No Maintenance Tank - How Is This Possible?!

[inveritas]

So I got a new job, and my boss has this 3-4 gallon tank in his office which he inherited from the previous boss and doesn't care much about. In the tank, there are:

• >50 adult guppies
• >30 small guppies
• >15 baby guppies
• >10 red cherry shrimps
• A few snails
• A few plants
• Dead fish skeleton and poop all over the gravel

The tank has been like this for 3-4 years now, and seems to have a working ecosystem - although it is extremely overcrowded.
 
There is no filter, oxygen pump or heater in the tank, just a small LED light that is timed to turn on during office hours. The water is very green and cloudy, and only gets top up with chlorinated tap water as it evaporates (no water changes). The fishes get fed pellets 3 times a week.
 
How can there be still life in that tank?

 

[Livewire88]

I hope that is a typo and you were ment to type 34 gallon tank?
 
If your boss does have this many fish in a 3 or 4 gallon tank I dont have much advice to give without being rude.

 

[the_lock_man]

Agree with Livewire - you'd think the shrimp would have given up the ghost long ago.
 
I guess the only thing to is to compare it to favellas in Sao Paolo, or the slums of Calcutta, or similar. The people live in extraordinarily bad conditions, but they survive, against the odds, for reasonable periods of time, although much less than the life expectancy of someone living in the developed parts of the world.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Can you sneak in a photo?
 
Funny thing is, I'll bet if you gave the whole thing a good cleaning, everything would probably die. 

 

[Ny82]

That's horrific how can they even swim? They will be up the top gasping for air. But if it's got it's own ecosystem then it could be the fish have somehow against the odds, built up a resistance.
Following on from what This Old Spouse said, I will tell you about my tank.
I am returning to the forum after a good 5/6 months at least where I went through a very bad period in my life-I know that's no reason to neglect my tank but I had to deal with other issues. I used to do a water change on a weekly basis as my guppies kept breeding, I stopped doing water changes, I know that's bad and think of me what you want, I will accept it. A few days ago I did my first water change in about 8 months. I woke up the next day and all my fish were dead. I am putting it down to the water change they were probably in shock.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It is called old tank syndrome. The cause of the deaths was the neglect, the water change only triggered it. Your fish had adapted, to the extent possible, to live in a sewer. When that sewer was cleaned up, the change in the parameters was so great that it killed the fish.
 
If the above sounds harsh, it is because I believe if anybody assumes responsibility for caring for an animal, they have an obligation to do so. Unless the situation makes that impossible and there is no way to find alternative care givers (i.e. you had a heart attack, were in an accident, things that prevent you from doing this), there is little excuse for not making the effort to do so.

 

[inveritas]

I hope that is a typo and you were ment to type 34 gallon tank?
 
If your boss does have this many fish in a 3 or 4 gallon tank I dont have much advice to give without being rude.

 
No typo! I was shocked at the condition the fish were in too, but that turned into fascination when I discovered that they had no water changes or filter for years. Even the supposedly fragile RCS were thriving. It was so overcrowded in there I was able to stick a mug in and scoop out at least 10 guppies with my eyes closed. I also stuck a net in near the surface and 4 guppies happily jumped in immediately.
 

Can you sneak in a photo?
 
Funny thing is, I'll bet if you gave the whole thing a good cleaning, everything would probably die. 

 
I'll try to sneak in one if I can, but I'm not allowed to bring cameras into the building so keep your fingers crossed! 
 

That's horrific how can they even swim? They will be up the top gasping for air. But if it's got it's own ecosystem then it could be the fish have somehow against the odds, built up a resistance.
Following on from what This Old Spouse said, I will tell you about my tank.
I am returning to the forum after a good 5/6 months at least where I went through a very bad period in my life-I know that's no reason to neglect my tank but I had to deal with other issues. I used to do a water change on a weekly basis as my guppies kept breeding, I stopped doing water changes, I know that's bad and think of me what you want, I will accept it. A few days ago I did my first water change in about 8 months. I woke up the next day and all my fish were dead. I am putting it down to the water change they were probably in shock.

 
I've taken 17 guppies from that tank back to my home in a new 10G tank for them to roam in. Day 3 and no problems adapting to my tap water + prime mix so far! I slowly added the new water in their quarantine tank (with old water) in intervals before putting them into the new tank altogether.
 

It is called old tank syndrome. The cause of the deaths was the neglect, the water change only triggered it. Your fish had adapted, to the extent possible, to live in a sewer. When that sewer was cleaned up, the change in the parameters was so great that it killed the fish.
 
If the above sounds harsh, it is because I believe if anybody assumes responsibility for caring for an animal, they have an obligation to do so. Unless the situation makes that impossible and there is no way to find alternative care givers (i.e. you had a heart attack, were in an accident, things that prevent you from doing this), there is little excuse for not making the effort to do so.

 
I agree with the old tank syndrome - on the bright side, I guess these fishes have evolved (although probably inbred) to be super-resistant to abuse (though I'm not planning any)! I guess the guy whom my current boss took over didn't have a way to bring the tank home so he just left it there. And my new boss wasn't a huge fan of fish-keeping but didn't want to kill them so he gave minimal care to the fish - topping up for evaporated water and feeding them 3 times a week was all he did for the past few years.

 

[Ny82]

It is called old tank syndrome. The cause of the deaths was the neglect, the water change only triggered it. Your fish had adapted, to the extent possible, to live in a sewer. When that sewer was cleaned up, the change in the parameters was so great that it killed the fish.
 
If the above sounds harsh, it is because I believe if anybody assumes responsibility for caring for an animal, they have an obligation to do so. Unless the situation makes that impossible and there is no way to find alternative care givers (i.e. you had a heart attack, were in an accident, things that prevent you from doing this), there is little excuse for not making the effort to do so.

It's not harsh, it's reality. I know I did wrong, was in a bad state of mind, and I unfortunately couldn't take the tank with me to the homeless, there was barely enough space for myself and my 3 year old in our room, I had to give it to my friend and I went over as much as I could. I regret it now but we're back on track and will be better when I get my new tank!

 

[Livewire88]

I hope that is a typo and you were ment to type 34 gallon tank?
 
If your boss does have this many fish in a 3 or 4 gallon tank I dont have much advice to give without being rude.

 
No typo! I was shocked at the condition the fish were in too, but that turned into fascination when I discovered that they had no water changes or filter for years. Even the supposedly fragile RCS were thriving. It was so overcrowded in there I was able to stick a mug in and scoop out at least 10 guppies with my eyes closed. I also stuck a net in near the surface and 4 guppies happily jumped in immediately.

 
No surprise that they want to escape their version of hell, could you explain to your boss that the fish need to be re homed, or even just go and spend a little money on a cheap tank and just put some of the fish in there.
Anything would be better than the conditions they are in at the moment, I would give you one of my spare tanks if you were close to my area.
 
Poor fish.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Ny- you said "I had to give it to my friend" and that was the responsible thing to do. That way the fish had a fighting chance.
 
I also hope that things for you and your son have changed for the better. I can fully understand why you could not care for the tank.

 

[Ny82]

Ny- you said "I had to give it to my friend" and that was the responsible thing to do. That way the fish had a fighting chance.
 
I also hope that things for you and your son have changed for the better. I can fully understand why you could not care for the tank.

 
Thanks, it was such a relief to get them back-then I killed them all by doing a water change! I did however find 10 guppy fry! Everything happens for a reason, myself and my daughter(not son ) are in a much better place now with a landlady who is crazy about fish so that's a bonus! 
 
inveritas-that's good you took some fish-they have a better chance with you and they must be happy just to be able to see where they are going! 

 

[inveritas]

 

I hope that is a typo and you were ment to type 34 gallon tank?
 
If your boss does have this many fish in a 3 or 4 gallon tank I dont have much advice to give without being rude.

 
No typo! I was shocked at the condition the fish were in too, but that turned into fascination when I discovered that they had no water changes or filter for years. Even the supposedly fragile RCS were thriving. It was so overcrowded in there I was able to stick a mug in and scoop out at least 10 guppies with my eyes closed. I also stuck a net in near the surface and 4 guppies happily jumped in immediately.

 
No surprise that they want to escape their version of hell, could you explain to your boss that the fish need to be re homed, or even just go and spend a little money on a cheap tank and just put some of the fish in there.
Anything would be better than the conditions they are in at the moment, I would give you one of my spare tanks if you were close to my area.
 
Poor fish.

 
Thanks for the offer, I'm 15,000km away from you though! 

 I'll find a way to get through to him about those poor guppies.

 

[TallTree01]

Dude. Call the cops on him. Sue the person for animal cruelty.

 

[snazy]

It sounds bad. When I was a kid I kept a river fish(loach type one) in a small tank with no filter, no heater, just some cave thing where the fish hid when we had guests(yes he recognised when there's unknown people in the sitting room). He lived for 5 years and my mother managed to kill him when I was away. I guess she did a water change

 because she was giving out I don't clean the tank enough. I did do water changes though, 100% from time to time but laziness made me not wipe it down clean, just drain and fill with old water(I knew just about that much)
And I did keep guppies in the same manner but gradually progressed to sponge filters and heaters that had no thermostat and boiled the fish several times when I forgot to switch it off on time. That's all they had in the shop those days. The funny thing of all is, I never managed to keep a snail alive. They always died on me and didn't multiply

 I fed very little, that's what I was told, a couple of times a week.

 

[inveritas]

Dude. Call the cops on him. Sue the person for animal cruelty.

 
Ah ha, but plot twist - he's a Colonel in the Army! I guess these people in general (plus the region I'm in) don't care as much for animal cruelty compared to places like the US and UK.