NationStates Jolt Archive

No, the title isn't a metaphor, I really do have a problem with the tank we keep our fish in.

See, we have a home-assembled 250(ish) liter fish tank that's home to about 300 fish, a mix of guppies, bottom feeders, and 2 larger gold fish. The problem is, we're in the middle of moving, and we're pretty sure this thing isn't gonna survive another move, as we got it from my husbands' aunt and it's like 8 years old.

If we buy a new fish tank that can hold all these fish comfortably it'll cost us somewhere between 350 and 500 euros. We could get a brand new dishwasher for that, which is something we've been hoping for for over a year now.

But, we don't have any friends or relatives who are interested in, or have the space for, an aquarium this large. So basically our choice is to spend an enormous amount of money on something we could use for a more practical purpose, or kill several hundred fish and trash the tank. If the weather was a little warmer we'd be able to put the fish in a pond out at his dad's place and give them the chance to survive, but as is the pond is frozen over and wouldn't be much better than just tossing them on the street.

We've been to the pet stores in the area and none of them are interested in any of the fish, they're too common and too small to do anyone any good.

Does anyone have any suggestions, any thoughts, comments, or know anyone in the Uppsala area in Sweden who'd be interested in taking these with the intention of repairing the tank so it can be useful for a long time? It most probably just needs some touch up silicon in the creases, it's not leaking yet but after a move it probably would start. It's got a light and a heater and a filter and lots of decorations as well as plants. There's enough bottom feeders in the tank that we've only had to clean it out once a year.

I hope we can come to a solution on this before we move (in a few days) cause even though I'm not a hardcore animal rights person I'd feel really bad about having several hundred deaths on my conscience.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for anything you post!

Du får nog spola ner dem, eller leka "will it blend" (vilket det gör). :\

Edit: Eller kanske lägga upp dem på en auktionssajt?

if you cracked the ice on your local pond surely that would be ok? iirc fish survive rather well under that top layer of ice. why is it they wouldn't survive if you let them go?

if you cracked the ice on your local pond surely that would be ok? iirc fish survive rather well under that top layer of ice. why is it they wouldn't survive if you let them go?

People don't tend to have the type of fish that can survive in the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia, or the Baltic Sea for that matter, in these types of aquariums, since they're not very pretty fish. Tropical fish, however, are.

As you can imagine, tropical and Scandinavia don't mix.

People don't tend to have the type of fish that can survive in the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia, or the Baltic Sea for that matter, in these types of aquariums, since they're not very pretty fish. Tropical fish, however, are.

As you can imagine, tropical and Scandinavia don't mix.
Knit little fishie sweaters? Works for trees.

http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-03/erika-barcott-tree-sweater.jpg

Bah, I'm no help, sorry. :/
But yeah, can't you put them up on eBay or something like that, like Fass said?

ETA: Or just put an ad in your local paper, actually (those are so underrated in these days of internet auctions...) or put up some flyers in local supermarkets or, well, pet stores.
If you're giving them away for free I should imagine people take them off your hands - as long as one person doesn't have to take the whole bunch.

People don't tend to have the type of fish that can survive in the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia, or the Baltic Sea for that matter, in these types of aquariums, since they're not very pretty fish. Tropical fish, however, are.

As you can imagine, tropical and Scandinavia don't mix.

Granted, but the goldfish at least will probably survive anywhere.

Granted, but the goldfish at least will probably survive anywhere.

Can goldfish manage brackish water?

"will it blend" *shivers* that'd be fun - for my hubby and his friends, but for me and the 4 year old daughter that'd just be traumatizing. is kinda funny though, in a twisted way...

We thought about putting them up on blocket.se or tradera.se but timing kinda got away from us and now we just have a few days before moving day.

I think we may try to soothe our guilty feelings by getting a much smaller tank and keeping a few of them. I don't know how my hubby is planning on 'getting rid' of them, but I don't wanna be involved if it comes to that. I'm squeamish about dead stuff anyway, killing things and then having to handle the bodies would be waaaaay too hard for me.

I thought maybe we could flush them alive in the hopes they'd survive, but my hubby said that the sanitation/filtration system would probably just kill them anyway so there's no 'all drains lead to the ocean' easy road.

I thought maybe we could flush them alive in the hopes they'd survive, but my hubby said that the sanitation/filtration system would probably just kill them anyway so there's no 'all drains lead to the ocean' easy road.
Yeah, no, that's only for animated kiddie movies. ;)
Luckily so- I wouldn't want to imagine what our rivers and oceans would look like if stuff as big as whole fishies could get through without problems. >.<

People don't tend to have the type of fish that can survive in the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia, or the Baltic Sea for that matter, in these types of aquariums, since they're not very pretty fish. Tropical fish, however, are.

As you can imagine, tropical and Scandinavia don't mix.

good point. to me, fish is fish ;)



edit: you could have a grand fish-barbeque!

Knit little fishie sweaters?
You know what I first thought when I read that? "Whoa, somebody's got a twisted mind..." ... I thought you were talking about making them into a sweater somehow. Umm.

But yeah, can't you put them up on eBay or something like that?

Anyhow, I still like the way you're thinking. That, or the whole local paper/.. thing you mentioned looks rather promising to me, too.

well if somebody is already moving in you could leave the fish in the house it doesn’t really help the human race as a whole but it gets them off your hands :)

Or you could overfeed them that’s one of the ways how I’d like to die

Can goldfish manage brackish water?

I'm not sure. Probably not, but in any given river or lake they should be fine, provided that there's a period of temperature adjustment (although they'd probably be eaten by predators in a short period of time out in the wild.)

Can goldfish manage brackish water?

They're carps, aren't they?

if you're selling you house, can't you ask the buyers if they want the aquarium?

You could build your own fish tank. Buy some large sheets of transparent Perspex/Acrylic. Just check the thickness of the glass and when you go to buy the Acrylic ask what thickness would give an equivalent tensile strength (maybe compresive (?) strength too). Buy some metal brackets to that can hold the acrylic in place and then seal the casing on the inside with a waterproof sealant. Wash out throughly and you should have a not-as-nice-looking (due to metal brackets), but much cheaper aquarium.

see if there is a freecycle group in your area, offer the fish on it. that's how I got rid of mine last time.

http://www.freecycle.org/

You can move your aquarium! I have done it. As long as your aquarium is not leaking, it is in great shape regardless of how old it is. What you need to do is catch all your fish and put them in sealed plastic containers (they will not sufficate if you do not leave them in the containers too long. You can even open up the lids every now and then while you are moving if this is an hours long move.

Then empy your tank with a siphon and get rid of all the gravel.

Next set up your new tank by filling it with water, turning on the filters and heaters and adding the chemical that removes chlorine from the tap water. Now the important thing is to go to a pet store and buy an enzime that turns nitrate into nitrite (or is it the other way around? anyway the people at the pet store can help you) put this enzyme in the water and wait a long enough time as descirbed in the instructions. If this is hours and hours (which I think it is) you can keep your fish in large open buckets of water.

Do not put the fish intio ponds! Your job as an aquarist is not to introduce new species into the wild.

You may lose some of the fish in this process but most should survive.

feed the cats

You can move your aquarium! I have done it. As long as your aquarium is not leaking, it is in great shape regardless of how old it is. What you need to do is catch all your fish and put them in sealed plastic containers (they will not sufficate if you do not leave them in the containers too long. You can even open up the lids every now and then while you are moving if this is an hours long move.

Then empy your tank with a siphon and get rid of all the gravel.

Next set up your new tank by filling it with water, turning on the filters and heaters and adding the chemical that removes chlorine from the tap water. Now the important thing is to go to a pet store and buy an enzime that turns nitrate into nitrite (or is it the other way around? anyway the people at the pet store can help you) put this enzyme in the water and wait a long enough time as descirbed in the instructions. If this is hours and hours (which I think it is) you can keep your fish in large open buckets of water.

Do not put the fish intio ponds! Your job as an aquarist is not to introduce new species into the wild.

You may lose some of the fish in this process but most should survive.

I have actually helped someone do this before, we put the fish in clean plastic trash bins, I would say 90% of them made it okay

You can move your aquarium! I have done it. As long as your aquarium is not leaking, it is in great shape regardless of how old it is. What you need to do is catch all your fish and put them in sealed plastic containers (they will not sufficate if you do not leave them in the containers too long. You can even open up the lids every now and then while you are moving if this is an hours long move.

Then empy your tank with a siphon and get rid of all the gravel.

Next set up your new tank by filling it with water, turning on the filters and heaters and adding the chemical that removes chlorine from the tap water. Now the important thing is to go to a pet store and buy an enzime that turns nitrate into nitrite (or is it the other way around? anyway the people at the pet store can help you) put this enzyme in the water and wait a long enough time as descirbed in the instructions. If this is hours and hours (which I think it is) you can keep your fish in large open buckets of water.

Do not put the fish intio ponds! Your job as an aquarist is not to introduce new species into the wild.

You may lose some of the fish in this process but most should survive.this will work...

oh and yes, assuming that the Pond is a natural one, don't release them. This is a problem here in Hawaii, where people release fish into small streams.

I have actually helped someone do this before, we put the fish in clean plastic trash bins, I would say 90% of them made it okaythis could also work...

but if you really can't be bothered...

Sushi!

Yes, we've moved this aquarium several times by emptying it and then refilling it at the other side. If you keep at least half of the old water as well as not cleaning the filter out overly well the bacteria level of the tank will stay roughly the same and the fish won't be shocked as much. Gotta fill the other half of the tank with normal water about half an hour early so the cold doesn't threaten to cool things off too much. In Sweden there's an awful lot of calcium put into the water, but I'm not sure how much chlorine is around in comparison with USAs water.

What we're looking at here is one that was put together by hand and has now been moved several times. We can see that the silicon hasn't split totally but is starting to crack in places.

Actually, I'm posting again as a follow-up/closing post on the topic. My hubby took us to an aquarium-fish specialized store this evening while they were having a sale and got us a corner aquarium at 112 liters, so we'll be cutting back on space, we'll have some deaths from the transfer and others from overcrowding but it should be much less painful then losing half or all of them. We will need to delay things like the dishwasher or the new dresser (how is byrå spelled in english? i've forgotten! beuraou isn't right!!)

Thank you all so much for your interest and suggestions and help!

We will need to delay things like the dishwasher or the new dresser (how is byrå spelled in english? i've forgotten! beuraou isn't right!!)

Thank you all so much for your interest and suggestions and help!

"Bureau" but that's not the correct word for it in English (it's a false friend), so it's good that you went with "dresser" because that is what you were going for.

Nice to see that you could handle this in the most humane way possible.

Pour in a few liters of Dektol, and watch the fun.