Out of Control Family Member

spoon

spoon

Member
Ok, I moved out of my apartment two weeks ago and set up my 20g at my uncle's house. I had a 4" Lionfish (huge!) and a 1.5" Niger Trigger. During the move I took the Lionfish back to an LFS, as he was too big for my little tank. After setting the tank up at my uncle's, I was excited about getting my Trigger a companion. So I aquired a 2" Sharp Nosed Toby (Puffer). Those two small fish are about all my tank can handle as far as I am concerned, plus they are messy eaters.
My Uncle is now out of control, I went to his house to check on the tank, and now he has a 2.5" Yellow Tang in there! I then told him that that was about all the tank could handle, especially with the sub par filtration (Penguin 170). He then replied, "Aww look, they are so happy... swimming."
That was two days ago, I went and checked again and guess what? He added THREE 2" Green Chromis! I attempted to inform him about how the filtration will never support the amount of waste these fish will produce. Also I informed him about the stress that these fish will be subjected to, having very little space per fish. All he did was get pi*sed and told me that they are happy. This was all today.
Usually we go to fish stores together, but now he ventures off by himself and goes on shopping sprees. I told him that if he is to keep those fish healthy, he would have to go out and get a sump with an overflow (filtration upgrade) probably a skimmer, blah blah blah. His reaction... "whoa, that's alot of money... more than the tank costs itself! I'm not gonna spend that!"
Then I asked him what he is going to do once those fish tear eachother apart? He said he'll just get new ones :nope:
He's just gonna keep adding and adding and adding! What do I do?
 
footbag

footbag

Active Member
I don't know if there is anything you can do. I kind of went through this with my father when we set up our first tank. He wanted to buy all of the fish, but was only willing to spend the bare minimum on equip. I was the one maintaining and testing it, so I realized that the nitrates were a growing problem. Our tank crashed and remained an aggresive fowlr for the next few years.
Three years ago, I began to add corals and now it looks better then ever. One thing though, I did learn more from my "unnsuccesful" tank then my "succesful" one.
If you are really upset about the fish, you can remove all of them, throw in some black dye and just say told you so.
 
dburr

dburr

Active Member
Treir are some things you have to learn on your own.
Just don't shove it in his face when he says you were right. You could always buy him a book on fish with a compatability chart.:yes:
 
michelle13

michelle13

Member
Since you said the tank is yours, I would go take the all the fish back to the LFS and then put the rest of your equipment in storage until you can set it up again in your own residence.
 
sweetdawn

sweetdawn

Active Member
show him a reef tank. that is how i keep myself from adding to the two fish in my tank i buy a coral and im happy.
 
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