How Big Of A Newbie Were You?

[FWFishLover]

Question Self Explanatory IMO

When I Started I Had My Fish Killing Each Other As My Stocking Was A 20g With:
Synodontis Euruptus
Jewel Cichlid
2 Yellow Lab Cichlid
Neon Swordtail
Angelfish
Black Molly

And My Tank Was Uncycled And Stock THE NEXT DAY lol
Some of you may remember helping me with my disaster

Umm...I Soon Returned The Cat And Jewel And One Lab And The Rest Are Uh......Away Lol

 

[GAB99]

soo excited soon itll be my 1 year of fishkeeping and i have (officialy) only lost 3 fish, but BEFORE the forum....


20gallon with
2 hatchets
2 dwarf gouramis
1 dojo loach
2 otos
5 ghost shrimp
and i think thats it

the gouramis died from some wierd thing that turn them brown and the rest whitespot.
gouramis added DAY of purchase suggested by store keeper (and the sad thing is i read up on this stuff but my dad told me to get them because "the lady knows whats she doing") and everything else was added over an ncriment of a month agian suggested by store keepers


this is another case of why i do not trust people i see every day!

actually the shrimp survived till i got the gold barbs hehe which ate them. how ironic

 

[FWFishLover]

lol, i feel the same aha

 

[Night61]

my poor livingston, my first betta.
i started off with that little hex cup as his home. i learned quick though for his sake.

 

[MrNiceGuy]

lol ah, the first tank.


i got into the hobby because, while i knew nothing, my father had kept fish for over 30 years and was a self-proclaimed expert. we went to the fish store and bought fish (for a 10 gallon tank completely uncycled that we set up immediately after buying the fish haha) these are the fish we bought...


1 male betta (i wanted a show-fish and was told that this was the only suitable one )
3 rasboras
3 red eye tetras
3 silvertip tetras
3 lemon tetras
3 black neon tetras
3 pristella tetras
1 glass catfish
1 bronze corydoras

hahaha what a horrible horrible stock. we bought one banana plant (to add oxygen to the water ) and 4 inch ceramic decoration (my dads really cheap). needless to say, within 3 days the first began dropping like flies, one after another. my father was completely confused by this. he was also confused as to why the betta was being nipped by many of the tetras.

i think literally every fish in that tank died within a couple weeks. i found this site and have been much better off since. my father, still claiming his status as an expert, complains to this day everytime i do a water change. he asserts "aged water is good!". ah, i just brush it off these days.


the moral here is, you can do something your entire life, but if youve been doing it wrong the whole time your experience does not make you an expert.

 

[kribensis12]

I just started with two goldfish in a bowl when I was 4. So, I really didn't know what I was doing was wrong.

 

[Hunterprey]

I once had 2 goldfish in a 2 gallon uncycled tank, they weren't looking very happy so after 1 or 2 weeks I bought a 20 gallon tank for them another goldfish, a Betta and a BN pleco.

They all died there were tears in my eyes when the goldfish died, they're my first fish, I thought they were such gentle and very sociable fish. Those are my newbie days. Glad I found this site I still think there are still lots to learn.

 

[Brujo]

my first tank that i took care off, was a 10 gallon with 3 goldfish, 2 goldfish died withing 2 weeks, and the 3rd lived a long life of 5 years, amazing considering the tank never cycled as my Aunt ( whom i lived with at the time) and i knowing nothing of the nitrogen cycle and with terrible advice from the pet store near us, changed the water every time it got cloudy( every 3 days or so) or added so many ammonia removing chemicals the tank never got a chance to cycle properly, after i gave up on the tank due to the excesive water changes, my aunt got a 30g for the gold fish and a 150g filter, she would do 90% water changes every week, accompanied with a plethora of chemicals, and weekly filter washing (in tap water untreated) looking back im very surprised the goldfish lived as long as he did.

after 10 years , i started my second tank ,this time armed with information on the nitrogen cycle, i was able to get my eclipse 3 system to cycle and my 3 guppies are living happily in there, currently cycling my 12 gallon tank, using some of the mature media from my 3 gallon,and a wild gamusia from the lake behind my house, and attemping my first planted tank.

 

[BethK]

Only lost one fish and that was a new cory I got, my betta took a pop at it.

I've only ever kept bettas on their own and was looking for good tank mates, seeing as people say that cory's are a good tank mate, I thought I would test it out.

Turns out, they are not so good tank mates, he died within 24hrs of me getting him.

 

[chrisbassist]

When I joined here I had my 125, a few guppies, some neon tetras, a 2 cories. In a fish in cycle.

BUT. I was testing the water regularly and doing daily water changes before I joined here. So even though the lfs pushed the fish in cycle, at least the rest of the advice wasn't too bad.

 

[shelaghfishface]

i stocked my tank to max capacity plus a few within 24 hours of filling with water

tho in my defence i did find TFF within a few days so i didnt lose any

 

[kelly528]

Hey! It's been about exactly a year since I started fishkeeping! Well officially stated... here I am excluding the 2 fantails in a 2g when I was 8, my betta in a cup and our (surprisingly well stocked, thanks to mom's research) 10g tank.

Well I pulled the 10g out of the basement, filled it up and put a female betta and 4 zebra danios in it. Hooray for the inch per gallon rule, saving my butt. I got the cloudy water (oops) but miraculously managed to clear it up in a day by dropping some tankwater and gravel from the LFS into the tank. Not the smartest idea, I know... espescially considering that LFS's rap sheet for fish deaths and disease. I must have had the fish gods on my side back then.

 

[julsifer]

GOD!!! when i was about 10 i had a 4 gallon tank on the WINDOW SILL!

With at one point 6 goldfish in there! and a minimum of 4.

Goes with out saying i and my family didnt know a thing about cycling or stocking other than translating it to, riding a bike and filling the fridge

 

[Harlequins]

I was a big newbie a year ago,although i've never lost fish through the fish in cycle,found this forum just has my tank was in middle of fish in cycle.

Original stocking on a 20 gal tank was
6 harlequins & 3 platys,6 neon tetras.
Since then i've been changing stock,i've had silvertip tetras,guppies,platies,tons of fry,neons & endlers,the i became cory crazy,the livebearers are sold,has are the rest i had except the harlequins.
But for now i'm happy with my stocking and don't intend on changing

 

[chrisrm]

I went to P@H brought a 50l tank was told to fill it leave it for a week add two fish and add more every week, they sold me 5 neon tetras first then a week later a small(2.5") common plec! and an opline gourami, then another week passed and i brought two dwarf gouramis.... im sure you can guess what happened i loved them fish! but i didn't understand what was going on or why the only surviour was the plec which i took back and still lives at P@H and is about 8" now!!!