Lesson Learned :(

[swanseastilo]

I think i have just learned the hard way about cleaning my fish tank.

I was siphoning some water out of my tank for a water change and not really paying much attention.

So bucket is full i take a look...... There is a neon inside with its stomach hanging out.

Fesl bad now as the misuses told me not to remove the end.



Any one else got any experiences or mishaps on things like this??

 

[Westwood]

The worst thing I ever did, is when I first had my external filter I kept kulie loach, The first maintenance I did, I was tipping the water out the filter down the toilet, and i just watched him fall out the end and down the toilet. Felt so bad. Now i always tip the water into a bucket first

 

[fluttermoth]

I tipped a weather loach down the toilet in my early days; took me hours to catch him again; he kept swimming round the U bend

 

[Vin Swords]

yes...

stupidly let the wet and dry filter hose under the water level to stop the wet and dry action.
and when 3 zebras danios went missing.. i opened the filter and found them with stomach out from their mouth.

never kept danios ever since.. still feel bad when i see them in shops.

 

[marieukxx]

Everyone makes mistakes. When I did my water change god knows how it happened but an hour later I noticed something on the floor and there was one of my fish!!! Now I'm more careful

 

[cheeky chappie]

similar to marieuk's reply, i used to put my fish into a basin when doing a major tank clean / refurb. was doing this one day (basin on floor as usual) sun streaming in and when i went to put fish back into tank i noticed one of my black sharks lying on the carpet in a section that was being hit by the sun needless to say the fish was dead and i learned my lesson about ensuring fish aren't kept in a situation that they can escape from.

life is a learning experience, i suspect very few folk on here have gone through their fish-keeping lives and not made at least one mistake, and those that say they haven't are possibly telling fibs

 

[weezawoo]

I deciced to use an old coke bottle to get water out my tank as the syphon is so slow, I was pouring water into the bucket when I noticed a harlequin in there, the bucket is the mop bucket so I quickly scooped him into the bottle then netted him back to the tank, needless to say he died the next day

 

[Kwiddows]

When I first started with tropical fish I had a few danios jump out of the tank on me during water changes. Once I lost one for quite some time, probably about 10 - 15 mins, got very worried, couldn't find him anywhere else so moved the sofa back and there he was on the carpet. Amazingly I put him back in the tank and he was OK. I'm more careful these days, it hasn't happened in ages.

 

[LoriF]

My lesson learned is to put the fish food where the cat can't get into it.

 

[brian2708]

My lesson learned is to put the fish food where the cat can't get into it.

 

[Squidward]

I was once giving me tank a good clean out. Took all the bog wood out.
After about 15 mins noticed something flopping around. It was one of my Khuli Loaches. I must have hidden in the wood as I lifted it out of the tank.
I put it straight back in the tank, but didn't survive unfortunately.
I felt really bad
But at least a lesson learned, and every time I take some wood out of the tank, I check it carefully first.

 

[coldcazzie]

My lesson learned is to put the fish food where the cat can't get into it.

That's happened to me so many times I can't recall! now all my fish food lives in glass jars. Even live food when I buy it has to go straight in a jar. Pipetting brine shrimp/blood worms out of puddles on the floor is not a fun pastime!

 

[seizethecupcake]

I've got an *awful* one, and it's so shameful. I had my single male betta in a 5 gallon acrylic aquarium and somehow it cracked and began leaking everywhere. I knew it wasn't ideal, but I put him into a large jam jar and left him on the kitchen counter while I ran out to buy a new aquarium. I should have known better, but I was more concerned with getting him into something stable, so I just assumed he'd be alright. My cat knocked his jar over while I was away and I came home with a brand new aquarium only to the poor betta lying motionless on the kitchen floor. She didn't eat him, thankfully, I don't think I could have stomached that, but to this day I feel horrible guilt over my carelessness.

 

[Channti]

I was once giving me tank a good clean out. Took all the bog wood out.
After about 15 mins noticed something flopping around. It was one of my Khuli Loaches. I must have hidden in the wood as I lifted it out of the tank.
I put it straight back in the tank, but didn't survive unfortunately.
I felt really bad
But at least a lesson learned, and every time I take some wood out of the tank, I check it carefully first.

My 46 gallon tank is home to yoyo loaches and lots of driftwood. I had this happen to me as well, so now when I have to remove the driftwood, I always put it in a bucket of tank water just in case, and keep a "bucket net" around (I've bent the end of it to make it easy to catch fish at the side of the rounded bucket.

My most recent "oopsie" happened when I was using a Python siphon to do a 65% water change on my 15 gallon tank... didn't realize that something was blocking the drain on the sink, went into the kitchen to turn off the tap and prep to refill, and the kitchen floor was covered in water... it leaked through the floor and the ceiling of my parents business below us. They still have no idea, and I don't plan to tell them unless they ask.

 

[amy1994]

Everyone makes mistakes. When I did my water change god knows how it happened but an hour later I noticed something on the floor and there was one of my fish!!! Now I'm more careful

We have done this, but instead we were moving objects. We checked them before we took them out.....but obviously not well enough
Few minutes later we saw shrimps walking around on the floor everywhere
We only noticed because 1 climbed on my sisters foot...