In The Past

[naefearjustbeer]

I spoke to a chap at my work about tropical fish before I bought my tank, he told me about testing the water, cycling, adding fish slowly so not to shock the tank eco system regular partial water changes etc,
He also told me years (20-30) ago he used to just fill a aquarium up with tap water let it sit for a few days and add all the fish at once. Change all the water when the tank went green and only ever topped up the tank in between too allow for evaporation. His fish lived for years??? He even recons that nowadays his fish dont live for so long and are more disease prone even with all the water changes testing and extra care etc etc. Whats happened are fish weaker now or is our water worse than it used to be. Or is he just spinning me a yarn-??

 

[sylvia]

Or is he just spinning me a yarn-??

I'd go for that one.

I have not been keeping fish quite that long but I do know our memories tend to betray us. A lot of people can recall a goldfish they kept in a bowl that 'lived for ages' - no it didn't, you just think it did.

Despite my opinion, there is also the mass-production/in-breeding + added chemicals in water that could be effecting our fish now-a-days. I honestly doubt he remembers correctly though and would simply attribute his claims to that.

BTW, letting water sit, provided you haven't got chloramines, is fine - the chlorine evaporates and the water is safe. I do believe chloramines were less common in the past in tap water anyway (as in they are added more often now).

Also, consider the fish he added at the start could not, by any means, have all survived. Anyone who has cycled with fish knows this. Those that did make it were likely exceptionaly hardy anyway - so it wouldn't surprise me if those few did survive quite a long time.

I'd suggest asking him whether he ever tried to add more fish to the tank though - if he remembers, I'll bet they died almost immediately from shock (old tank syndrome).

 

[dwarfgourami]

Well, I am someone who was around and keeping fish 30 years ago, and my memories are rather less rosy. These days I am spending lots on testing kits, dechlorinator, interesting foods, but I have not been back to buy any more fish since I set up the tank last March.
30 years ago I had no test kit, water changes were almost non-existent and my fish got dried daphnia for Christmas- but I went through an awful lot of fish in the first year.

 

[Durbkat]

Well with some fish they have been bred so much to keep up with demand that they are very sensative to bad water quality and stuff.