Goldfish Tanks

[linda1503]

Just been having an interesting (and polite) email chat with a guy from 'aquatics warehouse'. His company sells 10/14lr tanks that thay say are suitable for 2 goldfish. Tried to educate him but he stands firm in his belief. I told him to come on here and see what all you people think, wonder if he will?

Sorry, should have posted this on 'coldwater fish and ponds', maybe a mod will move it for me? thanks

 

[guppymonkey]

One thing about fish keeping is that every single person thinks they are the ultimate authority on how to do things correctly! Well not every single person but a large number of people. The fish can not tell you when they are in poor conditions so many people think they have happy healthy fish. Sometimes the fish live for years and so people believe that they were doing the correct things for their fish instead of realizing that they just had a lucky fish. Its almost like a person that smokes, sometimes even though they smoke they can live until they are a hundred years old but that doesn't mean that smoking is a healthy lifestyle it just means that person was extremely lucky.

Its sad but there is not much you can do to change peoples minds. You can try to educate and sometimes people are willing to listen. I work at a pet store and go through similar episodes on a weekly basis. I had one customer that had 4 oscars in a 20 gallon tank and had them for 4 years somehow. He refused to feed them anything besides feeder fish and then I had to try to help him get rid of their hole in the head disease which of course was almost impossible to treat because of the combination of small tank size and horrible diet.

 

[linda1503]

Yeah, I know what you mean guppymonkey. I only keep a community tank with basic cories, rasboras, guppies, gouramis and shrimps but everyday I learn something new about their upkeep and try to put it into practice! Such a shame about the oscars. This site should be advertised in every lfs in the country!! Yay! people could learn sooo much before they start!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Companies are always a pain to argue with, I've exchanged emails with Tetra and Hagen, amonst others- the latter swears blind that the average size for goldfish is 9cm, the former claims that, although there's no mention of it anywhere on there product, the buyer is supposed to only keep a goldfish in it for a few months before moving it to a bigger tank. The easiest way is to establish exactly what they think and why. Then start picking holes in it. Sites like Fishbase and similarly 'authoratative' sites will probably help, as will undisputable facts relating to waste, swimming room and suchlike.