Fishtank.live is a competitive 24/7 livestream hosted by Internet personalities Sam Hyde (also known as "Jason Goldstriker") and Jet Neptune. Locked together in a house for six weeks, eight strangers compete to see who can outlast the others and win a grand prize of $30,000.
The stream is directly inspired by Big Brother: the participants are isolated in the house with no other entertainment, while Hyde and his producers occasionally enter to interact and issue challenges. Every room is constantly under broadcast, with livestream viewers able to switch between camera and audio feeds. Viewers can also pay money to mess with contestants or otherwise make the contest more interesting.
The livestream is currently hosted here
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Fishtank.live provides examples of these tropes:
- Anyone Can Be Evicted: All of the contestants are at danger of elimination throughout the six-week runtime — if they don't decide to drop out first. Elimination is stated to be based on a mixture of contest performance and audience participation.
- Audience Participation: Along with having a live chat for subscribers, viewers can spend money on "tokens", which they can spend to vote on polls, or send text-to-speech messages to various rooms in the house. They can also cash in their tokens on "fishtoys", with various effects such as sending goodies to contestants, switching on/off camera feeds, or turning up or down the temperature in the house.
- Big Brother Is Watching: One of the show's big gimmicks is that the entire house is constantly monitored, meaning any action taken by the contestants could be being watched by thousands of people at any one time.
- Broadcast Live: Fishtank.live is a 24/7 broadcast, with all events shown happening live.
- Camping Episode: Day 18 saw the living room be turned into an indoor camping area, with tents, fake grass and lawn games to play.
- Confession Cam: Certain contestants, such as Vance and Sylvia, have spoken directly to the camera to speak about their motivations and strategies. Unlike with normal reality TV fare, the livestream format helps remove the risk of their "confessions" being selectively edited.
- Consolation Prize: While eliminated contestants miss out on the $30,000 grand prize, they're allowed to keep any "fishbucks" they've collected throughout the contest, each of which is worth $500.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: One contestant, Simmons, was deemed a creep by both viewers and other contestants after they discovered a collection of books he wrote containing romantic tips for summer camp counselors. He was eventually expelled from the house after a Twitter poll voted to kick him out.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Goldstriker threatened the 6 remaining contestants when he believed they weren't being entertaining enough, saying he would introduce a "homeless black guy" to the cast unless they remedied this. He eventually followed through on this promise on Day 15 by bringing Teddy, an (allegedly) homeless black man to the house, who was paid to play "hide and seek" with the contestants.
- Eating Contest: Day 12 featured a hotdog eating contest, which Letty allegedly won despite allegations of cheating.
- Egg Sitting: On Day 8, the contestant pairs were given eggs, which they had to carry around collectively while keeping them from cracking. Later in the night, all of them were given infant simulator babies which they had to take care of under threat of elimination.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Jon has a Speech Impediment that keeps him from pronouncing R's correctly, which is a common source of mockery for viewers.
- Genre Deconstruction: Of the Reality Show and its contemporary tropes. Because Fishtank is streamed 24/7, there is absolutely no room for Manipulative Editing, resulting in unprecedented authenticity. Furthermore, rather than casting snobby, attractive upper middle class people from one city, the bulk of the contestants are somewhat shy, nerdy middle to lower class people from both in and outside the US.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Josie became known for her loved of stuffed animals, to the point where one of the more expensive "fishtoys" was for having staff members give her additional plushies.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: The Day 11 "battle royale" began with the remaining six men and women dividing up into teams, hoping to take out the other before turning on themselves. The former group barricaded themselves on the lower floor, while the latter decided to wait their opponents out upstairs. While the men took out two of the women, they quickly turned on themselves afterward, ultimately handing Josie the win.
- Men Can't Keep House: The male contestants will routinely cause huge amounts of mess, usually for no reason. On day 15 Jon casually gathered all the loose trash and toilet paper on the upper floor and moved it all into the lower floor, simply moving the mess instead of cleaning it up.
- My Greatest Failure: A challenge on day 17 was for the remaining 5 fish to talk about their lowest moments. During Damiels turn, the audience played a laugh track during the moment he mentioned he'd broken his foot.
- Obfuscating Disability: Played for Laughs starting on Day 14, when all of the contestants were given fake "disabilities" which they would need to act out throughout the week. Anyone who failed to fake their disability would be given "infractions" by viewers, with the person given the most infractions at the end of the week being eliminated.
- Large-Ham Announcer: Hyde (aka Goldstriker) plays up one such personality throughout the livestream, often shouting and playing up various contests. He behaves oddly to mess with the contestants, such as by destroying furniture and forcing them to help him practice boxing.
- Locked in a Room: On Day 10, the remaining six contestants were confined to one of the bedrooms, with a $1500 prize being promised to the one who stayed the longest. While stuck there, they had to deal with issues such as boredom and the lack of a bathroom. Vance eventually won, and shared part of his winnings with Josie and Letty.
- Reality TV Show Mansion: The entire contest takes place in a large suburban house, complete with four bedrooms, a sizeable kitchen/dining area, and a garage. While participants are free to wander around, they aren't allowed to leave. Aside from the other contestants, there isn't any entertainment besides some books, board games, and a copy of Stuart Little 2.
- Sixth Ranger: Day 18 saw one in Simon, who was introduced to take the total number of fish to 9. While he couldn't earn the $30,000 cash prize for winning like the other 5 remaining fish could, he can earn as many Fishbucks as he wants.
- Another sixth ranger joined when Lance entered as a freeloader, a contestent who looks, acts, dresses and even speaks just like Vance.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Goldstriker warns the fish of The Entity toward the end of Day 1, a creature he claims is completely harmless unless directly interacted with (like making eye contact or trying to talk to it) and will remain wandering the halls as they sleep, unable to "cross the threshold" into their bedrooms. It will not appear while any of the fish are awake.
