Completely Stupid Fish Keeper

[superman1]

Hello

so i recently found out that my friend that i hardly see is quite a keen fish keeper

anyway i went round to his house to have a look at his set up and he has a 180l rio bow front tank with a normal small internal filter

neway to my shock he had about 7-8 goldfishes in there rangin from about 8-10cm long each

rememeber he has a heater in there as hes got cold water and tropical fish in there

he also had a baby irrederescent shark in there
3 big angel fishes
4 turtles with a just a ramp on the side of the tank
a betta
a silver shark
a couple of clown loaches

a baby eel, lots of smaller fishes in there. i also saw while i was there a micro neon get gobbled up by an angel

in total he had about 40 fishes in there and all were pretty big.. including 4 turtles.

the tank had multicoloured gravel. a few ornaments such as fake crocodile etc etc and no plants for cover

all fish looked pretty stressed...

 

[WILDER]

Poor things.
All you can do is tell him to do a water change and increase aeration.
Buy another filter to cope with the load of fish till he rehomes some.
All you can do is try and point him in the right direction and tell him to search the fish on the net that he has. Then he might understand.

 

[superman1]

thats what i explained to him.

his excuse was his dad just goes to the fish shop and whatever he likes he will buy and bring home. and he said he doesnt have the heart to tell him that he cant do that..

ive explained to him what he can or cant have .. just hope he listens. when i showed him my tank he was surprised how empty it looked. i explained its about the fishes well being not ours..

hope the fishes survive.

 

[WILDER]

I would have a word with his dad then. You can only try.

 

[Hawkins]

are there people as stupid as that in this world?

 

[Curiosity101]

My dad does it aswell. Impulse buys, we were at the lfs earlier today. He saw a black ghost knife fish..."Buy that, that's nice" I said "We know nothing about it...I'm not buying it!!!!"
He got in a right grump...came home and did a quick google they grow up to 20"! Imagine if I hadn't been there.

In the same trip this morning, and old man came into the shop. He was very frail, had a wheely trolley thing...
Anyhoo, in this one trip he purchased about 20fish. 1 was an angel fish...and 5 were goldfish.
I've never seem my lfs shop owner so animated! He was like 'yes sir' 'no sir'

My point is...you really can only try to advise as much as you like. But people will believe what they want to believe, and if the shop owner is more than happy to sell.... then they live in ignorance.
Someone was selling a 28l tank with 3 goldfish in it the other day...I sent them a perfectly reasonable e-mail explaining why it wasn't suitable.
I was told "Well the people at petsmart said we could keep 5 in there...so maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself" *sigh*

 

[superman1]

weirdest thing was why he had tropical fish with coldwater fish..

he had just a random mix of fishes that shouldnt never be put together,.. surprisingly he said some shops wouldnt sell him what he wanted when he would tell them what he had... although some did.

 

[joshjames]

im my lfs they sell a less than 10 gallon tank and have a sticker can hold up to 3 small goldfish
im like take it off goldfish dont stay small for long

 

[JohnRossDele]

Never mind the clown loach hes the clown!!!!!!!!!

My dad does it aswell. Impulse buys, we were at the lfs earlier today. He saw a black ghost knife fish..."Buy that, that's nice" I said "We know nothing about it...I'm not buying it!!!!"
He got in a right grump...came home and did a quick google they grow up to 20"! Imagine if I hadn't been there.

In the same trip this morning, and old man came into the shop. He was very frail, had a wheely trolley thing...
Anyhoo, in this one trip he purchased about 20fish. 1 was an angel fish...and 5 were goldfish.
I've never seem my lfs shop owner so animated! He was like 'yes sir' 'no sir'

My point is...you really can only try to advise as much as you like. But people will believe what they want to believe, and if the shop owner is more than happy to sell.... then they live in ignorance.
Someone was selling a 28l tank with 3 goldfish in it the other day...I sent them a perfectly reasonable e-mail explaining why it wasn't suitable.
I was told "Well the people at petsmart said we could keep 5 in there...so maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself" *sigh*

WHAT!! UR LUCKY IF YOU SEE A BGK GROW 12''

 

[Davo86]

WHAT!! UR LUCKY IF YOU SEE A BGK GROW 12''

BGK's easily reach 12" under the right conditions

 

[AdAndrews]

silly person, i can relate, my friend is soo lucky(not in a good way), i cant belive none of his fish havnt died(this is what he told me). he has loads of fish, like neons, gourami, loaches, sharks, platies prob about 25-30 fish in around a 50 litre tank, he cleans the filter media in tap water, and does the water change once every month, how is this possible for them still to be living?

 

[Curiosity101]

Sorry if I'm wrong about the BGK...I never intended on keeping them so just looked at the first link I found on them...it quote them as growing up to 20"

 

[superman1]

silly person, i can relate, my friend is soo lucky(not in a good way), i cant belive none of his fish havnt died(this is what he told me). he has loads of fish, like neons, gourami, loaches, sharks, platies prob about 25-30 fish in around a 50 litre tank, he cleans the filter media in tap water, and does the water change once every month, how is this possible for them still to be living?

all that in a 50 litre.. lol im surprised they even have ne room left in there..

 

[Amunet]

Keep trying to get the son to realize that this isn't a good idea and to talk to his father about it.
Tell him to tell his father that what he's doing is pretty much flushing money down the drain b/c those fish are mroe likely to get sick and die in an unsuitable tank.
Point him in the forums direction

Unfortunatly there are a lot more people like this out there... but we can all try to educate a few of them

 

[Ace Of Spades]

My dad does it aswell. Impulse buys, we were at the lfs earlier today. He saw a black ghost knife fish..."Buy that, that's nice" I said "We know nothing about it...I'm not buying it!!!!"
He got in a right grump...came home and did a quick google they grow up to 20"! Imagine if I hadn't been there.

In the same trip this morning, and old man came into the shop. He was very frail, had a wheely trolley thing...
Anyhoo, in this one trip he purchased about 20fish. 1 was an angel fish...and 5 were goldfish.
I've never seem my lfs shop owner so animated! He was like 'yes sir' 'no sir'

My point is...you really can only try to advise as much as you like. But people will believe what they want to believe, and if the shop owner is more than happy to sell.... then they live in ignorance.
Someone was selling a 28l tank with 3 goldfish in it the other day...I sent them a perfectly reasonable e-mail explaining why it wasn't suitable.
I was told "Well the people at petsmart said we could keep 5 in there...so maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself" *sigh*

Fish shops are businesses, and businesses are there to make profit and expand. If he was to tell his customers not to buy this fish and not to buy that fish then he would fail at business. Also how do you know this "OLD FRAIL" man hasnt got more then one tank at home?.....I know I have more then one fish tank at my house, and when I go to buy fish I normally buy small fish for one tank and big cichlids for another. Does that make me a bad person ?