My sister set up a t 10 gallon tank I gave her alost two months ago because I made her house her betta in there so it wouldn't have to live in a 1 gallon fish bowl. A month later it had cycled and she waited a week before she added two american flag fish. In that week the tank stats were fine. I told her to add the fish slowly and maybe do a little more water changes than usual in case the filter needed to adapt.
In very short order the betta and two american flag fish had died with no notice. I figured it was probably an internal bacterial infection or something, since I tested her water quite a few times for ammonia and nitrite and everything looked great. I told her to strip the tank down and run carbon and not take a chance by killing more fish. She didn't want to hear this so she decided to go elsewhere fr advice.
Instead she goes to a big chain pet store and they told her that her fished probably dies because she did a 50% water change, afterall "the bacteria live in the water mostly" according to this moron
So this guy gives her a bottle of Cycle or Stability and tells her to wait a week before adding more fish, as if this product will magically cycle your tank without fish in there. Obviously he failed to understand that if her water tests were perfect, there should be no reason to believe that her tank had un-cycled.
I explained to her to go back and return that product. I gave her three choices: one was to strip the tank down and clean it, or recycle her tank with no fish or only one or two small fish with frequent water changes. Instead she goes back to the store and comes home with some sort of ammonia removing filter media and a brand new pleco!!!!!
I tol her the zeolite will only starve the bacteria she had just built up over a month ago. Then she tells me the guy at the store advised her to clean her filter out "really good", so she runs her filter and media under the tap water!!!!
So now she has a brand new adorable pleco in a "de-cycled" tank which may or may not have parasites or bad bacteria living in it. I'm so angry I feel like calling the store and speaking to the manager. She won't return the fish because the "fish expert" at the store sold it to her. What a joke. I refuse to put it in my tank since it may be contaminated by her tank, so all I can do is helplessly watch this fish suffer.
In very short order the betta and two american flag fish had died with no notice. I figured it was probably an internal bacterial infection or something, since I tested her water quite a few times for ammonia and nitrite and everything looked great. I told her to strip the tank down and run carbon and not take a chance by killing more fish. She didn't want to hear this so she decided to go elsewhere fr advice.
Instead she goes to a big chain pet store and they told her that her fished probably dies because she did a 50% water change, afterall "the bacteria live in the water mostly" according to this moron
So this guy gives her a bottle of Cycle or Stability and tells her to wait a week before adding more fish, as if this product will magically cycle your tank without fish in there. Obviously he failed to understand that if her water tests were perfect, there should be no reason to believe that her tank had un-cycled. I explained to her to go back and return that product. I gave her three choices: one was to strip the tank down and clean it, or recycle her tank with no fish or only one or two small fish with frequent water changes. Instead she goes back to the store and comes home with some sort of ammonia removing filter media and a brand new pleco!!!!!
I tol her the zeolite will only starve the bacteria she had just built up over a month ago. Then she tells me the guy at the store advised her to clean her filter out "really good", so she runs her filter and media under the tap water!!!! So now she has a brand new adorable pleco in a "de-cycled" tank which may or may not have parasites or bad bacteria living in it. I'm so angry I feel like calling the store and speaking to the manager. She won't return the fish because the "fish expert" at the store sold it to her. What a joke. I refuse to put it in my tank since it may be contaminated by her tank, so all I can do is helplessly watch this fish suffer.
