Fish Sensitivity

[starrynightxxi]

This isn't really a question so much as a request. I lurk through the forums all the time and hear about how sensitive some fish are, and how they need perfect water conditions or they'll die. I know that there are some fish the really need perfect water because they are sensitive to medications, and that makes sense to me. If you can't treat an illness then you've got to do everything to prevent it.

But there are other fish, like neons, for example, that was supposed to be really sensitive too. I've never had a problem with neons. In fact, I cycled a 10 gallon with neons and i didn't lose a single fish. I've kept blue rams, rummy noses, otos, and amano shrimp, which are also supposed to be sensitive without issue as well, despite a three-month lapse in their care during which they only got fed a few times a week and had water replaced (though not removed or gravel-vac'd). The tank was a 20 with three filters, but only the 10gallon filter was working properly. With the things I've been hearing about these fish, I should have lost some, if not all, but i didn't. They didn't even get sick.

I even had a betta with dropsy and a hole in its abdomen that wouldn't eat that I tucked in a quiet corner, figuring it was going to die, and without any treatment or really any strict adherence to water changes (unfiltered tank), it recovered after two months.

From the things I hear around here, these seem to be the exceptions to the rules, but they make me second guess the some of the information that we pass around sometimes and I'm curious to see if anyone else has had experiences like mine that defied the rules.

Any comments/stories would be appreciated

 

[rdd1952]

As you mentioned, there are exceptions. I think a lot of the things that we hear such as neons are very sensitive are true but becoming less so. Because so many fish are tank bred now, they are more hardy than when they were wild caught and traveled so far before getting to the fish store. I had never heard amano shrimp mentioned as sensitive and had 5 that all lived over 2 years (lost all 5 within 3 months after I had them 2 years). Obviously, when a fish recovers from something such as dropsy without treatment, that is definitely an exception.