Auntie Sue's Fishy Advice Column

14/03/2023

Just a quick one today.

Being snowed in at the weekend I took some time to sort out a couple of cupboards.

Even though I’ve moved house & had a sort out I still found products past their best before or use by dates.

This leads me to the fishy relevance – one of the products was a test kit.

Not quite out of date but had been sitting at the back of the shelf and ignored.

I thought I’d just test the test kit

Ammonia –

RO water 0.5ppm

Tap water 0.5ppm

Tank water 0.5ppm

Adding ammonia to tap water to give 3ppm as for a fishless cycle – 0.5ppm.

Nitrate –

tap 0.0

Tank 0.0

Plant fertilizer solution to give 10ppm 0.0



It has gone in the bin.

The other brand which I have been using instead gave the expected readings.

I’m not sure if it is an age or storage issue or a dodgy pack but I would recommend checking any kit against a known sample.

30/01/2023

Dear Auntie Sue,
I've just seen a post where someone was showing off his new tank with a selection of fish he admits "shouldn't be together" but he rescued some of them.
Why does that make it alright?
EG

Dear EG,
Ooh, I have a rant about this;
It doesn't. There is this ridiculous idea that rescuing som**hing means you can take it from a bad situation and put it in a bad situation.
There are hoarders up and down this country collecting animals, and donations, whilst calling themselves a rescue.
This takes away from the hard work & time given by genuine rescues.
Did you know that the easiest way to sell a small tank is to put a large fish in it and wait for the rescue brigade to come along?
There is even a group of people managing to sell tanks for more than brand new because there are a load of tankbusters in the advert.
Notched angelfish & Discus are being bred as they will sell before healthy fish!
In much the same way three legged dogs get homes before four legged ones.
It's not a rescue if you are going to carry on allowing the animal to suffer.

26/12/2022

I hope everyone has enjoyed the festivities of recent days and wish you all a happy & healthy New Year.
If anyone new got a tank as a gift please don't rush to get fish for it, whatever the store tells you it takes weeks to make the tank a safe home for them.
Why the houseplant?
This is a Dracaena which is often sold for aquaria. If submerged it will rot but also it earns it's place in my room on it's own merits. One of the excuses I hear for not cycling a tank, and stuff in bottles doesn't work, is that it will be boring without fish. A well set up tank should look good before the fish go in. https://tropicalfishkeeping.co.uk/guides/preparing-your-filter-aka-fishless-cycling/

23/11/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

I know you’ve been quiet for a while but I have a dilemma and need help.

The festive season is fast approaching and I have two fish keepers in the family who would like som**hing to do with their hobby and I don’t want a repeat of last year when I got it all wrong.

I could choose the cheat’s way out and get them vouchers but I would really like some ideas.

JR

Hi JR,

I’m not really the person to ask but as a few black Friday deals are around I’ll try to help.

Don’t get anything alive. The last thing anyone wants at a busy time is new livestock to settle in and the chances are whatever you choose will not fit in.

When I was nine my aunt & uncle arrived with a fish for my birthday. They had described what they thought I had to the shop and were sold a S**t. I kept Discus.

Luckily, we were able to take it straight back. Not som**hing you can do when shops close over holidays, nor can a quarantine or isolation tank be quickly readied if you are lacking equipment to do so.

I would suggest a ticket to a public aquarium or, perhaps, diving with sharks? This can be used when the silly season is over.

If you are looking for younger family members how about a road trip to that aquatic shop that is a bit further away than you would usually travel? That way they can get what they want or need and won’t have the constraints of a voucher that ties them to one vendor.

There is still time to get custom printed items – a picture of a favourite fish or snail, or aquascape, on a mug, T shirt or even printed & framed. This gives som**hing to gift wrap and a card promising more can easily be included.

If all else fails plenty of fishy pun gifts are available.

24/08/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

Stop asking for parameters, you’re becoming obsessive.

TK

Dear TK,

Well stop asking for help then.

Trying to help a fish tank without information is like trying to do a jigsaw with pieces missing.

I’m neither a mind reader nor omnipotent and however much I enjoy helping fish and people to enjoy keeping their fish there are things I’d much rather be doing than trying to prise information out of an obstinate, egotistical, owner.

21/08/2022

I've seen a few articles about people selling up due to energy price increases.
While scary the new prices still make keeping the average aquarium cheaper per week than a coffee to go and there are ways to cut the running costs.
I'll start with todays picture - it is a turkey baster. Found all over for very little - a quid or two unless you buy a fancy brand.
If you buy one packaged for aquarium use you could end up spending 5 or more time this.
Be aware of where savings can be made. 🙂

15/07/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

Yesterday I needed a filter in an emergency so I popped into my car and drove to my LFS. To my surprise it was gone, and a v**e shop is in it’s place. I nipped to the second one and it was also closed, looking like it’s also out of business. A quick google search showed that others in the area have also closed, and this seems to be a trend nationwide. I’m assuming that Covid lock down and now rising energy bills are the reason, but what are us fish keepers meant to do when emergency strikes?

CC

Dear CC,

The fact that since you last went to your LFS that they have closed, the shop has been stripped out, and a new shop is now in it’s place is an indication of how long it’s been since you visited. So where are you buying your fish stuff? I’m guessing online. Covid was a problem for some shops, but a lot reported a boom in sales as people took up the hobby or increased their number of tanks.

The energy prices increases have been hitting businesses for a good while now so whilst, yes this might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, there is an even more obvious reason; We’re not using fish shops in the same way. We are using the internet. It is easier to swipe a few times on our mobile screen and then the next day the parcel arrives. In today's modern life that is a lot more convenient.

Is it the way we want the fish keeping hobby to go?

Fish shops are the ones that are there when you have an emergency, fish shops are the place to go and browse to see if you can spot som**hing new you may not have thought of. I’ve never bumped into a fellow fish keeper on a website and I’ve never been able to look at the exact product from all sides online.

The hobby needs fish shops, otherwise we will be left with the big chains, a few independents hanging on, and the faceless mass of the internet sales. What do we do when an emergency strikes? We need to use what we use the most. In your case that might be the internet and hope that the filter arrives on time.

P.S. if you have a look back through my page there is a video on making a filter out of a bottle. Hope that helps.

20/06/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

I’ve seen this, and I love it, and I know you will hate it and find fault, so come on, what can you find wrong with this stunning example of plants and fish living in harmony?

The plants produce oxygen and that keeps the fish going.

AB

Dear AB

F**k off, and to borrow a phrase, once you get there f**k off again.

I can find plenty wrong, allow me to list them.

1. That is tiny, those poor fish need at least 60l. That vase even without all the stuff crammed in there is about 15l.

2. With all that substrate the water is going to be very low pH. Those fish need hard water, with a high pH.

3. There is no filter.

4. There is hardly any air space.

5. Those plants are grown in the air and are very unlikely to survive underwater.

6. There is no water movement.

7. Plants only produce oxygen when there is light on them, otherwise no photosynthesis, and plants have to breath, they breath oxygen and put out carbon dioxide. At that point the plants and the fish will be fighting for the same pitiful amount of oxygen.

A stunning example of human stupidity, and I know you sent it to me to wind it up, don’t worry one of my friends got there before you, she sends me all the great examples of animal cruelty that flood social media.

Can we stop pretending that we are somehow allowed to keep animals any way we choose; You have to offer a great life.

There is no other option.

09/06/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

I've just been to my local park and the water in the lake has been dyed blue.

The ranger said it was to do with the algae that's killing the fish.

Is this why we use m**h blue in tanks?

DF



Dear DF,

The blue dye used in commercial lakes is a harmless food colouring. Its purpose is usually to reduce available light for algae and help prevent cyanobacteria, but it is sometimes used for decorative purposes.

You will sometimes see black colouring used instead especially in formal water features.

Methylene blue;- Methylthionium chloride, is also a blue dye but is used in aquaria as a fungicide and bactericide.

For many year it was one of the only medications available to aquarists and it’s use predates the use of biological filtration which is why it was used directly in fish tanks and why the instructions on some brands still say to use it in this way despite it killing off filter colonies.

It is also the reason that black silicone sealant was developed. It permanently dyes clear silicone bright blue so this fell out of favour despite probably giving a stronger bond than ones with pigment.

02/06/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

We were chatting on a group, about how I’d lost my largest fish, and you were asking about my parameters.

I sent you this message as you’d ignored the one I sent your personal profile and I want you to understand som**hing, the fish is dead. In case you don’t understand that, that means it’s not breathing, it can’t be harmed by parameters. Do I need to spell this out any simpler?
D E A D.

AC

Dear AC,

Yes, that fish is dead but the others in your tank aren’t. You’ve still got at least 15 fish that I can count in the pic and you plan to replace the dead fish this weekend.

Those fish are alive and can be harmed by poor water conditions.

For people who want to understand this, some fish can withstand more than others. Take any disease that hits us humans, some of us will have the sniffles and need a day or two rest, others will need hospitalisation, or worse will die. Fish also will have varying reactions across a population.

Yes, that one is dead, if you don’t want the rest also dead, then just answer some damn questions.

13/05/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

I keep looking at planted aquaria and I’m nearly ready to take the plunge but it all seems so technical with more rules and kit than I’ve ever needed for fish.

Rules about décor and being told I’ll need to add chemicals all the time has made me wonder if it might be easier to get a marine tank instead.

Then I look at the prices of corals and look at planted tanks again.

I know I should really go & visit some good independent shops but how do I know which are good and I have a huge confidence problem when it comes to asking questions in person:-

How should the scientific names be pronounced? I feel silly when I try to read out a name I’ve only seen written or heard via YouTube being pronounced different ways

LT



Dear LT,

You are not alone.

Aquascaping has gone in a very different direction to general fishkeeping and gets more and more formulaic & scape by numbers as time goes on. The rules I’ve seen quoted are just the simple guides that artists & photographers have used for decades.

The rule of thirds is in every basic photo or art magazine, but they don’t tend to lay out what you can put in each section or what palette you can use. The styles tend to try to emulate terrestrial gardens rather than underwater scenes.

Who can forget the Monty Python’s Last Supper? “The fat one balances the two skinny ones” and this applies to your tank – put what you like where it is pleasing to your eye.

If you can’t picture what you want, find a picture you like and fit this to your tank. Provide the plants with what they need, lights, water, feed ( & CO2 is a feed) but make sure what you do for the plants won’t harm the fish.

As for pronunciation, many people get it wrong or struggle.
A friend invites people to take a drink every time she mangles a word while livestreaming and it is considered an excuse to get sloshed.

I still sometimes refer to the written form and trace with a mental finger for some like Epalzeorhynchos.

For words that may come up more often like Cryptocoryne just break the word down.

It is four syllables but try crypto (as in currency) core (as in the middle of an apple) and ine (to rhyme with mine)

For some reason I keep hearing an extra EE sound put on the end, people hear someone & repeat it. They don’t know how it should sound so you shouldn’t be embarrassed to have a go.

01/05/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

My neighbour has acquired a tiny fish tank in her front windowsill with two goldfish in it.

I have offered to help her with them but “they are fine & she rescued them” and doesn’t need any help.

Is there anything I can do for these poor fish?

PB



Dear PB,

You offered help so there isn’t much you can do for now.

If she had two puppies in a cage in the window you may have been able to get the authorities involved but although fish are also covered by the same animal welfare laws there isn’t any effective enforcement. Keep an eye out and maybe offer help again when the bowl goes green?

So often people rescue pets without having the knowledge nor housing to keep them in decent conditions. Often keeping them in the same ill-advised group & in the same accommodation that they supposedly rescued them from. It isn’t rescue if you exchange one poor home for another.

To compare to puppies again; If you found puppies from the side of a road in a soggy cardboard box you wouldn’t decide to keep them forever in a clean cardboard box. People do that with fish all the time – get a neglected, filthy, tank and keep the fish together because that is how they came.

There is even a known scam where tanks get advertised with unsuitable fish at inflated prices to get a sympathy purchase. You often see the same sellers with a new advert the next week. Cheap tank plus big cheap fish makes for an easy profit.
And don't get me started on shops that sell fish that they know will outgrow the tank they just sold to make another sale in a few months time - either a bigger tank or more fish when the first ones die.

26/04/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

I’ve recently moved across the country & am getting ready to set up a new tank having rehomed my fish, to a family member, before moving.

I’ve not yet decided what I want to keep or what tank I fancy and as it is a new experience being in a soft water area won’t be repeating previous set ups.

My problem is this; I can’t find a decent fish store. There used to be a couple within 20 minutes of my last home, but I’ve been disappointed by the ones I’ve visited so far.

Diseased fish, dead or dying fish, labels that I know without checking are full of misinformation and staff that don’t even acknowledge me when I walk in.

In one store I overheard a customer being told they could pick any ten fish to add to their tank now it had been running a few weeks.

Another had fish that couldn’t turn around in sales tanks and sick fish openly on sale.

I consider myself reasonably experienced so I dread to think how a beginner would cope.

Is there nothing that can be done to improve standards?

CA

Dear CA,

I feel your pain. I have been in plenty of stores where standards were poor, fish were sick, and advice appeared to be purely aimed at making a sale.

What can be done? All pet shops in the UK are licensed by their local authority but unfortunately the inspectors often know little about the trade or the needs of the fish and turn up with a checklist to tick off for each visit. Unfortunately, some appear to have their own agendas and the application of the guidelines varies from council to council.

If you see poor conditions, please report the shop to the local environmental health department or, if they are members, to OATA. However, a novice isn’t going know how bad some shops are. For that matter most Environmental Health officers who are responsible for licences wouldn’t recognize obvious signs of illness or incompatibility.

What else can you do? If in doubt don’t is a good mantra. If you are not happy with a store or it’s standards, please don’t spend any money there. This includes spending on goods as opposed to livestock. Above all don’t buy a fish to save it or because you were going to buy a fish today - there will be other days & other fish. The good shops deserve support, the poor ones, whatever their size, deserve to fail.

07/04/2022

Dear Auntie Sue, *

What makes you think you can tell me what to put in my tank with my fish?

AG

* not the actual salutation.

Dear AG,

It is your tank & your fish.

I can tell you what they need rather than what you want to give them.

You may be happy in a bare box with nothing for stimulation and the constant stress of moving away from a crowd of others. It doesn’t mean you should impose this on your poor fish.

Fish need a few things, good water quality, a good, species appropriate, varied, diet, the space & suitable environmental enrichment to have a decent quality of life.

You don’t want to provide this? It says a lot about you.

BTW you think the idea of environmental enrichment is funny? It is law in parts of Europe & has recently come in as part of the Animal Activities licensing in the UK.

You can have whatever substrate you like, even clown vomit gravel if it is safe for the fish you keep & they won’t care if you have glow in the dark plastic plants or a fake shipwreck or sunken car. Better these than a bare tank.

01/04/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

I’ve just come back from a trip to France where of course I called in at a pet shop.

The staff were removing all the small bowls from the shelves. My French is not brilliant, but I got the impression that new legislation was coming in to ban their sale.

Is this likely to happen here?

AF



Dear AF,

I think you may have been one of the first to spot the new trend for unsuitable homes for any pet to be removed from sale. As part of the poisson d'avril legislation there is also a ban on any childrens’ media featuring fish in bowls or dogs chained to kennels. This includes programmes like Peppa Pig which is often used as an educational tool in dual languages. After all, why should animal cruelty be considered acceptable in this format?

Should this happen here? Please comment below.

28/03/2022

Dear Reader,

Today’s little rant: treatments that don’t do what they say, and they bloody well know it!

Swim bladder treatments. Swim bladder treatments?

WTF??? I’d rather most of my fish kept their swim bladder; is this treatment meant to remove a vital organ? No, it’s meant to heal malfunctioning swim bladders. Alright, how are they broken. The swim bladder is a great organ, fish can pull gas out of their blood stream to inflate it, they can release it to make it smaller. It moves them up and down and helps them move in that extra dimension in the water. Now does the swim bladder ever malfunction, well yes, infections aren’t uncommon, and for a lot of fish the swim bladder is alongside the intestines so if the fish gets constipated and the intestine swells it will put pressure on the swim bladder but also there is gas in the intestines and that makes them more likely to turn upside down. So if your fish is upside down suspect constipation or a general infection before looking at swim bladder damage. Now there is always the chance that your fish has been smacked hard by another fish and there is some physical damage but there isn’t much a medication can do, that needs time and not being in the same tank as that other fish.

Okay so am I mad that they’re calling it swim bladder treatment, but they’re treating an infection. No, I’m not, I just looked up the ingredients in one of these treatments. Magnesium sulphate and sodium chloride. Epsom salt and table salt. They are charging a lot of money to have you add Epsom salts to your tank to try and treat constipation and salt in case its nitrite poisoning which is why I spend a lot of time asking people to test their damn water.

So, swim bladder treatment has nothing to do with the swim bladder.

To put this in human terms it’s like you going to your doctor because you feel a bit off colour and the doctor giving you a cheap laxative, a shot of cheap vodka* and sending you home after telling you it was to treat your lungs. Oh, and charging you a lot for said cheap laxative and shot of vodka whilst knowing that you’re probably eating junk, which will cause the issue to carry on, and that you possibly have a carbon monoxide slowly killing you at home.

*Alcohol may protect humans against carbon monoxide poisoning, salt protects against nitrite poisoning. Both will kill your other organs, but hey removing the toxin may be too simplistic as then they can’t flog us unnecessary treatments: I mean the companies making swim bladder treatment, not doctors.

26/03/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,
I found your page while looking for information on allergens in aquarium products.
I am violently allergic to Polyethylene glycol and recently used a different dechlorinator and had to use my EpiPen. Ingredients are not mentioned on the label and this goes by several names and as it isn't considered harmful it is in many foods and cosmetics.
Can you help please?
MP

Dear MP,
You are not the only person I know with this allergy and while it isn't as common as, say, Peanuts, it can be life threatening.
It isn't easy to find the composition of Aquarium products and difficult enough establishing which active ingredients some contain.
The picture is of a banner on a dog shampoo stand at Crufts - it is considered safe to throw into human foods and products but is acknowledged as harmful to dogs.
You should be safe to use Sodium thiosulphate or vitamin c to dechlorinate tap water.
I have emailed various manufacturers and distributors asking for a simple clarification if any of their products contain Polyethylene glycol (PEG/Macrogol, polyethylene oxide, PEO, polyoxyethylene, POE).
I've not asked for their trade secrets but just a simple; "is it present?".
Let's see if they respond.

21/03/2022

worth putting out here.

So it’s Monday and already my inbox is full of people pointing out that I support a cruel and disgusting practice of ripping fish from their homes and cramming them into glass tanks. There is no way fish keeping can be ethical, according to them.
Yes, there is, fish keeping can be 100% ethical, there you go, get a nice coffee and continue on your week.
Right you know there is more than that. Let’s dig into this a bit more. Firstly, what the hell is ethical.
The bits we need to look at are morally good or correct, and avoiding activities that do harm to people or the environment. I’m also going to tack on doing harm to animals.
What is the harm that fish keeping does, here’s a list, I’m sure there are more, but I’ve not had enough coffee to go through all the lovely emails, and pms, and, I’m not joking, a letter, I’ve had this week.
1. We are causing mass extinction by taking fish out of the wild.
2. Causing the death of fish as they’re transported.
3. Causing suffering by stuffing them into glass tanks.
4. Spreading disease by transporting exotic creatures all over the world.

Let’s hit each one in turn.

1. More species are being captive-bred, and many wild-caught species provide a sustainable income to local fishermen. It’s a low volume high-profit trade when compared to fishing for food. Which is a real alternative to fishing for the aquarium.
But that’s not to say this isn’t an issue, but guess what, fish aren’t teleported into our tanks, we can choose to only keep species that are captive bred or sustainably captured.
2. According to those who want fish keeping stopped 99% of all fish die in transport. Yeah, that’s utter rubbish, that’s a business model straight out of the idiot's guide to bankruptcy. But yes some will die. We need to make sure that the businesses we support are using the best m**hods and researching to improve transport m**hods.
3. Is living in a glass tank cruel, yes to som**hing that needs half an ocean to thrive, is a tank suitable for some fish. Yes, it’s a great home if you provide for the fish. Give them the correct conditions, the correct tank mates, the correct diet, enrichment, lighting, heat, and all the other stuff we control. Where it becomes wrong is when we take fish that need huge tanks and put them in small ones, when we take migratory fish and put them in tiny tanks, when we keep fish that grow huge and deliberately stunt them by keeping them in small tanks.
4. Spreading disease. Yeah, there’s a real risk of this, but we can do some really simple things to keep pathogens down below levels that matter. You know basic tank maintenance. There’s more risk from uni students flying at the start of each academic year. Far more risk, bloody students.

Above all else is a simple question, can we provide a better life for fish in our tanks than in the wild? I’ll ask another one, can we provide a horse with a better life than a zebra in the wild. Being hunted by predators, searching for food, and often water. Yes, we can.
For fish, it’s even worse. We know that a single spawn of fish can produce thousands of fry, so one pair can produce tens of thousands of young. But the numbers of most fish are dropping, so from tens of thousands of fry born fewer than 2 are surviving to reproduce. This is true of fish that aren’t even caught for the aquarium, so the wild is harsh for fish, tanks can be a safe space for fish to thrive and live out their entire lives in comfort.
Want another example. Early homo sapiens had huge territories for hunting, lived about 30 years (some studies say more, some say less) had huge infant mortality rates, died of diseases that we treat with stuff we buy from the supermarket, and so many of us died that we evolved to just about survive. Yeah, that’s us. Now we live in smaller territories, and we live longer healthier lives, and hopefully, we’re happier. Yeah, I may not be convincing everyone, are you lot alright out there?
Notice I’ve said it can be ethical. Yeap, can, not is. All too often we buy what we want not what is ethical. That needs to change. With all the thousands of species out there you can find one that suits your tank, and just as importantly one that your tank will provide a perfect home for, for the rest of its a long healthy life.

Want to get these straight to your inbox every day, support our work, and p**s off the anti-pet keepers, subscribe to our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/tropicalfishkeepinguk

20/03/2022

Dear Auntie Sue,

When I visit the fish store, the staff there inform me that small tanks and bowls are not suitable for goldfish yet my grandmother kept one in a bowl that lived to a ripe old age of 6 years old. Surely the staff are more concerned about making a bigger sale rather than what's actually needed for the fish?

As a beginner to fishkeeping we have decided to have a goldfish as they are the easiest.

What are your thoughts on this?



AH



Dear AH,

Goldfish are tough which is why so many survive longer than you might expect in poor conditions.

If you want goldfish they are quite easy but you will need a five foot, 400 litre plus, tank for fancies or a decent sized pond for commons if you want them to enjoy a healthy reasonable lifespan of 20 – 30 years.

Your Grandmother’s fish survived it’s shortened lifespan in defiance of the neglect it suffered. I did mention they are tough!

She probably didn’t know any better & I know my grandmother kept goldies in the same way.

You have been given information as to what the fish really need so choosing to ignore it is deliberate cruelty.

There are plenty of fish that can be kept well in smaller tanks – smaller, not tiny.

12/03/2022

Some of you may be aware that Crufts is taking place in Birmingham England.

What does this have to do with fish you may say?



I was helping on one of the breed information booths on Thursday and some of the comments made were directly comparable to ones we hear regarding fish.

“That’s my dream dog”. “I’ve always wanted one”. “If only I could have one”.

A couple of questions ascertained that about half of these people would probably have made a good match for the breed.

Why didn’t they have one?

“I thought they would be expensive”. “I thought they were rare”. “I didn’t want to wait to get a dog after my last dog died. “I didn’t think I would be able to manage such a big dog”.

Just a selection of the answers we got.


See the parallels between this and what we hear about fish?

We say to do research but the big problem as I see it is pointing people at suitable resources.

For dogs this is the official breed clubs and not the sales or find a puppy sites.

There are some social media information groups but just as many set up to front puppy farms or even as fronts for organised crime rings.

Wherever you live the national official kennel club/ registering body will have links to recognised breed clubs or breed rescues that put the interests of the breed above making a quick buck. Beware there are fake registering bodies to put papers on dogs with no provenance in most countries.
A friend registered his goat as a Bavarian Mountain hound with one of these.

If anyone has any ideas how we can promote ethical fish breeders and suppliers please let me know.