r/Aquariums • u/Main_Initial_7118 • Jan 25 '24

Parents cleaned my tanks without asking :/ Betta

Came home today to this. First pic is what they put the fish in for god knows how long, last pic is my tank before they cleaned it. They told me it was bc my room looked “messy”. They are old so I don’t blame them…. But damn…

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u/HoTChOcLa1E Jan 25 '24

but you didn't scrub it with laundry detergent, did you?

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u/mmoolloo Jan 25 '24

Many years ago, my then girlfriend had a betta in a .5 gal bowl. I knew nothing about fish then, but I got him a 4 gal bowl as an upgrade because the small one didn't make sense to me.

We washed that bowl and the glass pebble "substrate" with dishwashing liquid every week, and the fish lived like that for 3 years.

I now know it was terrible, but I can assure you it's definitely possible to wash aquariums with soap and not kill the inhabitants.

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u/Prokinsey Jan 25 '24

A betta can be expected to live a lot longer than 3 years. I hate to break it to you but your routine at the very least significantly shortened the life of that fish.

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u/HoTChOcLa1E Jan 26 '24

oh i just kind of assumed that they changed the routine after three years and the fish lived on