Rant Alert: Kids Being Dumb Kids

Ugh I haven't posted on this site in forever because of some disasters in my tank =_= and my first post back is a rant. Wellllll this won't be that long...

Anyways I had my two cousins overnight. There 10 and 8 respectively and mostly just played with my three younger sisters. But they were in the basement watching TV and saw my fish tank. They both liked it I let them feed the fish, asked a lot of "what's that one?" and touched my betta fish when feeding ("accidentally") and thought it felt cool.
So I go to sleep and tomorrow I wake up late, like around 11:30 - 12 ish and they all have been awake for awhile now. I go down to look at the fish and....
everything is unplugged, light, heater, filters. The tank is re arranged haphazardly. I have a simple set up with large piece of wood in the middle and four terracotta pots in each corner. the wood is shoved to the back of the tank and 3 out of the four pot are near the middle of the tank. Sooo I was not happy at all. My 10yr old cousin claimed he just barely touched it but he admitted it after as he was the only one tall enough to reach. I'm pretty sure he wanted to see\touch a fish that was hiding so he did that. My sister unplugged everything by bursting a door open that she knew was not to be used as it was behind all the cords and would unplug everything.

Cleaned it up and and told him off as well as my dad. He was "only" 10 but obviously knew that touching others things and chasing animals around was a no go. I hate it when kids do stuff like that to my fish/animals chase the cat, dump food in the tank, tap the glass HARD, etc.

 

Hopefully they will be avid fish keepers when they get older. My 13 year old son called me at work the other day and said, "dad, why does the water in the fish tank feel warm?" My reply was , how do you know its warm?........followed by silence..... I asked him if he is putting his hands in it? ......more silence....... The funny thing is I could hear my 10 year old daughter in the background saying "close the lid"
I guess I would have done the same thing when I was his age. I have always been fascinated with fish tanks.
Maybe next time you visit them they will have a fish tank. LOL...

Eric

 

Even though its hard not to get angry - can totally understand - instead try and explaining on why you don't do things or the important of (lets just say leave the filter running) is... get them intrigued, and teach them a thing or two about something they probably have no idea about.

You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

 

I have to admit I was that kid at 13. Haha. Fish tanks have always fascinating to me, and those who had fish tanks growing up (usually peers my same age) would always show me where the fish food was and then tell me ‘but don’t feed it.’ Or show me their tank and say ‘don’t touch’ without really explaining how or why which always lead to me touching and feeding things when no one was looking. Now I know why, a decade later after doing my own research, but if someone had explained to me at the time I wouldn’t have been so rebellious. Though, I never chased anything around or rearranged anyone’s tank or unplugged anything....

I never realized how involved fishkeeping was until I got my own tank, which I think is true of most people, even if they do keep fish some people still don’t ever learn what the proper way to do that is. We have to be taught how to properly touch and be around other animals at an early age and I don’t think fish are any different. I get the ‘it doesn’t belong to you’ argument because it’s true. For me at the time it was more about wanting to understand more about an animal and no one being willing to get the stick out of their rear end and teach me!

I just thought they were overprotective of their fish or that they thought I was too dumb to understand fish things!

Lol! Good on some of you folks for being patient. Explaining the why behind the “don’t touch this or that” always lead to me being more willing to listen than just a flat out “DON’T,” personally speaking.

I think that curiosity about animals is why I was always going near tanks without anyone knowing as a kid. Most kids love animals, so explaining why whatever dumb thing they’re doing could hurt the thing their curious about would probably do more good than just screaming : get off my lawn!!

 

my brother is 25 and he still harasses my cat 24/7



that's really funny that they would just rearrange your tank like that lol. goodness. that poor fish. children no touchy.

 

My kids stayed out of the tanks. The threat of the fish biting them was a goid deterrent. That and Oscar did bite so that helped.

 

I have the same problem, kid, except I have to deal with adults who can’t act like adults.

 

Kids are naturally curious. They’ll do stupid stuff...my 4 year old and 2.5 year olds will bang on the glass. I tell them don’t do that or the tank will explode.

 

Ten and eight are hard ages because they’re old enough that they should know not to be destructive.

My brother brought a friend (28 years old) over who decided to play with and rearrange my mom’s breeding tank because he liked the pregnant fish and fry. I’ve never seen my mother so mad; she was ready to beat someone for making her fish so scared. They stayed hidden from everyone but her for almost a week and the “friend” is staying hidden from my mom forever.

 

What happened to not touching things that don't belong to you? I can understand it with younger kids who don't quite have a grasp of that concept yet, but some of the stories here of older people make me wanna scream! It shouldn't matter if it's fish or not, hands off unless you ask. Geez.

 

My kids stayed out of the tanks. The threat of the fish biting them was a goid deterrent. That and Oscar did bite so that helped.

Lol if something had bit me back when I was that rude kid that definitely would have worked!

“By the way kids, I also keep blood-sucking leeches in this tank, they hide out of sight but as soon as there is human flesh in the water they will drain all your blood.”

I wonder if that would work on adult culprits too...hmmmm

 

I can understand why you feel angry. My landlords sometimes bring their kids over to my apartment when they’re here and they run around and bang on my tanks. If they could reach, I’m sure they’d have their yucky hands in the tanks too. I don’t think the excuse “ they’re just kids” applies. As a kid, even as far back ad I can remember, I didn’t touch what didn’t belong to me unless I was invited to. I think parenting style is a factor here. Not saying your cousins have bad parents but not every kid acts like this, just depends on how they were raised. I’ve had little kids come over and see my tanks and they were polite as anything and kept their hands to themselves. At 10 and 8, I think they’re cognizant enough to have a civil conversation with you and their parents about what is appropriate and what is not. Don’t accept destructive behavior as just “something kids do” imo. Hope they learn better habits soon!

 

You need to sit down and tell them everything you know about fish. You need to have a meaningful conversation about how bettas are living creatures and deserve a good lifestyle.

 

I have had my tank for over a year and a half and my kid who was two when I got the tank but now three loves to knock on the glass and talk to the fish, show them her toys ect. The funny thing is, since shes the one that feeds them, they all get super excited when shes over there banging the glass. They love her, they see me, the scary lady who sucks out the water and sticks her hand in the tank and they swim away, lol.

 

A relative of mine when I was younger had a fish in a fish bowl and I put my finger on the surface to see what would happen and it nibbled on my finger. Thought it was cool, but didn't try to go any further than that. So I do understand the curiosity of it. Now that I have own tanks, I'm super protective of them and don't allow anyone to touch or stick their germy hands anywhwere close to my fish supplies or I will lash out. Irritates me when I'm at my favorite lfs and I see kids run in a cramped space and bang/yell at the tanks.

 

I had a small talk with him before they all ran off to go swimming, He just put sunscreen on so I was worried it would have something harmful in the sunscreen. He seemed honestly surprised he got caught which was pretty funny >.<

 

Ugh I haven't posted on this site in forever because of some disasters in my tank =_= and my first post back is a rant. Wellllll this won't be that long...

Anyways I had my two cousins overnight. There 10 and 8 respectively and mostly just played with my three younger sisters. But they were in the basement watching TV and saw my fish tank. They both liked it I let them feed the fish, asked a lot of "what's that one?" and touched my betta fish when feeding ("accidentally") and thought it felt cool.
So I go to sleep and tomorrow I wake up late, like around 11:30 - 12 ish and they all have been awake for awhile now. I go down to look at the fish and....
everything is unplugged, light, heater, filters. The tank is re arranged haphazardly. I have a simple set up with large piece of wood in the middle and four terracotta pots in each corner. the wood is shoved to the back of the tank and 3 out of the four pot are near the middle of the tank. Sooo I was not happy at all. My 10yr old cousin claimed he just barely touched it but he admitted it after as he was the only one tall enough to reach. I'm pretty sure he wanted to see\touch a fish that was hiding so he did that. My sister unplugged everything by bursting a door open that she knew was not to be used as it was behind all the cords and would unplug everything.

Cleaned it up and and told him off as well as my dad. He was "only" 10 but obviously knew that touching others things and chasing animals around was a no go. I hate it when kids do stuff like that to my fish/animals chase the cat, dump food in the tank, tap the glass HARD, etc.

This is one of the reasons no one's allowed in my room without my permission...

 

I think if people tried to touch cichlids they’d learn very quickly

 

Okay update for this topic:

I was just at the beach today and met this little kid, probably 6 years old. He told me he had 2 bettas in a divided tank. He showed me a pic of the tank. I'll attach a link to it so you can see how small it is.



I told him he needs a bigger tank and he says that I'm a stupid idiot and that his bettas are fine because his aunt told him that the tank was good. I told him to look it up online, and he said that he'd never look it up, EVER, because his aunt is smarter than me.

On the bright side, I told another kid about bettas, and by the end of the afternoon, he was like "If I get a betta, is 10 gallons big enough???"

 

A relative of mine when I was younger had a fish in a fish bowl and I put my finger on the surface to see what would happen and it nibbled on my finger. Thought it was cool, but didn't try to go any further than that. So I do understand the curiosity of it. Now that I have own tanks, I'm super protective of them and don't allow anyone to touch or stick their germy hands anywhwere close to my fish supplies or I will lash out. Irritates me when I'm at my favorite lfs and I see kids run in a cramped space and bang/yell at the tanks.

My whole body tensed up when you talked about kids running near fish tanks. Saw that at Petco last night and I wanted to scream. It's a glass object containing a living animal! It could not be a more fragile object if it tried! I know kids are reckless and they don't understand but parents need to at least try to keep them under control ("you have to be good or we can't come back to the pet store for a long time," etc.) Curiosity is in their nature, but I never banged on a fish tank as a child. Going to the pet store was always a delight but you had to keep your hands to yourself and be respectful of the animals.

Edit: had 5 children in my yard tonight (toddler, 2 kindergarteners, 2 fifth graders) and they were really interested in the fish in our outdoor pond. They helped feed the fish and walked all around the pond looking at them. None of them hurt or scared the fish at all throughout the entire evening. So before someone starts saying "you know nothing about kids" or "it's not that simple"

 

Okay update for this topic:

I was just at the beach today and met this little kid, probably 6 years old. He told me he had 2 bettas in a divided tank. He showed me a pic of the tank. I'll attach a link to it so you can see how small it is.



I told him he needs a bigger tank and he says that I'm a stupid idiot and that his bettas are fine because his aunt told him that the tank was good. I told him to look it up online, and he said that he'd never look it up, EVER, because his aunt is smarter than me.

On the bright side, I told another kid about bettas, and by the end of the afternoon, he was like "If I get a betta, is 10 gallons big enough???"

I hate that companies sell tanks that small

 

My MIL who is 55 came over today and legitimately shook my shelving unit as if she was checking the sturdiness...I scolded her and told her not to shake it (honestly it's my worst fear my tanks will come crashing down) and she grabs it again! Then I watched her almost back up into the whole thing twice. I mean, if you see three highly fragile glass boxes, why do you have to be right next to it??? (She could have gone around the other side of the table....) I am just a highly anal fish keeper, I suppose.

 

One of my neighbour's kids put a popsicle in my tank.
She doesn't like grape apparently. Neither do my fish?

 

My whole body tensed up when you talked about kids running near fish tanks. Saw that at Petco last night and I wanted to scream. It's a glass object containing a living animal! It could not be a more fragile object if it tried! I know kids are reckless and they don't understand but parents need to at least try to keep them under control ("you have to be good or we can't come back to the pet store for a long time," etc.) Curiosity is in their nature, but I never banged on a fish tank as a child. Going to the pet store was always a delight but you had to keep your hands to yourself and be respectful of the animals.

Edit: had 5 children in my yard tonight (toddler, 2 kindergarteners, 2 fifth graders) and they were really interested in the fish in our outdoor pond. They helped feed the fish and walked all around the pond looking at them. None of them hurt or scared the fish at all throughout the entire evening. So before someone starts saying "you know nothing about kids" or "it's not that simple"

It really isn't that simple in some cases, there's things called mental illness and you can talk or beat your kid till your blue in the face and nothing will change.

 

Alright, now I’m nervous for a pond. I discussed this topic with my coworker and he said a 12 year old put soap in his Aunt’s koi pond because he wanted to clean it.... I don’t know how I would react to that one

 

It really isn't that simple in some cases, there's things called mental illness and you can talk or beat your kid till your blue in the face and nothing will change.

For one thing, you're talking to someone with autism and multiple other conditions, so that argument is invalid - my brothers both have it too, and my autistic father is the one who taught us to be respectful of animals from the time we were toddlers. And for another thing, I was talking about the general patterns of children being reckless with animals, not singling out specific subsets of children who are developmentally delayed or otherwise troubled.

My point was, you can teach your kid respect for life in all forms and respect for other people's property. In fact, it's part of your responsibility as a parent to raise little people who can function in the world without driving other people crazy.

 

At petsmart one of the kids there figured out how to open the tanks, I watched him try to catch fish in the tanks for 5 minutes with his mom watching, until a worker found him and proceeded to kick both of them out of the store.

 

My 9-year-old cousin loves to look at my fish tanks. I've explained to her why she can't pet the fish or feed them a lot or put her hands in the tank. I usually let her hand feed the betta a bloodworm, but other than that she doesn't touch the tanks unless I tell her she can. I guess she's one of the good ones.