Another case of people not knowing their fish

[Jen]

So I'm at work today, browsing the most wonderful site on the net, TFF, looking at some pictures. One of the girls I work with says 'Do you have an aquarium', so I tell her what I have and show her pictures and she procedes to tell me about the one they have in their daughters room. Nothing special, probably a 30g. She saw one with a bunch of neons and was telling me that they had a bunch (I'm assuming 10 or so), and then they started disapearing after they added new fish.

"What fish?" I ask.

"Angels," she says, "4 of them."

I asked if they disappeared overnight. She said, "Pretty much. The first day we noticed the neons had bits missing, and within 3 days, they were all gone." I told her how anglefish eat neons in the wild... that's their natural diet. Her face went blank.

Just another case of the un-informed not doing the proper research before adding new fish.

 

[Teelie]

Lots of people do that though and there are people on here who will tell you they have Angels and Neons together and their Neons never get munched. True or not? I don't know. What I do know is some people will believe anything, contest any contrary claims and that at best, it's dubious to trust most sources outright without verifying how accurate they are.

(making too many spelling mistakes today)

 

[Jen]

Exactly. If you go to a fish store to buy fish, they may not ask what you have already. If you do tell them, they may not know if they are compatable or not. If you have nothing else to go by, and the employee tells you that they will be fine, how do you know he's not telling the truth? It's unfortunate, but nothing can be done to stop it.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Angels and neons are risky stocking buisness, heres what i have gathered on this issue;

a. If the neons are fully grown and are the original residents of the tank, if you buy some very small/young angels, having them grow up in the tank with the neons drastically reduces the chances of eating them.
b. If you buy a fully adult angel that is half grown or more and has never been raised with neons, the chances are that if you put in a tank with some its going to have a feast.

Personally though i'd never advise angels and neons as tankmates simply because neons are their natural food source and thus must have natural instincts to be worried when angels are around them and get stressed out, its not normal for them to love each other and they never do and i expect the angel always has a niggling thought at the back of its brain to associate neons with fish flakes .

 

[Jen]

Thats what I told her, and she didn't know that. If she had known, she wouldn't have got them. It was the daughter factor.... 'mommy mommy... I want those!)

 

[sharktale]

I know people say not to mix angels and neons but my angel is 6 inches and I have 21 neons/cardinals in my tank and he never bothers them. I guess I'm lucky. I have seen him eat small platy babies but he never even takes a second look at the tetras. I always count them and there always there I got him at this size and he is with some cardinals, so maybe he grew up with them

 

[steelhealr]

Big fish eat little fish. SH

 

[Tolak]

You would be surprised how wide a fully grown angel can open their mouth. I'm sure a large angel could suck up a fully grown neon if it crossed their mind. I have half grown angels who grab shrimp pellets that are meant for botom feeders, I have to drop those in after lights out with the bigger angels.

Tolak

 

[GSD]

yeah they should do reserch!but lfss are as much to blame!!!!they proberbly told her they would be fine and she belived them coz sha thought they knew what they were on about"i reserch everything now after bbeing told when i first got my tank that 2 ruby sharks would be fine in a 10gsl with 2 fire parrots and a black moore goldfish

 

[Teelie]

The ignorance goes both ways. I'm sure you've missed the many numerous LFS-bashing threads that occur here on a weekly basis and the resulting explanation how most LFS employees are either never properly trained to know what fish are compatible or those who do know want to be paid more than minimum wage.

There is very rarely a person who knows their stuff that will take a low-level, low paying job as selling fish without thinking their expertise is worth more. LFS employees are hired because they need the money (and probably can't afford fish to begin with) and not because they're knowledgeable in keeping fish. What it comes down to is money. The shop owner is in the end out for making money, not for selling fish only to responsible owners of which there are so few, they'd go out of business in a hurry.

 

[Ethos]

I like angles......I feel like debbie........