A few days ago I was visiting my friend who lives in the next city over. I noticed his mom had a fish tank, so I walked over to check it out. I look in the 10 gallon to find 10 or so tetras, two african dwarf frogs, and two large common plecos. The substrate appears to be gravel mixed with some sort of mud. On closer inspection I realize it's waste.
So I ask my friend if I could clean it for them, and he says ok. So I gravel vac and do a 50% water change to remove most of the waste. The removed water in the bucket was JET BLACK. Absolutely disgusting. I ask my friend if this tank has ever been gravel vac'd. He says he can't remember. So I do a bit of aquascaping, scrub the glass, and clean out the filter medium. It looks much nicer and the fish appear to be more active.
So I tell his mom that the Plecos will get around 2 feet long. She tells me that she's far more experienced than I am, and the Plecos will not get any larger than the tank they're kept in. Then she see's I cleaned it and begins lecturing me that it was fine before I cleaned it. Forget thanking me for doing her responsiblity.
The moral of the story is don't try to help the stuborn. For the record I didn't clean the tank for the mom, rather for the poor animals' sake.
So I ask my friend if I could clean it for them, and he says ok. So I gravel vac and do a 50% water change to remove most of the waste. The removed water in the bucket was JET BLACK. Absolutely disgusting. I ask my friend if this tank has ever been gravel vac'd. He says he can't remember. So I do a bit of aquascaping, scrub the glass, and clean out the filter medium. It looks much nicer and the fish appear to be more active.
So I tell his mom that the Plecos will get around 2 feet long. She tells me that she's far more experienced than I am, and the Plecos will not get any larger than the tank they're kept in. Then she see's I cleaned it and begins lecturing me that it was fine before I cleaned it. Forget thanking me for doing her responsiblity.
The moral of the story is don't try to help the stuborn. For the record I didn't clean the tank for the mom, rather for the poor animals' sake.
