This is the stuff that annoys me about this hobby

KiwiGal77 said:

Apologies, the dog got onto the laptop


As I was saying .... surely anyone who botheres to go to forums to learn about better fishkeeping wouldn't be naive enough to create or try and sell that sort of discus/cory set up...


But they sure need to get their butt onto this forum, for the sake of their poor fish!

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Isn't it great living in NZ? Today I went exploring and found everything I needed 10 minutes from home, we are incredibly lucky to live here.

not quite annoying but omg.

I found this in Gumtree when I was looking for aquatic plants. Bare bottom tank with an interesting collection of fishes and flora.

Colin_T said:

not quite annoying but omg.

I found this in Gumtree when I was looking for aquatic plants. Bare bottom tanks with interesting flora.

Discus aquarium | Fish | Gumtree Australia Armadale Area - Kelmscott | 1299665922

Discus aquarium setup,comes with everything in photos including 11 discus fish worth including breeding pair 6 Corys,6 Gouramis,6 Bristlenose catfish,1 ..., 1299665922

www.gumtree.com.au

View attachment 165353

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Is it possible to buy sunglasses for fish thesedays?

wasmewasntit said:

Is it possible to buy sunglasses for fish these days?

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I love colour but I had to turn the brightness down on my monitor when viewing that

Colin_T said:

not quite annoying but omg.

I found this in Gumtree when I was looking for aquatic plants. Bare bottom tank with an interesting collection of fishes and flora.

Discus aquarium | Fish | Gumtree Australia Armadale Area - Kelmscott | 1299665922

Discus aquarium setup,comes with everything in photos including 11 discus fish worth including breeding pair 6 Corys,6 Gouramis,6 Bristlenose catfish,1 ..., 1299665922

www.gumtree.com.au

View attachment 165353

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And last but not least...

One I've just found... I'm selling some tanks I no longer need on Gumtree, just went to browse tanks for sale to see what sort of price range I should try for one of them, and this was one of the first things I saw;


I cannot get the photos to save in a format that will upload here, I'm sorry, don't know how to convert them when "save image as" doesn't work. But it's two large, fancy goldfish in a nano cube, a foot square of space for two LARGE fancies.
The description;

"Moving house and sadly can’t take our fish with us.

Really nice Nano cube tank. A foot square and 35cm high. Comes with an Eheim filter and an LED light.

Fantail goldfish and a black moor included. The fantail is fairly old now so I’m not sure how much longer he will live."

They even call it a nano tank in the title of the ad. It's also pretty easy to move a nano tank that's a foot each side, so the "oh we can't take them with us" rings a bit hollow. Not that I want them to keep the fish either.

Please don't ask me to rescue them. If they were common goldfish I could just throw into my outdoor pond, I would. But I'm definitely not able to house a tank large enough for fancies. But I do feel terrible for them stuck in that ridiculous nano cube.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

One I've just found... I'm selling some tanks I no longer need on Gumtree, just went to browse tanks for sale to see what sort of price range I should try for one of them, and this was one of the first things I saw;


I cannot get the photos to save in a format that will upload here, I'm sorry, don't know how to convert them when "save image as" doesn't work. But it's two large, fancy goldfish in a nano cube, a foot square of space for two LARGE fancies.
The description;

"Moving house and sadly can’t take our fish with us.

Really nice Nano cube tank. A foot square and 35cm high. Comes with an Eheim filter and an LED light.

Fantail goldfish and a black moor included. The fantail is fairly old now so I’m not sure how much longer he will live."

They even call it a nano tank in the title of the ad. It's also pretty easy to move a nano tank that's a foot each side, so the "oh we can't take them with us" rings a bit hollow. Not that I want them to keep the fish either.

Please don't ask me to rescue them. If they were common goldfish I could just throw into my outdoor pond, I would. But I'm definitely not able to house a tank large enough for fancies. But I do feel terrible for them stuck in that ridiculous nano cube.

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Oh. Same person also selling their slightly larger 80 by 35cm tank with a weird mix of unsuitable fish here, which of course, includes a rainbow shark with cories

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

One I've just found... I'm selling some tanks I no longer need on Gumtree, just went to browse tanks for sale to see what sort of price range I should try for one of them, and this was one of the first things I saw;

Second-Hand Aquariums for Sale in Kingswood, Bristol | Gumtree

Find great local deals on second-hand aquariums for sale in Kingswood, Bristol ✅ Shop hassle-free with Gumtree, your local buying & selling community.

www.gumtree.com

I cannot get the photos to save in a format that will upload here, I'm sorry, don't know how to convert them when "save image as" doesn't work. But it's two large, fancy goldfish in a nano cube, a foot square of space for two LARGE fancies.
The description;

"Moving house and sadly can’t take our fish with us.

Really nice Nano cube tank. A foot square and 35cm high. Comes with an Eheim filter and an LED light.

Fantail goldfish and a black moor included. The fantail is fairly old now so I’m not sure how much longer he will live."

They even call it a nano tank in the title of the ad. It's also pretty easy to move a nano tank that's a foot each side, so the "oh we can't take them with us" rings a bit hollow. Not that I want them to keep the fish either.

Please don't ask me to rescue them. If they were common goldfish I could just throw into my outdoor pond, I would. But I'm definitely not able to house a tank large enough for fancies. But I do feel terrible for them stuck in that ridiculous nano cube.

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That cube is not even at its fill level either......so at a guess its 20-25 litres of puddle that they are existing in....or should I say 20-25 litres of toilet water since they are messy little so'n'so's.

wasmewasntit said:

That cube is not even at its fill level either......so at a guess its 20-25 litres of puddle that they are existing in....or should I say 20-25 litres of toilet water since they are messy little so'n'so's.

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It's horrible isn't it! I honestly don't know how those fish are even still alive.
I can grant people a lot of leeway if they get things wrong and don't know better. Although in the days of the internet at you fingertips, there really isn't an excuse not to research a pet before buying it either. But there's absolutely no excuse for this. Even someone who knows nothing about fish should look at a fish the size of a human hand, let alone two of them, look at the size of that nano cube, and think "nah, that ain't right".

I have a nano cube like that in my cupboard, holds 15L. But I only got it to play around with aquascaping a tiny tank, and thought maybe, maaaybe I might pop a few shrimp in it. But even then, not many shrimp. These people throw two huge fancy goldfish in there like it's nothing then want money for it.

I can't rescue the goldfish, sadly, but I have sent a message about the fish in the other tank to see if I can rescue them and rehome any I can't house long term. Wish me luck.

The problem to me is cut off points. We can get very upset by what other people do with their tanks, and obvious cruelty is an issue. But I have a friend who gets snotty if he sees SA fish in with Asian fish, or any sort of hybrids. I won't answer flowerhorn or blood parrot questions. We all have our cut off points in what we think the hobby should be, but once you start defining disaster tanks - I don't know how constructive that is.

Yes, the goldfish are a bit big for the little tank but at least the gravel in the goldfish tank looks clean, so the owner used to do some maintenance on the tank. We also don't know how long she has had the goldfish. he might have bought them 20 years ago as tiny little things and was told they would be fine.

A lot of people have rainbow or redtail sharks in community tanks. They are tough and do well in tanks where some other types of fish don't do well. The owner probably had bad advice from a pet shop, just like most of us have.

Water levels in aquariums can drop pretty fast due to evaporation. This is made worse by tanks being open top and not having covers. Combine this with the owner having to pack and move, the fish can get neglected for a few weeks and the water level can drop during that time.

The water in the goldfish tank actually looks clear so it's been looked after to a degree. If the tank was only half full, and there was black gunk in the gravel with yellow water, then it would be different.

Colin_T said:

Second-Hand Aquariums for Sale in Kingswood, Bristol | Gumtree

Find great local deals on second-hand aquariums for sale in Kingswood, Bristol ✅ Shop hassle-free with Gumtree, your local buying & selling community.

www.gumtree.com

Yes, the goldfish are a bit big for the little tank but at least the gravel in the goldfish tank looks clean, so the owner used to do some maintenance on the tank. We also don't know how long she has had the goldfish. he might have bought them 20 years ago as tiny little things and was told they would be fine.

A lot of people have rainbow or redtail sharks in community tanks. They are tough and do well in tanks where some other types of fish don't do well. The owner probably had bad advice from a pet shop, just like most of us have.

Water levels in aquariums can drop pretty fast due to evaporation. This is made worse by tanks being open top and not having covers. Combine this with the owner having to pack and move, the fish can get neglected for a few weeks and the water level can drop during that time.

The water in the goldfish tank actually looks clear so it's been looked after to a degree. If the tank was only half full, and there was black gunk in the gravel with yellow water, then it would be different.

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You're really defending sticking two huge fancy goldfish in a cube that's a foot square?

I honestly couldn't give a damn that it's clean. I'm not giving them credit for cleaning their torture box. It probably would have been better for the fish if they hadn't and their suffering had ended faster.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

You're really defending sticking two huge fancy goldfish in a cube that's a foot square?

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I'm not defending 2 large goldfish in a small tank. Yes, they should be in a bigger tank with more plants but you don't know how long she has had them for. If she bought them that size last year and a pet shop said its fine, that is bad. But if she got them years ago when they were small, not quite as bad.

Yes, they need a bigger tank but it could be worse. They could be comet or common goldfish (single tail with more natural shaped body) that needs way more swimming space, and the water and tank could be absolutely filthy.

I have seen neglected tanks and tanks with the wrong fish in. I know some people disregard the advice of pet shops and pet shops don't always give good advice. Not everyone has had great advice from shops and the person selling them probably hasn't been informed as much or as well as she could have been.

The internet is here and fish forums have been around for over 20 years so there is information out there, but it's not always correct. I have been on plenty of fish forums and had to educate lots of people that apparently knew how to keep fish. Not everyone is interested in fish forums or is engrossed with fish like most of the people here are. To me, it could be better for the fish but it's certainly not the worse tank I have seen, in fact it doesn't even come close to some tanks I have seen.

Colin_T said:

I'm not defending 2 large goldfish in a small tank. Yes, they should be in a bigger tank with more plants but you don't know how long she has had them for. If she bought them that size last year and a pet shop said its fine, that is bad. But if she got them years ago when they were small, not quite as bad.

Yes, they need a bigger tank but it could be worse. They could be comet or common goldfish (single tail with more natural shaped body) that needs way more swimming space, and the water and tank could be absolutely filthy.

I have seen neglected tanks and tanks with the wrong fish in. I know some people disregard the advice of pet shops and pet shops don't always give good advice. Not everyone has had great advice from shops and the person selling them probably hasn't been informed as much or as well as she could have been.

The internet is here and fish forums have been around for over 20 years so there is information out there, but it's not always correct. I have been on plenty of fish forums and had to educate lots of people that apparently knew how to keep fish. Not everyone is interested in fish forums or is engrossed with fish like most of the people here are. To me, it could be better for the fish but it's certainly not the worse tank I have seen, in fact it doesn't even come close to some tanks I have seen.

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While I agree that a lot of people are mis-sold fish and that there's a lot of misinformation out there, and that it's not the worst tank to have ever existed (not that I ever claimed it was the worst tank even I've ever seen, have seen worse advertised too) I'm not as forgiving to people who buy pets without researching them properly at all.

I'm starting to think that my parents were unusual. As kids begging for a pet, they always told us that we had to know how to care for the animal before even considering buying it. Made us look through their reference books, go to the library to get more books, to read, take notes, and know all the essentials. What type of enclosure, food, daily care, group numbers etc, and we had to know whether we'd be able to provide that for the rest of the animal's lifetime. So we had a lot of small animals as pets, but a horse was a no! etc. But they drilled into us that all of that had to happen, and we had to have the animals habitat set up and ready before getting the pet. That that is the only responsible thing. Pet care also always had to be done first, so I wasn't able to go play at the weekends until the guinea pigs had been cleaned out, that kind of thing. The more I see now, the more I think those life lessons they instilled in us are apparently unusual...

When a beginner comes here who has made mistakes due to bad advice from a fish store, or having read bad advice, but is actually trying, I have always gone above and beyond to help them, been polite, told them that it's not their fault if they trusted a fish store employee who gave them terrible advice, because they really should be able to trust what a store is telling them. So I still don't hold that against someone who genuinely thought it was okay, and is looking for help to save their remaining fish etc. But that patience has a limit.

The research my folks made us do was in the days before the internet, and researching meant actually researching by hunting through books and *gasp* reading. With the internet, there's no excuse, I'm sorry, there isn't. People scanning the first result they get when they google how to keep a fish, then just buying it because "it's just a fish, and I'm not gonna bother reading any more than a single article about how to care for it" isn't okay with me, never will be.