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Hello, I used to be really big into fish keeping, but I have been away at University for the past few years and had to give it up.
The only tank I still kept was a 400L (100 Gallon??) tank which contains an 8" Sailfin Pleco. 6" Blue Acara and 2 6" Clown Loaches which I left with my parents to look after.
Since the tank was with my parents they never changed the water (except for topping it up when the water level got too low), which strangely has a pH of 6.8, with very little Nitrates and ammonia.
I have 2 Eheim professional II filters running in the tank, which I think is the cause for the relatively clean water after so long and a heater which keeps the water at 26C all year round.

Now that I have finished Uni, I am getting back into it, but have noticed none of my fish seem to eat anything.
My parents would feed them sinking pellets, algae wafers and frozen shrimp into the tank but it all seems to just rot in the tank and the fish seem really lethargic and thin (especially the Acara).
I even put 8 white cloud mountain minnows which we have plenty of in our pond thinking at least the Blue Acara would eat them, but after a week they are all still there happily swimming around.

Is there anything I should do? (They have been alive for over 3 years practically untouched). It just seems really weird that these fish are still alive considering there size and the little food if any they seem to be eating.

Also I am afraid to do a water change as I think it may cause more harm to them, being used to these conditions.
Any advice would be very helpful.

As far as water changes, I think you'll be ok if you start small (5-10%) and work your way up to larger ones.

As for why your fish don't seem to be eating, perhaps try feeding them at different times of day? Did your parents notice they didn't seem to eat anything while you were gone? It's hard to tell if this is a long-term thing or something that has developed recently.

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Okay, I will start with some very small water changes.
I have been feeding them at different times of the day and at night, but none of the fish seem to move around much.

The loaches lie inside a cave all day even with no lights on and the Pleco just lies motionless on a huge piece of driftwood with it's fins down, with the Acara hovering slightly above him at all times. any outside movement or introduction of food or the white clouds doesn't even seem to make them flinch. My parents have told me that they have been like this the whole time and have labelled it as a "boring aquarium" to all their visitors.

The only thing I can think of to suggest is to move/change the decor around some to encourage them to find different comfortable places. I don't know what the whole tank looks like, but perhaps they hang out where they do because they are the most suitable locations in the tank? Loaches do like caves, plecos cling to/eat driftwood, and perhaps the acara has picked that spot as its territory. Your description makes me wonder if they all went blind somehow, but it seems unlikely as fish have other senses they would rely on to live relatively normal lives (smell/taste and lateral line sense would be pretty big for the fish you have). Many fish come from turbid waters where eyesight doesn't help them much anyway.

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That does seem really strange behavior for clown loaches (I don't have any experience with blue acara). Our remaining two will come to the surface to gobble anything from flake or shrimp pellets to algae wafers.

Small water changes more frequently like superlion said is a good start. The water actually doesn't have much of the bacteria in it, most of it is on surface elements (decor, plants, the tank itself and of course filter media). I'd do a bucket a day.

Since you've got multiple filters on the tank I'd say clean one part of the bio media every few days. Start with the floss or finest material that's in the filter since I'm sure it's the most clogged, give it a squeeze or two in the used tank water you draw off every day Don't do more than a few squeezes to get the worst, you can come back and do it again in a few days. Then do the other filter a few days later. Then move on to the rings or sponge or balls, whatever you have as your more open surface area. I know this means a lot of opening up of the filters but at this point it's better to make gradual changes to water conditions.

Make sure the dechlor you're using is good new stuff, if it's been stored cracked open it may not still work (or maybe it's super strong, not sure, I'd buy new just to be safe!). If your parents never bothered to turn the lights on they may take a while to adjust.

You might also consider doing a dose or two of cycle just to make sure the proper bacterial balance is going on in the tank. Keep water temp as close as possible when adding back as well.


We had a fish in our tank that tended to be quite a loner, always swam off and hid when I came to do a feeding to the point where I wanted to tip-toe up to the tank. We ended up adding a few dozen very hungry-at-all-times angel fish to the tank and soon enough the loner was up begging for nibbles as soon as anyone approaches the tank.

If you're not seeing food go to waste on the bottom of the tank then someone is eating it! Keep doing what you're doing, add in a few slow water changes and they should be back to normal fairly soon.


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