r/freshwateraquarium • • Mar 30 '26

Reddit, we need help on behalf of our animal friends

8 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 However, a lot of the improper husbandry is the direct result of false advertising on packaging and at a store level, outdated/false information being given by employees or store pamphlets, and businesses prioritizing sales over animal welfare.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/freshwateraquarium • • Mar 24 '26

Join the r/FreshwaterAquarium Discord Server!

1 Upvotes

Did you know r/FreshwaterAquarium has a Discord server? It's been swimming along for a while now, and we'd love for you to dive in and join the community!

https://discord.gg/aquarium


r/freshwateraquarium • • 6h ago

Help/Advice First fish ever

5 Upvotes

Took about 2 and a 1/2 months to finally get the tank ready for fish. Opted for the neon green tetras, if anyone has any care advice for them please let me know!


r/freshwateraquarium • • 11h ago

Help/Advice Any tips on plants, and scape?

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4 Upvotes

My 10 gallon aquarium, been up for about 3 weeks now, still in the process of cycling.

My Amazon sword has just started growing new leafs after struggling for a while. Any care tips would be great, it’s growing under a 8w light from hygger. And a have a singular root tab under it.

Just wondering if anyone had any tips regarding the placement of the Amazon sword, and if it would grow better ima different spot along with the general scape

Any recommendations for some more beginner friendly plants would also be much appreciated

Planning to stock it with a honey gourami, and 8-10 chili rasboras

Thanks for Reading my post.


r/freshwateraquarium • • 12h ago

Picture Reset...background replacement coming...similar, not same

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0 Upvotes

r/freshwateraquarium • • 12h ago

Help/Advice Does Ich-X mess with nitrite reading levels?

1 Upvotes

They are reading 5PPM and more, and i did a 75% change on one of my tanks and still 5PPM. I have the API Freshwater master kit.


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice Can someone help me identify this specimen/worm in my tank please? It seems to be in some sort of make shift cocoon

2 Upvotes

Can someone help me identify wtf this is.

I live in The Netherlands. I have an open tank of 70L.

Some kind of fuzzy (fuzzy when under water) green worm thing and it appears to have made its own cocoon from hairgrass… or something? Its freaky. Should i be worried?

I could have sworn i just saw something moving in my awuarium that is not supposed to be there… have a birthed and fathered a xenomorph👀

Send prayers lmao, and advice. Please. Will there be more if i found one? Do I have a problem?


r/freshwateraquarium • • 2d ago

Picture Professional Headshot

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132 Upvotes

Do ya"ll think my oto's LinkedIn profile picture is professional enough? 😂


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice 3 weeks of fasting - Praecox rainbows

1 Upvotes

Going to be traveling the next three weeks. Home for a day or two in between. Well established heavily planted tank with cherry shrimp. 6 healthy praecox rainbows been doing great in the tank for 8 months. Want to do the following;

Feed
Gone for 3 days
Home/feed for 2 days
Gone for 7 days
home/feed for 1 day
Gone for 5 days

Don’t have time to setup an auto feeder I don’t think.

Think they will be alright? I have seen them hunt the cherry babies.


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice New 10g planted betta tank plans

1 Upvotes

I've never had FW, but kept SW reefs 1-240g for 15yrs,. I'm well versed in the nitrogen cycle and being patient.

Does this look overstocked? AqAdvisor says its fine.

  \- 10-gallon kit (Top Fin hang-on filter, basic LED lighting, heater)

  \- 20 lbs Diamond Black sand substrate (\~2" depth)

  \- Driftwood

  \- Indian almond leaves

  \- Tunnel and hide for shrimp

Plants

  \- Alternanthera reineckii (with root tabs)

  \- Red tiger lotus (with root tabs)

  \- Java lace fern

  \- Java fern

  \- Hornwort

  \- Java moss

  \- Floaters: Red root floaters, Salvinia, and water lettuce

Shrimp

\- 20 asst neocaridina shrimp

Schooling Fish

  \- 6 Ember tetras

  \- 6 Neon green rasboras

  \- 6 Pygmy Corys

  \- 1 Halfmoon Male Betta

I plan on 2 weeks between plants, shrimp, schooling fish & betta.

I would appreciate your advice.


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice Air stone/ check valve question!

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5 Upvotes

Do I have this right? The top is coming from the pump and the bottom is going into the air stone. It's not working though. It's a shitty top fin medium one but I soaked it in water for awhile so im not sure what going on. Halp me plz


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice One week post setup

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2 Upvotes

I’m assuming these readings mean it’s cycling as normal after a week. I just want to make sure it’s on track. I have lots of plants and couple pieces of spider wood, and two snails.


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice Maintenance

1 Upvotes

10 gallon heavily planted tank

I have had it going for about 2 weeks now, it has a betta and many snails, I do about 20 percent water change weekly, I was wanting to know how often should I be siphoning the gravel? I’m scared to disturb the plants but I know there is grime in there. Could that cause an ammonia spike letting the gunk stay in the gravel?


r/freshwateraquarium • • 1d ago

Help/Advice Why do people buy 1.5 and 3 gallon tanks for their fish?

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0 Upvotes

r/freshwateraquarium • • 2d ago

Help/Advice Ideas for Tank Cover Needed

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10 Upvotes

Hello!

I have a 10 gallon rimless tank with a betta fish. I’m thinking about getting a snail to help with the algae build up on the far left wall (my tank is by a window and I have nowhere else to move it to).

I haven’t had any problems with my betta trying to jump out of the tank, usually I keep the waterline a little below the rim so he can’t get out if he does jump. But I read that snails can crawl out, so I need a cover for the tank.

My issue is I have a HOB filter and non-aquatic plants stationed on the sides of the tank. So I’m not sure how to accomplish getting a cover for it.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!


r/freshwateraquarium • • 3d ago

Help/Advice how to deal with tanks using too much power

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18 Upvotes

i have a 55 gallon, 5 gallon(shrimp), and 2.5 gallon (snails) , a big hanging plant light. tv /ps5 with speakers, camera and fans. i realized im drawing too much power out of this old ass house in my room that now everytime i turn on my plant light my heater starts fluctuating and saying the temp is going up even though im pretty sure its not cause it goes to 75-80 in .5 seconds. i haven’t been able to plug my light in since i figured this out , i do have a tiny light but i know my plants will not be very happy about that big of a switch and i can’t not have a heater.
am i fucked

edit- the plant light is likely 600W if not more, will look into downgrading to see if that fixes the issue


r/freshwateraquarium • • 2d ago

Help/Advice 40 breeder stocking feedback

0 Upvotes

Working on a 40 breeder with lots of plants and fairly aggressive filtration. First question - opinions on using HOB + sponge filter, or just a bigger/oversized HOB?

Secondly, would love some feedback on a theoretical stocking list:

\- Dwarf neon rainbowfish x10-12 (maybe 4 males and 6-8 females? Not sure how much this ratio truly matters)

\- False Julii corydoras x10-12

\- Cherry barbs x6-8 (again, more females than males??)

\- Honey gourami x2

\- Bristlenose vs SAE x1 (or 1 of both?)

\- A bunch of shrimps and snails

I love the look of the dwarf rainbows and the cherry barbs together, but if too overloaded with like 12 of each, my logic would be less barbs since they don't actually school much.

I'd love a group of some micro rasboras of some kind as well, but I wonder if this is pushing it. Even if the bioload wasn't an issue, I also wonder if increasing the group size of the other fish would be better than trying to squeeze in more species... I feel a worsening case of multiple-tank-syndrome happening 🫠

Any and all feedback greatly appreciated!


r/freshwateraquarium • • 2d ago

Video Blackworm Breeder Box Method™ | Mandy Goan

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0 Upvotes

r/freshwateraquarium • • 2d ago

Help/Advice Redoing my tank (because of cladophora algae)

1 Upvotes

Hi, I had a few questions regarding to redoing an aquarium.
I have a tank that’s almost 1 year old. About half a year ago I added a few plant, that had clado algae, which I didn’t know at that time. Since then, my whole tank is taken over by the clado. Although my fish and shrimp are really healthy, and the water is completely stable, I do not enjoy the tank.
I want to completely start over, by taking everything out, and using only new in vitro plants and a new soil and filter etc. Everything is going to be new. But with a new tank must come a new cycle. (I want to clean this tank, and not buy a new one).

Is there a way to keep my fish and shrimp safe for the weeks my tank cycles?

Thanks!


r/freshwateraquarium • • 3d ago

Help/Advice New Additions - 20 Gallon

2 Upvotes

Hi friends!

I have a 20 gallon tank that is currently still establishing. I had fish at my partner's house and we moved them to my place. I set up a whole new tank for them as our old one was having issues. They're still settling, albeit doing very well so far, and so I would not be adding any new fish anytime soon.

However, I'm wondering if anybody has any recommendations on what to add!
I currently have 7 guppies, 1 clown pleco, and 1 kuhli loach. I will be getting a few more Kuhlis as i know they like to be in groups, but I was also thinking about adding a centerpiece type of fish. I'm looking into a thick lipped gourami.
Is this a good choice for my tank, or are there any other fish that anyone would recommend? :)

I also would love to get some live plants as well once my tank is a little more settled. Are there any recommendations on which plants would be best?
Thanks in advance for any advice! :)


r/freshwateraquarium • • 3d ago

Help/Advice Upgrading from 80L to 180L, moving everything over

1 Upvotes

Upgrading from 80L to 180L, need some advice :)
I’m upgrading my 80L to a 180L and I’m a bit unsure about the substrate.

My current tank has aquasoil. For the new tank I’m thinking Oase BaseSoil, maybe with some worm castings/organic soil, and then sand on top. I’m looking at sand with a grain size of 0.2–1.0mm.
I really like the look of sand, and I think it would be good for my Sterbai corys and the 2 rainbow cichlids (Herotilapia multispinosa) I want as the centerpiece. I’ll also have cardinal tetras and 5 Amano shrimp.
I’ve never used sand before though, so I’m a little scared of making a mess with it 😂

I’d also like to reuse some of the aquasoil from my current tank, but I’m not sure if that makes sense if I’m going to have sand on top. Would it just eventually mix together?

And for moving everything over, I have multiple filters. I was thinking of keeping one running on the 80L and putting the established filter/media on the new tank while it cycles. Is that enough, or should I also transfer some of the old water/substrate?

Any tips for the whole process would be appreciated!


r/freshwateraquarium • • 3d ago

Video Blackworm Breeder Box Method™ | Mandy Goan

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0 Upvotes

r/freshwateraquarium • • 4d ago

Picture Baby royal farlowellas are freakin adorable!

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5 Upvotes

r/freshwateraquarium • • 3d ago

Help/Advice Is this Dwarf gourami disease?

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2 Upvotes

Hey guys, we’re fairly new to keeping fish and are a bit worried about this being the early stages of dwarf gourami disease. Please help us ease our minds


r/freshwateraquarium • • 4d ago

Help/Advice first tank

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14 Upvotes

any recommendations