Apparently, I'm the expert

[yohann976]

At work, I am a apparently known as the fish guy. People ask me all sorts of questions. One of my coworkers asked me a question yesterday and I was hoping that you guys could perhaps help me out. He said that he set up a ten gallon tank with some regular, cheap Wal-Mart fish. They were doing great for about three weeks, but then disaster hit. He purchased a pleco from another store and the next day; all of his fish were dead.

Do anyone have any idea how that happened? He didn't tell me any of the species in his tank. He didn't tell me any of his water parameters. He didn't even tell me what the fish looked like post-mortem so I couldn't say if the pleco maybe brought in a disease.

 

[blazeyreef]

that is more than likely what happend. it brought a disease

 

[neilanh]

couldve been ammonia or nitrIte poisoning too... depends on what type of fish they are and how tolerant they could be to last 3 weeks

 

[yohann976]

I told him that he needed to monitor his water parameters, especially if he has a lot of fish. I also told him that he needed a quarantine tank if he wanted to add more fish in the future.

 

[zenkatydid]

well for a start, plecos do not belong in 10gal tanks. nor do goldfish, if that's what he had. he's never going to get them to live very long in such a tank.

 

[yohann976]

I agree with you about tank size and I think that is a huge problem. So many people out there think that a ten gallon is sufficient for any fish and then they overload it with too many fish. Perhaps they think that the fish will not grow any larger. Personally, I've never had that problem considering my first tank was a 150 gallon.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Alot of beginner fish keepers are under the impression that a fish only grows to the tank size its in, so by putting a potentially huge fish (like a common plec) in a 10g tank, it won't get any bigger than that tank. Obviously we know this to be stunting, but alot of newbies have to be convinced that stunting is real and a problem.

I'd guess it was the uncycled tank (nitrite or ammonia poisoning) or a disease. We can't tell exactly without tank parameters or the appearance of the fish.

You are giving the person good advice though. Perhaps you can help them pick fish for the tank that won't outgrow it. And direct them to an article about cycling so they'll understand whats going on in their tank.

 

[Zagz]

The first recommendation you should make to him is to cycle his tank fishless first then help him add fish of the appropriate size. I agree that it could have been ammonia or nitrite poisioning. I doubt it was disease to have taken the other fish so fast but not totally impossible.

 

[yohann976]

Right now, I work at Wal-Mart while I am finishing my degree. I don't even work at the pet department, yet I find myself answering many questions about fish because the employee in that depatment knows nothing about fish. I have told countless people of the importance of the nitrogen cycle amongst many other things such as pH and pwc.

I have found it to be useless. I can get into a half hour discussion with people about cycling the tank, but then they will go ahead and buy the cheap tank sets along with the very fish that will go into that tank all at the same time. Then the next day they will come in pissed off with about $40 worth of dead fish. They will act like its my fault even though I told them not to purchase the fish until the tank was cycled. One lady even bought a two and a half gallon tank to house three angel fish she purchased the same day.

As far as my coworker goes; I'll tell him to just start over and cycle the tank first. Then I'll show him some smaller fish that will suit a smaller tank. Thanks for everyone's help.