From our other sites
The story
On Nyuusoku VIP (5ch’s news/VIP board), a user who’d just brought home medaka (Japanese rice fish) and shrimp posted photos of his setup, prompting a flood of replies questioning the water quality and risk of oxygen deprivation. Experienced fishkeepers weighed in one after another — on keeping fish in a plastic tub, whether aeration was actually necessary, and how Anacharis (a water plant) supplies oxygen. At one point a poster flatly declared “they’ll all be dead within a week,” leading to a small bet with the OP over whether the fish would survive. By the end of the thread the fish in question was reported to be fading, leaving readers hanging on its fate.
Any moment now……
Source: imgur.com / Original post here
What people said
Yeah, pretty much.
Re: #2
https://imgur.com/a/fxWgTiD
White medaka and black medaka.
Both together cost 180 yen.
The shrimp were 140 yen for 2 (one's a baby).
it'll be dead by the time you wake up tomorrow
That's scarily plausible.
Especially with this water —
something feels a bit off.
According to AI, the zeolite (the stones at the bottom) is supposed to clean it up.
That's not the zeolite doing it, it's the bacteria that's colonized it.
Yeah, this thing's dead by tomorrow.
Now I'm worried lolololol
There's no way bacteria's grown in there yet.
So what is it then… maybe he didn't rinse the substrate well enough?
Eh, whatever.
You didn't add a bacteria starter?
Nah, they don't, they don't.
They basically get along fine.
I used to keep them and never saw anything like that.
Re: #21
So this was pointless then?
Guess I'll just let them loose already.
Just buy an actual tank.
And get an air pump in there or they'll suffocate.
Basically left alone, just fed occasionally — going on 7, 8 years now.
Is that actually fun though?
Sounds kind of boring.
Personally I think keeping them indoors in your room is more interesting.
Looked it up — apparently zeolite promotes bacteria growth.
So this might actually be a good sign.
That cloudiness looks like a normal thing that happens once you add zeolite.
Bottom line, the water in the photo doesn't seem harmful to the fish.
It's not like it happens instantly though.
Yeah, it's a tub.
Tanks are expensive, intimidating, and heavy.
I figured this would be enough…
An air pump means running electricity and all that.
I'm putting my faith in senpai Anacharis.
Anacharis releases oxygen through photosynthesis during the day, but at night it actually consumes oxygen.
The oxygen your fish need mostly comes in through the water surface, so as long as you don't seal off the top, you should be fine.
Wait, really? It gives off oxygen under fluorescent or LED light too, right? It sucks in oxygen at night? That's kind of scary.
But I guess it's fine since they can get it from the surface.
No idea about the shrimp though (hey now lol) lol
In still water, the amount of oxygen that actually dissolves is pretty minimal.
Same goes for the oxygen from photosynthesis under a room light.
It'd be idiotic to kill your fish just to save like 100 yen a month on an air pump.
The bag's gotten all bulked up from topping off the water during acclimation.
Want to let them out already…
These guys are waiting too, right? Still not yet?
Lol they're basically furious at this point.
Them thrashing around is stress from the sudden change in environment, so that's not really a good sign.
Pretty good chance they'll be "turned into stars" by tomorrow (a Japanese euphemism for dying).
https://imgur.com/a/0Ootsym
Got tired of waiting so I just put them in.
No way they're escaping out the top —
you can tell just by looking.
So wait, even though it's dissolving in around the Anacharis, are you saying there's still not enough oxygen?
That just mixes in CO2.
If anything, it's better not to create any water current at all.
If you're keeping them indoors you do need it, since there's no wind.
That's actually been debunked scientifically.
The air you exhale has way more oxygen in it than CO2.
So blowing bubbles through a straw yourself is considered to have some real effect.
Well, it does contain some CO2 too.
But the whole point of bubbling is that it mixes oxygen in from the surface anyway.
they'll all be dead within a week.
Seriously?
Alright, it's a bet then.
I'm betting they'll still be alive.
I'll make a new thread if they survive.
Isn't it possible fine sand got into their gills?
No, I rinsed the stones and changed the water several times.
I asked AI about it repeatedly, even showed it photos —
it says there's no problem.
I'm starting to think this particular fish was just weak from the start.
Apparently if the water were actually bad, the white one and the shrimp would be dead by now too.
medaka will straight-up eat their own babies.
They'll eat baby shrimp too.
If you cut up some artificial turf matting and float it on top,
fry small enough to get eaten will instinctively hide in it though.
gas exchange through the surface is plenty.
That's because it's on the balcony —
there's wind there.
Wouldn't work indoors.
It's still barely breathing, but
honestly it's touch-and-go whether it makes it through tonight…
Guhh……
I think I'm gonna step away from this thread for a bit.
This is rough on me mentally, ngl.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Acclimating medaka to new water is a standard procedure to prevent fish from dying of shock due to sudden changes in temperature and water quality, and whether this step had actually been done became the starting point of the debate in this thread. The main point of contention was whether aeration is necessary for indoor fishkeeping (as a measure against oxygen deprivation) — since the amount of surface agitation from wind differs between an outdoor water-lily pot and an indoor tub, opinions on necessity tend to split. The thread largely converged on the rule of thumb that it’s unnecessary outdoors but necessary indoors. It’s also easy to misunderstand that water plants like Anacharis produce oxygen through photosynthesis during the day but actually consume it at night, so simply adding a water plant doesn’t guarantee everything will be fine. The thread ended with the medaka in question still in a weakened state and no further updates, so whether it survived remains unconfirmed.
*This article is composed as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Nyuusoku VIP) thread “So this idiot said he just picked up some medaka for home, but…“.
Leave a Reply