sheenalee
- #1
A Controversial Question
Hey all,
A couple days ago my fish bit the dust. Honestly I wasn't very surprised. This was for many reasons. First they where in my 10-gallon uncycled tank. (Now, I will say that I am a frequent every second day water change kind of gal, I also love my prime water conditioner.) I will admit though I might have left a couple water changes go to once a week (I do have a 22-month old son with me at home all day)
Secondly they are from my grandpa’s 10-gallon tank. Now you’ve probably run across a couple old timers with fish and they have this “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. He does a water change when the water starts to get cloudy. Oh maybe once every two months. (I know, I know) It get’s worst… (but sheena, how can it get worst?)
Snails, lots of snails, saying every square inch is covered in snails might be exaggerating, but it’s a close thing. The tank is also almost completely bare, it has gravel substrate about an inch thick of it and one dinky looking snail castle (it used to be a fairy castle, but let’s face it the it’s the snails turf now). For a filter, it has something that look like a Marineland Penguin Bio Wheel 150, but without the Bio Wheel. Which would be perfectly ok, if you know it was stocked at an acceptable level, but did I mention that there are about 25-35 fish in it? (I know, I know).
We’ll get to the fish a little later though. So a couple weeks ago I look at those poor fish, and ask my grandpa if I can clean the tank for him (honestly it was morbid curiosity of how dirty the substrate was) so I whip out a spare gravel vac that I just happened to have brought (totally brought it on purpose, also my gpa doesn’t have one) I begin cleaning the gravel. OMG talk about dirty, I don’t know how you vacuum your gravel substrate but I like to dig that bad boy right down to the bottom and hold it there for a second. No way I had to hold it in place for about 10-15 seconds, it was that dirty. There wasn’t actually enough water in the tank to safely do a thorough cleaning of the gravel (I would have done a 100% water change, which with fish in there, not a good idea). Anyways I brought some fake plants with me and stuck them in the tank, and in 5 seconds I’m pretty sure the snails claimed them. I had an ammonia test with me and checked the levels, and would you look at that there where none. I’m pretty sure that his tank runs on love.
So to be honest the tank used to belong to me, I got it when I was around 16-17 years old. It originally contained 6 fancy gold fish (I know, I know). Of course they all died within weeks (Hello ammonia cycle and health related issues it causes). Eventually there was just Eddy (Ed for short) left. Ed was a fantail gold fish, he lived for three years (hello slow painful death by organs crushing him to death from the inside out. One day he died (honestly I like to think he's in fishy heaven where he's living in pristine conditions and a 10000000 × infinity gallon tank, talking smack about how I was a bad owner). I’d like to mention that I took care for him for about a year, and the other two I was living in the city (I moved out when I turned 18, wasn’t aloud a fish tank in the apartment block). Therefore, the care (insert torture) of Ed was up to my grandpa.
Anyways after Ed died the tank sat empty of fish, though not of water (which surprised me, as I thought the moment eddy died grandpa would drain that tank and never listen to the sound of water running again, his biggest complaint ever when I first got it). FYI the tank is located on the kitchen table.
One day a lady came by to help my grandpa with his grocery shopping and noticed the empty tank and offered to give him some fish. So fish he received about 10, now he was told they where "guppies".
I can't really remember the tank till lately (it was just sort of there, and I never really looked at it). There are tons of males in the tank, maybe a handful of females (now since this is a family friendly site I won't insert an anecdote about gangs banging on doors.) Those poor females probably don't get a wink of sleep with the ratio going on. Their all gray the females that are in there.
Now this is where my whole story (long winded rant) gets controversial. I took pity on the females and took them home with me plus a few of the males, and after getting them acclimated to their new tank, in they went.
I posted a picture of a male fish from the tank up on here asking what type of fish it was; I was told it was a hybrid guppy/Endler thing. (Which I can see since some people consider Endlers to be a variant of a guppy). Since most of the males look the same they most likely must be the same guppy/Endler cross. However, when momma gups (maybe not gups anymore) got sick, I posted a picture asking what was wrong with her, people said that she was a platy. So that being said while a guppy/Endler cross might be possible, can there be cross breeding between platy and guppy/Endlers?! Because the females where all pregnant when I got them, and one even gave birth to 8 little fry.
I apologise if this was a crazy long winded story.
Hey all,
A couple days ago my fish bit the dust. Honestly I wasn't very surprised. This was for many reasons. First they where in my 10-gallon uncycled tank. (Now, I will say that I am a frequent every second day water change kind of gal, I also love my prime water conditioner.) I will admit though I might have left a couple water changes go to once a week (I do have a 22-month old son with me at home all day)
Secondly they are from my grandpa’s 10-gallon tank. Now you’ve probably run across a couple old timers with fish and they have this “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. He does a water change when the water starts to get cloudy. Oh maybe once every two months. (I know, I know) It get’s worst… (but sheena, how can it get worst?)
Snails, lots of snails, saying every square inch is covered in snails might be exaggerating, but it’s a close thing. The tank is also almost completely bare, it has gravel substrate about an inch thick of it and one dinky looking snail castle (it used to be a fairy castle, but let’s face it the it’s the snails turf now). For a filter, it has something that look like a Marineland Penguin Bio Wheel 150, but without the Bio Wheel. Which would be perfectly ok, if you know it was stocked at an acceptable level, but did I mention that there are about 25-35 fish in it? (I know, I know).
We’ll get to the fish a little later though. So a couple weeks ago I look at those poor fish, and ask my grandpa if I can clean the tank for him (honestly it was morbid curiosity of how dirty the substrate was) so I whip out a spare gravel vac that I just happened to have brought (totally brought it on purpose, also my gpa doesn’t have one) I begin cleaning the gravel. OMG talk about dirty, I don’t know how you vacuum your gravel substrate but I like to dig that bad boy right down to the bottom and hold it there for a second. No way I had to hold it in place for about 10-15 seconds, it was that dirty. There wasn’t actually enough water in the tank to safely do a thorough cleaning of the gravel (I would have done a 100% water change, which with fish in there, not a good idea). Anyways I brought some fake plants with me and stuck them in the tank, and in 5 seconds I’m pretty sure the snails claimed them. I had an ammonia test with me and checked the levels, and would you look at that there where none. I’m pretty sure that his tank runs on love.
So to be honest the tank used to belong to me, I got it when I was around 16-17 years old. It originally contained 6 fancy gold fish (I know, I know). Of course they all died within weeks (Hello ammonia cycle and health related issues it causes). Eventually there was just Eddy (Ed for short) left. Ed was a fantail gold fish, he lived for three years (hello slow painful death by organs crushing him to death from the inside out. One day he died (honestly I like to think he's in fishy heaven where he's living in pristine conditions and a 10000000 × infinity gallon tank, talking smack about how I was a bad owner). I’d like to mention that I took care for him for about a year, and the other two I was living in the city (I moved out when I turned 18, wasn’t aloud a fish tank in the apartment block). Therefore, the care (insert torture) of Ed was up to my grandpa.
Anyways after Ed died the tank sat empty of fish, though not of water (which surprised me, as I thought the moment eddy died grandpa would drain that tank and never listen to the sound of water running again, his biggest complaint ever when I first got it). FYI the tank is located on the kitchen table.
One day a lady came by to help my grandpa with his grocery shopping and noticed the empty tank and offered to give him some fish. So fish he received about 10, now he was told they where "guppies".
I can't really remember the tank till lately (it was just sort of there, and I never really looked at it). There are tons of males in the tank, maybe a handful of females (now since this is a family friendly site I won't insert an anecdote about gangs banging on doors.) Those poor females probably don't get a wink of sleep with the ratio going on. Their all gray the females that are in there.
Now this is where my whole story (long winded rant) gets controversial. I took pity on the females and took them home with me plus a few of the males, and after getting them acclimated to their new tank, in they went.
I posted a picture of a male fish from the tank up on here asking what type of fish it was; I was told it was a hybrid guppy/Endler thing. (Which I can see since some people consider Endlers to be a variant of a guppy). Since most of the males look the same they most likely must be the same guppy/Endler cross. However, when momma gups (maybe not gups anymore) got sick, I posted a picture asking what was wrong with her, people said that she was a platy. So that being said while a guppy/Endler cross might be possible, can there be cross breeding between platy and guppy/Endlers?! Because the females where all pregnant when I got them, and one even gave birth to 8 little fry.
I apologise if this was a crazy long winded story.