A couple of years back I started a thread about a new aquarium that I was planning to buy.

I loved it at first, but now I'm bored of it. Fish just sh!t so much. I clean the tank out every 2/3 weeks and its a real chore cos it STINKS. You can't stroke fish or take them out for a walk or communicate with them. And they are horrid to each other! They will nibble each other fins and eat their own babies (cannablistic b'stards).

I wish I hadn't bought the tank. And Dol - Groucho - I so do not want to hear any "I told you so" type comments.

There were a few members who bought acquariums around the same time as me. Is anyone else eqully disillusioned?

Fish are for my hubby to catch and me to eat:ninja:

Hi Karen

I set up a new aquarium a couple of years ago too. I started off with coldwater fish but they were more expensive than some of the tropical fish and they didn't seem to live very long so I bought a heater and changed to tropical.

I was told that Platy's are the best tropical fish for beginners because they're hardy. I have two females who are pregnant at the moment and I'm looking everyday to see if I can see the baby fry :)

Joy :)

Hi Karen

I set up a new aquarium a couple of years ago too. I started off with coldwater fish but they were more expensive than some of the tropical fish and they didn't seem to live very long so I bought a heater and changed to tropical.

I was told that Platy's are the best tropical fish for beginners because they're hardy. I have two females who are pregnant at the moment and I'm looking everyday to see if I can see the baby fry :)

Joy :)

Hi Joy

My acquarium is tropical too.

Re; your prgnant fish. Have you got a nursery basket? If not, then get one immediately, because when those baby fish are born they will need to separated from the rest of the fish asap. If they aren't, they will get eaten. A nursery basket will allow them to stay separate from the rest of the fish until they grow to a big enough size to avoid being chomped.

Hi Karen

No I don't have a nursery basket. Different people tell you different things and some people are against using them because they distress the fish. They also suggest not using them because the tank will become over-crowded and most aquatics shops won't have the fry off you and then you're stuck with 100's of fish.

Platy's are very good at hiding and as long as you have plenty of places to hid, like plants, driftwood etc, in the tank, them some of them survive. The two females who are pregnant at the moment were fry from a previous mating.

Joy :)

Hi Karen

No I don't have a nursery basket. Different people tell you different things and some people are against using them because they distress the fish. They also suggest not using them because the tank will become over-crowded and most aquatics shops won't have the fry off you and then you're stuck with 100's of fish.

Platy's are very good at hiding and as long as you have plenty of places to hid, like plants, driftwood etc, in the tank, them some of them survive. The two females who are pregnant at the moment were fry from a previous mating.

Joy :)

Perhaps you are right. I guess you just gotta do what you think is best. But we've had 3 pregnancies since we first got the acquarium and oly 1 baby (out of literally dozens) has survived to adulthood. The rest all got munched.

You're right when you say that the fry are excellent at hiding - they are! But the problem is when you clean the tank. Because during that process you can't help exposing the fry.

But yeah, to an extent some of them need to be eaten, otherwise you'd just get a consistently bigger population,

Hi Karen,

I'm always very careful when I'm cleaning the tank with fry. I have a large stone at the back of the tank where the fry hide and I only clean the area in front of the rock so as not to disturb them.

Platy's are very small fish and as long as the fry can hide for a few days then they don't normally get eaten because they're too big to fit in the mouth of the adult Platy's.

I also have four very young catfish and they never seem to bother with the fry because I've watched them.

What kind of tropical fish do you have?

Joy :)

I was another one of those enthusiastic acquarium people karen, and like you I am fed up with it. It takes up too much room and is too much work. I am waiting the days out until the fish die, but I guess that will be a long time yet.

Regarding the platys, we bought some female ones and one was pregnant. It had the fry and one of them survived and grew to a big size in the plant growth hidden from the other fish. :)

What kind of tropical fish do you have?


We've got two Silver Sharks which are very striking looking, but I suspect are getting too big for our acquarium. We've also got 3 Mollys, 4 Platys and 3 Black Widow Tetra's. The Tetra's are horrible - they bully the other fish and each other and barely qualify as "community fish" IMO.

I was another one of those enthusiastic acquarium people karen, and like you I am fed up with it. It takes up too much room and is too much work. I am waiting the days out until the fish die, but I guess that will be a long time yet.

That's the approach we are taking too. But the little buggers seem to have a longer than expected lifespan.

We had 3 goldfish (one each for the children) and they were soon fed up with them and just ignored them. I hated cleaning them out as it did pong. It was a joyous day when the last one finally snuffed it!

ooOhoo so know how you feel. I got some to fill a gap in the pet situation. 8 years ago ... had 10 we are now down to one that we hope will snuff it soon .. don't think there is much chance he/she is looking very healthy and happy :blink: it's still in the big tank we got (nightmare to clean out) and we have resisted the temptation to get it some mates .. if I'm a billy so's the fish!

It's a bit like smoking .... if you have one, you just gotta keep with it.

1 fish, 20-a-day and a bad cough ! woowoo !

I wish I hadn't bought the tank. And Dol - Groucho - I so do not want to hear any "I told you so" type comments.


http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_5_2.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZSYYYYYYAXGB)apparently I'm not allowed to add anything in this thread! :whistling

I know exactly how you feel! Both my kids had fish for quite a while - and, of course, neither of them were any good at keeping the tank clean. I'm so glad that they no longer have any.

I had two goldfish when I was a kid I won them at the fair. I took one out to have a look at it one day and it flipped out of my hand and went down behind the large dresser that the bowl was standing on.

There was no way I could get to it as it was a very heavy old fashioned dresser and I didn't fess up to mum just said I expect the other had eaten it. I was amazed that she believed me as I didn't know fish were canibalistic.

The other lived for some years and I did get fed up with the smell and having to clean the bowl and that was only a little one. You can tell how long ago his was as they were named Sonny and Cher.

Karenh, Tigger!! :ranting: It was because of you two that we got tropical fish! When I said I was thinking about it, you two gushed in and told me what to buy, told me to buy a HUGE tank, etc etc.....[thank goodness, we never]......and now you tell me you are bored them!!

I am so glad I am not alone! :blush:

Like you we have got bored off them, we have had a few deaths which has been quite upsetting. We have even witnessed cannalibism and it is not a pretty sight! My only godsend is that Mr B takes over when it comes cleaning them, I would not have a clue where to start! :blink:

I think it is pretty much as Karen says, you can't hold them or stroke them, there is absolutely no interaction with them!

Karenh, Tigger!! :ranting: It was because of you two that we got tropical fish! When I said I was thinking about it, you two gushed in and told me what to buy, told me to buy a HUGE tank, etc etc.....[thank goodness, we never]......and now you tell me!

I know :blush:

But to be fair, at the time I really did enjoy the tank. I suspect Tigger did too. Its only now - 2 years down the line - that I'm starting to get bored wit them.

I hope they die soon.

Everytime I think of tropical fish tanks I think of my mate who watched one whilst drunk and then threw up in one.

I really can't add anything else - cos unless you can eat them or take them for walks - they sound very boring, albeit very pretty.

Karenh...pull the plug.

Karenh...pull the plug.


LMAO! :laugh:

Its tempting. A couple of drops of bleach in the tank would sort out the problem, but we haven't quite got the heart to do it....

Karenh, Tigger!! :ranting: It was because of you two that we got tropical fish! When I said I was thinking about it, you two gushed in and told me what to buy, told me to buy a HUGE tank, etc etc.....[thank goodness, we never]......and now you tell me you are bored them!!




Oooops sorry. :blush:

We havent got a tank indoors, but my husband has about 30 fish (including a massive Koi called Jaws) outside in the pond - or olympic size swimming pool as i call it.

Im not a fishy person. I dont look after them at all, they are his domain.

When i was about 15 i was bought a fish tank and pump etc for my birthday. I loved it at first, but i hated cleaning it. My poor dad got lumbered - and it was beautiful when it was first cleaned, but after a very short period of time the glass went green. I vowed then i would never get another one.

Oooops sorry. :blush:

Karenh, Tiggs don't worry it's not as if we have spent a fortune on them, I mean the fish we got were cheap as chips!

We did enjoy them in the begining and they haven't been neglected or anything, I just think the novelty has worn off. It would be different with an animal that you spent time with and get something back from them.

I am tempted to get a wee small furry animal, but we don't really have anywhere to keep them, our kitchen is big but would it be hygenic to keep them in the kitchen. I am rather taken to the gorgeous chinchillas that are in the local pet shop. They are sooooo cute!!! :wub:

I am rather taken to the gorgeous chinchillas that are in the local pet shop. They are sooooo cute!!! :wub:

My sister has a chinchilla Bella, actually this one is her second, the first one developed epilepsy and eventually died. Anyway, she loves it very much but it's always been asleep when I've seen it!

Back to fish. About two years ago Sam insisted that he wanted a fish tank for his birthday, I tried to put him off but he was stuck on the idea and bought one himself with his birthday money. He only had goldfish in it as we didn't go down the tropical route, and sure enough after about a month of cleaning them out every week he got well and truly fed up of them, it was a happy day when the last one shuffled off this mortal coil and the tank could be binned at last!

Oh Karen, I so know what you mean. Whoever said that watching fish was relaxing! When my son set me up with a tropical fish tank I thought it was lovely for a couple of weeks until the rot set in, literally. I would see little white specs appear on one fish and then the others would start nibbling at it so I had to get a small "hospital" tank to isolate the sick one and administer all sorts of (expensive) treatments and they would usually die anyway.

I would be constantly watching out for bullying, fin rot, swimbladder disease etc. and I found it very stressful.

As for the cleaning out and washing those awful filters :sick:

Luckily my son's friend ran an Aquatic Centre and he agreed to take them back.

You'd think that would have taught me a lesson but some people never learn.

When my grandson was about 8 I thought it would be good for him to have a pet and as a cat or dog was out of the question I thought a few cheap goldfish would give him an interest. I figured that just a bowl and a few goldfish wouldn't be hard to manage. :wacko:

We bought 4 and 3 of them died in rapid succession. Maybe the bowl was too small so we bought a bigger tank, with lights and gravel and ornaments and 4 more fish - they all died except for the one original one which just grew and grew. It got to about 6-7 inches and had a lovely fan-like tail. Everyone admired it (grandson soon lost interest though). I still found myself cleaning out rotten filters but it wasn't so bad.

Then one day "Finley" was laying on his side on the bottom of the tank. :unsure: All he could do was a kind of shimmy along the bottom. I was sad and took advice from the local petshop and bought more expensive water treatments and various "cures". Nothing worked and I hoped I would find him floating on the top one day and that would be the end of it. But no, he went on and on in his poor pathetic state, lying on the bottom and shimmying about. It upset me no end to see the poor thing like that. Why wouldn't he just pass quietly away.

Day after day I got more and more stressed so in desperation I phoned the vet (don't laugh) and asked if there was a humane way of putting him out of his misery. The vet said the kindest thing would be a swift blow to the head!

I couldn't bear the thought of it so a few more days passed until I couldn't stand it any longer and asked Mr. C to do the horrible deed. I couldn't watch, but had to be reassured that the end was swift and hopefully painless. I cried and felt stupid.

Since our old dog died I have officially declared this a Pet Free Zone!

Fish are unbelievable sh*tting machines! When me and my sister had fish when we were little they used to constantly suffocate in their own sh*t even though we used to clean the bowl regularly*



*every once in a while

I've never seen the point in fish as pets. The fish food stinks, for a start. My dad kept small tropical ones for a while. We also had goldfish in a pond/rockery my dad built in the garden. I removed the sieve (filter covering the pump), thinking Mummy would find it useful (I was about 5) and my dad was greeted with orange pulp.

We also had two gerbils, which became 19 eventually. Would have been even more, but they're carnivorous little gits too. I once pulled half the tail off one, letting it run through an empty toilet roll and pulling it back. Didn't seem to do it much harm.

They were very entertaining actually (God I must be bored; can't believe I'm boring you with this). We used to build runs for them with upturned books and stuff. We used to have to separate them from the parents at birth and hand rear them with milk in pipettes. Bless. We've had dogs, too.

moves to dog lover thread