got some probiotic fish flakes for ruffles and company

It has been my experience that a lot of peoples personal fishtanks have a bit of a smell to them. Putrid is not the word I used.

According to the definition of putrid, fish tanks are putrid

(of organic matter) decaying or rotting and emitting a fetid smell.

Fish food, algae, plants, all decaying inside that water. Sometimes even a dead fish that died inside an ornament and you didn't even realise

It has been my experience that a lot of peoples personal fishtanks have a bit of a smell to them.

Then there is something wrong with their tank.

Regularly vacuuming the gravel gets rid of the smells.

Regularly vacuuming the gravel gets rid of the smells.

Having live plants in there is good too. They use the poo as fertiliser.

Lots of plants, a well maintained filter that turns the water over several times an hour and regular water changes.  Oh, and not too many fish.  Also, don't overfeed - most people do.

SCG - did you get a new filter?  For cleaning out your old one, hydrogen peroxide 3% does the trick.  Just apply it to the algae, leave for a bit and rinse off.  It's safe as it just breaks down into water and oxygen, so won't contaminate your tank.   Or use diluted bleach - just rinse it very thoroughly afterwards.  However do not use "scented" bleach - it must be 100% pure.  Unlike bleach, stuff like added scents do not break down afterwards.

I have a problem with over feeding. I think, THEY MUST BE HONGRY GIVE THEM MORE. I am doing much better with that now. Just a little food in the morning, and a tiny bit more later in the day.

I did get the sponge filter, but I'm also still using the hang on the side filter (whatever they're called). Thanks for the tip about the peroxide! I knew about diluted bleach, and tried that once but I guess I didn't leave it in there long enough, or the bleach was too diluted. I'm going to try the peroxide this afternoon.

I also got a better vacuum. I bought one that was too big, and I could barely get half the tank done before siphoning out too much water, so now I've got a smaller one with a built in thing you squeeze to get the siphon going. I can get the whole tank vacuumed without worrying I'm filling up the bucket too fast, or needing to add water to finish.

Sponge filters are cool. I had no idea about the beneficial bacteria stuff and couldn't figure out what good sponge filters are, but I watched a bunch of videos about them. 

I have a problem with over feeding. I think, THEY MUST BE HONGRY GIVE THEM MORE. I am doing much better with that now. Just a little food in the morning, and a tiny bit more later in the day.

Once a day is fine and you can miss days.  Tropical fish really don't need much food - I leave my for a week without food and they are fine.

Sponge filters are cool. I had no idea about the beneficial bacteria stuff and couldn't figure out what good sponge filters are, but I watched a bunch of videos about them.

The bacteria is the main point of the filter.  Some communities will break down the ammonia from fish poo into nitrites and others will break it down to safe nitrates.  Your hang on filter should have sponge pads in it though?

Yeah, the hang on (it's about 7 years old, Tetra 20 I think) does have a rectangular flat black sponge. I am surprised the motor on it has lasted this long!

Sponge filters are cool. I had no idea about the beneficial bacteria stuff and couldn't figure out what good sponge filters are, but I watched a bunch of videos about them.

I can remember doing a regular cleaning of my fish tank (small one for a betta) and feeling satisfied after scrubbing off all the nasty film I could feel on the inside of the glass and making sure to clean all the stuff in the filter too.

It all looks so simple. Fill tank with water. Put in fish. Feed.

This is a hobby you can spend every waking moment researching and learning about.  I do miss my last big tank.

That reminds me, I did clean out the filter intake with peroxide. It didn't get all the algae out, but it worked better than diluted bleach. I wouldn't even worry about it, but it was actually starting to clog up.

It has been my experience that a lot of peoples personal fishtanks have a bit of a smell to them. Putrid is not the word I used.

No,  if your tank has any aroma what-so-ever you fucked up.   
Go sniff a river or an ocean.   

Does it smell like your boyfriend's butt?


I had two 55 gallon standard tanks and three 5 gallon nursery tanks.   
I was growing Apistograma Ramerisii . . . . .   

(now called Microgrophagus Ramerisi because Pluto is no longer a Planet    )


Got to the point I couldn't get rid of them fast enough.

Never did my tanks have any aroma.   
Well except when I built my first tank when I was 15. 
I discovered fish keeping is actually filter keeping.   

Also,  I was 15yo, 

So to keep everything surviving I built a filter system out of two 55 gallon food grade plastic barrels, a manifold of PCV valves, three pumps, bliss.   


Then the pet shop closed about the same time my life trajectory misfired.



But at no time did I accept a fish tank should stink.





Just some advice . . . when there is a string of poo sticking out of you fishes vent,   
you are over feeding.
A 2.75" fish has a stomach that will hold about 3 grains of rice. 
Fish, like humans, will eat themselves to death.

Err on the side of starving them.   

No,  if your tank has any aroma what-so-ever you fucked up.   

Exactly.

Err on the side of starving them.

This too.  Fish have no problem adjusting to very low amounts of food.    I just feed mine lightly once a day and usually miss out a couple of days a week.   I've just been away for a week and all my fish are absolutely fine - just gave them a little extra for their first feed after I was back.

Important to note - in my homemade food I use approx. 1/3 by wieght COOKED oats not 1/3 by weight dry oats. Just in case anyone is considering it. Their are plenty of homemade fish food recipes, but a lot of them use bone gelatin. some use agar as a gelling agent, but freezing the food with gelling agent is a problem. I cook up the protein and veg with a little water and freeze, then thaw and cook with appropriate amnt of oats.

 I looked on the back of the old / no longer for sale variety of goldfish food at superstore and they had oats in it. Also I have heard that it is ok to feed oats (suggested as a "treat" ? but "treat" in general seems largely undefined even asked...?) And they are not on the do not feed list, and carbs are reccomended to comprise close to 1/3 of goldfish diet. I think o lots of veg is good for goldfish.

I have a snail, I think I'm going to make him some snello. I need some eggshells, or I could just buy some calcium stuff. Apparently snails love green beans in their snello.

Important to note - in my homemade food I use approx. 1/3 by wieght COOKED oats not 1/3 by weight dry oats. Just in case anyone is considering it. Their are plenty of homemade fish food recipes, but a lot of them use bone gelatin. some use agar as a gelling agent, but freezing the food with gelling agent is a problem. I cook up the protein and veg with a little water and freeze, then thaw and cook with appropriate amnt of oats.

 I looked on the back of the old / no longer for sale variety of goldfish food at superstore and they had oats in it. Also I have heard that it is ok to feed oats (suggested as a "treat" ? but "treat" in general seems largely undefined even asked...?) And they are not on the do not feed list, and carbs are reccomended to comprise close to 1/3 of goldfish diet. I think o lots of veg is good for goldfish.

So much effort...... Just buy commercial fish flakes. The fish don't care

My mum has a pond with lots of huge goldfish. Just chucks in dry cat food occasionally. The fish love it

You should try Fluval's Bug Bites for goldfish.

Sorry I didn't respond, SCG. I grabbed a bunch of stuff last time I had much money to spend (sorry if that is a played record!) at the expensive ass globalist big business only fish store still floating in my area. The bunch included bug bites, but when I got to the till, I think it was like almost 50 for my 3 items, so I didn't end up buying them.
 
But it just occured to me that that looks like the same product as african frog food...possible - which is proly cheaper.

But this year, if I have time, I will prob try to go for a drive on the edge of town and hold a minnow net out the window and just catch flies for my fish. I heard you can feed live food all summer for gold fish. I found some waterboat men (little water beetle/flies that look like they have two oars rowing in the water) in the river 2 yrs ago that they really seemed to like. At certain times of the year these descend on this town like a pestilence. At the walmart parking lot flood lights and stuff. Maybe not every year, but i have seen them.

Mosquito larvae are good food and can be had by leaving a bucket full of water in your yard.

Fish stores are usually really expensive, but if you order stuff from Amazon it can save a lot of money.

For example, I mistakenly bought a pound of fish flakes one time. I WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF FISH FOOD. lol

How many of us care this much or think 'meh it's just a few dollars, I'll get another one'

Mosquito larvae are good food and can be had by leaving a bucket full of water in your yard.

Yeah, that's a good bet if you also want mosquitoes.

Quote from: faded mike on April 09, 2022, 02:10:49 AM

It has been my experience that a lot of peoples personal fishtanks have a bit of a smell to them. Putrid is not the word I used.

According to the definition of putrid, fish tanks are putrid

Quote

(of organic matter) decaying or rotting and emitting a fetid smell.

Fish food, algae, plants, all decaying inside that water. Sometimes even a dead fish that died inside an ornament and you didn't even realise

i got some net definitions of what a certain herb tasted like the other day, what a joke.

*Internet definitions

FISH NERDS!

I have just inherited another fish tank. The first one is only 20 gallons, so very easy for a beginner. Now my sister is moving out and doesn't want her aquarium, which is 70 gallons. It's already got fish in it and stuff, but it's going to be more work to keep clean, I think. Plus there is a very large pleco, who I have named Sir-Poops-Alot. I think the only changes I'm going to make will be decorations. She had shit taste in aquarium decorations, and I need to get a couple things. Especially since there are two fish who are nocturnal, and they need daytime hiding places. I don't even know what they are. Maybe some kind of loach, one is orange and the other is more greyish, and they have long bodies. The orange one looks very fat in the middle, though.

I think a pleco is like a river sturgeon. River sturgeons have all type of corners/ridges all over their bodies i think, looking like plecos.

On another note, i gave a way my goldfish to a guy with a pond a month or two ago. But now i have baby goldfish who took up residence in the transition.

FISH NERDS!

 I think the only changes I'm going to make will be decorations. She had shit taste in aquarium decorations, and I need to get a couple things.

You need a sunken Galleon and a treasure chest!

I had this cichlid fish once. Gorgeous looking. But it was a bully to the other fish, some of them just as pretty too. He was the new guy so had little sentimental attachment to him. Every time I looked at it it would stare back at me. Twitching rapidly like it wanted to fight. After it had killed a few fish in my tank and it wanted to take me on, I was pissed enough to be like

Challenge accepted

Fished him out, chucked it in boiling water then threw the POS on to the road where he would get run over many times. The next morning he was nothing but a smear on the bitumen.


That's what you get! I thought to myself. Dont worry, his death was quick.

Lesson learned is regardless how pretty the fish might look, never mix those cichild bastards together. And never challenge me to a duel. 


(flame suit on)

There are enough mental health issues in this forum, that if it ever where to arrange a conference, it would be dominated by phycologists taking notes.

I had a bully cichild for a couple years, I loved her and named her Georgina. She came with the 20 gallon tank I got from my brother. He was a terrible fish keeper and the tank was filthy. I may have killed Georgina with cleanliness. idk, she was used to living in her own filth, I guess.

I had a bully cichild for a couple years, I loved her and named her Georgina. She came with the 20 gallon tank I got from my brother. He was a terrible fish keeper and the tank was filthy. I may have killed Georgina with cleanliness. idk, she was used to living in her own filth, I guess.

Sounds like you changed the water with tap water. Tap water has too much chlorine for most fish, so you need to add new water very gradually. not more than 10% a week or so.

Source, I have a 5000 liter tank full of koi that eat everything except the darn invasive toad tadpoles.

Quote from: Space Cowgirl on September 06, 2022, 07:55:19 AM

I had a bully cichild for a couple years, I loved her and named her Georgina. She came with the 20 gallon tank I got from my brother. He was a terrible fish keeper and the tank was filthy. I may have killed Georgina with cleanliness. idk, she was used to living in her own filth, I guess.

Sounds like you changed the water with tap water. Tap water has too much chlorine for most fish, so you need to add new water very gradually. not more than 10% a week or so.

Source, I have a 5000 liter tank full of koi that eat everything except the darn invasive toad tadpoles.

Anyone that has an aquarium should have an additive/conditioner to get rid of the chlorine. You can also use a little vitamin C

My tap water has already had all that crap filtered out. So I just run it and dump it. Usually do 80% water changes when I start seeing too much green and they are happy. My current tank is 46L though so not very big lol

I do have too many fish in it though but it's boring otherwise. And I have Goldfish with Tropical fish. I do all the mistakes. I had 3 Goldfish in there. Yep, another no no for a tank so small. But my kids like looking at all the colourful fish. They never live long enough to grow big enough though. Hmmmm.

Just last month I looked and noticed 2 of the gold fish MISSING! They were the biggest fish and they had disappeared! Just that other day they looked so happy. I changed the water and noticed a bit of white crud on the rocks. That's probably all that was left. Not even a skeleton. Maybe my loaches and bristlenose cat fish munched on them.