SPO member that is a fish SPO
http://community.livejournal.com/stupidpetowners/2105076.html
Apparently, the term 'research' has joined the status of fact. When community members very rightfully so railed on the OP that s/he didn't research, s/he reply to everyone that s/he did research, without saying what/how, just research.
In the post, the OP accuses the petshop people for being SPOs for telling her/him the wrong stuff which is why s/he lost all their fishes, twice, damn the employees for expecting the OP to have done research first with the library or at least Internet. I got the strong, strong, impression that research consisted of asking the employees what the fishes are after 'lub at first sight', getting them home, then googling their names and reading the first results.
In the olden days, people used to actually go to the library, bother the librarian or use the index cards catalogue. Books can be full of bullshit too, which is why I looked for credentials of the authors, and cross-checked things, books in a good library is also a quicker way to get good comprehensive information since people who publish books gets money, funding to work and research, whereas site maintainers don't. There are some good sites out there though that are ahead of books in areas publishers have not ventured yet though, by hobbyists who learn through careful trial and error, not try-try-try the same failure...but obviously the OP must have missed it.
Normally, if this was 1fish_2fish, I would not have snapped at the OP at all, because people in general still thought of fishes as decorations...joining a community about it is already an improvement. < / low expectations > I would have asked about cycling, size, water changes, what was fed (and did they eat? Bottom feeders are sometimes starved to death after being brought as a clean up crew for algae or leftover food, they finish the first job too fast, and they don't get enough of the second, so get algae wafers for your algae eaters, and sinking pellets for your bottom feeders, are the essential).....water chemistry (or rather, stuff which affects it, driftwood, coral...rain/well/tap), temperature as it is now winter and all of the species listed (mollies, guppies, glass catfishes) are tropical, but if s/he joins a community like stupidpetowners and rant about the petshop being stupid, it's fair game as no drama is being started elsewhere, also, it's a definite case of 'asking for it', what the hell? I don't want to give the OP the idea that s/he is anything less than a complete idiot who could give fishkeeping another try and therefore somehow kill more fishes in a half-ass execution of advice. *two months later* "So I skimmed through those links you guys gave me, and my fishes all died again even though the site never told me that not following their life's requirement will actually cause their deaths! This is all your fault!"
I like livebearers, though I've only kept one species before, but I know that guppies and mollies like their water warm and hard. I think glassfishes in general look cute, but I've never kept them. So I just googled glass catfish, and this was the first hit:
Glass catfish (Kryptopterus bicirrhis) with photo / picture
This very simple page would have let the OP know two reasons why her glass catfish died through her neglect or was otherwise 'unhappy' (stress, prone to illness). Glass catfishes like their water soft and slightly acidic, the opposite of mollies and guppies's preferences, not to mention that catfishes, which are scaleless bottom feeders since if they have scales their range would have result in the frequent lost of them, are intolerant of salt, without which mollies will be prone to diseases. Water chemistry was probably what killed the glass catfish, though the stress it was under from being kept alone in spite of being a 'schooling' fish probably contributed to it. Oh yeah, tap water is usually very hard with a high pH, if the OP didn't conditioned her water, that would have killed the glass catfish, the molly and guppy, stress, general poor water...yadda, yadda, DOOM.
Apparently, the term 'research' has joined the status of fact. When community members very rightfully so railed on the OP that s/he didn't research, s/he reply to everyone that s/he did research, without saying what/how, just research.
In the post, the OP accuses the petshop people for being SPOs for telling her/him the wrong stuff which is why s/he lost all their fishes, twice, damn the employees for expecting the OP to have done research first with the library or at least Internet. I got the strong, strong, impression that research consisted of asking the employees what the fishes are after 'lub at first sight', getting them home, then googling their names and reading the first results.
In the olden days, people used to actually go to the library, bother the librarian or use the index cards catalogue. Books can be full of bullshit too, which is why I looked for credentials of the authors, and cross-checked things, books in a good library is also a quicker way to get good comprehensive information since people who publish books gets money, funding to work and research, whereas site maintainers don't. There are some good sites out there though that are ahead of books in areas publishers have not ventured yet though, by hobbyists who learn through careful trial and error, not try-try-try the same failure...but obviously the OP must have missed it.
Normally, if this was 1fish_2fish, I would not have snapped at the OP at all, because people in general still thought of fishes as decorations...joining a community about it is already an improvement. < / low expectations > I would have asked about cycling, size, water changes, what was fed (and did they eat? Bottom feeders are sometimes starved to death after being brought as a clean up crew for algae or leftover food, they finish the first job too fast, and they don't get enough of the second, so get algae wafers for your algae eaters, and sinking pellets for your bottom feeders, are the essential).....water chemistry (or rather, stuff which affects it, driftwood, coral...rain/well/tap), temperature as it is now winter and all of the species listed (mollies, guppies, glass catfishes) are tropical, but if s/he joins a community like stupidpetowners and rant about the petshop being stupid, it's fair game as no drama is being started elsewhere, also, it's a definite case of 'asking for it', what the hell? I don't want to give the OP the idea that s/he is anything less than a complete idiot who could give fishkeeping another try and therefore somehow kill more fishes in a half-ass execution of advice. *two months later* "So I skimmed through those links you guys gave me, and my fishes all died again even though the site never told me that not following their life's requirement will actually cause their deaths! This is all your fault!"
I like livebearers, though I've only kept one species before, but I know that guppies and mollies like their water warm and hard. I think glassfishes in general look cute, but I've never kept them. So I just googled glass catfish, and this was the first hit:
Glass catfish (Kryptopterus bicirrhis) with photo / picture
This very simple page would have let the OP know two reasons why her glass catfish died through her neglect or was otherwise 'unhappy' (stress, prone to illness). Glass catfishes like their water soft and slightly acidic, the opposite of mollies and guppies's preferences, not to mention that catfishes, which are scaleless bottom feeders since if they have scales their range would have result in the frequent lost of them, are intolerant of salt, without which mollies will be prone to diseases. Water chemistry was probably what killed the glass catfish, though the stress it was under from being kept alone in spite of being a 'schooling' fish probably contributed to it. Oh yeah, tap water is usually very hard with a high pH, if the OP didn't conditioned her water, that would have killed the glass catfish, the molly and guppy, stress, general poor water...yadda, yadda, DOOM.