Aquarium screwed me!

[Squash]

Hey guys, I introduced myself in another thread, I'm putting together a fish tank in a residence hall, and I just hit a snag. Someone helpfully recommended I add more fish to the my school of 5 red eye tetras. Good idea, I noticed the angels got to the flakes way before the red eyes do. So I went to the aquarium today to pick some up, also I figured I'd get a scavenger to eat the poop on the bottom, for salinity and aesthetic purposes.

Well speaking of poop, that's what I think of the people who at the aquarium I got them from. Next time I'll just go straight to you guys with questions. They agreed I should ad to my Red eye school, but told me that other species of tetras will school as well, so I picked up 3 lemon tetras and a black phantom tetra. So far the red eyes and the lemons are staying at opposite ends of the tank and the phantom is desperately swimming between the two, utterly terrified. This is the only the first day, do you guys think they'll school?

Secondly, I asked what kinds of scavengers they had and told them what for, I asked about a zebra loach because I'd heard it's name in that context before. They said they'd never heard of a zebra loach, but I must be talking about a clown loach. I asked what it does, it eats fish poop they say. Great! Apparently not. I've noticed that I haven't seen it all day since I put it in, infact, it hasn't left its castle all day or night, it's just chilling out in there with the ropefish. I went online, and wasn't I suprised to find out these guys need meat? Apparently blood worms and snails are the order of the day, oh, and I should have a school of at least 5 of them? Is this true? Please guys, give me some advice for how I can take care of this clown loach. I don't have blood worms or snails, but I do have beef heart they sold me for the rope fish, will that do?

-Josh

 

[forrestcook]

first off - itll be much easier to keep track of all this stuff if you just post in the threads you've already created.

If you're going to try and get rid of some of the unwanted fish, try to return them to the store (if they'll take them). If they wont take them back, list them on craigslist for cheap or free and they'll find good homes.

next - go to Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums and read. Read a lot over there. They have great pictures, water requirements and all sorts of breeding/schooling/diet requirements. as far as needing something to eat fish poop.... just keep the tank clean. you shouldn't -need- anything to eat poop.

 

[Squash]

Alright, thanks bud.

 

[Lotus]

Sorry that the store didn't telll you the right things.

Tetras will only school with their own type of tetra, so the lemon and black phantom tetras won't school with the red eye tetras. If you want a larger school, get more red eyes, and see if you can take the others back.

There are no fish or critters that eat poop. It's your job to clean the tank of excess poop on the bottom. Clown loaches get to 12", so a school is going to get too big for your tank. It would be better to see if you can exchange the loach for something else. Loaches will eat flake, bloodworms, shrimp pellets and most other fish foods. If you get a fish, you shoulld make sure you get some food for it. You can also feed it rinsed, chopped-up earthworms.

 

[Squash]

Ugh, the aquarium is strictly no returns, and I was sure to ask them if it requires any special food, they said for the most part it'll feed off the tank, and as long as I'm putting flakes in for the other wish it'll be fine.

 

[MissFishy]

Try calling other fish stores in your area and see if they will take back the odd tetras and clown loach. They will probably give you store credit. With the store credit, buy some more of the red eyes to fill out the school. A large school of one type of tetra will be much more visually pleasing than an odd assortment of fish. Please don't leave the mishmash of fish in there, it's cruel to the loach and other tetras.

 

[MOsborne05]

I agree with everyone else, take them back or give them to another fish store. The clown loaches get way too big and need to be kept in groups. Unless you want to get more lemon tetras and black phantoms to round out your schools, then you need to take them back too.

Like Lotus said, nothing will eat fish poop. Zebra loaches and cory cats will eat leftover food, which helps to keep the tank clean. A bristlenose pleco will eat algae and they only get 4" long, so that would also help you keep the tank clean.

Definitely check out the link that ForestCook provided, that will help you out a lot. But, before you purchase any fish, check on here because some of the information in that link is not entirely accurate.

And REMEMBER......fish stores are trying to sell you fish. They will do whatever it takes to make you buy that fish. Once that sale is made, they don't care what you do with the fish. We care about the fish and have nothing to gain from giving you information

 

[Seleya]

I'd bring them back to the original fish store and demand a full refund. They lied to you about these fish's needs. You asked good, specific questions regarding their demands and care and relied upon their expertise. You aren't returning them because you changed your mind, you're returning them because you realised you were flatly lied to to make a sale. That's exactly what I would tell them. Stick to your guns, speak with the manager and get a little loud if need be.

Bringing them to another fish store for store credit would probably be a second choice, but many stores wouldn't give you much for essentially very common fish [maybe a little something for the loach, but a small percentage of what you spent]

Obviously, in a perfect world, you would have done your research first [hey, now you know ] so there's a certain degree of caveat emptor, but stores such as this present themselves as authorities on the subject so why wouldn't you rely on their advice unless proven otherwise???