# You would think people had more common sense



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

So I woke up this morning and did my regular routine of turning on my fish lights, giving my fish a 2 minute breakfast before the people working on my basement come and I don't really have access to my fish. I go to school and when i come back, I find all my tanks cloudy and have tons of flake food on the gravel. This was done in all five of my tanks, my betta tank, my temp hex, my main 33 gallon, my shrimp tank, and even my axolotl tank! I looked into my tropical fish flake can and found half of it gone. Turns out one of the construction workers took it upon herself of feed my fish tanks. She said she never sees me feeding them. Oh and she did this to my outdoor goldfish tank too! I told them to stop and yelled for a bit. They apologized but I can not get over the fact that they did that. They had no permission to do it, they had no idea what they were doing, and yet...here we are. UGH I don't know how long the fish tanks were like this but I gave every tank a 50% water change (more on the smaller tanks) just to get the flakes out. I don't really think this is thread worthy, just me ranting. Anything like this happen to anyone else? How did you deal with it?


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Kimchi24 said:


> So I woke up this morning and did my regular routine of turning on my fish lights, giving my fish a 2 minute breakfast before the people working on my basement come and I don't really have access to my fish. I go to school and when i come back, I find all my tanks cloudy and have tons of flake food on the gravel. This was done in all five of my tanks, my betta tank, my temp hex, my main 33 gallon, my shrimp tank, and even my axolotl tank! I looked into my tropical fish flake can and found half of it gone. Turns out one of the construction workers took it upon herself of feed my fish tanks. She said she never sees me feeding them. Oh and she did this to my outdoor goldfish tank too! I told them to stop and yelled for a bit. They apologized but I can not get over the fact that they did that. They had no permission to do it, they had no idea what they were doing, and yet...here we are. UGH I don't know how long the fish tanks were like this but I gave every tank a 50% water change (more on the smaller tanks) just to get the flakes out. I don't really think this is thread worthy, just me ranting. Anything like this happen to anyone else? How did you deal with it?


Personally I would file a lawsuit against them for personal property damages in the event you lose any fish and/or have/had to do an excessive amount of cleaning which prevented you from being able to work/and or complete everyday functions. If I were you I'd hit them with that line & see how she responds then, who knows maybe your construction will be free


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## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

TorontoPlantMan said:


> Personally I would file a lawsuit against them for personal property damages in the event you lose any fish and/or have/had to do an excessive amount of cleaning which prevented you from being able to work/and or complete everyday functions. If I were you I'd hit them with that line & see how she responds then, who knows maybe your construction will be free


Luckily, there are no losses. I don't think i'll do that because they had good intentions, just bad execution


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Kimchi24 said:


> Luckily, there are no losses. I don't think i'll do that because they had good intentions, just bad execution


I hear ya, The nerve of some people though. Such idiots


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I would totally think it was good intentions... But, if they had been strangers that is a bit odd...

I like to think of it as visiting a friend... I don't sit there and feed their dog just because I don't see them feed it. But then people always do feed the dog, esp bad foods....

Don't these people realize they will be responsible if something happens to your pets?

Good to hear nothing bad happened, the thought was nice.... but not everyone knows how fish tanks work. lol


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Shouldn't be a big deal, unless she dumped half the can directly into one tank, lol. Assuming your tanks are all cycled, it's just a little bump in nitrates, no big deal.


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

I agree that they went overboard to feed your fishes without your authorization but what good would do to threat that person with lawsuit?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Usually if I have people around (guests, whatever) IF (that's a big if) I remember, I'll put any and all food, additives, etc, out of sight and remove the mag float (at least in my big reef). 

People love to fiddle with stuff - they don't mean any ill usually, they just don't know any better that a big mag float and coarse substrate scratches up a $1300 custom starfire tank.......

So nowadays I don't leave it up to "oh, I'm sure nobody would dump some iodine coral disinfectant into the tank now would they?" - I put that stuff away, out of grubby hands ages 2-100.

But people shouldn't be dumping stuff in anyways.......right?


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

My son fed his fish half a container of food once, lost a fish before I noticed it to clean it up. He also poured in gripe water once, killed a fish then to.

My wife knows generally how to feed my fish and she is the only one I would trust to feed them without strict instructions from me.

I would have freaked out on the people who fed the fish that much food! You are lucky they didn't kill them all


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

Totally disrespectful! DON'T TOUCH WHAT IS NOT YOURS!!!!! 

Let the person know this! 

It obviously was not part of their job. They should do their job well and leave everything in your home alone. 

What else have they done? 

My trust would be shattered. I would also ask that person not to enter my home again and ask for a formal apology from both the staff member & the owner of the company.

Sorry to hear.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I would have gone ballistic. 

That's just excessive and sort of ignorant/rude. 

My husband only feeds the fish when I ask him to feed them - when I am at school. 

I would ask for formal apology too, if not to get "compensation" but to drive home the need to not touch other people's property without their express permission.

My husband says: wash her car with a scrubby pad. Say you never see her clean her car. (he's tit for tat in nature.)
Alternatively, if she's hired to construct. Ask them to send her on a different project that you don't want her on your premises.


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## Newobsession (Nov 17, 2010)

If the tanks were fine in the morning and you did the waterchanges that night, I doubt you have much to fear as far as spikes. That would take a caouple of days for the food to break down.
That being said, count me among the people who would lose my freaking mind. While I agree that threatening a lawsuit wouldn't do much good, I would fgo the the person in charge and make it clear what she did and that I was ticked about it, and then ask that they compensate you for a replacement tin of food. It may not be thousands of dollars, but depending on what you feed it ain't cheap either. And considering she went though in one day what proabably would have lasted you a week or two or more...

OR..simply chalk it up to lesson learned and make notre of it for furture occasions when you will have people unattended in your house and be thankful she didn't do worse.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I think I'd at least ask that this person not come back to your house.. she clearly has boundary issues with other people's stuff. I would not want her back, even with an apology, because I'd wonder what else she might feel compelled to meddle with.

I'd expect an apology from the company too.. they are the ones ultimately responsible for their employees. Truly a disgraceful thing to do, I have a hard time imagining why anyone would think to do this. It's not like seeing a starving dog or cat on the street and putting out food for it. And the pond too ? Yikes, how hard could she be working to have time to be noticing how often you feed fish ? And even if she did think they might be hungry, it's just not her business to be feeding anything to any pet that is not hers.


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## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

Yeah, So here's an update:
I discussed this with my mother and she fond it unacceptable as well. Not only that, they have been constantly asking for more and more money, doing jobs we didn't ask them to do. both of us decided it was time to send them off. We told them to not come back and we'll either get someone new to finish or do it ourselves. initially, these people seemed so nice. I guess the nicest ones are the sleeziest


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

glad to see you send them off.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I'd have been sending them off the minute they did something I didn't ask for and then asked to paid for it ! If you do something unasked, it's a freebie as far as I'm concerned, or a kindness, perhaps, but whatever it is, you don't do it and then ask to be paid for doing it. 

That sort of thing always makes me suspicious of a scam of some sort. Respectable professionals do what they are asked, what was discussed and signed off on. If they see some other problem they think should be addressed, they tell you about it first, and then you make the call, not only if it gets taken care of, but also who takes care of it. 

Good they are gone.


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## Bayinaung (Feb 24, 2012)

Hey Kimchi, I'd be pissed as well! I saw how nicely kept your tanks are. all that flake would have made a huge mess and ramped up the nitrates and phosphates in the tanks, way too much for plants to handle. 

When people do not respect boundaries and instead cross them when they are not supposed to cross, it's a bad sign. It shows a lack of respect for you, and it's a good thing you guys let them go. It's a good thing they didn't do more damage or steal things. Next time you see someone crossing boundaries, don't wait. Discuss this immediately, and IF they don't show serious contrition (i.e. very apologetic) don't deal with them. Period. That goes for anybody, including friends, relatives, etc. They (contractors) must think you and your mom can easily be walked all over.

how are the tanks now?


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