Elisabeth83
Fish Herder
My sister has no clue on how to keep fish and used to have a 5 gallon tank set up with various types of fish in it and everytime she said they would die so now they have taken the tank down and everyone jokes about it and calls it the "tank of death" 
I have been educating her everytime I talk to her on the phone. I've asked her well tell me how you took care of it and about water changes etc. I asked her about cycling and the filter and of course she never heard of cycling and she told me every month or so she just threw away the filter cartridge and got a new one
I told her you never throw away the filter cartridge or sponge that you just rinse them out in old tank water that if you threw it away or rinsed it in tap water you were killing all of the bacteria that keeps the tank cycled. I then told her that if her tank was uncycled and she wasn't doing frequent water changes to get rid of the ammonia and nitrite and if she was just adding fish to it then that is why her fish got diseases and died.
I talked with her again yesterday and have educated her again on everything but she still doesn't sound like she gets it or she's convinced I'm actually right.
Now she has a small 12 cent feeder goldfish and I said to her on the phone you know he's not happy living in a 1 gallon bowl and she says " Oh it's not 1 gallon it's only about 2 cups"
She said she has the 5 gallon and filter sitting empty that she's steralized with boiling water and I said even though 5 gallons isn't big enough for your goldfish you should at least put him in there instead of keeping him in a 2 cup bowl. I also asked her about water changes and she said " I only ever clean out the bowl once a month and during that month I just top up the water" 
I said no you can't do that if the goldfish is living in an uncycled bowl (if you can call it that) then you have to change the water at least every 4 days or else the ammonia builds up too much. I said just put him in the 5 gallon...you have a filter and while the tank is cycling just do water changes every few days. She said "that's too hard" and I said no just go to a hardware store and buy a piece of tubing and just syphon the water into a bucket. She thought that was a good idea. I don't think she even knew there was even a thing like a syphon for changing water. I also asked her about water conditioner and if she uses it and she didn't know what it was and said she has never used it. I told her well it removed ammonia and heavy metals from the water. I'm not sure about her water it's well water but I believe that would have heavy metals in it?
She then tells me well if you think I'm a bad fishkeeper guess what our brother is keeping together Goldfish and Bettas. She said I told him if Lizzy (me) saw that she'd tell you how wrong it is. I said that's not good but still both of you are not keeping your fish properly your both just as bad. I said if you want to keep fish you need to research their needs and give them at least their basic requirements. She tells me oh but the goldfish seems happy and I said well here's what everyone on the fish forum says about that when people say what you just said " Well would you be happy living in a closet your whole life?". Theres a difference between living and being comfortable and enjoying life.
She told me if I came for a visit I could help her set up a proper tank and show her how to care for it. Hopefully she will listen to me and at least in the meantime put her goldfish in the 5 gallon tank
Sorry but I just needed to vent that to people who would understand.
edit: Maybe some of you know of a few websites with easy to understand informaton on cycling and properly housing fish? It needs to be written in Layman's Terms
I have been educating her everytime I talk to her on the phone. I've asked her well tell me how you took care of it and about water changes etc. I asked her about cycling and the filter and of course she never heard of cycling and she told me every month or so she just threw away the filter cartridge and got a new one
I told her you never throw away the filter cartridge or sponge that you just rinse them out in old tank water that if you threw it away or rinsed it in tap water you were killing all of the bacteria that keeps the tank cycled. I then told her that if her tank was uncycled and she wasn't doing frequent water changes to get rid of the ammonia and nitrite and if she was just adding fish to it then that is why her fish got diseases and died. I talked with her again yesterday and have educated her again on everything but she still doesn't sound like she gets it or she's convinced I'm actually right.
Now she has a small 12 cent feeder goldfish and I said to her on the phone you know he's not happy living in a 1 gallon bowl and she says " Oh it's not 1 gallon it's only about 2 cups"
She said she has the 5 gallon and filter sitting empty that she's steralized with boiling water and I said even though 5 gallons isn't big enough for your goldfish you should at least put him in there instead of keeping him in a 2 cup bowl. I also asked her about water changes and she said " I only ever clean out the bowl once a month and during that month I just top up the water" I said no you can't do that if the goldfish is living in an uncycled bowl (if you can call it that) then you have to change the water at least every 4 days or else the ammonia builds up too much. I said just put him in the 5 gallon...you have a filter and while the tank is cycling just do water changes every few days. She said "that's too hard" and I said no just go to a hardware store and buy a piece of tubing and just syphon the water into a bucket. She thought that was a good idea. I don't think she even knew there was even a thing like a syphon for changing water. I also asked her about water conditioner and if she uses it and she didn't know what it was and said she has never used it. I told her well it removed ammonia and heavy metals from the water. I'm not sure about her water it's well water but I believe that would have heavy metals in it?She then tells me well if you think I'm a bad fishkeeper guess what our brother is keeping together Goldfish and Bettas. She said I told him if Lizzy (me) saw that she'd tell you how wrong it is. I said that's not good but still both of you are not keeping your fish properly your both just as bad. I said if you want to keep fish you need to research their needs and give them at least their basic requirements. She tells me oh but the goldfish seems happy and I said well here's what everyone on the fish forum says about that when people say what you just said " Well would you be happy living in a closet your whole life?". Theres a difference between living and being comfortable and enjoying life.
She told me if I came for a visit I could help her set up a proper tank and show her how to care for it. Hopefully she will listen to me and at least in the meantime put her goldfish in the 5 gallon tank
Sorry but I just needed to vent that to people who would understand.
edit: Maybe some of you know of a few websites with easy to understand informaton on cycling and properly housing fish? It needs to be written in Layman's Terms
It's just frusterating for me thinking about the goldfish living in that tiny tiny bowl and trying my hardest to get her to change. I think if the goldfish dies she probably wont get anymore fish. I told her once you understand everything it's really easy to care for a tank but I think she's had so many problems with her 5 gallon that she doesn't believe me or something. 
