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Fishtank

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Fishtank, also known as Fishtank Live or fishtank.live, is an American 24/7 livestreamed reality competition created by the comedian Sam Hyde and the producer Jet Neptune. Contestants, called “fish”, live together for several weeks in a house where every room is on camera, while producers stage challenges and paying viewers interfere in real time with text-to-speech messages and “Fishtoys”.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] It premiered on April 18, 2023 and has run five seasons, plus the spin-offs Vampire Bloodgames (2024) and As Seen On (2026). The show is made by Hyde's company Fishnet Inc. and streams on its own website and on Kick.[12][13][14][15][11] Two Fishtank personalities, Davie and Duanyay, have been guests on The Crypto Craic Podcast, the official Bitcoin Obama podcast; see Fishtank and Bitcoin Obama.

Format

The show is modelled loosely on Big Brother. Eight to twelve contestants enter a furnished house with cameras in every room and no outside entertainment or communication except each other. They may not leave the house or use phones or the internet, and the windows are covered with privacy film.[16][17] When the New Mexico contestant Mauro Cano joined season 1, KOB 4 summed up the rules: “Rule number one: no phones. Rule number two: you can't leave the house for six weeks.” Cano had answered a Craigslist posting and travelled 2,000 miles to be on the show, which he called “kind of like 'Big Brother' for the internet, except way crazier.”[7][10][11]

The season 1 house had white walls and blacked-out windows. It had four bedrooms, a living room, two bathrooms (one with a confessional camera), a garage and a laundry room, each with its own live feed. Every morning Jet Neptune told the cast what they would be doing that day.[18][19][20][21][11] The website showed 11 live feeds laid out like a 1990s full-motion-video game, with contestant profiles in a “choose your fighter” style. Every camera was free to watch except the bathroom, which was behind a paywall.[22][23][24][25][11] By season 5, Wired reported, the show billed itself as a “fully monitored smart house” with six to ten fish, and only the bathrooms and one closet were off camera. Producers run the show from the basement, where they also sleep.[1][5][6]

Producers present tasks and twists that can bring immunity, elimination or rewards, and many are designed to frustrate or disgust the cast. Season 1 challenges included 48 hours of pretending to be at summer camp; a contest to stay in one bedroom longest for a $500 “FishBuck”, won by Vance; the “Unplanned Parenthood” challenge with electronic practice babies; and a disability-themed challenge.[18][21][11] POPTOPIC listed the “Drunk Piece of Sh*t” and “Hobo” challenges, with random power cuts, food shortages and intruders.[26][27][28][29][11] In one widely shared clip, the host dumped eight bags of rice around the house and told the fish to count every grain.[22][25][11] Producers dressed in red or white, known as “sharks”, came in either to hand out gifts or to wreck the house.[18]

Freeloaders are extra house guests who cannot win the prize but can interact with the fish. In season 1 a freeloader got $1,000 for tormenting a fish into leaving. Most were fans who wanted to be contestants, figures from niche online communities, or former contestants back in a new role.[16]

Viewer interaction and prices

Viewers buy tokens with real money and spend them to affect the house. They can send text-to-speech (TTS) messages that are played over a loudspeaker in a room of their choice, vote in polls, or buy Fishtoys such as turning the lights off, silencing a contestant or handcuffing two contestants together.[16][30][31][32][33][6] One of the show's ads reads: “You live in the walls. You control the action.”[1]

Prices quoted in the press:

ItemPriceSource
Season pass (season 1; chat access and the full series afterwards)$40Passionfruit, 2023
TTS message (season 1)about $40Passionfruit, 2023
Care package Fishtoy (season 1)$250Passionfruit, 2023
Dumping the kitchen bin on the floor (season 1)about $300whynow, 2023
Taking a fish's bed for the night, or swapping the fridge and freezer (season 1)$600Passionfruit; whynow, 2023
Season Pass (season 5)$10Wired, 2026
TTS message (season 5)$30–60Wired, 2026
Red rose / letter / plushie (season 5)$50 / $100 / $360Wired, 2026
“Bedsnatcher” disadvantage (season 5)up to $800Wired, 2026

Wired reported that one fan in Texas spent $5,000 in a single season, mostly on TTS messages yelling “Wake up, pussy!” at the cast. After season 2 the producers sold “mystery boxes” of debris from the wrecked house (drywall, splintered doors, an empty bag of chips) for $200 each. “We actually sold garbage,” chief information officer Bill Ottman said.[1] During season 1 viewer money raised the prize pool from $15,000 to $30,000.[18]

Production and company

Fishtank is made by Fishnet Inc., a Delaware corporation incorporated on January 17, 2023. Its November 2023 crowdfunding filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Form C) lists an address in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and the website fishtank.live. It also shows:[12][34][35]

The filing was signed by Sam Hyde as founder on November 14, 2023.

Crew. Besides Hyde and Neptune, the visible production team has included:[16][1]

Streaming. On day 3 of season 1 the site went down. According to Hyde, hosting was costing $30,000 for three days. The show carried on with a single camera on YouTube. On day 9 Google Cloud took the site offline for “terms of service violations”, though it was back by the end of the day.[18] In 2024 Fishtank moved its streaming from Cloudflare to Livepeer Studio's decentralized video network. It cut its streaming costs by about 50% and was live on the new system within two weeks.[36][37][10][38]

Audience and money

In July 2024 Livepeer announced that Fishtank had reached one million viewers and $3 million in revenue. Each of the first two seasons logged more than 100 million viewing minutes, and more than 85,000 fans paid to interact.[39][40][41][38] By 2026, Wired reported, more than 500,000 people regularly watched the recent seasons. Producers claimed the show was worth more than $30 million on a budget of under $1 million. About 10,000 people were watching live when the reporter visited on day 27 of season 5.[1]

Season 5 brought the first corporate sponsors, including Sticker Mule and Backyard Butchers. With the Backyard Butchers beef the producers staged a “Smoke-Milk-Meat Challenge”: teams raced to smoke three packs of cigarettes, drink a gallon of milk and eat several pounds of steak while doing sit-ups. Ottman said companies had started approaching the show as Meta and X relaxed their moderation.[1]

Creators and hosts

Sam Hyde hosted seasons 1 to 4 as “Jason Goldstriker” (and in season 1 also “Johnathan Goldstriker”). He played variations of the character: “Jebediah Goldstriker” in season 2, “The Duke” in Bloodgames, and “Jeremy Gold” or “G” in season 3.[16][22] Hyde is 6'5", grew up in Connecticut and graduated in filmmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007. He then made sketches and pranks as Million Dollar Extreme, including a fake TEDx talk at Drexel University in 2013, “2070 Paradigm Shift”. His Adult Swim sketch show World Peace was cancelled in 2016, and his channel was banned from YouTube in 2018.[1] He first described the idea in a December 2021 YouTube video as “Hell House”. Wired says that was his original name for the show. He told the magazine's reporter only: “Feel free to fabricate quotes.”[18][1] After season 4 he told the producers he wanted to focus on other projects.

Jet Neptune is the co-creator and current showrunner. He is 28 and grew up in Georgia. He once worked as a desk clerk at a Super 8 motel and made music with a group called Autistic Boys Money Clan, and he joined Hyde's team as a video editor before Fishtank. He imagined a house in which “every inch is on camera, where every interaction is recorded and hyperanalyzed.” Comparing Fishtank with television reality shows, he said: “Their chili is metaphorical. Ours is literal.” He also said: “If you want to send a message you believe in, you have to hide it in a cake of horror.” His long-term idea is a season set in a warehouse built to look like a spaceship, where the cast works as a team for a full year.[1] In July 2024 he described Bloodgames as “a real life RPG game hosted in the great outdoors”.[39]

Bam Margera of Jackass hosted season 5, with Neptune and the season 1 runner-up Letty as rotating guest hosts.[42][43][44][45][6][16]

Recurring freeloaders:[16]

Seasons

SeasonDatesLocationWinner and prize
1Apr 18 – May 30, 2023MassachusettsJosie Martinez, $35,000 (runner-up Letty, $20,000)
2Dec 18, 2023 – Jan 28, 2024Cumberland, Rhode IslandTJ, $50,000
2.5: Vampire Bloodgamesfrom June 25, 2024 (about two weeks)OutdoorsNo single winner
3: “Famous House”Oct – Dec 2024Massachusetts, then an RV to Las VegasBurt (Albert Appouh); the $50,000 was lost at roulette
4June 13–30, 2025Massachusetts, then CumberlandNo winner; six finalists got $8,000 each
5Mar 15 – Apr 14, 2026Sandy Springs, Georgia (Atlanta area)James Drake, $50,000 (the Twins, $20,000)
As Seen Onfrom Sep 2026Canal Street, New York CityRetail-store spin-off

Season 1 (2023)

Eight contestants from across North America lived under the original format. Hyde personally chose them from an online pool. One contestant, Violetta, said on day six that they were picked because “we were very bullyable”.[18] By week three four fish were left: Sylvia, Josie, Vance and Violetta. Of the four already gone, only two had lost challenges. One left by choice, and another was removed after viewers found books he had written.[18] The final was a multi-day endurance challenge, “The Cell 2”. Josie Martinez won $35,000 and Letty was runner-up with $20,000.[16] Wired reports that Letty's application began “I'm a 23 year old woman”, and that she later became a streamer.[1] On day 25 more than 5,000 people were watching live as AirsoftFatty slept on the sofa.[22]

Season 2 (2023–24)

Ten contestants moved into a 1970s-themed house in Cumberland, Rhode Island, and wore period clothes. Production told each of them privately that they were a “plant” and the only one who knew about Fishtank. The idea collapsed once several of them realized the others knew the show. A made-up cult, the “Initiative Group”, was introduced through segments in the attic but dropped after about two weeks. As conditions got worse the house was pushed towards a “hell house” phase.[16]

Local tax records showed that the company had bought the 1975, roughly 2,500-square-foot house from an estate in November 2023 for $575,000. The Valley Breeze described it as offering 10 contestants a chance at $50,000, with season-pass holders able to watch the three bathrooms.[46][47][48][49][38] Jimmy Downey was removed after throwing a croquet mallet at a female contestant and finished fifth.[1] TJ won $50,000. Mints, then a viewer, sent TJ hundreds of encouraging TTS messages, which he called “exposure therapy for your whole personality.”[1]

Duanyay entered season 2 as a freeloader. In the edited episodes he arrives in episode 5 (“Initiative Group”) during the hot dog eating contest, and in episode 11 he beats Oliver in a boxing match.[16]

Vampire Bloodgames (2024)

Fishtank All-Stars: Vampire Bloodgames, called “Season 2.5” by fans, premiered on June 25, 2024 and ran for about two weeks. It was an outdoor live-action role-playing and survival game with players from earlier seasons. There was no single winner; players tried to “survive” the story.[16][39] Hyde appeared as “The Duke”, and Duanyay played “Lore”, the town crier.

Season 3, “Famous House” (2024)

Twelve contestants were told they had been cast as “Famous Stars” in a show called Famous House. They were picked because they did not know Fishtank. The show was slowly turned into Fishtank (“boiling the frog”) until the “rug pull” on day 14. On November 24 a second group of 12 arrived believing they were on Famous House, and the remaining originals (Burt, Binx, Payton and Simbal) played along as plants. The season ended with an RV road trip to Las Vegas. There Albert “Burt” Appouh was declared the winner, but the advertised $50,000 had been lost on a roulette bet.[16]

Season 4 (2025)

Season 4 began on June 13, 2025 and was cut short on June 30. The producers said all three possible filming locations had raised zoning and safety objections. No winner was declared, and the six remaining contestants got $8,000 each. It was Hyde's last season as host and the first with no edited episodes.[16][50][51][52][53][6] Bitcoin Obama “entered the tank” during this season.

Season 5 (2026)

Season 5 ran for 30 days, from March 15 to April 14, 2026, with ten contestants in a French Country–style mansion in Sandy Springs, an Atlanta suburb. Bam Margera hosted.[1] New rules added an in-house economy: contestants did daily jobs for cash to spend in a market room, and amenity rooms unlocked over time.[16]

Wired's reporter also described the Rice, Mommy-Baby, “Most Traumatic Life Story” and Dress-Down challenges, the cast's chained “communal vape”, and a TV that showed only memes that fans paid to broadcast.[1]

As Seen On (2026)

In September 2026 Fishtank opened As Seen On, a 24/7 show inside a working clothing store on Canal Street in New York City. Fishtank announced it on Instagram as “your new favorite retail chain”. The cast are listed on the website as “Employees”, separately from the numbered seasons, and viewers' TTS messages play in the shop. Visitors sign a waiver to go in. One fan on Reddit joked: “Fishtank was a show designed for the unemployed. Now we're watching people have jobs.”[54][55][56][57][6]

Edited episodes

After seasons 1 to 3 and Bloodgames, the raw footage was cut into edited episodes. Season 1 has 10 episodes (released Oct 9 – Dec 18, 2023), and season 2 has 13. Edited season 3 episodes began in March 2026. In a livestream on January 21, 2026, Taylor and Neptune talked about how hard post-production was and said they would focus on better daily recaps. Seasons 4 and 5 did not get full edited episodes.[16][58][59][60][61][6]

Reception

Reception has been polarized, but the show has a large audience and a devoted fanbase. POPTOPIC called it “the audacious step-mom to Big Brother”.[26] whynow compared it to the Stanford prison experiment and to Derren Brown's 2012 Remote-Control Experiment, and called it “the love child of Big Brother and The Sims”.[22] Wired called it possibly “the most extreme reality show in history” and quoted Joe Rogan: “Isn't it funny, The Real World is OK because they're only mildly mentally ill?” It also cited the tech writer Ryan Broderick's term “Chudtech” for interactive sites that monetize humiliation.[1] Passionfruit noted that because Fishtank runs on its own website rather than YouTube or Twitch, it avoids those platforms' moderation.[18]

Controversies

If you or someone you know is struggling, in the US call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

Fishtank and Bitcoin Obama

Fans first asked for it in October 2024: “Get Bitcoin Obama on Fishtank”.[71] On June 24, 2025, during season 4, Cryptoiscrack posted “BITCOIN OBAMA ENTERS THE TANK!”[72]

In the first days of season 5 (March 15–17, 2026), Cryptoiscrack posted clips of Bitcoin Obama on the show (“they seem to like bitcoin obama”, “bitcoin obama needs your support 🇳🇬”).[73][74] Another holder asked “which one of you lunatics is sending $bitcoin obama TTS to #fishtanklive?”[75] Yannix posted “THESE are the specific photos of BITCOIN Obama that broke out into the outside world. This was on fishtank”.[76]

Two Fishtank personalities have since been guests on The Crypto Craic Podcast:

See also

References

  1. Owen Long.
  2. “Interactive. Violent. Gross. Inside Fishtank.
  3. the Unhinged Future of Reality TV”.
  4. <i>Wired</i>.
  5. June 17.
  6. 2026.
  7. Mesha Begay.
  8. “New Mexican man participates in 24/7 stream contest show 'F.
  9. KOB 4.
  10. May 8.
  11. 2023.
  12. Fishnet Inc..
  13. Form C.
  14. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  15. filed Nov 14.
  16. “Fishtank (web series)”.
  17. Wikipedia.
  18. Steven Asarch.
  19. “Waterboarding and Chaos: Inside the World of Internet Provo.
  20. Passionfruit.
  21. May 9.
  22. Mario Laghos.
  23. “Are we the fish? The disturbing reality of Fishtank Live”.
  24. whynow.
  25. May 16.
  26. Shawna Masiello.
  27. “Fishtank: the best reality TV show that will never air”.
  28. POPTOPIC.
  29. May 12.
  30. Nora Weirich.
  31. “Fishtank LIVE producer beats up drunk contestant”.
  32. EarlyGame.
  33. Mar 27.
  34. Form C (SEC EDGAR.
  35. CIK 2000911).
  36. “Livepeer Studio unveils new video streaming platform”.
  37. Advanced Television.
  38. 2024.
  39. “Fishtank Hits One Million Viewers and $3 Million Revenues Powered by Livepeer Studio”.
  40. Livepeer Studio.
  41. July 2.
  42. Jeremy Lambert.
  43. “Darby Allin Appears On 'Fishtank'”.
  44. Fightful.
  45. Mar 21.
  46. Ethan Shorey.
  47. “Cumberland officials looking into reality show at local hom.
  48. The Valley Breeze.
  49. Jan 11.
  50. “'Fishtank' Season 4 Finalist Ellie Dies at 19.
  51. Sister Confirms”.
  52. Where Is The Buzz via Yahoo.
  53. July 17.
  54. Zackerie Fairfax.
  55. “Fishtank turns a clothing store into a 24/7 reality show wi.
  56. Dexerto.
  57. Sep 8.
  58. “no more episodes.
  59. just better recaps”.
  60. X.
  61. Jan 22.
  62. Paul Zangari.
  63. “Chickens rescued from online 'reality TV-style' set in Cumb.
  64. WJAR.
  65. Jan 28.
  66. Anisa Nandy.
  67. “Who is Ellie from Fishtank Season 4?”.
  68. Primetimer.
  69. Talia M.
  70. Where Is The Buzz.
  71. @Mirthmaxxing (Oct 28, 2024). “Get Bitcoin Obama on Fishtank”. X.
  72. @Cryptoiscrack (Jun 24, 2025). “BITCOIN OBAMA ENTERS THE TANK! #fishtanklive #harrypotterobamasonic10inu”. X.
  73. @Cryptoiscrack (Mar 16, 2026). “they seem to like bitcoin obama #fishtanklive”. X.
  74. @Cryptoiscrack (Mar 16, 2026). “bitcoin obama needs your support 🇳🇬 #fishtanklive @fishtankislive”. X.
  75. @oldmanwithcoin (Mar 16, 2026). “which one of you lunatics is sending $bitcoin obama TTS to #fishtanklive ? #harrypotterobamasonic10inu”. X.
  76. @Yannix_1337 (Mar 16, 2026). “THESE are the specific photos of BITCOIN Obama that broke out into the outside world This was on fishtank”. X.
  77. @Cryptoiscrack (May 22, 2026). “Bitcoin Obama the Nigerian interviews Davie (@ferreira_d57554) from #fishtanklive Episode 12 of the Crypto Craic Podcast aka the Official Bitcoin…”. X.
  78. @Cryptoiscrack (Sep 26, 2026). “DUANYAY from #fishtanklive gives BITCOIN OBAMA the TEA Crypto Craic Podcast AKA "Bitcoin Obama Podcast" episode 13 w/ @DuanyayEnasche”. X.