I went to PetSmart last night, and was yet again amazed at the number of dead fish in the tanks... along with many other things:
~ 2 tropical tanks had fancy goldfish in them - one was a big fat orange and brown fish (in a tank w/ 2 plecos), and another one was white and orange with a big forehead (not bubble eyed) he was alone in that tank. wtf is up with that? The white/orange one looked so sad too, he was kind of resting on the bottom peering out. I was SO tempted to buy him that's how sad he looked, but he'd be too hot in my tank, and severely crowded...
~ New signage (paraphrased):
In order to maintain a nice peaceful tank, follow these (color coded) guidelines and put fish in the same color category together: tropical community - peaceful, tropical community - semi-aggressive, cold water, chichlid. Imagine a 29 gallon tank filled w/ fish from the tropical community - semi-aggressive category?
Fill your tank and let the water sit for 72 hours, then add a few fish. Add fish over the period of a few weeks, a few at a time until you have the fish you want. Nothing at all about cycling, stocking limits, etc...
~Register dude asked me how big my tank is, and what I have in it. I told him (it was a slow night there), and he goes "That sounds like a lot of fish in that size tank". To which I replied "Actually, it's just right. I'm looking to add 2-3 more barbs, then I'll be all set. But I haven't been able to find any barbs that aren't almost fully grown, or that don't have other dead barbs in the tank with them". That shut him up.
I did talk to the one fish girl who knows what's what about my sword plant though. She assured me that it's not unhealthy, the pleco is just eating it away, which is normal and healthy for him. She showed me (on a plastic sword) where to cut to get rid of the dead leaves, and also showed me how to cut the long stem with 'baby' plants growing off it and plant it in the gravel. I was glad I bumped into her (she was on her break), because I was this '...' close to tossing the real sword and plunking down $15 for a nice looking silk one.
I will not stop shopping there, at least for supplies... I'm going to try to get to a nicer lfs (non chain) this weekend to see if they have any barbs.
~Tara
~ 2 tropical tanks had fancy goldfish in them - one was a big fat orange and brown fish (in a tank w/ 2 plecos), and another one was white and orange with a big forehead (not bubble eyed) he was alone in that tank. wtf is up with that? The white/orange one looked so sad too, he was kind of resting on the bottom peering out. I was SO tempted to buy him that's how sad he looked, but he'd be too hot in my tank, and severely crowded...
~ New signage (paraphrased):
In order to maintain a nice peaceful tank, follow these (color coded) guidelines and put fish in the same color category together: tropical community - peaceful, tropical community - semi-aggressive, cold water, chichlid. Imagine a 29 gallon tank filled w/ fish from the tropical community - semi-aggressive category?
Fill your tank and let the water sit for 72 hours, then add a few fish. Add fish over the period of a few weeks, a few at a time until you have the fish you want. Nothing at all about cycling, stocking limits, etc...
~Register dude asked me how big my tank is, and what I have in it. I told him (it was a slow night there), and he goes "That sounds like a lot of fish in that size tank". To which I replied "Actually, it's just right. I'm looking to add 2-3 more barbs, then I'll be all set. But I haven't been able to find any barbs that aren't almost fully grown, or that don't have other dead barbs in the tank with them". That shut him up.
I did talk to the one fish girl who knows what's what about my sword plant though. She assured me that it's not unhealthy, the pleco is just eating it away, which is normal and healthy for him. She showed me (on a plastic sword) where to cut to get rid of the dead leaves, and also showed me how to cut the long stem with 'baby' plants growing off it and plant it in the gravel. I was glad I bumped into her (she was on her break), because I was this '...' close to tossing the real sword and plunking down $15 for a nice looking silk one.
I will not stop shopping there, at least for supplies... I'm going to try to get to a nicer lfs (non chain) this weekend to see if they have any barbs.
~Tara