Onion01;1137607; said:
sounds like my friend's 55g. Never changes water, only refills tank. He has two goldfish, one neon tetra, and a small pleco. It has been the same for 2 years.
Let me tell a little story about my first fishkeeping experience...
I was probably about 11 yrs old, maybe 10. I set up a 10g tank with nothing but gravel and bubble box with airline tubing. No airstone or anything just the tube in the water.
I stocked it with 3 south american catfish (dunno what kind, that's what they were named at the pet store), and a few bait minnows. Well, 2 of the minnows died first, they'd already been in our bucket all day so I wasn't expecting any of them to live. Within a week 2 of the catfish died. That left me with one of the catfish and a minnow.
That's not that relevent part...
I had this tank set up for 3 years. These fish somehow lived in this tank for 3 years with absolutely no filtration and barely any oxygen. I would let the water evaporate to the point where there was almost no water left in the tank and then I would siphon the gravel a little bit and add water WITHOUT dechlorinating it. This was city water, so it definately had chlorine. Sometimes I would top off the tank with tapwater without even doing a water change.
For 3 years these fish actually ate well and looked healthy. Hell, my minnow was extremely active and would eat out of my hand. The fish only died when I decided to add more fish and they all came down with ich (well, what I know to be ich now....).
So tell me. Just because fish look healthy in someone's crappy tank does that mean maintanance isn't important for PROPER fishkeeping? I think not...
To answer the original question, it's luck and some coincidentally hardy fish. There have been people that have somehow kept goldfish alive in bowls for years just topping the water off and changing some of it periodically. These fish might be living in toxic waste but they survive somehow. It doesn't give an excuse to ignore maintanance.
and only 2 of his fish have died, (angel fish) but he has NEVER done a water change, hes also NEVER tested his water, all he does is fill it up when it starts to get low (every few months) and everything is crystal clear, and perfect, its amazing... do you think its luck? or is it true that water changes are over-hyped?
