Pet Fish | Imamother

Chanie ↓

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 7:10 am

I just "inherited" a 50 gallon fish tank. Quite an impressive item, but I know nothing about fish.
Firstly, I hate when I see fish tanks that are not sparkling clean, how do I prevent that from happing (I see that even people who have filters, often have dirty water)
Can anyone give me a list of care info I should have (I do not want to kill them right away, so I want as much info as possible)
Thanks everyone in advance.
(As I think of more questions I'll be sure to post it)

chen ↓

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 8:19 am

Chanie wrote:

I hate when I see fish tanks that are not sparkling clean, how do I prevent that from happing (I see that even people who have filters, often have dirty water)

1. do not overfeed the fish.
2. use a filter slightly bigger than what is recommended for the tank size
3. do not have too many fish
4. clean the tank often. this means removing the fish to another vessel and scrubbing the tank and e/t in it. no way around that, alas.
5. forget fish and make it into a terrarium. LOL

↑ Chanie

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 8:26 am

chen wrote:

5. forget fish and make it into a terrarium. LOL

What a great idea Idea

but I'm not the plant person. I like the way fish look, just hate the idea of all the work.
About cleaning out the tank.. can you imagine removing all the water every week from a 50 gallon tank? I'd spend 2 days at it, plus I got other housework shock

I heard something about replacing 1/3 of the water every other week... anyone hear that?

cindy324 ↓

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 9:02 am

we had a 75 gallon tank, and it was my hubby's pet project, so he did all the cleaning. Sometimes he would slack off, and not clean it for a while, and algae would be growing on all sides of the tank, gross. It also starts to stink if you don't clean it regularly. as far as changing the water, you can buy a special hose made special for fishtanks. You attach it to the nearest sink, turn a button on it, and it sucks out the dirty water into the sink, then reverse it and it fills up the tank with clean water. You also have to buy chemicals to keep the ph balance at a desirable level , otherwise they die. Have to make sure you know how to spot a sick fish, even in the pet store. Learn about a condition called Ick(that's right) that's quite easy to spot, but if you miss it that one fish will kill your entire tank--I know, it happened to us. You also have to make sure to ask the pet store people wwhich fish can live together peacefully, cause one aggressive fish and he'll be having the others for dinner--no kidding , seen it with my own eyes. Hubby bought a pretty little dainty $25 fish, dropped it in the tank and 5 minutes later it bacame another fish's gourmet dinner. You may consider having a pro set it up if you don't mind spending some money.

↑ chen ↓

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 9:11 am

hisorerus wrote:

There's a kind of snail that cleans the water.

I forgot about the snails, we gave our tank away when our eldest reached the "pull-up-and-cruise" stage.

the snails don't exactly clean the water, but they eat bits and pieces of leftover food and gunk. they help but do not eliminate the need for regular cleaning. there are also little manual "vacuum cleaners" (sort of turkey basters with attached bags to collect solids) that you can use to pick up some of the solid waste lying around on the bottom.

the books recommend replacing 1/3 of the water every week, but that takes you only so far. eventually you have to drain out the entire tank unless you are cultivating a swamp ecosystem.

too bad you don't like plants. old aquarium water is loaded with nitrogenous waste products and is supposedly fantastic for watering plants, indoors or out. I never tried it myself, as the idea of fish poop in my flowerpots offended my esthetic sensibilities. LOL

I'd have tried it had I had an outdoor garden, though.

Last edited by chen on Thu, Nov 17 2005, 9:22 am; edited 1 time in total

red sea

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 9:17 am

Assuming it's a salt water tank, it's tons of work unless you have the money to hire a service guy, there's no way around it. Change 1/4 of tank water every other week, clean the glass and turn the sand a bit weekly. You need to filter the new water going in, test the salt level, clean filter at least once a month. Feed the fish just right - too much food makes a dirty tank - too little and they'll eat each other. Snails and hermit crabs and sand sifters keep the tank clean too. Also too much light from sun or from bulb will cause algae to grow overtime. Good Luck.

Yael

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 9:33 am

when you first set it up you must let it run for a week with the filter on before you buy fish. the first fish you buy should be the extra strong variety like tetras. or goldfish. and cheap b/c these fish are essentially starting off the production of chemicals that is needed to keep the fish happy. without the chemical to begin with these fish could easily die. the waste produces a chemical that is essential for fish. so it takes time to cycle the tank till you have enough of this chemical inside to maintain other fish. always add fish a few at a time/ per week to avoid overloading the filter.
you can also buy this chemical to put in the tank at the beginning to jumpstart the production of this chemical. I wish I could remember the name.
when the algae starts to grow, you will reach diff. stages in the cycle of a tank. diff. colors and types of algae till you reach the regular green algae that grows on the walls. when this happens you know you have reached the long term level of the cycle. and now you can buy your favorite fish.(I hope I'm being clear, if not just ask)

to clean the tank dont bother with algae killers poisens. they dont work and are bad for the fish. to keep the tank spotles you'll have to clean the walls of the tank and the stones every week from algae. just stick a sponge inside and rub it. every 2 weeks change 1/3 of the water with a gravel filter making sure to pick up all the waste from the gravel. do not change too much water at once b/c then you lower the level of that chemical to below what is needed. and never change the whole water b/c you just lost all that chemicals. and you'll have to start over.

every month or two you'll need to take out every item of decoration in the tank, not the gravel, and clean it at the sink to remove the algae.

its a lot of work tomaintain a tank, dont have such high expectations of keeping it spotless b/c you'll go crazy cleaning all the time.

supermom

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 10:41 pm

there is a cleaner a fish cleaner big black and really ugly but for us it was a dream it cleans your stones, rocks, and the actual tank windows. we didn't clean out the fish tank to often because of this fish cleaner that did the job for us. as for changing the water the best bet is change the water ever two to three weeks changing only a quater of it or so and it really keeps it clean.

↑ chen ↓

Fri, Nov 18 2005, 5:22 am

depending on where u live, u'd better have a/c in the summer. despite their name, tropical fish don't tolerate water that's too warm. if ur house gets very hot in summer, so will the water in the tank, and realisitically there's not much you can do abt it. (you could in theory rig up a mechanism by wrapping the tank in a wet blanket and running a fan across it to provide evapoartive cooling, but you'd have to keep the blanket wet and the fan running all the time. Hardly seems worth the trouble.) we watched our gorgeous tetras go thru their death pangs during a heat wave one summer . Once the water hit the critical temperature, it took maybe 2 minutes and every single one was dead. Sad

↑ chen

Fri, Nov 18 2005, 5:31 am

I just remembered a funny fish tale my friend told me. one morning when she went to the bathroom she found a fish swimming around in the toilet! her husband had come home at night and found the fish on the floor, having apparnetly jumped out of the tank. Believing the fish to be dead, he "buried it at sea". they figured that the fish had jumped out shortly before the husband found it, and it was not yet dead but stunned. being put in the water evidently revivied it--it must have been awfully strong to fight the flow of the flushing toilet! it swam arounf happily in the bowl till the a.m., when my friend found it and returned it to the tank. PS the fish must have been suicidal b/c it jumped out several more times after that.

tzivi

Sat, Nov 19 2005, 3:57 am

mommy2 wrote:

Gosh , after reading all this, why would you ever want a fish?? I'll go for the fisher price ofish tanks, they're way easier to maintain.

I agree. As much as I love fish in fish tanks, I am afraid that I have never succeeded and always end up killing them.

However, my kids unanimously agree that we should use them for kapporos! LOL LOL