It was New Year’s Eve and 2020 was coming to a close and a certain blonde in north Texas was flipping through Facebook ads when she came across something horrific and alarming - some terribly abused fish in need or rescue.
Essentially, my 55 was owned by a couple in southern Oklahoma that had acquired it from a ‘friend’ who had left it with them to ‘pet sit’ but had never returned for it. The tank had been in their possession for 2 years and I honestly don’t think it had a water change the whole time. The gravel was disgusting. The fish where swimming in basically sewer water. (We won’t discuss the state of their house or the fact that I had to toss the electric components due to roaches.) and when we took it there was about 6 inches of filthy water in the tank with the surviving fish.
This lady was proud to tell me “they are hardy fish! In two years only 2 have died!” I asked what fish where in the tank and she told me a list including many tetras, Cory cats, loaches, a pleco, and others. The water was so dirty I couldn’t tell... proceed to loading the tank.
This is where better choices could have been made. We opted to just load it whole (water, fish, etc) into the car... on a rainy day... at night...and the guy helping tripped... it was nearly a disaster but thankfully nothing broke and we didn’t spill the fish out in the yard. I had though we could transport home as was but the water and such was just too horrible so we ended up netting fish in my back seat in the Walmart parking lot into bags etc. I had already set up a temporary 10 gal at home for them so they just had to make it home. Turns out the fish had been starved and these people had only found 2 dead because the rest where eating them as they died. The survivors consisted of 6 fish: 2 black skirts, 2 Buenos Aires tetras, a common pleco, and a yo-yo loach.
Once home they where placed into the 10 gal so I had time to clean the 55 and actually go to the store and buy everything needed to set it up right. Since I knew I’d be doing a fish in cycle I got a bottle of beneficial bacteria and off we went! The fish thrived. They where already so ammonia stressed (the pleco had ammonia burn) that the small ammonia spike during cycling didn’t bother them. Anything was better than before. The pleco was so starved he was starting to get a curved spine and the black skirts weren’t even identifiable because they had lost their stripes, but with some TLC and a bunch of research we are now here in March with lovely healthy fish, a perfectly cycled tank, and new fish added to complete a community!
(Thank you for reading my long fish story! Pictures below of the before and after of my tank as well as some photos of the now happy survivors!)
1. Tank at purchase
2. Unidentifiable sickly black skirts
3. Tank now
4-7. Various pictures of the now happy survivors!
Essentially, my 55 was owned by a couple in southern Oklahoma that had acquired it from a ‘friend’ who had left it with them to ‘pet sit’ but had never returned for it. The tank had been in their possession for 2 years and I honestly don’t think it had a water change the whole time. The gravel was disgusting. The fish where swimming in basically sewer water. (We won’t discuss the state of their house or the fact that I had to toss the electric components due to roaches.) and when we took it there was about 6 inches of filthy water in the tank with the surviving fish.
This lady was proud to tell me “they are hardy fish! In two years only 2 have died!” I asked what fish where in the tank and she told me a list including many tetras, Cory cats, loaches, a pleco, and others. The water was so dirty I couldn’t tell... proceed to loading the tank.
This is where better choices could have been made. We opted to just load it whole (water, fish, etc) into the car... on a rainy day... at night...and the guy helping tripped... it was nearly a disaster but thankfully nothing broke and we didn’t spill the fish out in the yard. I had though we could transport home as was but the water and such was just too horrible so we ended up netting fish in my back seat in the Walmart parking lot into bags etc. I had already set up a temporary 10 gal at home for them so they just had to make it home. Turns out the fish had been starved and these people had only found 2 dead because the rest where eating them as they died. The survivors consisted of 6 fish: 2 black skirts, 2 Buenos Aires tetras, a common pleco, and a yo-yo loach.
Once home they where placed into the 10 gal so I had time to clean the 55 and actually go to the store and buy everything needed to set it up right. Since I knew I’d be doing a fish in cycle I got a bottle of beneficial bacteria and off we went! The fish thrived. They where already so ammonia stressed (the pleco had ammonia burn) that the small ammonia spike during cycling didn’t bother them. Anything was better than before. The pleco was so starved he was starting to get a curved spine and the black skirts weren’t even identifiable because they had lost their stripes, but with some TLC and a bunch of research we are now here in March with lovely healthy fish, a perfectly cycled tank, and new fish added to complete a community!
(Thank you for reading my long fish story! Pictures below of the before and after of my tank as well as some photos of the now happy survivors!)
1. Tank at purchase
2. Unidentifiable sickly black skirts
3. Tank now
4-7. Various pictures of the now happy survivors!
