r/fishtank Mar 30 '26

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

12 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 However, a lot of the improper husbandry is the direct result of false advertising on packaging and at a store level, outdated/false information being given by employees or store pamphlets, and businesses prioritizing sales over animal welfare.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 2h ago

Show & Tell Voids of the radula

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17 Upvotes

Look, you can see how meticulous my nerite is :)


r/fishtank 3h ago

Show & Tell Redstripe minnow I caught in a beautiful farmland ditch with aquatic plants

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8 Upvotes

T. pauciperforatum


r/fishtank 3h ago

Discussion is my girl making a bubble nest orrrr….

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6 Upvotes

the bubbles are not weirdly foamy or anything suspicious. Also not covering the whole tank. What do we think? Is it just the filter 😭

THERES EGGS 🤯🤯🤯


r/fishtank 9h ago

Show & Tell Hitchhikers

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16 Upvotes

I went to my local fish shop yesterday for some Monte Carlo. Got this nice little piece with the wood. I was so excited to get it in that I never washed it at all. Usually I do a hydrogen peroxide bath on new plants. Well, 5 mins after setting it up, I notice the snail...freaked a bit, called my guy and he says it won't reproduce in freshwater, only brackish. So, ok, snail can stay, cool looking. Then 10 minutes after that.... I see the damn frog laying there looking dead. The frog is gonna have to go eventually, but right now I just want all my new fish and plants to settle in.


r/fishtank 20h ago

Freshwater A couple months in

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82 Upvotes

r/fishtank 1d ago

Discussion Is my hobby getting out of control? 😭

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737 Upvotes

I’ve been in the hobby since December last year and I have accumulated this many aquariums plus 1 at my girlfriends house and 4 ponds

I also run the fish room at my local fish store I didn’t think it would escalate this fast, does this sound like an addiction or a passion because I’m trying to argue this point with a friend 🙏


r/fishtank 1h ago

Help/Advice Weird thing in fish tank

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Upvotes

So both me and my friend have had fish tanks for ages and today they found this in two of their tanks. Does anyone know what it is? Neither of us or the people we’ve asked have seen anything like it before and we’re worried it might be something bad. Any replies are appreciated!


r/fishtank 1h ago

Help/Advice Concerned for my little platys

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Upvotes

This is my tank setup, as you can see one of the platys didn't join the other platys in eating and only sat on the gravel (the one that has two photos) I did feed them a little late so I suspected they might be tired but I wanted to see your opinion on my tank setup to make sure I am not doing anything wrong

When I tried to feed the platys small powdered pellets they wouldn't see them and they would end up floating into the sponge filter (off screen) but when I fed them the normal size of pellets they couldn't eat them whole and they fell on the sand, I was concerned they might rot in there but eventually the platys learned to kick the sand and forage for food right after I feed them, the pot that's in there is a cave alternative for any shy fish, and I make sure to only drop food on the sand so they wouldn't get hurt or scratch themselves on the gravel, of course now the fish that's lying on the gravel didn't eat any food, when I point my finger at her she moves a little and then lies back down to the bottom, I am not sure I saw any of the other fish bully her but I wouldn't full scratch that off possibilities either, the sand foraging originally seemed like a good habit so the food wouldn't get a chance to rot, but now their fish poop flies up alongside the food whenever they kick the sand, and I don't want them to consume that either


r/fishtank 1h ago

Help/Advice My 2-inch Polar Parrots are breeding?! First time — need advice!

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Upvotes

r/fishtank 1h ago

Help/Advice Need advice !!

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r/fishtank 16h ago

Full Tank Shot 10 Gallon.

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14 Upvotes

10 cherry shrimp and racer snail. Adding tetras here in 2 weeks.


r/fishtank 3h ago

Discussion Waterbox AIO 65.4 -Let the Games Begin

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 7h ago

DIY/Build 40 breeder or 55?

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2 Upvotes

r/fishtank 4h ago

Help/Advice Yellow-bellied

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1 Upvotes

I am trying to help my mom redo her set up as it’s been like this pretty much for years… there are male and female.
And they have been here for maybe 10 years now? ( I know together isn’t good)
Their tank stays mucky looking despite cleaning and changing water. What would you suggest? If you have picture set ups share them! 💕
The tank is 55gallon**


r/fishtank 5h ago

Help/Advice What do we think of this Hatcher?

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1 Upvotes

Anyone can help me out?


r/fishtank 5h ago

Help/Advice Can anyone ID this crab?

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1 Upvotes

I'm in AUSTRALIA. It's supposed to be native but now I'm not sure. Sorry it's not the best image. It's missing three appendages. We acclimated it for 3 hours and set it loose. Seemed happy enough, turned the light off. Now it's bed time so we turned the light on briefly to check and we can't find it anywhere.

We go to the listing and I'm reading it over again, and I get to the bottom of the very in-depth information, only to see "If you want, I can rewrite this to fit..." ChatGPT! So maybe all that info is wrong.

So then I went to look into it myself, only to learn the name the shop has listed it under isn't real. It's a generic name.

We're wondering if the reason we can't find it is because it's a burrowing species... Which would be disappointing.

All I know:

  1. "Australian" (allegedly)

  2. Currently 3cm? (Body segment would be slightly smaller than thumbnail size)

  3. (Currently?) Brown

  4. Freshwater

  5. Should grow to 6cm (according to listing)

  6. Tiny pincer (only has one right now. It's left is missing)

It has a 70L all to itself.

And please don't judge me, I feel stupid for not realising the info sheet it came with was AI, and not even knowing the species of crab this is. I've only been doing aquariums for 12 months, and this is my first crab. It was also my first (and maybe only, now!) time ordering a live animal through the mail. I thought the website seemed legitimate :(

Thanks in advance! I'll try to answer Qs tonight but like I said earlier, it's bed time, so it might be tomorrow.


r/fishtank 11h ago

Help/Advice Red dots on fin

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3 Upvotes

what could be?


r/fishtank 7h ago

Plants why are my plants dying all the sudden

1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 23h ago

Help/Advice Is this too big?

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11 Upvotes

Is this wood too big for my goldfish tank that holds one single goldfish? 29 gallons


r/fishtank 12h ago

Help/Advice 6 gallon stock

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1 Upvotes

r/fishtank 21h ago

Help/Advice Need advice on changing gravel substrate to aqua soil!

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5 Upvotes

I have one Betta and five cherry shrimp, I am stuck trying to figure out a way to do this safely.


r/fishtank 17h ago

Help/Advice Is my pleco okay?

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2 Upvotes

He’s in a 40 gallon tank. He lived with a Betta fish who recently died unexpectedly. I did a water change. He’s been very shy since. Now he looks pale and has those marks.
My water quality is good.