I don’t know if this is a horror story, but it’s horrifying. Occasionally one of the fish in our 150 will get a little under the weather and not be able to resist the super sucker filter.
They get stuck and the rest of the fish treat him/her as a buffet table. Unfortunatly the fish is still alive while being snacked on. By the time you see it, you’re too late! All it takes is one good flesh wound and he’s a goner, no matter what you do next.
My good friend tells me that “Fish die. That’s what they do. Get used to it.”
I’m working on it.
It’s hard when they are hard to take care of AND expensive.
My roommate my freshman year decided to get an aquarium. The aquarium became a very smelling death grounds for fish.
Lesson 1: Clean tank often, including using a siphon to clean gravel at the bottom. Otherwise, the bottom will become covered with gunk, the water will get cloudy, and fish will end up with fuzzy algae all over them.
Lesson 1a: They sell antifungal treatments that you can use when your fish get all fuzzy.
Lesson 2: Do not overfeed the fish. If food is making to the bottom of the tank without getting eaten, and the fish leave it there, you’re feeding them too much.
Lesson 3: Do not get a filter that is too large for your tank. If you have a 10 gallon tank and the simple carbon filter isn’t doing the job, clean the durned tank!
Lesson 3a: Clean the huge filter! It will smell otherwise, and not good.
Lesson 4: If you have a filter for a 300 gallon tank in a 10 gallon tank, do not put ornate fish in the tank. Especially cute little black goldfish that have huge wimpy fins. These fish will get stuck, either in the current that is coming out the top of the filter and washing through plants, or against the intake valve.
I do have to say one thing, my roommate’s tank was a great place to weed out the wimpy fish and grow some strong fish. He had two goldfish that were monsters by the end of the year. They were at least 3 inches long, maybe even 4 inches.