Bottom posted.
Eric wrote:
On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:17:05 -0600, NetMax wrote
(in article ):



It's a bad idea to move any fish into a tank which is having
problems. Also it can be a bad idea to buy function fish, as the
function is quickly addressed leaving you with a fish to cater to.
This is never so obvious as when adding an Oscar to a Guppy tank.
If you want an Oscar, then buy an Oscar. If you have too many
Guppies, bag them all to the LFS. An Oscar will not stop with the
small Guppies, and will basically wipe the population out. If you
want a carnivorous predator, Bettas, medium Gouramis and medium
sized cichlids will fill that role, but you don't have a healthy
tank to put them in. jmo, best wishes with that.


"Function fish"! I love that term. I wish I had heard it when I was
working as a fish professional. I couldn't believe how many people
wanted to add a fish to a tank with problems in order to solve that
problem. A bit like the old lady who swallowed the fly.

Once the guppies from the original post are thinned out and a few
partials have been done, I'd recommend a couple of black skirt tetras
to keep the babies in check. Or better still, net a few Gambusia from
the local ditch and witness the livebearer on livebearer mayhem.
Gambusia are the toughest fish under two inches.

-E

I didn't invent or come up with the phrase "function fish", I have seen it
used on this newsgroup before. Quite frankly I would rather have one 55
gallon tank with my two silver dollars and 1 oscar than the silver dollars
with a couple mountain minnows (like now) and tons of fancy guppies with a
guppy dieing every other day. Come on guys - even fancy guppies are supposed
to live at least a year except for the high nitrates and nitrites. Could my
problem be not enough oxygen? I don't have decent transportation so I can't
get to the lfs 14 miles away one way to drop off bags of fancy guppies every
2 weeks to 1 month, I've done it before and I just don't have that much time
on my hands anymore. I doubt the bus system drivers would let me carry on
bags of fish each trip and I sure can't get to the store often enough to
keep buying rubbermaid tubs which the bus driver wouldn't allow anyways. I'm
sorry if I sound negative but when people chastise me after acting on
assumptions and incorrect information even after I have already said the
correct/accurate information here before it really saddens me - don't you
guys know me by now? I guess not. I am sorry I even asked about this
subject, geez, [goes away sulking]. :-(