Friend at work

[playfulalliecat]

I have a friend at work who told me he has been keeping bala sharks and a couple of plecos in a 55 gallon tank for 8 years. (Not sure of the sizes or how many) He said last night he cleaned the tank for the first time in 3 months, vacuuming all the gravel and changing 50% of the water. Within 30 minutes all of the balas died. He had no idea why so I started asking questions. I asked about treating the water, what he used, how much........he said I have never treated the water at all. I was in shock, to say the least! He lives in the same town I do and has city water. I know from a report we got in the mail last week that the water here is pretty bad and has chlorine as well as chloramines. He said he has never in the entire 8 years put anything at all besides tap water in his tank.......no treatment, meds, etc. I also asked why he hadn't cleaned it and didn't he do more frequent water changes and he said no, just when it looks dirty every few months or so. I tried to explain to him the importance of water treatment for chemicals and water changes and how it affects the water parameters. He acted like I was crazy and said well it worked for 8 years so why the problem now? Anyway, I just wanted to get your opinions on this and see if anyone can explain why he was able to keep these fish alive with chlorine and chloramine for all that time. I am at a loss and I offered to check his water parameters too (before I found out he doesn't treat the water and his water change schedule if you could call it that). Now I have a feeling that checking the parameters is all a mute point. However, he does still have the plecos so maybe I could save them if I can talk some sense into him!

 

[steve-0]

wow thats bad....maybe the fish were to old to recover from the boost in chlorine and chloranmine...before they were probaly able to pull through... By the way whats the life span on balas and plecos

 

[Redbled]

Until recently, I had only done water changes about every 3 months or so. Done this for the past 7 years. Rarely did I have a problem, but my Oscar's recent HITH disease made me rethink what I do. I always treated the water to remove the chlorine when I did the infrequent changes though. In the past had been content for my fish to live for several years, not realizing the life expectancies of some, hoping to extend this by doing more frequent changes of the water. This board has been lifesaver for my fish needs.

 

[Jamnog]

chlorine a type of bleach will evaporate over time it takes 24 hours before the water is safe for most relatively hardy breeds of standard tropical fish. i sometimes use rainwater the water iin the tap around me has chlorine floride and a host of other chemicals that are soon dispelled. in a river in scotland there have been for the last 40 years high levals of mercury in the water and a full and healthy natural water system has florished. im not saying your friend was right to look at you like you where mad as it does do well to look after the water chemistry. but most fish put up with far worse.

 

[Fishsmurf]

I think another thing to bear in mind is the rapid developement of the hobby over the last few years, this combined with the Net have led to huge leaps / improvements in fishkeeping techniques.

Many of the "old timers" did not do water changes as the "over the counter" chemical level tests that we are aware of and take for granted were not available to them, they would literally just top of the tanks to replace dissapted water. Like I said it's only fairly recently (in relative terms) that we have to come to really understand cycling etc (through people like Chris Cow).

So whilst we may not agree with the methods they use a lot of the time it is a case of what has worked for them for the last few years so they see no reason to change.......

Just my thoughts......

 

[playfulalliecat]

Thanks for the replies. I really just wanted to get some other opinions as he is asking me for advice and I truly don't know what to tell him......even 10 years ago when I knew nothing about cycling a tank, I at least took the chlorine/chloramine out and did water changes and vacuums. Oh well, maybe I can convince him to at least start treating the water!