Beware of advice from the LFS.

[Mgamer20o0]

yep it happens....

i think liv2padl statement is 100% true.... not saying all of them just most of them should never listen too.

 

[lwooters]

Last week when I went to my LFS (across the street from walmart) there was a girl in there who probably spent $60 on fish for her new 20 gallon aquarium that was still in her car, she had just bought it from walmart. All the guy at the LFS could say in warning was: good thing you didn't buy your fish from walmart. Like it would really matter at this point.

 

[chewey]

46 BOWFRONT IN TROUBLE

Nice to have a new aquarist on board,WELCOME!
Well you made a good choice in buying a larger tank as a smaller one is a little harder to take care of. Of course you have learned lesson one,READand then READ some more. The people here will not steer you wrong as they are not trying to sell you anything. Please,when you cycle your tank buy a test strip kit or something similar to test your water every day untill your ammonia is 0 ppms,nitrite 0 ppms,nitrate aprox. 10 ppms. A good start for ph value is neutral(7.0-7.2) hardness is a factor that you will have to contend with depending where you get your water from.
When you get your water set try a couple of zebra dainios to cycle the tank,they are inexpensive and do a good job of cycling.
Of course you could use live bacteria to help cycle the tank also.
Now,if you are going to buy tiger barbs,buy at least 10-15 as they will take thier aggression out on each other not your other fish,they are schooling fish and need others of their own kind to do well,and neons or cardinals are out of the question with barbs(they need soft water to do well and are not generally compatable with barbs)
I know i said we are not trying to sell you anything but a test kit is invaluable to keeping fish

Good Luck! CHEWEY:hang:

 

[echoofformless]

In my experience there is no difference in ease of care between larger and smaller tanks. It's a myth if you ask me. And in fact, I would say a smaller tank can be claimed as easier to care for because it requires less time, money and effort to do the regular maintenance. I dislike the days when I have to do my 55. I have to set aside a point where I have the time to dedicate to it all. It takes so long to vacuum all of that gravel, drain the old water, fill the new water, trim the plants, etc. Uses up a good bit of dechlorinator, ferts, etc. But maintenancing my 5? That takes me ten minutes and uses up hardly any chemicals or ferts at all. I can take care of a five or ten gallon tank pretty much any time of day that I feel like it.

And the fish in either tank are just as healthy as anything.

 

[jaekwon01]

If I see fish not being looked after, I have no problem saying it out loud.
I told a man and his son not to get a certain fish that the store person was recommending ( can't remember type) as it didn't go with the others he really wanted. When the store person came back, he just said he'd changed his mind. This was in a respected store. Perhaps just a slip.
In the big store where the problems seem to be more prominent due to lack of training etc I pointed out nearly half the tanks as being bad and nearly cleared the store....I quickly followed.
But my most recent event was finally choosing a pair of firemouths. The store person was quite interested as to how i knew the sex that they even gave me a discount. I had similar happen in their other branch too.
But it's true as stated above, theres good and bad everywhere, you just hear more about the bad.

 

[jaekwon01]

Well Echofformless thats why you love your fish

 

[Star_Rider]

jaekwon..you do realize this thread is 3 years old...right???

 

[SubRosa]

i'm glad that "you" are among the 'some'. if you read through these forums however, you'll find that the bad experiences number in the thousands, while the good experiences can be counted on one hand.

You're totally ignoring human nature with your comment. To quote a great man, "The good men do is oft interred with their bones, but the evil lives on after.So let it be with Caesar." What that means is that people are much less likely to remember and mention the good service they get, but they never forget or fail to mention a bad experience. Quite frankly I've seen some advice on this and other forums that would be laughable if following it didn't cause the death of fish. It goes to show that there are people everywhere who don't know how to say "I don't know, but let me find out for you."

 

[Mgamer20o0]

Quite frankly I've seen some advice on this and other forums that would be laughable if following it didn't cause the death of fish. It goes to show that there are people everywhere who don't know how to say "I don't know, but let me find out for you."

you have to figure out who is worth paying attention to and who ist be it life or online.

liv2padl was one of those who you should have paid attention to.

 

[SubRosa]

What he said was correct. But he only gave a part of the story.