Sorry just a rant about bad advice from a shop!
I had a phone call yesterday afternoon from a lady who bought a tank & fish from me a couple of months ago. The tank was fully mature with healthy fish. The lady was in tears on the phone as all her fish were dying? I arranged to go over to her house and when I got there I was horrified at the state of the tank!
First problem was the jewel internal filter powerhead was in the wrong position, it was sitting on top of the sponges not in the slot filling the tank with gunk from the sponges. I explained that this wasnt helping and she told me the man in the shop said that was the best place for it because the jewel filters were useless and thats why she had bits in her tank but putting the powerhead on top of the sponges stops the bits! I told her she needed a bit of new filter wool on the top sponge!
The gravel was thick with fish waste & uneaten food, lots of plec wafers mouldy and black!! I asked if she had been vaccing the gravel, she had but it was difficult with the vac she brought. I asked to see the vac and she showed me a tiny straight pipe with a small line. Something more stuitable for a biorb or small tank, not a 180l tank. I asked why she bought such a small vac and she said "because the man in the shop said it was the best one!!"
I asked why there was so much uneaten food in the tank and got her to show me how much she was putting in, she took out enough food to feed the fish for about 3 days and thats what she put in twice a day said the plec had 6 wafers morning and night!!, I asked why on earth was she feeding so much food, when I had told her just a tiny pinch (the plec she bought later) and she said " the man in the shop told me to put in enough flake food that they could eat in 10 minutes and how many wafers to feed the plec....!!
Needless to say the man in the shop told her she needed a plec to eat algae!!!
This poor lady was so distressed she was killing her fish and that she had been listening to the "man in the shop" rather than the advice I gave her when she bought the tank.
Her 2 angels were both on their sides when I got there, I put them in a bucket of fresh water with an airline and after an hour they were thankfully back upright again. I then did an 70% wc trying to get as much gunk out of the tank as possible, sadly I didnt take my gravel vac. I re-set up the filter properly installed an air pump so the fish had more oxygen as I had moved the outlet pipe of the filter to point downwards to circulate the rest of the gunk into the filter.
All the fish had very poor colour but thankfully no sign of any fungal infections, but fearing there could be a bacterial infection in the tank I treated the tank with a med just in case. Thankfully an hour after the large wc and meds the fish all picked back up again. Its sad she has lost some of the fish, all the ones she bought from the shop have died, the 4 she had from me are still alive. I have sent her one of my spare gravel vacs that will do the job properly so she can do another wc later today.
I am so angry at the bad advice this lady has recieved from this certain shop, and the stress and upset it has caused the fish and the poor lady, she was so upset that she was killing her fish! I know the shop and spookily I went there yesterday and was disgusted at the state of their tanks.
So a word of advice to any new fish keepers, take advice from people that keep fish, not just sell them
I had a phone call yesterday afternoon from a lady who bought a tank & fish from me a couple of months ago. The tank was fully mature with healthy fish. The lady was in tears on the phone as all her fish were dying? I arranged to go over to her house and when I got there I was horrified at the state of the tank!
First problem was the jewel internal filter powerhead was in the wrong position, it was sitting on top of the sponges not in the slot filling the tank with gunk from the sponges. I explained that this wasnt helping and she told me the man in the shop said that was the best place for it because the jewel filters were useless and thats why she had bits in her tank but putting the powerhead on top of the sponges stops the bits! I told her she needed a bit of new filter wool on the top sponge!
The gravel was thick with fish waste & uneaten food, lots of plec wafers mouldy and black!! I asked if she had been vaccing the gravel, she had but it was difficult with the vac she brought. I asked to see the vac and she showed me a tiny straight pipe with a small line. Something more stuitable for a biorb or small tank, not a 180l tank. I asked why she bought such a small vac and she said "because the man in the shop said it was the best one!!"
I asked why there was so much uneaten food in the tank and got her to show me how much she was putting in, she took out enough food to feed the fish for about 3 days and thats what she put in twice a day said the plec had 6 wafers morning and night!!, I asked why on earth was she feeding so much food, when I had told her just a tiny pinch (the plec she bought later) and she said " the man in the shop told me to put in enough flake food that they could eat in 10 minutes and how many wafers to feed the plec....!!
Needless to say the man in the shop told her she needed a plec to eat algae!!!
This poor lady was so distressed she was killing her fish and that she had been listening to the "man in the shop" rather than the advice I gave her when she bought the tank.
Her 2 angels were both on their sides when I got there, I put them in a bucket of fresh water with an airline and after an hour they were thankfully back upright again. I then did an 70% wc trying to get as much gunk out of the tank as possible, sadly I didnt take my gravel vac. I re-set up the filter properly installed an air pump so the fish had more oxygen as I had moved the outlet pipe of the filter to point downwards to circulate the rest of the gunk into the filter.
All the fish had very poor colour but thankfully no sign of any fungal infections, but fearing there could be a bacterial infection in the tank I treated the tank with a med just in case. Thankfully an hour after the large wc and meds the fish all picked back up again. Its sad she has lost some of the fish, all the ones she bought from the shop have died, the 4 she had from me are still alive. I have sent her one of my spare gravel vacs that will do the job properly so she can do another wc later today.
I am so angry at the bad advice this lady has recieved from this certain shop, and the stress and upset it has caused the fish and the poor lady, she was so upset that she was killing her fish! I know the shop and spookily I went there yesterday and was disgusted at the state of their tanks.
So a word of advice to any new fish keepers, take advice from people that keep fish, not just sell them
