What Would You Do?

[chrisbassist]

I'm sure most of you (like me) come across tanks all the time which really need someone with a brain looking after them.

I've got 2 situations recently.

Situation 1:
my daughters playgroup. Or if you're from the us would that be kindergarden?

They have 2 goldfish sharing a tiny tank that looks more like one of those transport cases for hamsters. Must be about 1.5 litres.

I don't want my daughter thinking goldfish can live happily like that. So we got a cheap tank off eBay, not massive, but must be more like 10 gallons. Not perfect but a massive step up. Sonow they'll have more space and even a filter now.

What would you have done?


Situation 2:
my father in law works in a nursing home as a carer, they have a tank there.

They've just assigned him to look after the tank. And about time too. This tank hasn't had a water change or clean or anything in at least a year and a half.

He's just bought some water back for me to test. As expected nitrate is off the chart. My test went to the colour of it's max Reading before all the drops went in. Thankfully ammonia and nitrite were fine. I'm going in with him to get it to a maintainable level.

Any tips on what to show him how to do and how often? With my tank I respond to tests and visual clues on when I need to do something.

And should I say anything to the manager there or just be happy that it's getting sorted?

 

[kaivalagi]

Spot on with situation 1, what else can you do...all the kids will get something from it too What will happen maintenance wise though

Situation 2 - I'd say show all the important steps for a 20% water change to your father-in-law and suggest he changes the water and cleans the gravel once every other week. It's probably worth speaking to the manager in case they could arrange for a more able resident in the nursing home to have an interesting hobby...with a little guidance from you or your father-in-law that could be a success

They could maybe get the benefit of being able to make decisions of planting and fish for the effort?

 

[chrisbassist]

To be honest, no maintenance with filter, will be better than no maintenance without one.

 

[chrisbassist]

Oh, good idea on the resident helping too.

 

[ellena]

I would have done the same. It's really bad when educational institutions mistreat fish like that, such a bad example.
A teacher at the school where I work had 2 9inch axolotls in an 18" tank with no filter and very infrequent water changes. Ammonia was at least 8ppm when I checked (that's as high as the test reads) and their little gills were stumps
I bought them a 30" tank and made and cycled them a sponge filter, and I now do fortnightly water changes. One of them has some lovely regrowth on its gills now
And our friends over the road bought 2 goldfish and a little (4l maybe) bowl. I explained to them that it was not a good idea and they got a 60l tank with filter. One of the goldfish has grown massively so at least they can see I wasn't making it up. They are planning on rehoming them to a pond soon.
I think without being preachy, it's always best to step in with these kind of situations and hopefully educate and at the very least, improve life for the fishies
The tank at the nursing home, am I right in thinking that the fish will get a shock if loads of water is suddenly changed? Maybe 20% water changes weekly to get the nitrates down gradually would be best? I think that's a doable level long term too.

 

[chrisbassist]

Since I won't be able to keep going in I'd refer to do a large change and retest, at least get it to a measurable level.
No to mention I may need to refill a couple times to get round vaccing all the gravel.

But my in law will be borrowing my siphon/vac and algae scraper once a week. So at least he'll have the tools to maintain it.

 

[synodontismultipunctatus]

Take some of your own filter media if you got any spare... that stuff will realy benifit the tank and will provide a large enough boost for lower amounts of water changes...

once a week is still reccomended but only 20-30 percent (Y)

and yeh for situation number 1 what you did was brilliant !

 

[mattlee]

for situation 2, if fish have been kept and survived in unchanged murky water then cleaning it all very quickly can have a bad effect on them as they will be tolerant to the conditions. so i would advise small water changes to begin with and clean the tank slowly

its the same effect as us not changing water for ages when the fish are use to weekly changes and good water quality

 

[chrisbassist]

Like I say, ammonia and nitrite are both fine. The tank has been there years. So I kinda expected it to be fine. So I don't see how any more media will benefit the tank.

 

[mattlee]

Like I say, ammonia and nitrite are both fine. The tank has been there years. So I kinda expected it to be fine. So I don't see how any more media will benefit the tank.

old tank syndrome....

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article55.html

 

[bae1994]

the only problem i see is in the 1st situation is that they think ooh more space and add more fish but if not thats better

 

[chrisbassist]

Cheers for the article on old tank syndrome. Interesting stuff.

 

[mattlee]

Cheers for the article on old tank syndrome. Interesting stuff.

no probs, i just didnt want you steaming in making it all clean and sparkly and then the fish all die......

i think its great that you are willing to help the people with the tanks, well done

 

[Ben M]

I would have done the same. It's really bad when educational institutions mistreat fish like that, such a bad example.
A teacher at the school where I work had 2 9inch axolotls in an 18" tank with no filter and very infrequent water changes. Ammonia was at least 8ppm when I checked (that's as high as the test reads) and their little gills were stumps
I bought them a 30" tank and made and cycled them a sponge filter, and I now do fortnightly water changes. One of them has some lovely regrowth on its gills now
And our friends over the road bought 2 goldfish and a little (4l maybe) bowl. I explained to them that it was not a good idea and they got a 60l tank with filter. One of the goldfish has grown massively so at least they can see I wasn't making it up. They are planning on rehoming them to a pond soon.
I think without being preachy, it's always best to step in with these kind of situations and hopefully educate and at the very least, improve life for the fishies
The tank at the nursing home, am I right in thinking that the fish will get a shock if loads of water is suddenly changed? Maybe 20% water changes weekly to get the nitrates down gradually would be best? I think that's a doable level long term too.

that is really weird. one of the biology teachers in my school has 2 axolotls of the same size, and they used to be in a 2ft tank, but now they are in a bigger tank, and the 2ft tank is for the fry. but what worries me about that is that she give the babies to the kids!!! she doesn't even check that they have a tank! one of the kids who my mum knows her mum bought a 2ft tank for the ones she was given, filled it with tap water and chucked them in. obviously they died straight away, but she hadn't been told anything about how to setup a tank correctly. but it can't be the same place lol, as we're miles away.

i think that you did great with the goldfish, and i hope you can sort something out with the other tank.

 

[Assaye]

Situation 1 -

Offer to find a new home for the fish and if that didn't work, I would try to find a large, cheap tank on Ebay or Freecycle. Glad they're getting an upgrade - 10G isn't amazing but as you say, it's a massive improvement and if they are stunted they won't grow much more anyway.

Situation 2 -

The filter works which is great! I'd do some small water changes each day to slowly bring the nitrate down (about 15% or so) and keep that up until that tank is looking (and testing) better. Then I would look at the stock and see what they would let me shift around to get a good community and rehome any large fish.