Fish Myths

[moneywastedonfish]

another long running myth regards discus, and how difficult they are to keep,
yet i've seen discus in a hole range of peoples tanks,
i've seen them singly, in normal communities still thriving despite the many claims that discus are delicate. They may origionally have been a problem to keep but now seem able to handle a wider range of water conditions.

 

[Angry_Platy]

9) peacocks,haps and mbunas can mix

I just realised I have all 3 in my tank.....

Mbuna=electric yellow
Hap=Cyrtocara moorii
Peacock=Aulonocara

They exist peacefully.....the Eys are playful, the moorii are serious and the peacocks are...well...moody!!!

 

[Phantom Thief]

Ok this next one is half question, half myth.

10) Fish settle into the new aquarium more easily when it is dark.

Is that true? What if the fish is nocturnal?

P.T.

 

[Opcn]

if fish are noctournal they will be more comfortable in the dark.

Also if the suture on the bone plates in the human head close to early the brain will keep growing and crush itself, I think that concludes that orgains can keep growing if there is no room, they just crush themselves.

Also discus are hardier now than they have ever been, thanks to selective breeding (as people keep them the weak ones die off, and there genes with them), the same thing is happening with seahorses (but seahorses are still very expensive and difficult, think saltwater discus)

11) Aquarium salt will work for a brackish tank

 

[Fish Buddy]

one more myth,
freshwater fish don't drink but salt water ones do - its true.

I second that.
It's something to do with cells and how they have 'evolved' with salt/no salt


Why can't aquarium salt be used for a brackish tank?

12) once your aquarium has had salt water fish in it, you can't put freshwater fish in it because the silicone will leech salt into the tank making it unsuitable for freshwater fish.

 

[CFC]

Aquarium salt can be used for brackish tanks but marine salt is better as it contains all the trace elements found in seawater which benefit the health of the fish.

 

[Ed4567]

Freshwater fish dont drink since the concentration of solutes inside their body is higher than the concentration of solutes outside the body so water moves into their body by osmosis (i.e. their body has a more negative water potential than the surrounding solution). Saltwater fish live in a hypertonic solution (more negative water potential outside the body) so water moves out of their body by osmosis and they need to activly absorb water.

 

[corykitty516]

OK this is not proof of the organs growing thing but it is my observation of the day:

I have a pond, just completed. For that pond I got a calico goldie that was being kept in potentially awful conditions but it was tiny at the time so I think I got it out in time.
The other day I rescued from an apartment complex 2 more calico goldies from a 1.5 gal tank . One of the new goldies appears the same size, length wise, as my original, however, its abdomen is larger. Has it been stunted and its guts are now larger? I'm NOT cutting it open to observe its organs, but I did notice a difference in size. Its it isolation anyhow right now just in case its diseased.

I cant even begin to think about how UNscientific this is (like I dont even know how old these fish are) but its a possibility to think about.

 

[Bignose]

opcn, I agree if there is pressure on the body structure itself, a lot of warping and disasterous effects can occur. However, most fish are kept in a tank that is too small for a good amount of swimming; they are not growing right up to where their sides are touching the tank walls.

Corykitty seems to have an interesting case, though it is tough to differentiate between stunting and more than likely the extremely poor water quality those fish were being kept in. The poor water quality can lead to a whole host of issues that cause bulging -- like an infection for example. Also, if the previous owners did not know how the keep the fish (2 goldfish in 1.5 gals clearly means they did not know how to keep these fish) they may not have known how to feed them. It is a possiblity that the fish was just overfed and is a little pudgy. You know the fish will act hungry far more often than it really needs to eat. Plus, like corykitty said, no surgery is going to be performed, so we may never know.

 

[Vip]

i dont think you can stunt fish, i have a Oscar in a 20g who is out growing it pretty fast

 

[fufanu360]

ya its not true about stunting a fish, i have heard of like 10 inch oscars that are like only a few months old since they were 3 inches, in 30 gallon tanks, not very happily, but

 

[Synirr]

12) once your aquarium has had salt water fish in it, you can't put freshwater fish in it because the silicone will leech salt into the tank making it unsuitable for freshwater fish.

I should certainly hope not, since my 29 gallon was once saltwater!
My fish are all healthy, so I would think it's not true... Or perhaps it is, but the effects can only be seen in more fragile fish, like discus?

 

[Sean_Buckley]

they wrapp the feet so they can't grow, the feet saty small as do all the bones nerves muscles etc inside they foot?

Actually, quite often, the bones are broken in the process. This is probably because the bones keep growing, but have no more room, so they start to bend and break.
Sean
EDIT: Sorry, I read through all the posts, and saw that people have said this numerous times. Bignose, isn't the thing in your avatar HomeStarRunner?

 

[Phantom Thief]

Well, to me at least, the fish stunting myth seems to be busted. Perhaps stunting came about because people wanted to keep big fish in small tanks and not feel bad. And the internal organs continuing to grow thing came about when someone wanted to discourage people from stunting their fish.

P.T.

 

[rich]

I had (well still have) a friend who a won goldfish on the stall at our junior school fete. It lived in a tiny glass bowl for 15 years before dying. Cruel - I know, but it's intestines didn't leak out or explode.