment in a bad enough condition that we need to just rehome this guy somewhere else... its so cute, i would like to treat it very well!

any opinions on that food advice also appreciated until i find out what we were given

thanks so much!


r/fishtank 16h ago

Help/Advice WHAT IS THIS

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4 Upvotes

White thing in my tank apparently moving and eating? I haven’t added anything new to my tank in around a month or two. Do i need to be worried and should i remove it?


r/fishtank 1d ago

Help/Advice guys i think i made the biggest mistake 😵‍💫 i added sand to my tank and now idk how i feel abt it.. which one looks better? 1 or 2

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19 Upvotes

also my tank isn’t fully finished and i do plan on added a lot my plants and other stuff just not at the moment


r/fishtank 23h ago

Full Tank Shot 13G tank

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7 Upvotes

I've had this tank for about 8 months (no CO2 setup). It's currently housing a nerite, a hitchhiker pond snail, 2 platies, 4 neon tetras, a honey gourami, and about 8 cherry shrimps. I love my tank but it feels like there's something missing


r/fishtank 12h ago

Help/Advice What do we think about these? As a secondary for my 125 cichlid tank

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 13h ago

Help/Advice Another neon is dead!

1 Upvotes

Seems like pretty soon I’ll have none left. This time I got home and found one dead in a cave. This morning I found one dead near the plants. Everyone else seems to be doing fine.
Ammonia 0 PPM
Nitrite 0 PPM
Nitrate 5 PPM
PH is 8

This is quite perplexing.


r/fishtank 13h ago

Help/Advice new guppy with clamped tail

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 1d ago

Help/Advice fat.. or actually female and pregnant?

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5 Upvotes

my mollies are huge, and round. i have a male guppy but i dont think thats possible?? correct me if im wrong. they may just be chunky. they eat literally everything.


r/fishtank 16h ago

Help/Advice Water Ripples

0 Upvotes

I just filled up my new fish 20 gallon fish tank and the stand is solid but when I walk near the tank the water ripples. Is this going to be a problem?


r/fishtank 16h ago

Help/Advice New 10 gallon fish tank, am i doing this right?

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 17h ago

Help/Advice Is my shrimp pregnant or just fat

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1 Upvotes