Cruelly Overstocked 5g

i knew a guy a while back that had 9 neons, 5 bloodfins and 6 corys in a 2 gallon, no heater, no filter, no light...needless to say they where dead in less than a month 1/2..after that he was given a speech on how to properly keep fish..he now has a 110gal with discus that has been running for almost 3 years..what a little listening will do..i tell you...
 
2.5 gallon

I have seen a 2.5 gallon with 10 neon tetras 2 cherry barbs 1 betta and a ADF
 
That makes me feel sick. Poor, poor fishies. Perhaps you could make up a cunning plan to take tyem off her hands...he he he.
 
Then she'd prolly just get more, since "she's been keeping fish forever." Ugh. That's too sad.
 
Don't you wish that fish had the same rights as other animals? I hope that one day, in my life time, they do.
 
Unfortunately most people do not consider fish pets. They are mere children "toys" you win at the carnival. I dont have any malice towards those people, after all we stuff edible fish into tanks that are so small they cannot even move, and then smack their heads in and gut them for "seafood". That's the same indifference most people have towards hobby fish. And can you really blame them?

A great nature preservist named janine benyus once said "In the end, we save what we love, we love what we understand, we understand only what we have knowledge of" That rings especially true in fish. The best thing any of us can do is to educate the uninformed. And sometimes we just have to accept the fact that not everyone have the intelligence to listen & learn.

I remember before i started this hobby (less than 6 months ago!), in one of my parents' friend's party, i saw a large silver arowana been kept in a tank that's one and half times his body length!! Everytime he tries to turn(barely), his tail smacks the glass or the heater. At the time i had not a clue, and thought like everyone else cool fish/tank. Now i know what fish that was and how badly overstocked the tank really was. I would definitly said something to the owner if i had that knowledge back then. Ironically the owner is a college professor too, someone who supposely are smart enough to understand the concept of research before execution. Guess he just doesnt care about fish...yet.

anyway didnt mean to ramble on, yeah take a picture of the 5gallon...it will be (worst) tank of the year
 
I wonder what sort of water change schedule this person is using. I can only imagine that they are very sporadic if any at all.

But, if she runs a huge filter, does large water changes every week and vacuums the hell out of her substrate...that amount of fish could theoretically live an almost slightly somewhat perhaps just a small amount of a semi-barely healthy existence.
 
I know this is an older thread but....

After reading over this I'm wondering if I have too many in my 5 gallon tank.

I've only recently started keeping a tank having gotten a 5 gallon hex tank for Christmas. At first I used it as a Betta tank, but after my Betta got the bloat and had to be put down I purchased a couple of Zebra Danois sp?, and a couple of Tetra's. All 4 fish are still really small so I added 4 more smaller fish 2 are long tail danio's and 2 are a tetra type fish, I just forget which one. Also I've added a sucker fish for an algae problem I had a couple of months ago. I do regular water changes about every other week and change the filter every 2-3 weeks. Will I have problems in the future with this many in this size of tank?


Also. 3 weeks ago I purchased 2 plants to add to the tank and after a rather foul smell (and my sucker fish tearing the plants up) I removed them. Last week I noticed a snail in my tank and didn't think much of it thinking it was just on the plants. However, when I changed the water this afternoon I pulled over 20 snails from the tank and still saw a bunch in the gravel. I called Petsmart and talked to the fish guy there and he recommended "Had-a-Snail" solution.

I took the fish out of the tank and have done a complete water change. I asked the fish guy if I should wash the gravel and he recommended strongly against it because of the helpful bacteria. I understand this. I did read though that because my systems has a bio-wheel that it should be ok to do a complete gravel wash. Would anyone have an answer for me about this?

I want to rid myself of the snail problem and read about getting Loaches, but I know I do not have the space to get a couple more pair of fish. (not sure how big YoYo loaches get). So I may try the cucumber or lettuce trick.


There's so many questions I have, but this being my first post I shall save them for later once I get answers to my current problem.


Thank you,
Chris
 
RiverKid said:
After reading over this I'm wondering if I have too many in my 5 gallon tank.
Yes, you do.

I've only recently started keeping a tank having gotten a 5 gallon hex tank for Christmas. At first I used it as a Betta tank, but after my Betta got the bloat and had to be put down I purchased a couple of Zebra Danois sp?, and a couple of Tetra's. All 4 fish are still really small so I added 4 more smaller fish 2 are long tail danio's and 2 are a tetra type fish, I just forget which one. Also I've added a sucker fish for an algae problem I had a couple of months ago. I do regular water changes about every other week and change the filter every 2-3 weeks. Will I have problems in the future with this many in this size of tank?
You've got enough fish in there for a 10g tank.


Also. 3 weeks ago I purchased 2 plants to add to the tank and after a rather foul smell (and my sucker fish tearing the plants up) I removed them. Last week I noticed a snail in my tank and didn't think much of it thinking it was just on the plants. However, when I changed the water this afternoon I pulled over 20 snails from the tank and still saw a bunch in the gravel. I called Petsmart and talked to the fish guy there and he recommended "Had-a-Snail" solution.
I hope you didn't use that junk. Snails are actually good for your tank -- they eat leftover food and algae. If you have too many snails it's because you are overfeeding your fish. Your snail population will only grow as large as the available food supply.

I suggest you cut back on the feeding a lot and you'll see the snail population go down.

I took the fish out of the tank and have done a complete water change. I asked the fish guy if I should wash the gravel and he recommended strongly against it because of the helpful bacteria. I understand this. I did read though that because my systems has a bio-wheel that it should be ok to do a complete gravel wash. Would anyone have an answer for me about this?
You don't need to wash your gravel. Change the water weekly, not biweekly, in amounts of 25-50% and gravel vac each time.

I want to rid myself of the snail problem and read about getting Loaches, but I know I do not have the space to get a couple more pair of fish. (not sure how big YoYo loaches get). So I may try the cucumber or lettuce trick.
Do not add any more fish. The ones in there are already cramped. Use the cucumber and lettuce and cut back on the food.

Roan
 
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