WATCHING A SMALL AQUARIUM TANK FISH DIE : AN UNNATURAL AND IMPRISONED LIFE ALONE

Over the years I've become increasingly against home aquariums for fish that grow bigger.  I recently saw a fish that had lived alone in an aquarium die.  It was horrible.  This fish had lived alone for the amusement of the few people who actually even bothered to notice it.  It swum around a background, plastic made-for-aquarium sea weeds and fake castles and such, and awaited feeding.  I would walk by and go eye to eye with it and sometimes move my fingers as if they were fins and the fish would follow.

I heard that this fish had been in the tank for ELEVEN YEARS and was ALONE because he "ATE ALL THE OTHER FISH IN THE TANK." Well in the sea, fish eat fish, but I wondered if perhaps this was because he had not been fed properly.... And was also in a tank TOO SMALL FOR HIM.

HIM ... it could have been a HER.

The fish started laying low to the bottom of the tank, barely upright.

It's eyes were covered in some sort of white film. 

I immediately informed the owner I thought the fish was dying and to contact their aquarium service.

A week later the fish was clearly having trouble fish-breathing, it's gills working hard.

I had not seen air being pumped into the tank.

The walls of the tank had a green-black film on them.

As a result I'm clearly anti-aquarium tank.

Perhaps the small fish that never get too big can have a better tank life than this?

Other fish in the tank.

Real sea weed.

Proper cleaning and feeding and light cycles....

Siren

YOUR FISH TANK - DECORATIONS TO PUT IN - DECORATIONS TO KEEP OUT!

You may indulge your love of fish and your fantasies by creating an interesting décor in your home or office FISH TANK.  But did you know that you may be harming your fish and the environment when you use shells, coral, plastic, and other items that are sold in stores?


Growing up so many of my friends had  fish bowl, turtle bowls, and more sophisticated tanks with air and filtration systems to keep them fresh.  Besides colored gravel, it was common to see plastic trees, ferns, sea grasses, and other under water flora all made of plastic.  We thought we were giving our fish an interesting, though small and limited environment that they could swim around in.  Of course no one knows what goes on in the mid of a fish about being kept in captivity like that when it comes to living in close with humans.


These days we know that plastic leeches into water and food and that really we should be extremely careful not to drink out of it if the bottles have been in a hot car or in the sun.  We know that there are plastics inside the human body and we think they get there from the bottles that contain shampoo and conditioner, frozen meals, and bottled water.  However, we do have some choice.  Plastic doesn't break the way glass can and most of us don't want glass in our bathrooms - especially not in earthquake zones.   The harder the plastic the better.  We should not reuse plastic food containers.  If your store's bottled water gets to the shelf cool and within a week or so of being bottled, it's probably OK.


But if your fish are in a tank full of plastic decorations, no doubt that the plastic may be leaking into the water and that's the fish's total environment.  (And by the way many famous big aquariums have plastic decorations in their tanks too! So don't feel too bad!  Just change the stuff out!)


Then there are bags of shells and pieces of coral sold to put into the tanks.  If you already bought these things or picked them off a sea shore, OK use them.  By buying these, however, you encourage stores to keep selling them, and the only way to stop the destruction of shells and corals is to NOT BUY THEM!

GUIDE TO FISH FOR YOUR HOME TANK?