In Retrospect..... It's Quite Silly!

[Ludwig Venter]

When I started out with tropicals, (1970) I read that Brine Shrimp is the absolute best foods for rearing fry, so I went out and bought myself some Brine Shrimp eggs...... Needless to say, my first batch of Thicklip Gouramies and Blue Paradise fry had a very low percentage of survival being fed on brine shrimp eggs exclussively..... I'm surprised any of them survived.....

What myths and/or advice did you get as a beginner, which you can only laugh about (now that you are more experienced)...

 

[Ben M]

fish only grow to the size of their tank (my parents still insist on this one, it took months of persuasion to stop them buying a biorb for a group of goldfish; in the end they got a 120l planted tropical community ).

 

[micko]

•fish only grow to the size of a tank.

•catfish only eat algae and nothing else.

•you can buy fish a tank and bung them all in on the same day.

•no need for a test kit.

•goldfish oinly live for a year max

•no need for a filter

•water change every six months

•the quality of water is fine unless its a bit merky.

The list is endless.

 

[Ben M]

corys eat fish poo.

 

[markandhisfish]

algae is caused by excess nutrients , you just need to let a new tank stand for a week then it can be fully stocked , the list is endless

 

[StandbySetting]

•fish only grow to the size of a tank.

•no need for a filter

•water change every six months

The ones in bold are true and doable, filters aren't always necessary as plants can filter ammonia just as well as bacteria can.
When I implement low tech set ups my tanks go without water changes for 6+ months at a time as they're not necessary on those kinds of set ups.

The top statement is sort of true, fish secrete a hormone which inhibits growth, so if you have a 2 inch silver shark in a 60 litre tank and a 2 inch silver shark in a 600 litre tank the concentrations of this hormone are obviously going to be different due to the dilution, so a fish in a 60 litre tank will have its growth inhibited much more quickly than it would in a 600 litre tank, but if regular water changes are performed then yes the top statement isn't true.

 

[Ben M]

•fish only grow to the size of a tank.

The top statement is sort of true, fish secrete a hormone which inhibits growth, so if you have a 2 inch silver shark in a 60 litre tank and a 2 inch silver shark in a 600 litre tank the concentrations of this hormone are obviously going to be different due to the dilution, so a fish in a 60 litre tank will have its growth inhibited much more quickly than it would in a 600 litre tank, but if regular water changes are performed then yes the top statement isn't true.

I think what makes people believe that the 'fish only grow to the size of the tank' myth is that people put some goldfish into a little bowl without a filter, so before the fish has time to outgrow the bowl the ammonia will have killed the fish. Which is also why many people believe goldfish only normally live for 1 year max. I saw on the news somebody who had a 20 year old goldfish in a 3ft tank. The news reporter said how amazing it was because 'a goldfishes lifespan is only 6 months'. They raved on about how well the fish must have been kept, but if you think about it it clearly wasn't well kept at all. It was 20 years old, so surely it should have reached its max size of up to 2 ft. But it was only 10" as it had been stunted by being kept in a too small tank with insufficient water changes.

 

[micko]

•fish only grow to the size of a tank.

•no need for a filter

•water change every six months

The ones in bold are true and doable, filters aren't always necessary as plants can filter ammonia just as well as bacteria can.
When I implement low tech set ups my tanks go without water changes for 6+ months at a time as they're not necessary on those kinds of set ups.

The top statement is sort of true, fish secrete a hormone which inhibits growth, so if you have a 2 inch silver shark in a 60 litre tank and a 2 inch silver shark in a 600 litre tank the concentrations of this hormone are obviously going to be different due to the dilution, so a fish in a 60 litre tank will have its growth inhibited much more quickly than it would in a 600 litre tank, but if regular water changes are performed then yes the top statement isn't true.

I know they're true the way your describing but those statements were as much as I was told. I was new to fishkeeping and had I taken that advice, just that advice I may have not been keeping fish today, may have also passed that useless info on to others too.
The heavily planted set ups with no filter do seem interesting but I've never done one, again with the 6 month water changes, I don't actually think I could let myself go over a week without a water change anyway even if the water was still perfect.
Whilst the "fish only grow to the size of your tank" has some truth to it, it causes other problems as I'm sure you already know.

These were those "beginner" statements I heard and practiced some too which ended with fail.

This sort of advice is not the sort of advice to give to beginners.

 

[raptorrex]

•fish only grow to the size of a tank.

•no need for a filter

•water change every six months

The ones in bold are true and doable, filters aren't always necessary as plants can filter ammonia just as well as bacteria can.
When I implement low tech set ups my tanks go without water changes for 6+ months at a time as they're not necessary on those kinds of set ups.

The top statement is sort of true, fish secrete a hormone which inhibits growth, so if you have a 2 inch silver shark in a 60 litre tank and a 2 inch silver shark in a 600 litre tank the concentrations of this hormone are obviously going to be different due to the dilution, so a fish in a 60 litre tank will have its growth inhibited much more quickly than it would in a 600 litre tank, but if regular water changes are performed then yes the top statement isn't true.

I would counter both untrue. they may, possibly, be true for very specialised applications, but you need mechanical filtration. at least, in the tanks used so.. even so that in now way makes it true in general. which is the point of this thread.

 

[StandbySetting]

Well the applications I mentioned would not require mechanical filtration, any detritus that settles will just rot and fertilise the plants, which there will be little detritus anyway as the stocking is lower than average in these set ups.

 

[nurglespuss]

Will have to support standby on this one.

•no need for a filter

•water change every six months

These two are perfectly doable with correct maintainance even for beginners.

I would also say that the need for a test kit is minimal, really, as their limited ( in fact dubious) accuracy don't really give you a good picture of whats going on in the aquarium. (e.g. the myth that the expensive liquid tests are much more accurate than strips - they aren't, they are both pretty poor).

A couple of other myths I've hear are:

•Red tail black sharks won't become aggressive if there is nothing similar in the tank.

•Khuli loaches eat other fishes eyes

•Goldfish need to eat gravel to get minerals

•Adding little bits of aquarium water to a bag will help fish acclimatise (favourite one that - there is no biological argument/data to support this - there simply isn't enough time (not including temperature) ).

LOL

 

[Ludwig Venter]

My favourite of course...... "Frozen bloodworms become alive again once they're placed in tank water"..... Quote my lfs when I asked for live Bloodworms....

 

[nurglespuss]

My favourite of course...... "Frozen bloodworms become alive again once they're placed in tank water"..... Quote my lfs when I asked for live Bloodworms....

HA! Nice

did any of you guys start off on dried ants eggs and powdered yolk [for the fry]? - for years (when I was a kid) my local petshop owner refused to use any commercial dried food ;P

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Going back to the fish hormone thing, will the fish stop growning when the tank has high concentration? if a large water change came about would they start to grow again assuming the hormone concentration is low or will threy be stunted?

 

[BigTom]

•no need for a test kit.

•no need for a filter

•water change every six months

My current tank would disagree with all 3 of those, but I do understand why you posted them.