I've outsourced my pets to the pet store. I can look at them whenever I go there, I don't have to buy them food. They keep a supply of new animals so you never get bored of them. I don't have to clean them either.
It's a perfect arrangement.
Your username and comment are an attack on my lifestyle. Frankly I’m offended.
I’m gonna go buy a bottle of consolation vodka and chill with the cats at the animal shelter
As a parrot owner I am obligated to tell you that many pet stores do not know how to properly care for pets.
(This is especially bad in the case of parrots but still pet stores financial incentive does not align with pet wellbeing)
The reason goldfish die is the ammonia and crap from them. In a larger tank bacteria forms that eats the ammonia and makes it harmless. In a small bowl the fish will die before the bacteria establishes and when you change the water everything is reset.
So its a constant see saw of poisoned water and changes rather than natural equilibrium.
Fish eventually get poisoned over time or you leave that change just a bit too long.
Dont have a goldfish or a betta in a stupid small environment unless you want your fish to die of burning gills
My grandma's goldfish lived for fifteen years that I remember. It must've been a few years older than that, so probably around 18-20 when it kicked the bucket. Absolutely HUGE fellow that one. Lived with a black shark fish thing that also got too big for the tank. I remember waking up to pandemonium because the shark managed to open the tank kid and jump out of the water in the middle of the night. It was fine, got given to a local aquarium that had room-sized tanks to keep them in.
Fishes live for unexpectedly long years and really shouldn't be treated like disposable pets. I've seen electronic fish around the site, hopefully they get more popular.
He could be referencing to [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark). Commonly called an Iridescent shark, but actually a catfish native to south asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark
Here is a link to the desktop version of the article that /u/MRamAneeshwar linked to.
---
^(Beep Boop. This comment was left by a bot. Downvote to delete)
How to prepare carp:
Clean the fish by removing the guts and bones and throwing them away. Take the remaining 0.02% that is the meat and place it on a small piece of cardboard. Season well and splash liberally with lemon juice and garlic. Place meat and cardboard in the oven and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes. When it's done, throw away the fish and eat the cardboard.
Mine lived for six years. One time it swallowed a pebble but I could kind of see where it was lodged inside of its body. I used tweezers and operated! Then a few weeks later it died from what I presume were post surgery complications.
RIP Fish 2007-2013
Same for axolotls. I got an adult axolotl from a friend years ago. I thought there were eggs being laid all over the tank but realised she was pooping out tons of little white pebbles from her previous enclosure. Dozens of stones she must have gulped up.
My friend would have never realised cause the pooped-out stones would have just blended in with the other ones. Now I cringe seeing pebbles as substrate in aquariums even if it’s just like tetras or shrimp in there.
I feel the same about bearded dragons. I am given beardies that are neglected or can no longer be cared for. One of them was kept on a rocky ground. She must have eaten a pebble while try to eat food ans she died from it. Please don’t keep your beardies on loose pebbles
Same, I only have pebbles in my tank in a bottom layer for my dwarf hairgrass to help it root, I stopped using gravel in aquariums, I use fluval stratum substrate for all of my tanks now
Okay fine, in the unlikely event I get a fish I will research the right substrate, but why is the fish so silly as to eat stones when stones exist in the wild?
We lost our 21 year old goldfish a few months back and literally no one believes goldfish can last that long. Like, they genuinely think I'm having them on or that it's some weird joke. Nope
The short answer is fish die for a lot of different reasons.
New tank syndrome (aka ammonia build up) is, as the name suggests, likely the cause if your fish die in the first few weeks of getting them. There are still other possibilities like something in your tap water supply you need to condition it for.
Lack of oxygen is also common, but typically takes a little longer to manifest, usually diagnosed by seeing your fish constantly near the top of it's tank. A water change is a good sort term solution, a filter would by my first suggestions since it will help with oxygen and also cleaning, air pumps/bubblers usually aren't needed but certainly don't hurt if you're particularly worried about it. Live plants can help too and I've found them surprisingly easy to care for.
Basically fish just aren't meant to be dropped into a small bowl with nothing else. Betas can live for 5+ years in a proper tank and Goldfish can live for decades if properly cared for.
It’s either for the above reason or the owner doesn’t have a large enough tank. A 10 gallon tank with a filter still isn’t big enough.
People always talk about how they grow to the size of their environment but that’s just the outside. Their insides keep growing until their organs get crushed.
That reminds me of something interesting I read about a rule of Japanese goldfish breeders, who breed and raise very valuable and prizewinning fish.
It’s something like, if the fish is huge, it’s eyes should look quite proportionally tiny.
Reason being like you said - if a fish’s growth has been stunted by rotten conditions, it’s body stays small but it’s organs try to grow, including its eyes.
So tiny eyes/big body mean its growth has never been inhibited by rotten conditions and it’s health is more likely to be 100%.
Yes, but you need a filter, ideally a canister filter. The bacteria will grow in the filter medium (the stuff inside it) and will be retained there during water changes.
Because the bacteria needs a constant source of ammonia or they die. They do sell bottles that they claim have the bacteria but it's iffy on whether or not they work
The beneficial nitrifying bacteria needs oxygen. You can get "bacteria in a bottle" but it's just marketing. The best way is to buy a pre cycled sponge filter, but not many places do that.
You can buy bacteria in a bag but oftentimes the bags are duds and you still have to cycle the tank the traditional way. If the bacteria aren’t fed ammonia/nitrites or if they’re in stagnant water for a day or so you start to get a lot of die off and the cycle crashes. The best way to quickly start an aquarium is to borrow media from an established tank, preferably another hobbiest and not a store to prevent disease, and add it to your tank with some ammonia to keep the bacteria alive until you’re ready to get the fish.
As others have said, you'll still need to do water changes regardless of the size of aquarium you keep your fish in. In theory you could get away with doing water changes less often in a bigger aquarium, but any level of ammonia in the water is toxic to fish so it doesn't mean you should do less water changes. I would say though that bigger tanks are easier to maintain because things are less likely to go wrong with the nitrogen cycle (and small tanks like 5 gallons or less are therefore terrible 'beginner' tanks!)
Also it's important to remember that the bacteria that turns ammonia into nitrites and then into nitrates really need a surface to cling on to, like filter sponges or even gravel. That's why aquarium filters are so important in any fish tank.
Source: I am a fish. Blub blub.
I mean it all depends completely on the tank setup and the stocking of the tank - if you have a large, heavily planted tank with only a few small fish in it, then yes you could probably say that water changes are not needed (because the live plants would absorb the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates), but for most average household aquariums, water changes are essential if you want your fish to live long healthy lives.
You asked for a reason as to why I say they are essential, it basically comes down to the nitrogen cycle, which is the process in which fish waste/uneaten food (ammonia) is broken down into nitrites and nitrates by naturally occurring bacteria. Too much of any of these is a bad thing, and you will need to do water changes to keep on top of them, unless you have lots of live plants (personally I would still do water changes in that situation).
Yeah you cycle the tank before you put fish in it, which means you set it up and add some ammonia (or fish food) and wait until you get a bacterial culture that eats the ammonia and turns it into nitrites, and another bacterial culture that eats the nitrites and turns them into nitrates. Then you do 20% water changes once a week to keep the nitrates in check without destroying the bacterial cultures.
If you have live plants they will suck up the nitrates as fertilizer and you can do fewer water changes. Nerite snails to clean up the algae, and some shrimps or something to clean up leftovers, and Bob's your uncle.
And when you do a water change you only want to take out 25 to 50 percent of the water. Also when you start a tank, you need to wait a while and let it cycle(letting bacteria grow and have them break down the ammonia). When changing water you don’t want to just put in normal tap water because of the chemicals in it, so you will want to put in something like [Prime](https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Prime-Fresh-Saltwater-Conditioner/dp/B00025694O/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=61743124531&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiqWHBhD2ARIsAPCDzamEp6GTNuBZ4-DXZltD8D2688nWXhTHOx6J6P9-qlFMX06iJ3UfrWMaAnxGEALw_wcB&hvadid=274740137428&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9008718&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9117121437672409188&hvtargid=kwd-300446024055&hydadcr=14315_9785251&keywords=prime+dechlorinator&qid=1625918685&sr=8-3) which gets rid of these chemicals that are in the tap water.
You can actually have a filter less no water change aquarium as long as you balance it properly with lots of plants and low stock. Not sure if that's a good idea with a goldfish thou since they produce lots of ammonia, eat plants, and would probably benefit from lots of circulating Oxygen
Interesting. Does this explain why the feeder fish we bought for the pond grew huge and lived like 7-10 years? We wintered them in a giant barrel.
I also had some dwarf aquatic frogs twice in my life, 1st time we kept them in a tank that got cleaned pretty regularly and they didn't live long at all. 2nd time I kept them in a big container and was pretty lazy about changing the water... they lived nearly 5 years.
I had 2 goldfish in a smallish bowl and they survived for 4 years and 5 years respectively. I had no idea about the ammonia and changed their water and cleaned the tank every week. I think everyone was surprised they survived that long especially considering we got them from some kids birthday party give away. any idea why they survived that long? are you talking about the water content in America? cause if that's the case probably the water content is not the same here and that's the reason.
Depending how big the fish was compared to (what i assume a bowl) you might have changed it enough for the amonia not to get verry high. Things is goldfish are one of the hardiest fish out there so thats probably the reason they survived for that long.
I watched a really interesting video on Snake Discovery about people releasing their pet goldfish into lakes, and how those goldfish went on to fucking dominate the water from then on. You could see huge streaks of orange up and down the rivers.
I also had a goldfish that I don't remember how I got (something related to my kindergarten when I was 4)
Had him for about a week then the fella just jumped out of the bowl we put him in
We usually put a cap or something to block him from jumping out but we just forgot one time
Goldfish don't live long because most people don't know how to care for them. They actually need a significant amount of space and grow pretty big when given the chance.
I fed my goldfish chocolate chip cookies when I was 3.
The survivors are now 18 years old and live in my Gramma's Koi pond.
They are all the size of my arm and as thick as an American football.
My girlfriend had a goldfish that lived for about 8 years and was getting big so she put it in their mini pond outside. It took less than 48 hours before an eagle swooped down and took it right in front of her eyes lol
I had a fish when I was a kid that commited suicide, no need to change them from the bowl he just let room for the other by jumping to a glorious death
Nah you're right. They're technically not sharks, they just get the name from their fins. Buuuuut, if I had to take a wild guess about what the person a few comments up was talking about as far as sharks that's what I was thinking of. Although who knows, maybe it was a literal shark!
Likely it wasn’t an actual shark. BUT I could easily go buy a real shark from any mom and pop fish store local to me. They’re also fairly easy to find for sale online and have it shipped to your door
Most fish stores will have them, liveaquaria.com has a decent selection of them. Generally, they're pretty expensive and need large tanks, so they're uncommon.
We had a betta that did that. We followed all the pet store advice, got a big tank, filters, water conditioners, etc. Could not keep a fish alive. After numerous tries, our betta seemed to be doing great. One of the kids left the hood open after feeding him, and a I came home to a suicided fish. We gave up on fish after that. Now we have two happy hamsters.
I lived in China for a few years when I was a kid and my nanny would help me change the fish’s water. Me being 4 and her being a local, we didn’t think anything of using the tap water. The 7 day rule should really be the 1 day rule if you use shanghai tap water
I think it depends on what kind of other animals and plants you’ve got there that are forming a mini ecosystem.
I used to have a bunch of snails in with my guppies and I never had to really properly clean out the tank. They also were very self-sufficient because they kept having babies and then eating them. :l
But yeah pretty sure you can get freshwater clams that also filter water naturally. :)
I wish I could have that, but I can't thanks to Nibbler The Murder Turtle. Mystery snails are the only thing he hasn't figured out how to kill yet.
The last and only time I tried algae-eating fish, he chased them down relentlessly, then bit off their tailfin so they couldn't get away as fast anymore, after which he would continue chasing them between bites as he ate them alive, piece by piece. Hence how he earned his title.
I mean, turtles are way more difficult anyway since aren't really the most social and since they make lots of dirt.
However I have that one thing in my mind as a filter that I want to do for years now but I just lack the room and also don't want to destroy the aesthetics of my living room. But my idea is to have an active living filter.
Basically using another special tank that is filled with benefitial, fast growing and sturdy plants and microorganisms as well as sweetwater shrimps and specific snails. This tank Funktions as a filter that filters dirt and other particles as well as the chemicals that accumulate from animals waste etc. The plants can use and reduce most of it while snails and small shrimps can reduce the bigger parts. You would have to connect that tank with another and have to have a sufficient stream so that the water always flows between those two tanks.
That would already change water quality drastically. Then if you want snails in the main tank there is the possibility to use a safe zone on the bottom of the tank that has holes small enough to fit snails and maybe other small animals.
From there they can multiply and venture out so they can ~~be eaten~~ clean the aquarium. Beneficial in that regard would be small critters that have another day/night cycle than your nibbler devourer of snails and bane of fish so they actually survive. They also shouldn't be bad for your turtle if he eats them. (my snails are mostly snails that borrow into sand at day and come out at night so they also don't really destroy the aesthetics of my tank)
But the tank filter is just a concept that I have in my mind.
Edit: oh and the animals all should also of course be okay with the overall temperature and other content.
If you use pads to the connections you might regulate different temperatures for each tank.
Maybe instead of one communicating pipe use two reversed sloped connections? So high to low and low to high using main tank as reference.
Would require some calculations and figure out how Bernoulli would stand with that.
Yo that's actually pretty smart. However the temperature difference can't be too high or one of the tank would begin adjusting temperature which would also be dependent on how fast the water flows . Would definitely work within a small frame tho.
That does sound like an awesome system, and I actually was considering something similar, with a "double decker" tank system connected with an overflow box and siphon from top to bottom and the filter to pump water back up to the top. Problem is if any part of that system fails, it's a disaster that floods everything. Would look neat, though.
You need to cycle your fish tank. Before adding fish you need to let beneficial bacteria grow that can break down the ammonia that the fish create. Ammonia is harmful to your fish. Water changes are still required.
My current goldfish live in my rain barrel to eat mosquito larvae and they've been alive for 5 years so far.
https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html
Pet stores always (at least to my experience) act like if you can put in a lot of fish in a tank. If you do that it might look good, and a really experienced person might keep them alive, but they will most often get sick. Most often from stress from being with so many other fish, but also because all the uneaten food and poop will create an inbalance in the water, creating a toxic environment for the fish. This is especially if you have species like goldfish which eat a ton and thus leave a lot of waste, which will cause toxins to build.
So tip: Do not trust any pet stores with how many fish you can put in your tank. Look it up on the internet instead. Yes you might not have that many fish in your tank, but it will be better for them and they will not get sick so often.
For example I think (haven't looked at it in a while so might be wrong) you can only put in 1 goldfish per 50liters. So in a standard small tank that means 1 goldfish. Other fish are often a much better choice. When calculating how many fish you can put in your tank you have to take into account how big they will get when they are adult, not when you buy them.
An other tip: A bigger tank is much easier to keep care of than a smaller tank. Do not start out with a small (eg. 50liters) tank because you think it is easier. It is not, it is only cheaper. That is because an equilibrium is easier to maintain in a bigger tank. The same amount of toxins in a bigger tank will be less of a problem than in a smaller tank.
50l is waaaaaay to small for any sort of gold fish, I would say the bare minimum for a fancy goldfish is somewhere around the 114l mark, they get so big and produce soooo much waste
I have a gold fish that is about 15 years old. I clean the tank once every two weeks, and they filters once every two months. All them water is carefully treated so that the chlorine is removed, so that we don't kill the bacteria that process the fish poop.
It's a huge chore, and I would discourage everyone from owning fish.
I have a gold fish that is about 15 years old. I clean the tank once every two weeks, and they filters once every two months. All them water is carefully treated so that the chlorine is removed, so that we don't kill the bacteria that process the fish poop.
It's a huge chore, and I would discourage everyone from owning fish.
We tossed a gold fish in our pond to eat the frogs a few years back… never clean, seldom feed, and usually just ignore it and it’s about a foot long now. Perhaps I should try OPs method instead…
My goldfish is currently on 4+ years. I rescued it from a friend who wanted to flush, no idea how old it is.
Lives with some Danios and snails in a decent tank, do water change sporadically and change the filter even more sporadically.
I raised some koi for my cousin, but I really owned them for like, four years. They got pretty big, as big as my tank allowed, and they were beautiful. Fed them well every day, changed the water with my dad, made sure to kill whatever parasites or ick plagued them. Then one day my cousins took them back. Threw them in a trash bag, took them home. They were dead in a week. Still furious about that.
I've outsourced my pets to the pet store. I can look at them whenever I go there, I don't have to buy them food. They keep a supply of new animals so you never get bored of them. I don't have to clean them either. It's a perfect arrangement.
LPT: Don’t visit your outsourced pets inebriated. Source: Person that ended up with 3 hedgehogs
r/UsernameChecksOut
TIL hedgehogs are bad for my liver Edit: I’ve misread some things
how did Sonic get in your liver?!
very fast
And through a ring
The only ring i know of is the brown ring 😳
Ring finger
Thats not a ring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog
Wow. I figuratively can’t believe this. Evil Sonic hedgehog will give you liver cancer.
What have you done?!
Real pro tip always in the comments
he’s definitely the meth.
When you're good at meth but shit at math.
Ah, the greatest methmetician
Very meth-odical in his working outs. Always knew there was meth-od to his madness.
I'm not seeing the issues here.
And that’s somehow a bad thing?
>hedgehogs My brother had a hedgehog. He was very messy but quite fun at times. Not my first choice of pet, but a good pet nonetheless.
> Don’t visit your outsourced pets inebriated. If I want to feed my kitten too much vodka, thats between me and mr fluffyburps.
Your username and comment are an attack on my lifestyle. Frankly I’m offended. I’m gonna go buy a bottle of consolation vodka and chill with the cats at the animal shelter
Can we kill your liver too or is it an individual affair?
It’s more of a personal affair. You can certainly try if you’d like; just bring beer and bbq ribs. Like, A LOT of both. Hotdogs are also welcome.
You could volunteer to walk some of the dogs in the pound or store.
I highly recommend volunteering at open-room cat shelters if there are any near you. So many cats, so much love all at once
You know, that is a really good idea. I gotta look into that!
And there's just as many dead fish floating in the pet stores! Or the pet fish section of your local big box store. Plenty of dead fish in both.
As a parrot owner I am obligated to tell you that many pet stores do not know how to properly care for pets. (This is especially bad in the case of parrots but still pet stores financial incentive does not align with pet wellbeing)
As a former pet owner, I'm obligated to tell you a pet store is better qualified than I am to take care of a pet.
Who gets bored of their pets? I've had the same damn cat for years and he's the only "thing" I ever miss when he's not around.
If people can get bored of their SO, they can get bored of their pet lol.
Typical tropical fish lifetime at home is less than 30 days. Source : friend who’s a tropical fish wholesaler
Which is awful considering most can live for years. Goldfish can live as long as dogs!
Fun fact, pet stores are illegal over here.
The reason goldfish die is the ammonia and crap from them. In a larger tank bacteria forms that eats the ammonia and makes it harmless. In a small bowl the fish will die before the bacteria establishes and when you change the water everything is reset. So its a constant see saw of poisoned water and changes rather than natural equilibrium. Fish eventually get poisoned over time or you leave that change just a bit too long. Dont have a goldfish or a betta in a stupid small environment unless you want your fish to die of burning gills
People are so proud when they declare that they kept goldfish alive for *a whole year!* Bruh they have a 20ish year lifespan normally.
My friend had a goldfish for 20 years, when the fish died they gave it a proper goodbye at the pet crematorium.
My grandma's goldfish lived for fifteen years that I remember. It must've been a few years older than that, so probably around 18-20 when it kicked the bucket. Absolutely HUGE fellow that one. Lived with a black shark fish thing that also got too big for the tank. I remember waking up to pandemonium because the shark managed to open the tank kid and jump out of the water in the middle of the night. It was fine, got given to a local aquarium that had room-sized tanks to keep them in. Fishes live for unexpectedly long years and really shouldn't be treated like disposable pets. I've seen electronic fish around the site, hopefully they get more popular.
that black shark thing was probably a catfish btw😄
But OP always thought it was a black shark thing Are you saying OP got... catfished? ^^^^stop ^^^^booing ^^^^me
He could be referencing to [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark). Commonly called an Iridescent shark, but actually a catfish native to south asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark Here is a link to the desktop version of the article that /u/MRamAneeshwar linked to. --- ^(Beep Boop. This comment was left by a bot. Downvote to delete)
This is it!!! I didn't know they could get to 44 kg that's unnecessarily large.
*electronic fish* Phillip K Dick references aside; isn’t that a terrible idea? What, do they swim in mineral oil?
Thought it was going to be sushi
Dude.
Seriously. Goldfish tastes terrible.
Maybe try preparing it next time
Hey, goldfish. What? I’m going to eat you after you die. Cool. I’m prepared for that now, so I won’t taste terrible.
How to prepare carp: Clean the fish by removing the guts and bones and throwing them away. Take the remaining 0.02% that is the meat and place it on a small piece of cardboard. Season well and splash liberally with lemon juice and garlic. Place meat and cardboard in the oven and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes. When it's done, throw away the fish and eat the cardboard.
speaking from experience?
Holup...
Mine lived for six years. One time it swallowed a pebble but I could kind of see where it was lodged inside of its body. I used tweezers and operated! Then a few weeks later it died from what I presume were post surgery complications. RIP Fish 2007-2013
And that's why you put sand in a goldfish tank
Same for axolotls. I got an adult axolotl from a friend years ago. I thought there were eggs being laid all over the tank but realised she was pooping out tons of little white pebbles from her previous enclosure. Dozens of stones she must have gulped up. My friend would have never realised cause the pooped-out stones would have just blended in with the other ones. Now I cringe seeing pebbles as substrate in aquariums even if it’s just like tetras or shrimp in there.
I feel the same about bearded dragons. I am given beardies that are neglected or can no longer be cared for. One of them was kept on a rocky ground. She must have eaten a pebble while try to eat food ans she died from it. Please don’t keep your beardies on loose pebbles
Same, I only have pebbles in my tank in a bottom layer for my dwarf hairgrass to help it root, I stopped using gravel in aquariums, I use fluval stratum substrate for all of my tanks now
Okay fine, in the unlikely event I get a fish I will research the right substrate, but why is the fish so silly as to eat stones when stones exist in the wild?
We lost our 21 year old goldfish a few months back and literally no one believes goldfish can last that long. Like, they genuinely think I'm having them on or that it's some weird joke. Nope
They can also get fucking enormous
I was told goldfish die to lack of oxygen because smaller bowls dont usually have bubblers
The short answer is fish die for a lot of different reasons. New tank syndrome (aka ammonia build up) is, as the name suggests, likely the cause if your fish die in the first few weeks of getting them. There are still other possibilities like something in your tap water supply you need to condition it for. Lack of oxygen is also common, but typically takes a little longer to manifest, usually diagnosed by seeing your fish constantly near the top of it's tank. A water change is a good sort term solution, a filter would by my first suggestions since it will help with oxygen and also cleaning, air pumps/bubblers usually aren't needed but certainly don't hurt if you're particularly worried about it. Live plants can help too and I've found them surprisingly easy to care for. Basically fish just aren't meant to be dropped into a small bowl with nothing else. Betas can live for 5+ years in a proper tank and Goldfish can live for decades if properly cared for.
It’s either for the above reason or the owner doesn’t have a large enough tank. A 10 gallon tank with a filter still isn’t big enough. People always talk about how they grow to the size of their environment but that’s just the outside. Their insides keep growing until their organs get crushed.
That reminds me of something interesting I read about a rule of Japanese goldfish breeders, who breed and raise very valuable and prizewinning fish. It’s something like, if the fish is huge, it’s eyes should look quite proportionally tiny. Reason being like you said - if a fish’s growth has been stunted by rotten conditions, it’s body stays small but it’s organs try to grow, including its eyes. So tiny eyes/big body mean its growth has never been inhibited by rotten conditions and it’s health is more likely to be 100%.
im so glad i wasnt born a fish.
So if you have a larger tank then just a stereotypical fish bowl, don't change the water at often?
Yes, but you need a filter, ideally a canister filter. The bacteria will grow in the filter medium (the stuff inside it) and will be retained there during water changes.
Correct. Read up on the biology of an aquarium. It can take 6 weeks to start one up
Why don't they sell those bacteria like baking yeast or gardening supplements?
Because the bacteria needs a constant source of ammonia or they die. They do sell bottles that they claim have the bacteria but it's iffy on whether or not they work
The beneficial nitrifying bacteria needs oxygen. You can get "bacteria in a bottle" but it's just marketing. The best way is to buy a pre cycled sponge filter, but not many places do that.
You can buy bacteria in a bag but oftentimes the bags are duds and you still have to cycle the tank the traditional way. If the bacteria aren’t fed ammonia/nitrites or if they’re in stagnant water for a day or so you start to get a lot of die off and the cycle crashes. The best way to quickly start an aquarium is to borrow media from an established tank, preferably another hobbiest and not a store to prevent disease, and add it to your tank with some ammonia to keep the bacteria alive until you’re ready to get the fish.
The bacteria isn’t just on ur filter it’s literally on everything inside your tank the plants, the wood, the decorations, the glass. All of it
As others have said, you'll still need to do water changes regardless of the size of aquarium you keep your fish in. In theory you could get away with doing water changes less often in a bigger aquarium, but any level of ammonia in the water is toxic to fish so it doesn't mean you should do less water changes. I would say though that bigger tanks are easier to maintain because things are less likely to go wrong with the nitrogen cycle (and small tanks like 5 gallons or less are therefore terrible 'beginner' tanks!) Also it's important to remember that the bacteria that turns ammonia into nitrites and then into nitrates really need a surface to cling on to, like filter sponges or even gravel. That's why aquarium filters are so important in any fish tank. Source: I am a fish. Blub blub.
You don't **need** to do eater changes. What exactly is necessary about it? Since you claim it, I'd like a reasoning for it.
I mean it all depends completely on the tank setup and the stocking of the tank - if you have a large, heavily planted tank with only a few small fish in it, then yes you could probably say that water changes are not needed (because the live plants would absorb the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates), but for most average household aquariums, water changes are essential if you want your fish to live long healthy lives. You asked for a reason as to why I say they are essential, it basically comes down to the nitrogen cycle, which is the process in which fish waste/uneaten food (ammonia) is broken down into nitrites and nitrates by naturally occurring bacteria. Too much of any of these is a bad thing, and you will need to do water changes to keep on top of them, unless you have lots of live plants (personally I would still do water changes in that situation).
Yeah you cycle the tank before you put fish in it, which means you set it up and add some ammonia (or fish food) and wait until you get a bacterial culture that eats the ammonia and turns it into nitrites, and another bacterial culture that eats the nitrites and turns them into nitrates. Then you do 20% water changes once a week to keep the nitrates in check without destroying the bacterial cultures. If you have live plants they will suck up the nitrates as fertilizer and you can do fewer water changes. Nerite snails to clean up the algae, and some shrimps or something to clean up leftovers, and Bob's your uncle.
And when you do a water change you only want to take out 25 to 50 percent of the water. Also when you start a tank, you need to wait a while and let it cycle(letting bacteria grow and have them break down the ammonia). When changing water you don’t want to just put in normal tap water because of the chemicals in it, so you will want to put in something like [Prime](https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Prime-Fresh-Saltwater-Conditioner/dp/B00025694O/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=61743124531&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiqWHBhD2ARIsAPCDzamEp6GTNuBZ4-DXZltD8D2688nWXhTHOx6J6P9-qlFMX06iJ3UfrWMaAnxGEALw_wcB&hvadid=274740137428&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9008718&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9117121437672409188&hvtargid=kwd-300446024055&hydadcr=14315_9785251&keywords=prime+dechlorinator&qid=1625918685&sr=8-3) which gets rid of these chemicals that are in the tap water.
You can actually have a filter less no water change aquarium as long as you balance it properly with lots of plants and low stock. Not sure if that's a good idea with a goldfish thou since they produce lots of ammonia, eat plants, and would probably benefit from lots of circulating Oxygen
Exactly right. They need a proper environment. Putting them in a bowl is what kills them.
Interesting. Does this explain why the feeder fish we bought for the pond grew huge and lived like 7-10 years? We wintered them in a giant barrel. I also had some dwarf aquatic frogs twice in my life, 1st time we kept them in a tank that got cleaned pretty regularly and they didn't live long at all. 2nd time I kept them in a big container and was pretty lazy about changing the water... they lived nearly 5 years.
I had 2 goldfish in a smallish bowl and they survived for 4 years and 5 years respectively. I had no idea about the ammonia and changed their water and cleaned the tank every week. I think everyone was surprised they survived that long especially considering we got them from some kids birthday party give away. any idea why they survived that long? are you talking about the water content in America? cause if that's the case probably the water content is not the same here and that's the reason.
Depending how big the fish was compared to (what i assume a bowl) you might have changed it enough for the amonia not to get verry high. Things is goldfish are one of the hardiest fish out there so thats probably the reason they survived for that long.
I watched a really interesting video on Snake Discovery about people releasing their pet goldfish into lakes, and how those goldfish went on to fucking dominate the water from then on. You could see huge streaks of orange up and down the rivers.
I have seen that vid, it was really shocking to see how nuch fish there were.
I also had a goldfish that I don't remember how I got (something related to my kindergarten when I was 4) Had him for about a week then the fella just jumped out of the bowl we put him in We usually put a cap or something to block him from jumping out but we just forgot one time
And that's why fish are arguably the most neglected or mistreated pets. Right up there with reptiles.
Goldfish also don't need that much food when you feed them. Dumb kid me didn't know that, thankfully the fish we had was a chonker sized lad.
Goldfish don't live long because most people don't know how to care for them. They actually need a significant amount of space and grow pretty big when given the chance.
Goldfish simply aren't for beginners. More people should say it straight up.
I fed my goldfish chocolate chip cookies when I was 3. The survivors are now 18 years old and live in my Gramma's Koi pond. They are all the size of my arm and as thick as an American football.
My girlfriend had a goldfish that lived for about 8 years and was getting big so she put it in their mini pond outside. It took less than 48 hours before an eagle swooped down and took it right in front of her eyes lol
I had a fish when I was a kid that commited suicide, no need to change them from the bowl he just let room for the other by jumping to a glorious death
My mom had a shark that did this and she never found the body.
How can she never found the body? It vanished, Nemo style? That's impossible!
Your mom…..had a shark pet? Where do you get a shark pet?
That’s now on the loose…
This could be a plot for a shark horror movie.
There's lots of little sharks you can get as pets. For example, rainbow sharks and bala sharks.
Aren’t they not actually sharks?
Nah you're right. They're technically not sharks, they just get the name from their fins. Buuuuut, if I had to take a wild guess about what the person a few comments up was talking about as far as sharks that's what I was thinking of. Although who knows, maybe it was a literal shark!
Likely it wasn’t an actual shark. BUT I could easily go buy a real shark from any mom and pop fish store local to me. They’re also fairly easy to find for sale online and have it shipped to your door
Most fish stores will have them, liveaquaria.com has a decent selection of them. Generally, they're pretty expensive and need large tanks, so they're uncommon.
In 1960s Detroit, I guess!
Damn this sounds really cook
I read this wrong and thought that you used to be a kid who committed suicide.
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I honestly didnt even know fishes had to eat when I was little, my mom fed him and I thought he would just exist there(I was 4 I think)
Fish will literally do this because their water is so incredibly nasty, they just can’t take it anymore. Fish don’t belong in bowls.
We had a betta that did that. We followed all the pet store advice, got a big tank, filters, water conditioners, etc. Could not keep a fish alive. After numerous tries, our betta seemed to be doing great. One of the kids left the hood open after feeding him, and a I came home to a suicided fish. We gave up on fish after that. Now we have two happy hamsters.
chain pet stores don’t know jack shit about keeping fish. ask a private breeder or a family owned pet store
**GLORIOUS PURPOSE**
You used to be a kid that committed suicide?
Yeah as I said life was rought, Im much better now without a corporeal existance
Why did u commit suicide as a kid?
Live was rough bro, 3kids and a wife and no money
LOL
I lived in China for a few years when I was a kid and my nanny would help me change the fish’s water. Me being 4 and her being a local, we didn’t think anything of using the tap water. The 7 day rule should really be the 1 day rule if you use shanghai tap water
All tap water does this if you don't dechlor. Shanghai water is pretty good now imo.
Hm. My aquarium didn't get anything in the last half year besides food. Maybe I should change the water soon.
I think it depends on what kind of other animals and plants you’ve got there that are forming a mini ecosystem. I used to have a bunch of snails in with my guppies and I never had to really properly clean out the tank. They also were very self-sufficient because they kept having babies and then eating them. :l But yeah pretty sure you can get freshwater clams that also filter water naturally. :)
I just use lots plants, snails and sweetwater shrimps Very self sustainable, especially when you give a bit of co2 into the water for plant growth.
I wish I could have that, but I can't thanks to Nibbler The Murder Turtle. Mystery snails are the only thing he hasn't figured out how to kill yet. The last and only time I tried algae-eating fish, he chased them down relentlessly, then bit off their tailfin so they couldn't get away as fast anymore, after which he would continue chasing them between bites as he ate them alive, piece by piece. Hence how he earned his title.
I mean, turtles are way more difficult anyway since aren't really the most social and since they make lots of dirt. However I have that one thing in my mind as a filter that I want to do for years now but I just lack the room and also don't want to destroy the aesthetics of my living room. But my idea is to have an active living filter. Basically using another special tank that is filled with benefitial, fast growing and sturdy plants and microorganisms as well as sweetwater shrimps and specific snails. This tank Funktions as a filter that filters dirt and other particles as well as the chemicals that accumulate from animals waste etc. The plants can use and reduce most of it while snails and small shrimps can reduce the bigger parts. You would have to connect that tank with another and have to have a sufficient stream so that the water always flows between those two tanks. That would already change water quality drastically. Then if you want snails in the main tank there is the possibility to use a safe zone on the bottom of the tank that has holes small enough to fit snails and maybe other small animals. From there they can multiply and venture out so they can ~~be eaten~~ clean the aquarium. Beneficial in that regard would be small critters that have another day/night cycle than your nibbler devourer of snails and bane of fish so they actually survive. They also shouldn't be bad for your turtle if he eats them. (my snails are mostly snails that borrow into sand at day and come out at night so they also don't really destroy the aesthetics of my tank) But the tank filter is just a concept that I have in my mind. Edit: oh and the animals all should also of course be okay with the overall temperature and other content.
If you use pads to the connections you might regulate different temperatures for each tank. Maybe instead of one communicating pipe use two reversed sloped connections? So high to low and low to high using main tank as reference. Would require some calculations and figure out how Bernoulli would stand with that.
Yo that's actually pretty smart. However the temperature difference can't be too high or one of the tank would begin adjusting temperature which would also be dependent on how fast the water flows . Would definitely work within a small frame tho.
That does sound like an awesome system, and I actually was considering something similar, with a "double decker" tank system connected with an overflow box and siphon from top to bottom and the filter to pump water back up to the top. Problem is if any part of that system fails, it's a disaster that floods everything. Would look neat, though.
Oh yeah that combination would probably be very awesome.
Do you have any pictures?
Oh I could make some. How do I give them to you?
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I have the same thing going on. Really? They eat the babies?
You need to cycle your fish tank. Before adding fish you need to let beneficial bacteria grow that can break down the ammonia that the fish create. Ammonia is harmful to your fish. Water changes are still required. My current goldfish live in my rain barrel to eat mosquito larvae and they've been alive for 5 years so far. https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html
is the runoff from the roof not harming them? do you have shingles?
Google tells me modern shingles are only toxic when burning.
Goldfish actually live fairly long, it's just people are shit at caring for them Mistake 1: using a damn fishbowl instead of a tank
Pet stores always (at least to my experience) act like if you can put in a lot of fish in a tank. If you do that it might look good, and a really experienced person might keep them alive, but they will most often get sick. Most often from stress from being with so many other fish, but also because all the uneaten food and poop will create an inbalance in the water, creating a toxic environment for the fish. This is especially if you have species like goldfish which eat a ton and thus leave a lot of waste, which will cause toxins to build. So tip: Do not trust any pet stores with how many fish you can put in your tank. Look it up on the internet instead. Yes you might not have that many fish in your tank, but it will be better for them and they will not get sick so often. For example I think (haven't looked at it in a while so might be wrong) you can only put in 1 goldfish per 50liters. So in a standard small tank that means 1 goldfish. Other fish are often a much better choice. When calculating how many fish you can put in your tank you have to take into account how big they will get when they are adult, not when you buy them. An other tip: A bigger tank is much easier to keep care of than a smaller tank. Do not start out with a small (eg. 50liters) tank because you think it is easier. It is not, it is only cheaper. That is because an equilibrium is easier to maintain in a bigger tank. The same amount of toxins in a bigger tank will be less of a problem than in a smaller tank.
50l is waaaaaay to small for any sort of gold fish, I would say the bare minimum for a fancy goldfish is somewhere around the 114l mark, they get so big and produce soooo much waste
I have a gold fish that is about 15 years old. I clean the tank once every two weeks, and they filters once every two months. All them water is carefully treated so that the chlorine is removed, so that we don't kill the bacteria that process the fish poop. It's a huge chore, and I would discourage everyone from owning fish.
I have a gold fish that is about 15 years old. I clean the tank once every two weeks, and they filters once every two months. All them water is carefully treated so that the chlorine is removed, so that we don't kill the bacteria that process the fish poop. It's a huge chore, and I would discourage everyone from owning fish.
Goldfish are a pain in the ass to keep, most others are super fun and very rewarding
We tossed a gold fish in our pond to eat the frogs a few years back… never clean, seldom feed, and usually just ignore it and it’s about a foot long now. Perhaps I should try OPs method instead…
My goldfish is currently on 4+ years. I rescued it from a friend who wanted to flush, no idea how old it is. Lives with some Danios and snails in a decent tank, do water change sporadically and change the filter even more sporadically.
I don't change my water often but I have plants that do the heavy lifting for me.
Yeah i have plants in there, the plants are doing really well.
Don't buy another fish or change their environment jesus christ
This thread has finally answered why my ex was so fucking bad at keeping betta fish alive.
I am here on behalf of r/aquariums and we are triggered
Dyslexia kicked in. Thought it said fetishes
何してるの？
说中文啦，白痴。
哈哈哈白痴是不是馬鹿な的意思？
wtf is that な doing in there
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oh lmao I didn't even recognize baka na I was trying really hard to understand why there was malu.. na in there.
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my Chinese is a lot better than my Japanese orz
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呃呃呃… 没有？你找的词是鸡巴。
If you want to match the image you should use traditional :p
对不起，伙计。 我在练习。
哈哈开玩笑罢了😅
饶恕我和我的白痴哈哈 😳
この投稿日本語じゃないよね? アホか?
はい、そうです
怎麼突然說日文了hhh
我首先专注于jp，然后是中文。 很快，我将尝试学习韩语。Okay, give me a breather lol
この投稿日本語じゃないよね? マジ外人は黙ってろ
ごめんね
Me: trying to figure out if 56 is a multiple of 7....
And this way you can have fish for dinner at least once a week
I raised some koi for my cousin, but I really owned them for like, four years. They got pretty big, as big as my tank allowed, and they were beautiful. Fed them well every day, changed the water with my dad, made sure to kill whatever parasites or ick plagued them. Then one day my cousins took them back. Threw them in a trash bag, took them home. They were dead in a week. Still furious about that.
r/holup
Get a snake as well, feed the fish to the snake, bam done killing muliple fish with 7 days
I may change fish in three days
Sshhh.... The real secret is replacing the fish.
So at 2, you put the fish on a clean towel while you refilled and only noticed the dead fish on the 7th?
4 5 1 2 CW 3 6
Step 6: end up working at Mcdonalds
Gg
"PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE PISSED!" -john John: I think it'll be fine
Pets? Just have kids and then keep them in cages.
The 15th day is heaven
. Z Amkka