Help Needed Please.. =]

[Natnie]

hiyar, im new here, but have a question to ask... do i have the right to complain about a fish tank at my little brother and sisters school..
They have around about 180 litre tank, with a 7-8inch common pleco, and 3 3-4inch oscars, although they did have 1 molly about 2 weeks ago, but that has seemed to dissapeared. There is algae growing everywhere, all over the back, two sides, and some on the front. not just a thin layer either.. also the floor and fake plants are covered in algae. They have an external filter, from what i can make out a 100W heater, and the head misstress says the water stats are perfect.
I have also found out that they get fed twice a day, but then they miss a day, and as far as im aware they do not get fed at the weekend.
I also know that they have been taking the advice of the lfs near me. I am concerened for the health of these fish. and if there is anything i could do to help them?
all comments welcome. i just dont want to see these fish suffer, if they are suffering at all..
Thank
Natnie

 

[prmdc098]

The algae dosent sound to good in this tank.

Im sure the water stats cant be ok if theres so much algae as well as the faily large fish you mentioned.

You might want to question the maintenence the school preforms on the tank for example water changes, gravel cleaning, and using algae scrapers on the tanks walls.

By the sounds of it the molly has died, maybee due to the water conditions or as you said about the feeding situation.

Try sujjesting to the school that they make it part of the day to do regular things to the tank.

They could have a chart to write on recording all the things and the pupils (some of them anyway) may enjoy to interact with the fish.

When i was at school we had a fish tank, different people would get a chance to feed the fish everyday and everything was recorded which also was a good learning aspect as its where and how i first learned about graphs and charts.

Maybee your little brother and sister could ask around to see how many pupiles would be interested.

But find out some more info like who dose if any one feed the poor fish at the weekends.

I hope this is a small pointer.

 

[loachman]

Certainly if the fish are being kept in poor conditions you should say something. However, realize that it is likely that not much will come from it.

The best way would be to offer some suggestions on how to improve the "appearance of the tank." Coming outright and calling them out on poor husbandry will not get you far.

You'll need to offer suggestions to improve the tank as criticism doesn't fix anything. "I noticed the algae in the tank, you may see better results from X" or "have you tried X?"

The feeding schedule is not a huge deal really. Most will be fine w/o a day or two of feeding, especially larger fish.