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Heh.

One piece of fun that came my way was a panicky E-Mail from someone on another bulletin board (not fish related), who, because I was known there for being a fishkeeper, decided to enlist my services.

He explained that one of his work colleagues was having problems with an aquarium - described in the E-Mail as "the 25 Cromwell Road of fish tanks" (a reference to the premises cocupied by Fred & Rose West, the serial killers). So, I asked him to list some details - age, whether it had been cycled or not, and the stocking list.

It transpired that the aquarium had been loaded with fish right from the moment the water had been poured in - i.e., zero cycling time. No less than 40 fish went in there. Nice mixture of speciee too - oh, the pairs of FPilian eyeballs that will be rolling when I mention that the guy in question put 6 Neons in with 3 Pangasius cats ...

Needless to say, this little lot lasted less than 10 days. Total wipeout as ammonia levels almost certainly went ballistic.

So, I explain nice and patiently to the guy who sent the E-Mail that his work colleague needed to sit down and do some serious studying - the nitrogen cycle being a pretty high priority on the list - and that in future, ne needed in addition to pick his species more wisely, and introduce them piecmeal in order to give the biological filter time to adjust to the increase in population. I also suggested that he avoid Pangasius catfishes as these things grow to be three feet long and weigh 60 pounds in the wild, which makes them less than desirable aquarium occupants.

The reply was quite hilarious.

"I gave him your reply and he asked if a bigger tank would help".

I replied by saying that a bigger tank might have delayed some of the problems, but without due care and attention to the issues I'd outlined, it would only have delayed the inevitable. As an aside, I asked what size the original aquarium was.

"Er, it's a 2ft aquarium".

Take note of that everyone - 40 fish, including 3 Pangasius cats, in a 2ft aquarium. Sigh ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

poor snake. That guy is stupid.... If you don't know enough to get a heat lamp then you shouldn't own the animal.

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

I'm with Natalie and Wish-Ga on this.

I woulda told that guy up front. 'You should NEVER be allowed to own a pet of any kind again.'



The Amazon Nut...

OOH! This one time, i went to a not-so-fish-specialty-store, and they were selling all kinds of fish for only 28 cents. It turns out that they were going to get rid of their fish section. I bought my gouramis and 2 plecos, and they were selling blood parrots listed as "tetras". One lady who sold us the fish......Oh i still am cursed to this day.......She said, when she mixed a tetra w/a gourami, "oh, that one(the gourami, pearl, as it said on the label) will breed with that one(black skirt tetra). I said, no, i dont think so. She said "Oh yes, they do, the pink one is a female......(turns out it was a male kissing gourami). My dad and i come back the next day (to buy a pleco for his tank)to find that she was still serving the fish(DOOMED), and she told us that she mixed several goldfish with several bloodparrots in a bowl, and said that the parrots killed off the goldfish while she was staring at it.....Then, this other lady said "what kind of water do you use?". Then i told her to use a dechlorinator to dechlorinate the tap water, but to wait for the water to cycle(with fish) before she adds her real, wanted fish. She looked at me with a face that told me....(Your just a 12 year old, so you dont know half of what youre saying. Its impossible to dechlorinate wter, much less wait for a 'cycle' to add the fish." What is the world coming to?...........

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Please please please let me post this in Mock_The_Stupid on Livejournal. Please!

This almost made me want to go out back and shoot myself. Heh


I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

What can I say, ive been up against that kind of person all my life on almost a daily basis. For this I have a number of conversational techniques, including but not limited to , re-education, sarcasm, shouting, belittling, insults,legal intervention, mental manipulation, coercement, hypnotism, threats of violence, and well, actual violence (what would you do if you caught a kid stamping on puppies heads?) . A million people, and a million different ways to cure them

I quite like the know it all 40 to 50 year olds, I find watching their shrinking intellect the most amusing. You know the type, people who have been managers of large companies who arent used to hearing the word " no, dont do that it, would be the worst kind of totally idiotic" . I find telling them a "story" about how "someone" did a similar thing once, and what a useless bugger "they" were etc does the trick. You can watch them going slowly pale and shrinking a little. But the message gets there.

Ego versus animal health. If its up to me ego LOSES. As for the stupid ones, give them 10 minyes of education, and if they dont respond... oh I dont know, shoot them or something. There is no cure for the catatonically stupid, except banning them from keeping animals, and if you have to tell animal authorities then do so, if you have to testify, do so. There has never been a difference to me to see an animal being abused or a child being abused, and I react with equal vigour to both. I am by no means an extremist, im not going to go beating up farmers for killing food items, and im not going to throw fishermen into streams for fishing, but if someone defiantly hurts an animal in front of me, or abuses an animal via abuse and neglect, especially to get a rise out of people, or to be in defiance of all that we know is good,..well.. put it this way, to do it in front of me is one of the biggest life mistakes you could make. I think that is the deterrent when education fails. We have to fight animal abuse together, after all, most animal abusers are complete cowards,or of limited intelligence, hence they often swift and irrational defenses they put up. Dont put up with it.

All I know is that aminal abuse should not be tolerated, and I do whatever it takes to stop it. Education first, then if they cant listen, i get geometrically more forceful. Thankfully I can be pretty persuasive on average. Call it practice. Well, that and a bad temper

As long as you are sure of your ground, and the law. A boa is a cites listed animal , and as such abuse carries a heavy fine, and/or prison sentances. Shop the stupid S.O.B.

Its not that people cant learn, its that they wont, and its that people are equally retiscent to bring them to book, usually because they cant be bothered. It good to remind them by legal intervention that they should. Its all about aversion therapy via legally enforced suffering Anyone too retarded to keep an animal should be prevented from looking after one. Thats what the law is for. Make that call!

When people cant be trusted to make that judgement call about themselves being a bad animal keeper, then the law is there for you to use. Report it,Report it,Report it,Report it,Report it,Report it,Report it,Report it!

It doesnt matter if you think nothing will happen, keep calling! The wheels of law turn slow, but they do turn.

I started working days in retail but couldn't handle the stupidity with a fake smile on my face; I've been working nights for over 4 years because of it

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean