A Rant About Idiots

[SuperGuppyGirl]

So at my parents who are currently housing my brother and sister in law, when she tells me I must see her new fish, this caused an eye roll from me as she cant even train her dogs to listen, and when I gave them my cat due to my then common law hubby allergy she promptly ignored my directions on how to care for him and he is now over weight and prone to urinary tract infections, when I first seen her tank before their house burnt down she had a 6" inch common pleco and several (8) bleeding hearts tetras in a 29G with a topfin filter for a 30G tank and some gross colored gravel with one of those silk plastic bouquets stuck in it as decor, the tetras were constantly being replaced as they kept dying but she worked at petsmart/pj's so wasnt hard for her to replace them, when I peeked in the cupboard I noticed she had no water chemicals at all, and considering the tap water came out a bit brown I tried explaining this might be why, she ignored my advice till she got tired of buying the fish and was left with the now 9" pleco, the fire happened, they moved in with my folks whose water is well water but then she decided he didnt need a filter system and just topped off his water when it started to get low, I shook my head but restrained myeelf from saying anything, this time around I had to say something when she showed me her fish, she added to the 29G 4 kissing gouramis, 4 blue gouramis, 4 gold gouramis, the regular gouramis allready being around 4/5" and the dwarfs full grown, and what she called neon but were actually 2 powder blue dwarf and 2 sunset gouramis into the tank with the 9" pleco, my conscience wouldn't let me stay quiet especially as she hadnt upgraded the tank, filter she put back on with the addition of the new fish but did add an air bubbler and had switched from gravel to live sand about 4" thick, she had lost 2 dwarfs that day already and quite a few looked washed out, I suggested a much bigger filter, and rehoming the pleco and getting a dwarf version if she had to have one, and that she would need at least a 120G tank if she wanted to keep all the gouramis, ans was told oh yeah getting a new tank when her new house was finally built, I said going to need it before then as they are all ready crowded and will get quite aggressive with each other having both males and females together and will only get bigger in the year and a half till the house is done, I left the tank as I couldnt stand her blaize attitude about her fish, since then she has lost several more but blames it on the filter as thats where they were stuck to when dead, but she did at least buy a slightly bigger filter, but then having had a 10 minute training video makes her the expert not me, so want to put a leak in that tank or something but then she would probably try ad stuff them I my other sister in laws 10G with her Chinese algae eater whose around 10" long but considering the heater she has in the 29G is a tetra whisper 10-30 from walmart they might actually stay warm.

[Znaika]

Itwasverydifficulttoreadwithoutproperpunctuation

[ckmullin]

ah, family!

between me and you, I think she is threatened by your skill and lack of hers so she needs to compete.

My advice fill up your last 3 tanks (in your sig 75g, 15g and 35g) and give her a run for the title! -ham-

pssst...when they come over for a x-mas holiday visit drop a note that you're going to build another fish room. :P

[SuperGuppyGirl]

Lol at CK, I did notice when she did get all the fish after being over and seeing all mine, incidently I did end up filling and stocking the 75G when I moved my angels over from the 35G, need to update my signature lol and love how your mind works I'm thinking of possibly trying to breed bettas so the 15G might have to be overhauled

@Znaika, pardon for the punctuation but when I am angry and am typing it out on my cell phone, you will find a lot of commas over periods, and being as I'm sure you meant it as a tease, I won't mention anything about grammar nazis, have a nice day

Edited December 24, 2012 by SuperGuppyGirl

[ckmullin]

even better...offer to sell her offspring of the fish that you've successfully breed.!

(had practice @ this family thing too...but that's another CK chapter!)

[gBOYsc2]

I agree that was extremely difficult to read. nonetheless......

I feel bad for your moms fish. Also feed bad for anyone that purchases fish from her and receives advice from her at the store she works at.

Parents are funny like that. I believe my mom thinks there is nothing she can learn from me since I am her child. In fact there are TONS of things we can teach our parents. I tried to teach her a couple simple cooking tips that I have learned from TV shows and youtube but she ain't hearin it. She still thinks she's right even though she's wrong.

[Crystal]

Anyone remember their first fish tanks?

I look back now, shake my head and wonder how I managed to break numerous scientific laws.

My Mom bought me my first tank when I was 10 - and I knew nothing about fish except how to catch the ones in the lake on hook. It was a 10g, it had the stock filter (wasn't bad actually), heater, mixed brown gravel.

Two 5" goldfish (they were only 1" when we bought them and the petsmart employee swore they only grew to 3")

6 neon tetras

5 guppies

a 6" pleco

one siamese fighting fish

4 painted tetras

No water changes, just evaporation top-ups.

And yet they all lived peacefully for 3 years until I saved enough to buy a 55g - and they filled up my 55g! And I bought the Fish for Dummies book at the same time! Amazingly, only one fish ever died and it was a pregnant guppy.

[SuperGuppyGirl]

To clarify, the fish are my sister in law's fish who is staying with my parents. My mom actually asked me about setting up an aaquarium but when she was told of how much work was involved, she decided not to.

[Jayba]

Ah yes. Workers from a chain store.

I would just say 'when you want to learn how to KEEP fish, and not murder them, let me know, I'll be happy to help' or 'if you kill any more fish I'm gonna think about calling the SPCA, lol'

But I don't mind speaking my mind. Plant the seed.

Maybe she wants to ask, but doesn't have the heart to bow her head and ask you. Maybe casually ask what kind of training she recieved? Make it seem like you are interested. Get her talking. reference a good aquarium calculator, sutes etc. let her maybe figure out things. How would you explain the nitrogen cycle? Just generally put her at ease, don't come across as a threat, just casually say that if you have any questions she can always ask.

Family. Good times most of the time, makes you want to beat your head on a rock the rest of the time.

[flyfisher]

SGG I feel your frustration reminds me of the old saying you can led a horse to water and so on.I wish more people would understand the responsibilities that come with owning and caring for all pets.

[t-man]

....

Edited November 20, 2013 by t-man

[jeremoose]

There is one born every minute,LOL.

I would love to rant like this all the time but I would eventually get the boot from all the fish sites. You should see how many people on MFK are killing $1000 plus fish because they have no experience in keeping them. Constantly crying the blues and wondering why their expensive fish are dying.

I always feel sad reading those threads.. Fish I can't even dream of keeping and there's people killing them weekly over there.

[Alamodem]

When we are children we know we know better then mom and dad. When we are young adults we think we know better then mom and dad. in middle years we know enough to show mom and dad a thing or two. when we are getting older,, we KNOW more then mom and dad.. what a viscous circle.

Who is MFK?? And why do they have fish???

[Cgy_Betta_Guy]

Monster fish keepers... its another forum.