Lets Help Newcomers!

[zophie]

Do not put your hand in a hungry betta's tank
I know from experience

 

[Gilli]

my additions arn't so much mistakes, but general advice.

The first thing i learnt about fish keeping is still the most important: Look after your bacteria and your fish will be fine (obviously this isn't 100% true, or even close with things like compatibility [sp] or illness, but i still think its good advice)

Secondly, to butcher a quote from a well known aquatic film 'We need a bigger bucket!'
This makes water changes so much easier

Yes! Also, you should reall get a siphon... before I discovered this handy tool, I would just bail water out of the tank... and it took ages

So how did you do a gravel vac and get all the poo and uneaten food out beore you bought the siphon?

 

[Skins]

Hello,
If I'm not sure of anything i'll ask on here and not rely on the LFS.

Skins.

 

[waterdrop]

I had a ton of different species of fish jump out of tanks in my first years in the hobby. It made me a little paranoid about trying to cover when I can and yet I still find myself walking to other tanks and leaving a hinged cover up sometimes. My son and I have already lost one or two that way in this round of the hobby.

Thanks for the good suggestions fluttermoth. That's not something I tend to remember in the heat of the moment when a fish jumps out and the more we think about it ahead, the more likely it might be that we would think of the right thing (wet hands and net to gently roll it in to or similar) at that moment.

WD

 

[the biffster]

my additions arn't so much mistakes, but general advice.

The first thing i learnt about fish keeping is still the most important: Look after your bacteria and your fish will be fine (obviously this isn't 100% true, or even close with things like compatibility [sp] or illness, but i still think its good advice)

Secondly, to butcher a quote from a well known aquatic film 'We need a bigger bucket!'
This makes water changes so much easier

Yes! Also, you should reall get a siphon... before I discovered this handy tool, I would just bail water out of the tank... and it took ages

So how did you do a gravel vac and get all the poo and uneaten food out beore you bought the siphon?

used to swirl the water with
my hand and use a length of
plastic tubing to siphon on
the crud or detritus

 

[zophie]

Hello,
If I'm not sure of anything i'll ask on here and not rely on the LFS.

Skins.

Good one, Skins. LFS advice is nooot good!

 

[Carlovel1]

Don't keep surface-dwelling fish in hood-less tanks

 

[Flute]

Don't forget to plug your heater back in after water changes

 

[RustedKnight]

Don't forget to plug your heater back in after water changes

Yeah thats a good one....

 

[zophie]

To add to Flute's comment.... make sure your heater IS plugged in!

 

[the biffster]

all mine go in to a cable tidy

 

[Carlovel1]

To add to Flute's comment.... make sure your heater IS plugged in!

Just remembered I left my heater turned off and the tank is 20C so my Chocolate Gouramis must be freezing

 

[zophie]

To add even more...

I have a betta fish's heater plugged into a big powerbar which is full of tons of other cords. Today I wanted to move a lamo, which was plugged into my bettas power bar. So I took it out, but then left it for later. About four hours later, I come back to find out that I actually plugged my bettas cord, and he's freezing

Zophie

 

[humuhumufreak]

Don't buy Common Pleco's.

James.

don't buy any plecos
DO NOT sniff dead snail shells.
DO NOT sniff dead fish
DO NOT sniff dead blue crayfish
NEVER EVER BUY BLUE LOBSTERS UNLESS YOU WANT A TANK THAT IS FISHLESS AND PLANTLESS
cats get addicted to jumping on your tank.

Do not sniff dead snail shells is right.

 

[humuhumufreak]

-Do not think your triggerfish is stuck under a rock and then change around all your live rock cause you dont want him to die.
-Always put a damsel in your tank first thing whenever its ready for fish.
-Tank size's are more of guidlines than rules.
-Wait a while after feeding to put in a new fish .
-Make sure to give triggerfish and other toothed carnivores plenty of food with hard shells to dull their teeth.
-Don't get down because a fish dies fish can be very difficult to take care of.
-Don't just put abunch of nice fish in your tank first thing cause chances are they will die.