Looking back, I'm surprised our fish survived.

when I was a kid we had a 10gal with three goldfish. Put them in a milk bag holder during the monthly water changes. They lasted a good 3 years like that.

Tank went into the shed for 10years, then came back out for a wild caught turtle (that eventually went back into the pond it came from), no leaks...

Sometimes I think we worry too much about silicone...

This is so funny to read because I did the same thing when I was a kid... I bought my first "big" tank when I was 16 and kept some chiclids in it for a few months until I seen my first big RTC at a LFS and knew I had to have one... I sold all my fish a bought a baby RTC to put in my "HUGE" tank (lol)..

The store I bought it from actually told me to do this, He said this is a fish that will grow real big real fast and you have to keep the water clean... He said once a week you have to take the filter ( 1 whisper 3 ) off and clean it real good, then once a month take the fish out of the tank and clean everything in the tank real good fill it back up and let it sit 48 hours before you put the cat back in....

Now mind you I was 17 and didn't know no better so I did what they told me to!!! The real crazy thing is I have never seen a fish do so good and grow as fast as that cat fish did... it was about 3" when I bought it and 10 months later when I sold it because I felt it out grew the tank it was 21" and super fat!!! Little did I know it out grew that tank about 6 months before I sold it!!! LOL...

I have had 6 more of them since then in much larger tanks and have still never seen another one grow like that!!! I think about that fish often and wonder how he ever survived much less did so well!!! I have 2 of them in a 240 gallon now with (2) FX5's and a huge sump with (2) 1000 gph return pumps and 18 months later they are still not as big as that one was!!! Makes ya wonder!!

I have a similar tale, involving my dads old goldfish. Regular goldfish, kept in what must be 12ish gallons probably, I think the tank was 24x12x12, and this thing was about 8 years old and huge.

Water changes done probably once every 2 months, again involving putting the fish in a separate container, then removing all tank water and running the filter under the tap. Hell I even remember that when he "upgraded" to that tank, he let the water sit for about 6 hours after filling straight from the tap, to "make it safe" lol.

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If I only knew then what I know now...

My fist fish was a goldfish from one of those ping pong ball games at a fair when was around 5. He was in a big goldfish bowl probably about 2 gallons I believe he lasted approximately 5 years before dying during a move. He was around 6 inches when he passed. He had a mini air driven carbon filter my dad got me ( I credit this with his survival) and we changed his water every 2 weeks.