a friend of my neighbour went and brought one of those 5 gallon starter tanks 2-3 days ago, brought gravel and fish and went home with it all. filled tank with water from tap-no dechlor,dumped gravel and 3 goldfish in and is now complaining that her house smells like a dirty nappy. my thoughts on this were maybe an ammonia build up,but then i thought no coz its too soon,so i asked her what filter she runs and she said i dont coz its cold water so it doesnt need one :headshake2: no matter how many times i tried to tell her that the tank needs to cycle,which yet again ended up with her telling me only warm water tanks need to sit with no fish in them (and yes i did try to tell her briefly what a cycle was) there seemed no way of getting through to her. all i keep thinking is poor poor fishies :headshake2: does anyone know of the briefest way i can put it to her about what cycling the tank does,maybe if i can blurt it all out fast enough she wont be able to interupt and tell me otherwise. i am considering bringing her round to see my goldie tank so she can see happy healthy fish instead of the 3 cramped into her uncycled, unfiltered, stagnant pot of water :mad2: its the usual £1.50 goldfish is cheap to replace theory i think.
simply annoying and wont listen
- Thread starter meandthetanks
- Start date
I think you should show your nieghbor's friend your tank, and then offer to help them set up their tank, so their fish will be happy. And don't let her get any goldfish! 5 gallons is way to small for a goldfish!
A betta would love 5 gallons all to himself though...
A betta would love 5 gallons all to himself though...
Three goldfish in a 5gallon will end in tears. All you can do is try to explain that cold water fish poop just as much as tropicals and therefore need the same setup as them. The only difference between cold water and tropical is that you don't need a heater.
Scoop 'em while they're not looking. Sounds mean, but a lot meaner would be to leave them there to die.
Sounds a lot like the customers my wife has to deal with at Petsmart. No matter how many times you tell them no, or how many times you refuse to sell fish, they just keep coming back and never listen or care for the recommendations. It's very frustrating indeed.
:grinyes: scoop them lol, i would love to but i know they would just go and buy more.its like she doesnt believe cold fish poop or breath,or maybe cold water renders ammonia harmless 
i wonder how someones brain can work like this!
i would bring her round to mine but my cold water tank is at present hugely over stocked
hubby went to drop some stuff off at his work mates house 2 days ago, and came home with a big fantail goldfish :angryfire: at first i was fuming,as ive already told him i cant have anymore fish in our tank,and then he explained that although she is big,they had had it for years sitting in their kitchen in a tank approx 1ftx6-8inches, and it just had a little algae covered castle thing to swim round. they just used to flip the fish into a mug, do a water change every few days and plop it back in,and chuck some flakes in every now and again. well, i figured it couldnt spend the night in a sandwich bag so it ended up in the tank,and now he says that out of all the fish we have,she is the only one thats his :headshake2: i guess shes staying-but hes helping lugging all the water out now when we need extra water changes :grinyes: he agreed! i have to admit she looks lovely in there, but i guess as soon as ive saved up the money im going to have to get a bigger tank-oh what a shame :drool:
i may bring her round anyway,at least my tank and fish look healthy and happy!
i wonder how someones brain can work like this! i would bring her round to mine but my cold water tank is at present hugely over stocked
hubby went to drop some stuff off at his work mates house 2 days ago, and came home with a big fantail goldfish :angryfire: at first i was fuming,as ive already told him i cant have anymore fish in our tank,and then he explained that although she is big,they had had it for years sitting in their kitchen in a tank approx 1ftx6-8inches, and it just had a little algae covered castle thing to swim round. they just used to flip the fish into a mug, do a water change every few days and plop it back in,and chuck some flakes in every now and again. well, i figured it couldnt spend the night in a sandwich bag so it ended up in the tank,and now he says that out of all the fish we have,she is the only one thats his :headshake2: i guess shes staying-but hes helping lugging all the water out now when we need extra water changes :grinyes: he agreed! i have to admit she looks lovely in there, but i guess as soon as ive saved up the money im going to have to get a bigger tank-oh what a shame :drool:i may bring her round anyway,at least my tank and fish look healthy and happy!
ive offered her some of my tank gravel to start off her cycle,and asked her to give back the goldies,though i doubt she will,told her if she wants cold water fish then why not try white cloud mountain minnows instead of goldfish as they get too big for the tank,she just nodded and changed the subject-infuriating woman!!!
My thoughts entirely....Sometimes, people just do not listen to advice, human nature really, and a fact...
Point is, all you can do is try your best to talk to the person and to get them to understand...If you have done that, and still not got through to them, then there is really no much more you can do besides let them learn the hard way, by making mistakes...Sometimes we need to make the mistakes before we can learn from them....
It very sad and all that fish / inverts / whatever have to suffer, but, what else can you do??? Realistically, not much more...
Just my opinion of course....
kj5kb
KEEPER OF CATS, FISH AND CATFISHES
Hmm...my 75G with 7 4-7" goldies and a 6" pleco smells like...well...pond water, definitely not nasty. And it's WAY overdue for a WC, too. Proper filtration helps 
I know how ya feel...I adopted several goldies from a neighbor and set them up a 5G with a few platy and endler juvies. So...of course a GOLDFISH shows up in the 5G tank...I give up.
Have you heard the saying:
"those convinced against their will-are of the same opinion still"
???
--Don
I know how ya feel...I adopted several goldies from a neighbor and set them up a 5G with a few platy and endler juvies. So...of course a GOLDFISH shows up in the 5G tank...I give up.
Have you heard the saying:
"those convinced against their will-are of the same opinion still"
???
--Don