55gal stocked tank and i know nothing about fish

You have been given lots of good advice so far. I would add that you must, first off, is get a book from the library and read up on aquariums. This hobby is not a buy and die learning process. You must learn about it and decide what kind of aquarium you want. One wrong thing or fish can wipe your tank out. I'll ad that I have a very large pair of angels in with small fish like neons, with no problem. but the tank is large and well planted.
 
This thread is really just ridiculous. If you are unwilling to do anything proactive about the situation (ie. rehoming the fish and then taking a sledgehammer to the tank so they can't get any more), I would just ignore it completely and your friends will grow tired of spending their money and having nothing to show for it soon enough.

IMO, by you "helping" keep the fish alive, by doing some water changes etc., while they just continue (and I am sure will continue for a while) to get new fish and ignore the tank, you are just prolonging the inevitable. Those fish will all die, and your friends will eventually get bored and stop buying more. The longer the fish stay just barely alive, the more fish they will continue to get, the more fish will eventually suffer and die in this tank-o-death. So I would wash your hands of the whole thing, and then hopefully get some new friends that have a modicum of intelligence and maturity.
:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:
 
I'm really sorry about this situation. It really sounds like you want to take care of it, but your hands are tied, so you are desperately trying to remedy the situation.

However, it sounds as if this is too far gone. The inappropriate stock, the cycling tank, now, the onset of disease is going to be the death of these fish soon. Yes, it is possible to bring fish back from the brink-if you isolate them in quarantine tanks and keep the water perfect. This doesn't seem as if it is possible.

You can remove fish and say that they have died, while selling them back to the LFS.
 
You can remove fish and say that they have died, while selling them back to the LFS.
I wouldn't recommend that. That would be illegal.

Sorry to hear about your problems. Wish I could offer some useful advice but since it's not your tank you are terribly limited in what you can do. I wish you the best of luck but it's really up to the tank owners to get their act together and it doesn't sound like they are yet conducive to that idea.
 
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