Why???

[PhantomCarp]

I want to hear stories about the worst tank you have ever seen in person, whether you kept it or someone else kept it or you found it on the web. I will start. When I told my grandma that I was planning on setting up a tank she told me that she use to have one before I was born. When I asked her what she kept in the tank I got disgusted, she said she kept a 29 gallon tank with 2 bleeding heart tetras because those were her favorite fish but she only kept 2 because she couldn’t figure out from the name tetra they needed a school. She then told me she kept 5 Mubuna Cichlids, and 1 Jack Dempsey. She told me how smart the jd was and I just got depressed. And then she finished it of by saying after a year with this setup she added 2 Red Devils and got mad at them for killing everything except the jd.

 

[Gypsum]

Bought a 125L tank off Gumtree. When we went to the dude's flat to pick it up, we saw that he had a circa 200L (50ish gallon in American) tank with three large bala sharks -- the biggest a good 12 inches long -- two full grown red tail sharks, a huge oscar, three or four angel fish, a couple Bolivian rams, and assorted small fish like mollies. And maybe a few other things. When he drained the 125L, he chucked a mollie and two bristlenose plecos out of that and into the tank with the balas, etc. In hindsight, I wish I had asked if he would give/sell us the plecos, as I felt sorry for them and I'm fond of loricariids. But I only thought of it as we were setting the new tank up in our flat. I didn't really want two (more) bristlenoses, as I had plans to aquire some fancy L-numbers, but I could have given those guys a temporary home and then sorted out a better permanent one.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I get mad when I look at tanks on Craigslist or offerup or Facebook marketplace and they have the worst stocking but say irs a happy healthy mature setup. Breaks my heart.

On a side note I emailed the National Aquarium of New Zealand (in my hometown) because they had 3 tanks with bad fin rot. An aquarium should take better care of their fish

 

[Crispii]

I remember visiting a relative's house and I noticed that my cousin had a 5-gallon aquarium with two common goldfish and two harlequin rasboras.

 

[trash.binh91]

Visited a relative last year in cali.....two goldfish in a 5 gallon. Nasty tank.

Obviously, we didnt leave the house until we had done a 100% fish tank and lectured and all that . Good they were willing to learn

 

[JuiceBox52]

A family friend has 2 comets in a half gallon bowl for her kids....they keep dying and being replaced. They won't listen!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I Visited a house when I was looking to buy a new one. The guy had 5 Betts right next to each other... in mason jars. No filter, heater, gravel, etc. nothing.

 

[Retired Viking]

We had a lady who everyone called the "snake lady" who lived in a trailer with an old barn next to it. She kept all sorts of reptiles and snakes plus fish in all different size old tanks. It was like a zoo and she would let people in to see her collection. She even had a 14 foot python in a small bedroom. The whole front of the trailer was tanks. Most of them were dusty and lots of algae in the fish tanks. She called 911 one day to report she was bitten by an Egyptian Cobra which had gotten loose. A sheriff deputy went in and a few minutes later he came back out carrying her unconscious, she was flown to Chicago because they have a poison control ward (because of the Chicago zoo)She almost died. I heard they had people from the zoo come and take away her animals.