Tapping on the glass

[lorenz0]

I am just wonder, how many of you invite someone people over and when they see your tank they start tapping on it. I freaked out on a friend of mine when he started tapping on my discus tank cause he thought that when the fish freaked out it was interesting seeing him go crazy.

none the less i get pissed at him and he tell me, its just a fish and still doesn't understand why anyone in there right mind would ever keep fish that freak out that easy. well before this they were like all the discus at riverfront, always at the front of the tank. Now 1 of them just hides ever time i walk by, its a HUGE piss off. happened with my last tank at my old place when i was living with room mates. So now instead of having these bold discus i have one thats still bold and one thats freaking out half the time. I am coming to the conclusion that the only way i can actually keep discus is by either in my computer room where no one goes but me or in my actual bed room. This is a big pain in the butt cause it was such a sight walking into my house and seeing them there.

so how many of you have to ask company to stop tapping?

i rarely have people over and when ever i do, something goes wrong

[Ichthyosporidium]

It is a known rule in my place that if you tap on my aquariums at home, I will tap on your head in a way that equates to what the fish feel. To help people understand that fish do not hear like we do, they feel the vibrations and are quite sensitive to them. Imagine if you were stuffed in to a steel barrel, the lid closed and somebody started banging on the side with a baseball bat. That analogy usually hits home with most people. For first offenders, they get the analogy, after that they get a more physical demonstration. My house, my rules.

[windeindoiel]

Ever since I started keeping lizards people tapping has really bothered me. When showing the tank to new people I usually stand by the tank, and grab their arm when they go to tap on the glass, accompany it with a death glare and tell them not to tap, because blah blah, I think it's pretty effective, my friends think they're scarred for life and will never tap on a tank again.

Now what's really hard for me is pet stores, when little kids come and tap. There's some tongue biting there because I don't think I'm capable of telling people not to tap nicely, and I don't need parents coming after me for yelling at their kids.

[maniac]

For first offenders, they get the analogy, after that they get a more physical demonstration. My house, my rules.

-roll- that's awesome. I agree with that. Thankfully most of the people that come over do not tap but for the odd one or two that do, I'm going to keep that in mind. Thanks ich. I'm scared of my one year old nephew when he begins to walk. Guess I'll have to move the tank higher. Crap.

Chad

Edited October 4, 2006 by maniac

[FishBrain]

Funny, thats one of the first things I tell people that come over to my house who dont keep fish of their own. Now my daughters do it as well.

In a pet store you cant really do much but when you have a five year old tell you not to tap on the glass because the fish dont like it, even the oldest of people listen

[Trooper]

Funny, thats one of the first things I tell people that come over to my house who dont keep fish of their own. Now my daughters do it as well.

In a pet store you cant really do much but when you have a five year old tell you not to tap on the glass because the fish dont like it, even the oldest of people listen

I'm in the same boat. People get forwarned before they come near my tanks. If my buddy thought it was funny to see the fish freak out! There's no doubt he would think I was the funniest thing ever.

[edmguy]

i love it put them in a steel barrel close the lid and hit it with a bat...thats the funniest thing i ever heard

[vic]

Can be a bit of dilemma. We have 6 grand children the oldest of which is 10. Tapping on the tank is a "natural" reaction of a child, and also a natural reaction of a lot of adults. The adults are simple to deal with; a very firm "DON'T" followed by a cuff on the ear for the second transgression works perfectly. With the little folks it is not so easy. We have managed to deal with the problem by simply putting a length of rope on the floor a couple of feet from the tank (out of reach). No closer to the tank than the rope and the problem is solved. The desire to tap on the tank is sooooooooooooooooo strong that one has to make that not possible - distance. This method solved the problem after several visits for each of the grands. The rope is no longer needed and the fishes are not irritated (scared sideways) by the tapping of little fingers. I do periodically get caught by the little folks as I will tap very lightly on the tank at feeding time. No irritation, the whole gang tries to get into the same space so as to get the first tidbits that git the water. I dealt with this issue by letting the little folks help dole out the goodies. They quickly understood that the light taps were a form of communication that identified feeding time.

Cheers;

[Leon71]

Same here Vic. I "lightly" tap on the trim of the tank to signal feeding time. And then my kids are like " DON'T TAP ON THE GLASS, DAD!!!!" Can't win for losing.

[skinless]

some guy kept trying to stick his fingers in my midas tank last night after i handfed. just brutal

i try to encourage the finger wave over tapping when introducing my fish to first timers. the fish will usually follow the hand (not talk to it sister) and interact much more than when being startled by pounding on the glass.

it's like pretending to feed a tank at a lfs with your fingers. it usually gets the crowd to follow-quick-and will provide more clues to who is more an alpha individual in the tank. a good tactic

[Oxquo]

Rather than a "do not tap on glass" sign. Invest in an electric catfish and replace the sign with,"jam your hand in the tank and scare Me, it's hilarious". That should teach some aquarium respect.

On a serious note, I allow few taught kids in My fishroom ever since a lady with 4 kids came to buy some fish and her kids went APE $#!+ After I got them out of My fishroom I discovered a crack in a ten gallon tank, thank god it was just a ten gallon. I have had adults do damn near the same thing. I am half as nice then. It's not even the moral of scaring the fish or the finger prints which we all love to clean because cleaning glass is wicked fun and the fish are really just a bonus, it's the fact that people are coming into Your space and abusing your stuff. Go to their house and juggle some of their finest crystal or china. As for kids, well, it's our fault as aquarists. There are very few aquarists who go out to the schools and present a product or speech about fish and fish husbandry. You have no idea how the school's jump at the occassion to have someone bring the field trip to the school. To teach a kid more than how to disect aquaria is awesome. Next time I speek at the school I'll get the teacher to take pics. You should see the questions and amazement in their eyes. Of course add into your speech that tapping on the tank causes stress for the fish and too much can cause the fish to become ill. Try this demo, put one volunteer in the closet, and have everyone run up and knock on the door as quickly as they can. Scares the crap out of the kid in the closet and they realise what tapping on the glass does. Even had a kid come to My fishroom one day, he said I won't touch the tanks cause it scares the fish. I made an exception and gave him a chair to view the fish.

Here are some projects I have presented to classrooms. Remember, if You present a project and can take a buddy, do it. These kids gang up on you with questions... Also, Talk with the teacher and principal before hand, they give grades on this assignment if You do but You need to work out how to grade the assignment with the teacher, You need only ask permission to speak to the kids from the principal.

We divided the class into groups and gave them 4 species of Killi eggs, 1 trio of guppies, 1 trio of endlers, the kids had to hatch the eggs and caree for the fry, spawn the guppies and care for the fry. Remember if using killies, no hatches of 6 months or they can't finish the project, I would give a week to hatch. Which should give them plenty of time to get eggs from the hatch outs.

Oh yeah, You supply the stuff, tanks food etc...

I also had some groups do live foods, BBS, grindals, micros and daphnia. The instructions have to be clear and precise. I had kids raise huge daphnia bright red, they were unclear of how they did it really. A few Sea monkeys went missing, I'm sure a killi fry or two as well but at the end, I allowed the kids to ask their folks if they could keep some. The cultures fed the fish, the project went great. Kids learned, respected and wanted their own. We were allowed to give them 5 points on their semester final. I chose 3 for project and 2 for group effort. The rave from the class after them and after them was so big that they asked Me back Last semester and this year too. I picked grade 6, well actually the school did as they study nature in grade 6 science.

Anyway, the point is, these kids learned, then they teach others, parents included. All it costs is a little time and some junk you have laying around the fishroom. I may even present plants this year for the study of nature in balance and photosynthesis. Growing 5 of the same plants under different conditions. I am also hoping to donate a 75 gallon to the science class.

We can complain about things but a wise man said, " until You teach Me right, I can do no wrong". Like I said, try a school project, it was a blast and even I learned a thing or two. Return to the class every two weeks to see the progress, You will be amazed at how they don't touch the tanks, unfortunately the class after them is usually not so nice but they can all be taught. I am getting some new killies in and can't wait to get started. I may get africans for their class tank though so they can spawn something else as well.

[a1foxes]

I ran a large section in an agricultural fair for alot of years, we had

the same problem as glass tapping sorta- people sticking fingers into

rabbit cages and chicken cages mostly. No matter how many signs I

put up, no matter how much time I spent asking people not to, they

still did it all the time. However, I could do nothing but laugh my guts

out when they got bit -roll-

When I first got my kids into fish, I told them "how would you like it

if some big ugly alien came up to your 'safe zone/home' , and started

making your "ears" ring so hard you cant swim straight? Would you

think maybe it was coming to eat you, so you swim frantically to

get away?" I basically have them put themselves into the position

of the fish, and if putting them into a big drum and beating on it while

they are inside gets the point across, I will, but so far, they have been

very respectful. They still put their hands on the glass and point,

I allow that, but tapping, if I catch anyone doing it they get a big

bootprint on their butt. Funny, havent had to give anyone more

than one boot over it...

[spcy]

I have a great big soup pot and a wooden spoon that I could offer to tappers!!!!!!!!!