Dismay At Work Colleague

[Bloo]

I knew my one colleague has a small fishtank but for some reason we never spoke about it much in the past and I was under the impression she just had a few live bearers in her 10 gallon tank.

How very wrong I was
- when this morning she came to me and said "oh by the way I thought we were going to loose all our fish". So we had a conversation and it transpires that she has roughly the following in her tank :

a Common plec that's 6" already (but he's soooooo lovely she says!)
a "bunch" of cories
guppies -many
neons - many
mollies - many
and some other fish she really can't describe - so who knows.....

Apparently she decided to do a huge tank clean on the weekend and things "went a bit wrong" - when the next morning they were all gasping at the top and there were a couple dead What happened was, she cleaned the entire tank and replaced all filter media (completely) - on top of buying a few new fish as "numbers were a bit low".

Well, where on earth do I start to even try and give advice without making it sound that she's killing her pets? I tried by mentioning what the common plec will grow to be and showed her a picture on the web - but she just laughed it off.

I tried to give a few tips, but that's probably as much as I can do (sigh).

 

[@ombomb]

It's hard isn't it.

A friend from work came in all please last week with the Bowl and comon goldfish he had bought.

He reassured me they only grow to the size of the tank...

 

[CFC]

When dealing with people who are obvious idiots when it comes to fish i just stop talking to them about the subject and let them get on with it, some people just dont want to learn about the finer points of fish keeping.
A guy i used to work with had 2 common plecs, an oscar, 2 clarias catfish and an ornate bichir in a standard 48x12x15" tank and insisted that water changes were bad for your fish and should only be done twice a year when you change the entire tank, he also like your friend would replace all the media when the filter became clogged and said that the sponges actually removed pollution from the water from chemicals on them and point blank refused to believe that filtration was actually taken care of by bacteria. We argued for a bit and then i just gave up talking to him about it, eventually his tank suffered a massive pH crash and most of the fish died so he gave up fish keeping.

 

[jungle king]

hopfully this will not workout in the order showen but things can happen. You could allways find a big tank and give it to her and say thins tank is just the right size for all you fish P.s. don't get anymore fish

 

[The-Wolf]

Well, where on earth do I start to even try and give advice

get her to join this forum. We'll put her straight (nicely )

 

[Bloo]

Yeah - I think for my own sake I'll just stay out of it and avoid the conversation - but I do almost find it amusing (in an insanely frustrating way) that she just doesn't seem to want to know and is surprised when it all goes horribly wrong. Grrrrrr

Well, where on earth do I start to even try and give advice

get her to join this forum. We'll put her straight (nicely )

Can't quite do that ! she's our HR manager and will immediately see just exactly how much time I spend on here )
(my cat avatar give it away).

 

[Fella]

When dealing with people who are obvious idiots when it comes to fish i just stop talking to them about the subject and let them get on with it, some people just dont want to learn about the finer points of fish keeping.
A guy i used to work with had 2 common plecs, an oscar, 2 clarias catfish and an ornate bichir in a standard 48x12x15" tank and insisted that water changes were bad for your fish and should only be done twice a year when you change the entire tank, he also like your friend would replace all the media when the filter became clogged and said that the sponges actually removed pollution from the water from chemicals on them and point blank refused to believe that filtration was actually taken care of by bacteria. We argued for a bit and then i just gave up talking to him about it, eventually his tank suffered a massive pH crash and most of the fish died so he gave up fish keeping.

Yeah, as harsh as it sounds I go along with this. From the sounds of things it's near impossible to get someone who obviously doesn't care about fish to magically start caring. I'd much rather just not know about their stupidity than hear about it and how badly they care for (and will always care for) their fish. I know it sounds selfish, but in my experience of trying to turn people onto ethical fish keeping, its usually a waste of time and effort.

As for keeping that many fish in a ten gallon, do people ever stop and think "I bet fish live this close together in the wild". I can't imagine that many fish, in being such a small body of water in the wild, it's madness for people to think otherwise.

 

[trace1]

i have the same problem with 1 of our friends, hes got a 2 foot tank with around
4 neons
2 angels
2 bronze corys
& what i think were about 4 zebra danios
i'm sure there was something else in there but can't remember now.
but all i get out of him is 'well they only grow to the size of the tank'
got sick of hearing it now so try not to talk to him about it

 

[soritan]

These are the same people who accuse us of being 'obsessed' with our fish in an 'unnatural' and 'bad' way. It's too depressing to talk fish to them, for me, so I generally avoid it, as I prefer not to think of them as inhumane and ignorant while I may. But yeah, it's frustrating to no end. If I hear one more of those types laugh at me and say, "but they're just fish!" I may give up telling people I'm into them at all.

 

[lljdma06]

I used to know a lady who kept neon tetras with goldfish.

I explained to her once that they just don't go together.

She said, "But they look so cute together, especially when the big one chases the little one."

 

[soritan]

When I was young, I knew a lady who kept something around 20 neon tetras in a 1 or 2 gallon hex tank (it was tiny, I'll leave it at that). It was sort of like a living lava lamp, with these little fish dashing from one side to another. It was mesmerizing. She often told me how 'stupid' the fish were, and how all they did was swim back and forth and die. Of course, I was young then, and I didn't know what was going on. They were probably in a panic, dashing to and fro.

 

[Durbkat]

bloozoo2 have you seen this tank? I mean how cramped does it look? I can't imagine a 6" long pleco and all those other fish being able to move. I bet they just set there all bored because they can't move

 

[TX26257]

Ok we there is a lady in my office who keeps a saltwater nano cube and a yellow tang

 

[Xtech]

When dealing with people who are obvious idiots when it comes to fish i just stop talking to them about the subject and let them get on with it, some people just dont want to learn about the finer points of fish keeping

I totally agree, It's unfortunate because the fish suffer but, some people are not open to learning how to do it the proper way.

Yeah, as harsh as it sounds I go along with this. From the sounds of things it's near impossible to get someone who obviously doesn't care about fish to magically start caring. I'd much rather just not know about their stupidity than hear about it and how badly they care for (and will always care for) their fish. I know it sounds selfish, but in my experience of trying to turn people onto ethical fish keeping, its usually a waste of time and effort.

How true!

 

[prankster705]

One of my friends has 2 20 cm adult redneck turtles in a 40 liter (aproximatly 12 us galons), and they need around 400 liters (aproximatly 120 us galons), and somewhere where they can get out of the water, but he just doesnt care.