Too Late?

[Headrush]

I know a guy who has a 20 gallon long with a female GT and a female JD in it. He does w/c once per week. Now before you all FREAK out. I know this is bad. In fact It's REALLY bad IMO. I've tried to talk him into getting a 55 for them (at least), but he's got projects around the house to finish up first...blah blah. I've even offered to buy him a 55 just to get them outta there. he bought his fish about a month after I bought mine 2 yrs ago. My JD female is pushing 8" but I think she's done growing, while his female JD is only about 4".

Anyway, I'm guessing they're already stunted. He's a good guy and a good friend of mine but this really bugs me cause I know he's had JD's in the past and grew them to 8-9" or so, with proper care

Are these fish gona die soon or what? Will they get deformed or something else? Anybody know what to do?

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

If they continue on this path they will most likely be stunted and have a shortened life span....

Poor fish!

 

[Headrush]

agreed. I feel bad for them, and I know its wrong to keep them like that but I'm not really in the position to tell him what to do ya know? I don't want to keep bugging him about it either, cause then I'd just be annoying

 

[Steve p]

It's a sad fact that there are many people out there that are keeping fish in these conditions, Some know no better and have just recieved bad info from there LFS. We try are best to tell these people that the conditions there fish are living in are cruel and can lead to unhappy fish living shortened lives often ending up stunted or deformed, Sometimes the advice is listened to but more often than not it's like . Your friend having kept these fish before should know better than to keep them in a 20g long.
Don't beat yourself up over it you have made him aware of the situation and other than breaking into his home in the middle of the night and rescueing them you can't do any more.

I hope there suffering ends soon Steve.

 

[japes]

You can't afford a pet if you can't afford the cost or time look after it and its living conditions.

Projects around the house? Sorry but that's a terrible excuse. Would take a few hours of his weekend to setup and you could do it on the cheap.

 

[killerfish]

so the JD is only 4'' how bigs the terror doesn't sound that bad and with huge water changes and good filtration plus feeding less you could grow the fish up alot more in that size tank mabye to 6''-7'' but since fish swim around he would need a larger tank and aggression would be a huge problem i'd say once those fish get past 5'' they will start fighting for space a 20 gallon has some room but only enough for 1 cichlid

 

[Headrush]

so the JD is only 4'' how bigs the terror doesn't sound that bad and with huge water changes and good filtration plus feeding less you could grow the fish up alot more in that size tank mabye to 6''-7'' but since fish swim around he would need a larger tank and aggression would be a huge problem i'd say once those fish get past 5'' they will start fighting for space a 20 gallon has some room but only enough for 1 cichlid

The GT is a little bit smaller. Point is tho that that tank is WAAAAYYY too small for them, regardless of water changes. They need to be in at least 55 or more IMO. I've offered to help him get the projects done n stuff too. So I guess they're just gona keep suffering

 

[PoopSmart]

This is normal, petsmart only says 20 gallon tanks on their cards so a lot of people think thats fine. I talked to a guy who had a 10 year old dempsey in a 30 gallon and he said he was almost as big as his hand. Then he said that he was buying this 125 and nothing could be kept with the dempsey, because its way to mean and its supposed to get 14 inches. I tried telling him that he was already stunted and he probably wouldn't grow to anywhere close to that.

I appreciate him getting the 125, but it would have helped knowing the knowledge about the fish. So IMO the best thing you can do is just teach them, I am sure this guy would have gotten a bigger tank for his dempsey if he woulda known it would have stunted it. You did what you could.

 

[Headrush]

72 gallon bowfront just went up on the bulletin board at work. $220 for tank and stand, maybe filters etc too...

Great deal eh? Gona try to talk him into it. Gotta try

later