Some people live on luck

[purple_drazi]

Skimpy: love your avatar!! My family tells me that all the time!

 

[Nisha]

I definitely started out with lots of luck and little knowledge.

No cycling though I did keep it running for about a week before adding fish. My fish were very hardy having survived several roomates overfeeding while I was away and not having water changes for sometimes months at a time. They lived for 4-5 years and so I do count myself lucky.

It's interesting when I hear people say that neon tetras are very sensitive or that smaller tanks are harder to keep since I got through it with no problems.

I completely agree with Da_Oz.

Fishkeeping is easy, we make it hard.

Moderation and balance is the key. Knowledge is important but too much micromanaging can also weaken the fish. We underestimate their ability to adapt and deal with changes as they constantly do in nature.

I love my hardy little fish!

 

[kev]

My parents inlaw had a small goldfish bowl that was cleaned monthly - 100% with water straight from the tap - The gravel was also rinsed in tap water - and if it really smelled then a small amount of bleach added to make it fresher for the fish

When they moved the tank was put in a shed and one cold morning a thick layer of ice was found

The fish has was moved to a friends to a larger tank - and was found one morning on the kitchen floor after seemingly jumping over the top of the tank

The fish still appears health after this traumatic life - He started of being won by my wife when she was 8!! - 18 years ago.

 

[Paul_MTS]

I also agree with the thought of somepeople are just too careful but to be ignorant and o nothing when you have been told whats better is just wrong.

When I got a tank for pond fry i asked my LFS how to set the UGF up and that was about it, set it up put tap water in stuck the fish in straight away. I changed the water when it became smelly or smurky. In all out of 22 rudd fry and 12 goldfish fry, 1 goldfish died from fin rot, this was over a ear when i would move the fish out and totally clean everything, scrub the tank wash the UG tray and wash the gravel then put it all back in with frsh water then put the fish straight back in.

Now i know better though and would of done alot more for them.

 

[skimpy]

Skimpy: love your avatar!! My family tells me that all the time!

Thanks

I have found all your answers really interesting and it's surprising how it also jogs memories for me.

When I was a child my dad had a pond and one winter his 7 goldfish were actually stuck frozen in the ice which was about 6 inches deep. He poured on boiling water and hit the ice with a stick to break it up. He only lost one goldfish. The other six were absolutely fine and went on for years.

+

When I first moved into the home I now live in 3 year ago, I inherited a pond with one Koi and goldfish. The pond had a big leak, not plants and a really old filter system and we topped it up every day with water direct from the hose pipe, not conditioner or anything. This went on for months until we lined the pond and found out that dechorinator should be used. We netted out all the fish (the big Koi was hard to catch) plonked them in a paddling pool for 4 day and put them back into the lined pond (this time with dechlorinator). We never lost a fish during all that.

Fish are obviously amazing

 

[Jen]

I think I do a good job of maintaining my tank. The water always looks clear, and rarely get any algea. I do a 30% water change every 3 or 4 weeks, rinse out the filter when it looks nasty, and change the carbon and filter sleeve about once a month. I almost never get diseases - my last ich outbreak was over a year ago, and I get dropsy if i do any more changes than normal. I think the balance between fish/plant, waste and cleaning is near perfect FOR MY TANK. Every tank is different, and you have to know what is best for your fish.

 

[Undawada]

My theory of fishkeeping is to recreate "natural" conditions as closely as possible. Fish immune systems aren't designed to cope with chlorine from tap water or soaking in high concentrations of fish waste.

I feel if I keep the water conditions close to nature, the fishes immune system seems to be adequate. At least for the most part.

Temperature variations, current changes, addition and removal of other fish, irregular feeding are all part of living in the wild. Fish that have been raised at exactly 78 degrees since hatching, will not cope well with a three degree drop in water temperature.

That's why I don't feel guilty leaving the fish for a weekend without feeding, or making adjustments to the landscape. It's all part of the fish life experience

My sister-in-law (from whom I inhereted my current tank) kept rainbows for 6 years without ever doing a water change. She dechlorinated her water, and topped it up when it evaporated enough. She added this chemical called an Ammonia Bonding Agent, which basically is supposed to remove ammonia by bonding it into harmless compounds. This is frequently used for transporting fish in small containers and such, but I've never heard of long term use of it instead of H2O changes .... I shudder to think what the concentration of those "harmless" compounds must have been after 6 years But the fish were fine... maybe they developed a resistance to them

 

[David]

Wow. It's really good to hear all of these success stories. I've had my share of successes and failures in this hobby too. My first pet ever when I was about 9 years old was a goldfish. I kept it in a 2 gallon tank for about 4 years without EVER doing a water change. All that was in there was some small plastic gravel and a fake plant. I fed it every day on red flakes and I'm amazed that it lived for so long. It's name was Goldy. Original huh? Poor little Goldy... you will continue to be missed. When I got my 10 gallon tank several years later I started out with 2 guppies (1 male and 1 female) and a panda cory. By this time i knew about water changes and the like, but I had very little success. My cory died after a coupel of days (probably from a combination of high ammonia/nitrite levels, loneliness, and being picked on by the male guppy). After this I went through a series of guppies, platies, and mollies, which of course bred like crazy, and cories, until I finally reached a setup I liked and one that worked (no fish were dying any more). I had a pair of angels (in a 10 gallon ) about 3 male guppies, and a small school of neon tetras (3-4). My angels spawned too. Eventually the guppies died, and the neons were eaten (big surprise) and the angel pair outlived all. I loved those guys Eventually I had to move to Europe for a year and I gave away my angel pair to my best friend (they were about 3 years old and 3 inches long) who kept them in his 150 gallon with his 2 iridescent sharks, 2 Jack Dempseys, Common pleco, and some weird catfish i don't know the name of. They are still alive as far as I know (they are in Canada while I now live in California) and last tiem I saw them they wre about 7 inches long and absolutely gorgeous. Just another little success story of mine. I later kept 2 3" malawi gold cichlids in the 10 gallon (I had no idea about these fish then) which lived there happily for aeveral months, then I moved to california and gave them away along with the tank. Here I bought a new 46 gallon and what you see in my sig is what I have. I have had quite a few deaths in this tank so far, so I'm off to a pretty bad start. Here's hoping things turn around soon. Good luck to all of you.