why dont ppl READ the question.?

Question

I have been using this site for like three days and already i am fed up with how many useless responses and answers that are clearly contraindictated by the qestion itself. For example i ask how to help cycle my tank, and inform readers that the fish is already in it and has been without problems for two days now. What answer do i get? You should get feeder fish to put in the tank...if they do fine you know its ok to put your fish in. Well obviously if this person had been paying a sliver of attention that is of no help. Great idea for someone whose fish ISNT in the tank. Duh. I say that i have a budget of five dollars for a new fish item, i recieve a recommendation for purchasing a 15.00 kit. I dont know why these ppl bother writing such a lengthy response without taking the time to absorb the question but it is a waste of space time and reading. I suppose this is just a request for all of those out there who are at fault...please dont respond unless you are prepared to give

a helpful answer. I am sick to death of going through all five daily questions asking the same thing rephrased hoping to get an intelligent response. Also when seven ppl answer a question that wasnt asked, chances are good that anyone who truly knows what they are talking about is going to see a long list of responses and decide that their answer isnt needed. For once i wish i could just post something and answerers would pay close attention to detail and give a well thought out and educated response based on the information given. Just hoping maybe a few ppl will read this and decide to spare some poor asker all the frustration.

Thank you everyone who took the time to encourage...it helps to know that I am not the only one annoyed by some ppl on here and thank you also for all the offers to help with questions through email:) (cetus thanks you as well )

Answer 1

Well I think that getting a bad answer or something that is not clear, is not a good thing. For the most part most of us that answer regularly or have education and experience in these things give good answers. On here I have to say there are quite a few people that give vague crap *** answers, and I apologize for them even wasting your's and my time. Looking back at your q's

First question about the cycle:

Fivespeed gave you the correct answer on that. Yes there is a difference because a bowl doesn't usually have a filter and gravel in there. It doesn't provide oxygenation and the proper surface area to really cycle it out. A bowl really shouldn't be used to house any fish really because of space issues and filtration. Do you see pet stores sell and display fish in them? yes, but it's temporary really, and shouldn't be used at home for long term housing.

Question 2 about the Ryukin:

Again fivespeed gave you the BA there. I really can't add anything else to that to help explain any different.


The 1 1/2 inchers you see at walmart are grown out in ponds and they reach this size rather quickly. At that size they are usually about 6-9 months old.

Question 3:

kii


Do petsmart employees know what theyre talking about? fish question.?

i am planning on going to petsmart and asking some questions about my ruykin, i wouldnt ask walmart but is petsmart any better? in everyones experience are they generally well educated in their department??
Additional Details

5 hours ago
we have no small pet stores nearby and i have been asking on answers but on questions such as age of a certain size ruykin, nobody seems to know. I could easily ask them what the age of the fish they purchase is tho.

Magicman gave you the best input, however, fivespeed already told you the age about your Ryukin Kii. The real problem here is that when you ask what is the age of a fish, it's not like a child where you can log in the birthdate or something in most fish. Fish will grow differently and unless you raised the fish it's whole life yourself, it's just going to be a guesstimate even if you went to Petco or Walmart. The danger with going to Walmart is the opportunity of you being targeted for sales of things you don't necessarily need and I am sure they will try to sell you something. The only thing looking at this information you should be directed to buy would be a filtered tank. If all you have is a ryukin, then you don't need to worry about a heater so much, but you really need to get a filtered tank for it, sorry but that's the facts of the case. I can't tell you something different and not be distorting the truth.

As you can see on the last question, magicman again gave you the best answer there. Now yeah, like I said in the beginning, I nor magic or fivespeed can control people posting crap that isnt true, I can only just say sorry there are morons in the world, but I don't have the power to keep them off here or deny them the rights to demonstrate thier superior stupidty. I will say that there sure are some answerers in here that need to be muted or booted out of here for expressing information that is false and inaccurate, yet they will continually post it. It's as if thier online ego gets a kick out of misleading people instead of using the brain God gave them.

I can say in closing, when you do get stupid answers, just put it where you put all your used toilet paper, thats what I do because I feel the advice I see and the toilet paper are the same thing, and take action accordingly :)

You can email me anytime you need if you have questions and you can get better help at fishless cycling.com, just use the link on my profile.

JV

Answer 2

Sorry you have had a bad expierence but just as everyone else has said you cant stop stupid people from answering on this site. I myself know more about marine aquariums but when someone asks a question that pretains to both fresh and saltwater i do try to give the best input possible. When i am not sure if the info i am giving is correct i may email some of the top contributers to validate to myself that i was giving a correct answer so i dont pass on false information. As for the $5 dollar budget question, there isnt much $5 dollars can get you so in a sense you are better off saving the extra $10 than to get the 5 dollar item. The thing about cycling a tank i dont want to waste your time going over it because you already got good answers from the other top contributors that were mentioned above.
Another problem is you have to understand that even with the top contributors and people who have successfully kept fish for many years all have different methods of accomplishing the same thing. For instance going back to cycling a tank. I dont believe in using cycle or doing a fishless cycle so when i answer that type of question i give the advice which worked for me over the years. Not to say that it doesnt work, for i know many people who strongly believe in fishless cycles or using "cycle" and they feel there way may be the only way or the best way. I can however promise you any of these methods can work just as well as the other. What you have to do is take in all the information and choose which route you want to take. Sorry again that you have gotten many bad answers but if you have questions now you know who you should be taking the advice from. All of these people like EB, Jon V, Copperhead, magicman, and 8 in the corner are mainly here to help people with the problems that arise and not just trying to rack up the points. they are very nice and im sure they would be happy to answer your questions via email which will enable you to weed out the bad answers. As for the others who offer bad info there isnt anything any of us on here can do about it except ignore their stupidity.
Sorry again and hope everything works out for the best with your fish.

Answer 3

First, I want to say thank you to Guppie Guy for his compliment to me and a couple of the others who try to help the beginners. Also, thanks to Evelyn March who gave me the heads up on this question.

Any time you can get Jon V, MagicMan, Copperhead or one of the other top contributors to supply info you are getting the benefit of many, many years of experience. Some are specialized, others have a little knowledge on a lot of subjects.

Yahoo! has set this up so that any idiot or moron can jump in and give answers to questions on subjects that they know nothing about..... and that's exactly what they do!

Many answers from people who know "a little" still perpetuate myths or half truths about the hobby that were thought to be true 30 or 40 years ago. Bettas being bloodthirsty killers of all fish is one that pops into my mind.

I have been keeping fish for about 26 years and currently have 25 tanks up and running in my basement fish room. I spawn many different kinds of fish and crustaceans including livebearers and egglayers and would be happy to help you in any way I can. You can email me through the Yahoo! site by clicking on my avatar.

As far as helping a tank cycle, a good product that I have used in the past is actually called "Cycle," it is beneficial bacteria in a bottle. If you already have a fish in the tank, adding Cycle to the water will help a lot because you and the fish have already started putting ammonia into the system.

A really great info site is the About.com site. Here is a link to a lot of good stuff on cycling and maintaining a freshwater tank:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/aquariumstartup/Aquarium_Startup.htm

The links on the left side of the page will help a lot too.

Answer 4

I know what you mean...but don't let it get to you. I joined recently and felt the same way as you did, but here are a few things I did, and plan on doing, when I posted/post questions:

Put something like "serious replies only" in the box where you can write your question. There is a good chance the intelligent users who will actually READ through your question in its entirety, will be the ones who respond.

Make sure you write your question clearly, and use the spell check button! Try to use your best grammar, too. Speaking only from personal experience, if I read a question that looks like it was asked by a five year old, I'm not going to give the best answer, because if the person didn't put a lot of thought into even asking, I won't do the same to answer. I haven't read your other questions, so you may do this already, but I just wanted to mention it anyhow. :-)

Finally, once you get to level 2, you can rate people's answers! If you get a crappy one, give 'em a thumbs down, and a great one, thumbs up! It's not much, but at least it's something, and it makes me feel better to weed out the users who answer incorrectly or act like morons. :-)

Hope this helps or at least makes ya feel better...good luck with your future on here!

ALSO! Just because someone's profile says Top Contributor, doesn't mean they always know what's best (yes, there are a lot of great ones, don't get me wrong!) But I have seen just as many who don't even answer the question in full, or say things just to get points, which leads them to being a top contributor. Just something to look out for in the future.

Answer 5

Hi Kii,

I've been answering on the forum since mid-January, and I'm familiar with the kinds of answers you're talking about. The way Yahoo!Answers is set up, anyone at all can post an answer, regardless of knowledge or experience. I really believe that most people here are trying to help others, but you're correct - they don't always answer what the question is asking. Too many just relate their personal experiences, "guess", turn the questions around to a subject they (think) they know something about, or just perpetuate myths about keeping fish (the "one inch of fish per gallon rule" is a good example!). And there are others who are simply here to get points (although you can't do anything with them, so they must just be "competitive" types).

At times, though, it may be appropriate to "not" answer the exact question, if the person asking is planning to do something that isn't good for their fish - not that this applies to you, I don't recall any of your questions - but instead to tell them what would be appropriate for their fish to have a good life (or to exchange their fish for something better suited to what they can provide).

And this works both ways - I see people asking questions such as "How do I get rid of algae in my tank?" and when the best methods would include reduced lighting, more frequent cleaning, and not overfeeding, they will choose a person who tells them to dump chemicals into their tank to get rid of it as the best answer. Some askers just want whatever is most "convenient" for them (and not what addresses their actual problems), so it can get frustrating from this side as well!

It's also difficult for the people who know about fishkeeping to answer every question. We're all volunteering our time and have other jobs, families, and personal obligations which prevent us from spending the entire day online (although this site is a bit addictive). When I first started, I could answer all the questions asked in a 24 hour period in both this and the Reptiles forums, plus several questions in other forums as well. Now, I can't get through a single 24 hour period in this forum alone, and I tend to skip questions from users asking people to "Help name my fish." or "Should I get the blue or purple gravel?" as these aren't real problems.

What I can do for you is to into your profile and go back through the questions you've asked and give you my answers (if I haven't already).

Answer 6

Good luck, that's like finding a good Man, one in a million...i've been on yahoo answers for a couple months now and believe me when i say IT WON'T get any better, sorry, but that's how the ball bounces on this thing, i think most people just want to get the points so they say stupid stuff or something that is way off the wall of what you asked, just know that you are NOT ALONE...lol However i will say that i have met at least one person here that went up and above what they had to, in order to help me with a problem, hell i was so happy i asked them to marry me, in a joking manner of course, just trying to point out how happy you'll be when someone can actually answer your question...lol...but there are a few people that try to help, just some rotten apples that make this seem not worth it, but i still love yahoo answers, it as a whole has helped me a great deal....good luck to you and your questions! BTW..i know absolutely nothing about fish, sorry :)

Answer 7

Hi Kii
I'm so sorry that you got already frustrated, I just checked your questions, and i have only answered one
Unfortunately there are many people here, that just answer out of fun, one person told me that actually herself
Even for me as an answerer it's sometimes very frustrating to see what kind of shitty answer some people get
The only thing we as top answerer's can do is still give an answer and hope that the person that asks the question sees through the lousy ones
What frustrates me the most is that on some days there are people on here that just go through the questions and give thumbs down for answers, which have gotten already best answers several times before from other questioners

Anyway, don't give up on asking if you need help
If you have a question right now, feel free to email me

Just a thing about me, I usually give advice out of own experience, if I really don't know an answer I forward a link to the people I know that they have the correct answer
If it's a question regards fishes that I have never heard of, I do my research, and don't give an answer until I have read the same thing over and over


Heads up
EB

Answer 8

Your right, a lot of people don't take time to read the questions. Some people should just refrain from answering questions. The good thing about Yahoo answers is there are people who have some knowledge of the topic and do take the time to read questions. For the others, I think they must just look at it as an easy 2 points.

The one thing that bothers me however, is when the bonehead answers get chosen as best answers by voters. I think there are people who vote for answers by choosing the most stupid one. Yahoo answers is not a perfect system but it has been good for helping me get some advice.

Well anyway, I offered you my advice on your question about cycling your tank. If you have any more questions feel free to email me or just ask and I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge. You can also follow the link below for some good advice on freshwater aquarium fish keeping.

Answer 9

well, maybe you should have consulted some books or even internet forums *before* buying a fish.
proper fish keeping isn't cheap and if you cannot afford it just yet, better wait. setting up a decent working fish tank can cost two or three thousand dollars.

your fish wouldn't have problems for a couple of days, but about 14-16 days after filling a new fishtank with water a state of nitrite peak occurs and that is exactly the moment when fish die.

this nitrite peak is the reason for fishless cycling. if you insist to cycle with fish then make big water changes everyday after the first week, measure nitrite dayly and hope for the best.

Answer 10

Most people on here dont no much about fish ( i only know the basics) Only take adivce from people if it looks like they know what they are talking about or from a 'Top Contributor' in fish like Magicman,copperhead, ghapy, 8 in the corner etc.

~ GG