People Who Rarely/never Clean Tanks But Fish Live Forever

[skiltrip]

I've had a few people in the past few years... some I know very personally so they aren't lying... tell me how they rarely/never clean their tank, some hardly even change the filter cartridge and the fish have lived forever... i'll give some examples....

one guy, had a 29 gallon, with one bala shark (thing was real old, and real big, way too big for the tank obviously, and like 3 huge tiger barbs (never seen tiger barbs that big and mature). the filter had not been cleaned in years... it just kinda dripped a little stream of water out. very little water flow. the tank was right by a window, so algae growth was all over this thing. lighting was real limited too. pretty dark tank. NO water changes. he doesn't know what a water change is. i think he had some live plants in there too. eventually the size of the bala killed it.... he got spooked one day and slammed himself into a rock in the tank. damn shame.

another person i know... has had a tank over 10 years. she tells me she's "cleaned" it 3 or 4 times in the 10 years.(not even sure what her cleaning consists of), also, she changes the filter cartridges about once a year. not sure what her stock is, but she has at least one fish that's about 10 yrs old or older (she says "that fish is older than my son").

i have known other people that have had tanks that were so murky you couldn't always see the fish... you'd just peek thru a whole in the sludge to get a glimpse.

my question is... why do these seemingly careless owners have fish that live soooo long?... meanwhile we "serious hobbyists" maintain our tanks with scientific precision. they always use this to argue why all this tank maintanence is useless or just unnecessary.

for any replies, try to refrain from flaming what these other people have done with their tanks, and perhaps shed some light on it, from a water chemistry/biological kind of angle. do tanks like this eventually established some rock-solid stable balance? could there be enough bacteria built up eventually to handle all the waste, even with a filter that's hardly doing anything?

also, if anyone else knows people like this and have stories like this, please share.
let's open this discussion

 

[ciarantropicalfishman]

my friend has had a 50g tank for about a year and half and never cleaned it until i ended up getting him to clean it and showed him how to do it and gave him stuff to clean it but still dont think he will bother he has 2 angel fish 2 silver dollars a mollie and 6 neons from the 10 that he had i dont have a clue how they live it was coverd it poo and could hardly see through the water and he dosent even have a decent filter he has a ugf and he has never changed the cartridge in them after we had cleaned it it was still full of muck

 

[OohFeeshy]

Partly it's due to tollerance of the high nitrate levels, if they added new fish they'd die pretty sharpish. Plus since a lot I would guess have algae, that helps reduce some toxins.

 

[Creature Seeker]

My brother bought a tank the same time I did about 7 years ago which was smalled than mine. We both had silver dollars and the same plecos. He never ever cleaned his and his fish got very large, a lot larger than mine. When I one day did clean it (properly) he lost a few of his fish. I think it must have been the sudden change in PH and environment.

...

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

I can remember with my first ever tank I lost interest.. went 3 months without being cleaned The water level was down by about half.. yet I did not notice any deaths in my tanks.. (Only kept Guppies & Mollies though!)

 

[SamUK]

if the fish gradually get used tot he horrible conditions then they can surivive a bit better but as has been said, any new fish that were added would suffer.

 

[jayjay]

But conditions may not be that horrible, algae uses ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, as do the filter bacteria. With large fish there would alot of waste though. Also sand could create aenrobic conditions also lowering nitrate. A few small fish and it could possibly work, the pH would drop over time but the fish would be used to it.

I'm not saying it's ok to do it, just saying how I think it may work

 

[RRasco]

ive never got real careless with a tank, when i was younger i never did anything to them and my fish were fine. the one thing i never knew about was cycling, i have NEVER cycled a tank, i sometimes would let it sit for a day or so and then add fish, but on several occasions i have setup a tank, and added fish in the same hour. not losing any of them. i did for about a year not clean a tank, changed the filter like twice, but my angel fish and redtail shark got huge. i was working too much and pretty much forgot about the tank, i rarely fed them either....and they are humongo now. since then i have learned the art of aquarists. but i too have always wonder why the ignorant seem to always prevail one way or another.

 

[jayjay]

Oh yeah I never change my filter media...... I don't see why, i've used the same sponge on my 15g for 7 years, you can do more damage changing it than leaving it. Aslong as it's cleaned it should be fine.

 

[chumanji]

Guess I am one of those lazy ones who hardly ever cleans the tanks...I usually dont clean mine for 6 to 9months. What I think what happened is that my tank has somehow begin to sustain itself with live plants, good flowrate within the tank, and a balance of fish. My fish are too getting large with little feeding. All i do is, add water to maintain the level of the tank. BTW, my water is still cystal clean even up to the point I clean my tank.

 

[Captain Retardo]

Just a warning to newbies: It is not advised to not clean your tank, do water changes, or not cycle, most of the time this will end up in your fish dieing. Just saying, in case someone got the impression that they shouldn't cycle, and not clean or do water changes and get away with it...

 

[highfire]

Oh yeah I never change my filter media...... I don't see why, i've used the same sponge on my 15g for 7 years, you can do more damage changing it than leaving it. Aslong as it's cleaned it should be fine.

I'm glad you've said that, jayjay. I've had my tank for about 7 months now (upgraded from a much smaller one), and have to admit to changing the filter sponges several times within that period. I do rinse them in aquarium water (not tap water) between those changes, but I have read several posts on here about not needing to change the sponges atall. If I think about it, my mum's pond (which is a huge affair, 3 feet deep in places) has been going for years, and as far as I know she has only ever cleaned the filter media in there and never replaced it - so I guess it makes sense that the media in an aquarium doesn't really need changing.
I think my mind is now made up!
On the subject of not cleaning tanks, my friend has a pretty large tank - I'd say about 40 gals - with about 4 or 5 fancies in it. It's as green as ever, and she even admits to not cleaning it and forgetting to feed them from one day to the next. They seem to be hanging on in there though!

 

[xJake]

When my dad was just out of college he kept 6 angels in a 55 gallon and he only had an undergravel filter and never did water changes, yet his angels were successfully mating and he ended up having to buy a 180 gallon to house all the fish. He ended up with several spawns over the course of 12 years. He had a dozen adult angels (Almost 7" he said) and 6 juveniles before he finally was forced to sell them off and get rid of the tank due to financial reasons. He said he was just finding out about water changes when he got rid of the tank.

 

[taylors319]

i have a friend that has a 20 gallon tank and never does anything to it! she has not even added water! the tank is only half full of water! she adds some food about once a week and all of her fish are still alive!!

 

[Coomon10]

My g/friends friend was given a tank and cleans it about once a year and no water changes! I haven't seen it but apparently she has all sorts of barbs and community fish all in there together and no losses! She doesn't have too many fish which i guess helps but all i can assume is the fish adapt...