On Saturday last weekend I had a visit from my 5 year old grandson, mum & dad. After the initial excitement of visiting pop on the boat and a thourough inspection of my new tank set up upstairs,( and of course some 5 year old advice on how to do things better) down we came to see my baby yellows and to have a cuppa. Now at the mention of food young Jake is usually the first one there, but not this time, I saw him in the room with my yellows quietly crying to himself. To cut a long story short,he eventually came out with the question as to why all of his shrimpies were dead? I was very supprised because he has had them for about six weeks now.

I decided to pay him a visit on Sunday with some more shrimp and to check out what had gone wrong. It turns out that Dad is an over zelous shrimp/fish keeper with a bad record of fish stock dying on him. this is what I found wrong.

Dad cleanes the fish tank inside once a week? great ,but uses the commonly used sponge and scourer from the kitchen.

Dad changes water every week? about 80% with straight tap water.

Dad cleans the filter every week? rinces it with straight tap water.

Tank has a heater set at 29 deg?

tank sits alongside a west facing window with no backing ? tank gets very hot. algea love the conditions.

My advice for dad, ( what I do)

Move the tank away from direct light, reducing algea growth.

Only top up the tank once a week and do 15% water changes once a month.

Age the water change water by leaving it outside in the bucket for at least 24 hours

Turn the heater down to around 25 deg. will suit the shrimp and his tetras

DONT!!! touch the filter, unless it is absolutely necessary, then only rince in the tank water that you have removed from the tank before doing a water change.

Now to see if the lesson sinks in.

Enjoy!

Footnote:

My son inlaw recons I am wrong Because he is only doing what his mate has told him to do, and "HE" keeps fish. OOh Well guess I had better retire, can't put an old head on young sholders so the saying goes.

that is too funny, my advise to dad

get a new hobby :)

My advise to dad: join a forum.

Give him the talk!

​I mean the fish talk ;)

Footnote:

My son inlaw recons I am wrong Because he is only doing what his mate has told him to do' date=' and "HE" keeps fish. OOh Well guess I had better retire, can't put an old head on young sholders so the saying goes.[/quote']

LOL! Apparently killing all his son's shrimps is a success as your shrimps are BREEDING!

+1 to join the forum , or at least do some research

it's funny but it's true when a fellow say his live stock is dying and said his filter is always clean .

i ask ,how often u clean your filter ?

he said : every week :victorious:

+1 to join the forum ' date=' or at least do some research

it's funny but it's true when a fellow say his live stock is dying and said his filter is always clean .

i ask ,how often u clean your filter ?

he said : every week :victorious:[/quote']

It's only recently I've stop cleaning my filters monthly. I'm only cleaning them when the flow slows to a halt :)

Im pretty slack and never clean my media. Though i do clean the pipes when they get clogged with GUNK lol