Cleaning the fishtank

[Brian's Bride]

I wish I took before/after photos because the thing was DISGUSTING! It stays in my son's room on his dresser. I think it was last cleaned in February. The thing was sooooo filthy with algae that I couldn't even see the fish to take them out. Once I had them taken out, I put them in a tall cup WITH a cover. Last time I didn't use a cover and we lost one to fish-icide. I had hoped it wouldn't be too much of a shock for the fishies to have nice, clean water again. It took almost an hour of scrubbing the tank, decorations, and the rocks. Then I put the ammonia tabs/water refresher in the tank and let it run for an hour before placing the fish back inside. I was relieved that they didn't die of shock and they were swimming around happily this morning.

The only reason I cleaned it was because my son was at my parents' house for the week. Luckily all three fish survived!

[ChristineLS]

What type of fish are they? They must be pretty hardy. :bbeek:

[WebLady]

I have heard you can get those alge eater fish in there to help keep the tank clean.

[Brian's Bride]

They ARE hardy, that's for sure! We have an algae eater already, who is at least twice the size he was when we first got him last year. I guess he couldn't keep up with the algae being produced in our tank.

I have no idea what kind of fish they are, but DH says they're NOT goldfish, even though I bought them a jar of goldfish food that didn't kill them. They're some sort of freshwater "tropical" fish, but they look like goldfish to me. One is gold, one is white with red tipped fins, then we have our algae eater. We probably spend $1 each on them at Wal-mart.

[ChristineLS]

They ARE hardy, that's for sure! We have an algae eater already, who is at least twice the size he was when we first got him last year. I guess he couldn't keep up with the algae being produced in our tank.

I have no idea what kind of fish they are, but DH says they're NOT goldfish, even though I bought them a jar of goldfish food that didn't kill them. They're some sort of freshwater "tropical" fish, but they look like goldfish to me. One is gold, one is white with red tipped fins, then we have our algae eater. We probably spend $1 each on them at Wal-mart.

Do they look like any of these? At least the white one?

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/whitecloud1.jpg
http://www.petfish.net/articles/pix/bloodfin3_nixalba.jpg

http://www.slipperylittlesuckers.com.my/cutenews/data/upimages/george10_ember.jpg

I've got some of the above and neons. The neons are not very hardy, but everyone else in the tank is, so that's what my first thoughts were :)

[starsthrumysoul]

When DH and I met, he "co-owned" a hedgehog with his roommate. In the split, DH got full costody :irked: Not that I didn't love it, because it was very cute.. But the thing was soooooo messy and smelly. DH was not very good at keeping on top of cleaning the cage (to my standards anyway). So ONCE I decided to clean it myself. It was disgusting. I kept gagging the entire time. That was the first and last time I did it.



Side story - this is where one of DH's favorite stories about me comes into play. After I got done cleaning the cage in the bathtub, I realized that the drain plug (the metal strainer thing that goes on top of the drain) had moved and all of the gross stuff in the cage had gone down the drain. I tried to wash it down, but it had plugged up. So I got the plunger and went to town - about 30 minutes later, I had made absolutely NO progress. So I went and bought some of that Draino stuff. Put that in. Waited a while. Plunged. Nothing happened.

Finally, DH came home. I told him what happened and left him to plunge (thinking his muscles could do work I couldn't). 5 minutes later, he came out and told me that he fixed it. I told him "Ugh, i was in there for so long and nothing was happening! How did you do it?!"

His response: "Un-latch the drain stop."

Yep, totally something I would do.....

[Brian's Bride]

Do they look like any of these? At least the white one?


http://www.petfish.net/articles/pix/bloodfin3_nixalba.jpg


I've got some of the above and neons. The neons are not very hardy, but everyone else in the tank is, so that's what my first thoughts were :)

Yes, we have that second page you linked, the petfish.net picture. I was looking at the "gold" one more closely this morning and it is orange on his front half, but red on his back half. I enjoy watching the fish swimming in their clean, clear water! I must've sat there for five minutes watching them eat. And my cat was sitting on the bed next to me, equally entranced! He must've seen his lunch swimming around! ha ha.