Do You Let People Inexperienced With Fish Near Your Tanks?

[Inchyally]

I only do with supervision. I haven't had any HORRENDOUS experiences, but a few things scared me a bit.

My aunt and cousin came over, they started banging the glass of my tanks with their fists. Luckily they stopped when I told them to...

Even my mom is a bit scary around the fish! Me and my dad were driving back from a 4... or 5.... day vacation separate from my mom. She got back first and fed the fish (she might have overfed...) and didn't tell me until after I went and fed the fish in both tanks! I didn't feed them for a day and fed light the day after that and everything was okay after that, but it gave me a scare!

Also, about five people that came over to my house looked at my Severum and say "What a nice Goldfish!" He doesn't look anything like a goldfish...

 

[thefaxmachine]

I only do with supervision. I haven't had any HORRENDOUS experiences, but a few things scared me a bit.

My aunt and cousin came over, they started banging the glass of my tanks with their fists. Luckily they stopped when I told them to...

Even my mom is a bit scary around the fish! Me and my dad were driving back from a 4... or 5.... day vacation separate from my mom. She got back first and fed the fish (she might have overfed...) and didn't tell me until after I went and fed the fish in both tanks! I didn't feed them for a day and fed light the day after that and everything was okay after that, but it gave me a scare!

Also, about five people that came over to my house looked at my Severum and say "What a nice Goldfish!" He doesn't look anything like a goldfish...

I don't know anyone IN REAL LIFE with fish experience - hence why i am actually dreading leaving the country for a couple of weeks at the end of the month. I am leaving the feeding of my fish to my folks! I will have portioned out food in those daily tablet/pill cases and additional instructions written down. My tanks are my pride and joy - otherwise no one with zero experience would come within a mile of touching my fishy world!

 

[llamalord305]

I've heard some pretty bad stories, emptying a can of soda, to pouring in the whole can of flakes, to unplugging the filter, heater and light.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

As of yet, nothing bad has happened, except one friend decided to help "move" my tank and let the water slosh EVERYWHERE and all the sediment rose up and a few days later one of my fish died.

I'm nervous when my kids have friends over, but all the kids are very good and just look at the fish and ask questions (they always want to know which types of fish we have). I do worry that the stomping of all the feet may stress my fish out.

 

[Amberleaf]

Yeah, me too. ;

I heard of one guy on here, who was working in a fish store (or maybe this was just his own home tank, and it was his cousin! ; some little girl came in and went all like, "Ooh, I bet the fish like Coke!" and so, she poured an entire can in; it killed all the fish, and the person was absolutely *BRISTLING* with anger; and thens, the little girl's Mom came to get her and the little girl was all like, "Mommy, the fish like Coke!"

!!!!

 

[crazychris]

In a word NO. When my daughter had her first goldfish in her bedroom, aged 4, she took a friend up and they decided to "feed the fish" and "accidentally" tipped in the whole tub of Tetrafin. I didn't see for 4 hours and had to do a clean-out at 10pm!!

 

[CrystalClear16]

Fortunatly I have never had any bad experiences myself, however my mother tells me a horrifying story of drunken nurses at one of her Christmas parties. This would have been about 10yrs ago and the party was held in a large denists office (I have no idea why ). There was a beautiful saltwater fish tank with lots of colourful, expensive fish in the main foyer. The (quite drunk) male nurses decided the fish should join in on the party and starting to poor alcoholic drinks into the tank. Inevitably the fish quickly started to die, so the men panicked, took out the fish and decided 'to give them CPR'.

Basically the next day the dentist arrive to discover very squashed fish laid out on his table.

God know why he thought it would be a good idea to let a bunch of drunk nurses anywhere near his tank.

Poor fishies

 

[Amberleaf]

I just read all of your stories. ^^;

Ands, crazychris, and, CrystalClear; that's just HORRIBLE!!!!

 

[ALW]

NO!!! not after my dad unpluged the heater for a week while i was away, am lucky the temp only drop from 24-20.

 

[Assaye]

I've trained my mother and sisters in basic tank stuff so that when I was living at home, I could go away for a couple of days without worrying too much. I just got them to check the temperature and do water tests as I was having an ammonia spike at the time.

Now, the only person other than me who goes near my tanks (beyond just looking at the fish) is my boyfriend, and he's got a good working knowledge of fish stuff, having three of his own bettas. He doesn't know the exact state of play with my tanks and he doesn't make many decisions without checking stuff with me, even with his own boys, but I can trust him to feed sensibly, he knows all about the nitrogen cycle (having started a chemistry degree) and I generally trust him to be sensible and call me if there is a problem when I'm out.

 

[hunter001]

I think the worst ive had was when my son (hes only 2) decided to pour half a can of coca cola that was sat on the side into my bettas tank. It killed off the otto's i had in there but the betta survived it, even with major water changes i was just getting a whole lot of white slime in the tank for about a week. I cant really blame him as i left the can near by, although everytime he goes near the tank now he says..... fish...... coke....... naughty. So I guess hes learnt his lesson lol

 

[snowflake311]

I have to I am going on vacation for 10 days and I have someone watching them. I put a little bit of food in shot glasses so that they would only be fed a little bit. Once the food in the shot glass is empty no more food for the fish till I get back.

Besides that no I don't. I did have my husband do a water change for me while I was at the hospital after giving birth to our daughter. We had to stay 24hr at the hospital and my tank was going throw a mini cycle at the time. He did a good job.

I hope to teach my daughter in the ways of fish keeping so I can have someone to help me and enjoy fish with me. We will see so far she likes them. But after hearing some stories none of her little friends are allowed near the tanks.


I was at a pet store and this girl was looking for fish to replace some that had also partied too hard. Some stupid drunk people poured vodka in the tank. This persons roommates fish all died. So she was buying some replacement fish.