Bad Fish Advice

[TheCrazyFishLady]

Wow. I'm really sorry. That's just a horror story.

 

[alia258]

It was some serious issues. I hate that the only lfs I have available are petco and petsmart. You have to do homework on the fish before you go there (and I certainly didn't know that before) at least now all my fish are happy!

They do that thing where they say schooling fish do best in groups of three, but honestly theyre supposed to be in groups of 5-6 minimum. Their signs are even wrong!

 

[severum mama]

To play devil's advocate- Caveat emptor. Just sayin'.... you probably wouldn't go into RC airplanes, dog agility, model trains, antique collecting, etc. without some minimal research on your own, rather than going into it blindly trusting whatever a salesperson tells you. This hobby is the same way IMO. Some personal responsibility should be accepted by the impulse buyer, same as any other hobby.

 

[Starka]

To play devil's advocate- Caveat emptor. Just sayin'.... you probably wouldn't go into RC airplanes, dog agility, model trains, antique collecting, etc. without some minimal research on your own, rather than going into it blindly trusting whatever a salesperson tells you. This hobby is the same way IMO. Some personal responsibility should be accepted by the impulse buyer, same as any other hobby.

I have learned my lesson on that and will research as much as I can before starting any new hobbies. Though I tend to be a little on the impatient side when it comes to things I get excited about.

Have we done the instant cycling one yet? I was told 24h of running the tank the fish would be just fine :/ they even said the the water was good even though their was no nitrates in it. Also said that two fancy goldfish and two bamboo shrimp can live happily in a 5 gallon. Ya defenatly learned that lesson. Don't listen to lfs about fish, rather do the hard work of researching then to get bad information.

 

[Rutrag]

There is a belief that old water is good for fish and so should be held onto for as long as possible. This stems from a misconception regarding where the beneficial bacteria are in an aquarium.

Another myth surrounding schooling fish I have seen or heard a few times is that they do best in odd numbers. Somehow this fish count and decide how they will act based on even or odd counts.

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

Another myth surrounding schooling fish I have seen or heard a few times is that they do best in odd numbers. Somehow this fish count and decide how they will act based on even or odd counts.

I have heard of this and it has always bugged me. I even read in one of the magazines they have at Petsmart about a year ago that odd is better than even. I almost want to believe there is actually something to this. Aesthetically, I feel like odd looks better than even, but it most likely has no actual effect as long as there is a decent number for the school. Definitely something I would look into further.

 

[m0stUniQue]

I overheard a lfs employee telling a girl she could have a tiger oscar and neon tetras in a 20 gallon, I had to go tell her that was never going to work :/

 

[sliderfish]

I actually thought about some things I see that might help you and I came up with these:

1. How about the old fish have a three second memory. I am pretty sure mine remember my feeding time routines pretty well .

2. Start with a small tank. It is so much easier to maintain my 55 and 72 than my 29 and 20. I don't think many newbies know this.

3. You can always trade away your fish when it gets big. If it gets too big, maybe you should avoid it in the first place, or buy the bigger set up and get it going before the fish purchase.

4. You have to have an algae eater. I really don't like this because I have heard it from so many people. Algae eaters, meaning anything from a pleco to SAE or who knows what else, usually pollute my tanks more than the other fish! *side note I went to petco and asked for some Otto cats this weekend and was told they didn't have any but had some nice corys and clown loachs that eat algae...

 

[kellylake01]

chemicals and medicine are the first choice for fixing a tank issue
plants that are sold under the name aquatic ex. lucky bamboo, purple waffle
goldfish are good for cycling a tank (my lfs dose not know about a fish-less cycle)

 

[alia258]

I think the goldfish being good for cycling a tank is said because they have a large enough bio-load for 3+ fish, and no one really feels bad about flushing them because they're cheap. But it's pretty wrong to buy a fish just to kill it (and I'm not saying feeding fish to fish is bad, that doesn't really bother me. It's the buying a fish just to cycle a tank and then flush it, ugh)

But I thing the goldfish thing has some slight truth to it, not to be rude or anything, it's just a thought (though I would never promote that form of cycling in the first place )

 

[Cornstar]

1. Doing a pwc once a week is too much, I should be doing once a month. Mysterious snails eat algae and cleans your tank so you don't have to do too much water change - LPS

1b. It takes 2 days to cycle a tank. From same LPS but different representative.

2. Add bio additives for one week to cycle your tank - LFS

3. A school of fish is at least 3 fish - LPS

 

[AquariumPage]

Catfish eat poop. Really just think about it, does that even make sense? My friends dad told me he went a year without cleaning his tank since his massive Pleco "just eats the poop" the n we got into an argument over whether or not a fish "just grows to the size of it's tank" that's another I don't like. Really, who comes up with these?

I was told this when I first started off ... that the catfish would take care of everything. ugh!

 

[AquariumPage]

It was some serious issues. I hate that the only lfs I have available are petco and petsmart. You have to do homework on the fish before you go there (and I certainly didn't know that before) at least now all my fish are happy!

They do that thing where they say schooling fish do best in groups of three, but honestly theyre supposed to be in groups of 5-6 minimum. Their signs are even wrong!

I applied for a job at petsmart, and possibly going to apply to petco and I want to work in the animal departments like the fish, reptiles, hamsters and stuff. I want to to work there so I can give out advice as best as possible, I keep reading through these forums and learn more everyday. I was lead really astray when I first got my set up...... I want to change that

 

[Bubbles0oO]

1. That flushing a fish is a peaceful way to go.

2. That I can use a bottle a day of the bio starter to cycle my tank

3. That a guy can but a 4 inch goldfish / koi ( looked like both from behind him in line) and 8 mystery snails for his sons brand new uncycled 5 gal nano desk tank.

4. That a woman with an empty 10 gal can fit a baby oscar with a few gold fish in with her current stock of nano fish

5. That it's easy to buy a smaller tank , say. A beta 5 g tank. Fill it with tap water and then dump the bag into the tap water , I almost cried on this one

 

[Flipmikeskater3]

My sister had an established 30g bow front aquarium with some tetras and other community fish. And a guy at our LFS convinced her a single full grown electric yellow lab would be okay in the tank bc they will only fight with other male cichlids.... All her community fish were killed with in the first couple nights

 

[LyndaB]

When I first started keeping fish, we were at a store about an hour away picking up decor. I saw a black ghost knife and fell in lovvvvvvvvvvvve. I told the employee that I had a 30 gallon community tank, would this be a good addition. He says "oh yeah, these guys are great with other fish." So, made the purchase, drove the hour home cradling the bag, put the bag in the tank to begin acclimation and figured "what the heck, I think I'll do a little research on my new friend."

Of course, you know where I'm going here. Let's see now..... okay, it'll eat all the other fish, it grows to HUMONGOUS lengths, requires a tank about 5 times larger than what I have.... oh crap. Drove an hour back to the store. Was told "they don't do returns". Had them call both the store manager and this employee up front. I explain to both what my research showed versus what I'd been told. The manager stands there worthless while the employee says "oh, well that's one of the dwarf ghost knifes, he'll be fine."

After I whacked him upside the head with some driftwood, and explained that there was NO dwarf variety of this species, I got my money back and left the store.

Ever since then, no impulse purchases and I do loads of research.

 

[Jess1ca]

When I first started keeping fish, we were at a store about an hour away picking up decor. I saw a black ghost knife and fell in lovvvvvvvvvvvve. I told the employee that I had a 30 gallon community tank, would this be a good addition. He says "oh yeah, these guys are great with other fish." So, made the purchase, drove the hour home cradling the bag, put the bag in the tank to begin acclimation and figured "what the heck, I think I'll do a little research on my new friend."

Of course, you know where I'm going here. Let's see now..... okay, it'll eat all the other fish, it grows to HUMONGOUS lengths, requires a tank about 5 times larger than what I have.... oh crap. Drove an hour back to the store. Was told "they don't do returns". Had them call both the store manager and this employee up front. I explain to both what my research showed versus what I'd been told. The manager stands there worthless while the employee says "oh, well that's one of the dwarf ghost knifes, he'll be fine."

After I whacked him upside the head with some driftwood, and explained that there was NO dwarf variety of this species, I got my money back and left the store.

Ever since then, no impulse purchases and I do loads of research.

LOL @ whacked him upside the head! Haha! Kinda like my adventure into fish. Got a 20g for my birthday, complete with fish... The fish were: 1 tiger Oscar, I Kenyi, 1 yellow Lab, 1 Firemouth, 1 ob peacock, 1 unknown cichlid, a pleco and an electric blue lobster... Oh the horror when I found this site and realized not only was my tank too small but the fish were not compatible whatsoever. Ugh. Lots of rehoming took place because they didn't accept returns either.

 

[Flipmikeskater3]

Saw a lady a petsmart sell a small pacu to some one who has a 20g

 

[Jess1ca]

Forgot to mention that they didn't say n e thing about cycling... Thankfully I joined this forum and didn't kill my fish.

 

[Bearchumjs]

I read on the Internet to keep a goldfish in a bowl only fill it half full so there is more water surface area. Oh the agony!!