Mistakes learnt

[Wyld-Fyre]

Thankfully, since the start of my aquariast hobby (circa 04/2004), I've only had 8 casualties. 4x platty, 1x long-finned leopard danio, and 3x White Cloud Mountain minnow.

4 of the above died from Krib harassment (my fault for putting them in with the Krib's)
2 accidentally flushed down the tubes (my fault for not spotting them in the waste water)
1 died from stress (as a result of first ever water change)
1 mysteriously disappeared

I've not had any additional deaths for a good month now. Hopefully none for a good while to come.

Though the sadness grows from each death, I am learning a lot more each day about my fishes and especially their 'growing' personalities.

I'd like to hear from anyone else, and their list of casualties, who've just started in this hobby. Especially if they've learnt from mistakes they've made.

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

hmmm lets see, i dont think ive had a death due to water conditions but i had a school of about 8 neon tetras get eaten by a 6" ID Shark oh and a male guppy too, other then that i cant think of any, all the other deaths have been natural causes (ie. after a livebearer gives birth etc)

 

[ger87410]

I've had 3x clown loach die of high nitrite
3x tinfoil barb & 2x pleco die of tank crashing from amquel+
?# guppies getting eaten (on purpose) by jack and oscar

I seperated oscar & jack cuz he got a case of ick. Now whenever I try to put him back in the tank oscar get the crap beaten outta him. Even when I move the ornaments and plants around. I'm getting rid of jack by 7-3-04. Anybody in the southern US want a jack dempsey?

 

[endparenthesis]

I've lost 4 female bettas. One was having health problems before I even bought her I believe... she was light colored and I often noticed her insides would get especially red sometimes... I don't think she ever acted fully healthy. One jumped out of a temporary container when I wasn't looking (the only time I wasn't looking... very bad timing). One was badly attacked and just kind of gave up over the next week or two, despite medication. The fourth I'm not sure about. Her fins were shredded, but that could have easily happened after she died. She seemed to be trapped somehow between the glass and a CO2 diffusion cylinder, but for the most part it was floating freely. Who knows.

That's it... unless you count a bunch of ghost shrimp whose eyeballs are apparently tasty to bettas.

 

[csr mel]

i have never lost a fish yet although i gained about 40 fry.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Congrats, CSR!

I'm glad I'm not the only to experience such accidental deaths, but it's all a part of the learning process isn't it? I feel it's making me a better aquariest, but one thing I won't do is ever think I know it all because there are surprising things happening all the time.

Want to hear from more of you budding aquarists out there......

PS Shortly be adding some pics of my favourite fish/es. If I can get them to stay still.......

 

[shadow]

i lost one dalmation mollie-causes unknown
2 silver mollies-parisite
2-black mollie-??? one got stuck under a rock overnight

hoping i don't loose any more

 

[appleblossom]

3x tinfoil barb & 2x pleco die of tank crashing from amquel+

What happened???
I used amquel + and within a week got 4 different diseases in the 2 tanks i used it in..... sorry to hijack..

 

[MollyPlatyLuvr]

So far here are my losses, and reasons...
2 black molly females (fungus)
1 black molly male (spike during cycling ... my fault for choosing the blacks for cycling tank)
1 red wag platy male (died during same spike in cycling)
3 mollie fry (for some weird thing where they lost ALL their slime coat and it never came back, and then they just died. And it was right when I was going to take them to LFS too.)

That's been all the fish I've lost, and I've had mine going for I think 4 months now? It was still cold when I first started it, because I remember scrubbing down the tank outside when a friend gave me their used one, and my hands got all cold and red. So early spring maybe is when I started. Anyway. The tank is well established now, and what I've learned from their deaths is this :

1- Choose tougher fish when first getting your aquarium set up. The pleco survived the cycling, and I probably should have waited on adding the mollies, but didn't realize that with their gorgeous black coloring, they had some weaknesses.

2- Use 1 tablespoon salt per 5 gallons water when keeping mollies, to keep away fungus.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Yeah MollyPlatyLuvr, I have to agree with you about getting 'tougher' fishes. If I were to start again, it'd most likely be with the Kribs and Yo-Yo's. They seem to cope better at some of the stresses perchanced on them.

Another issue, I couldn't believe that my Kribs were capable of hounding my Platty's to death. If only there was somewhere in this forum, or a website, that all aquarists could go to, to find out the mixability of fishes.

It may have saved the lives of some of my fishes. Big undertaking I know but I reckon it can be done.

Here's hoping..... B)

 

[Angry_Platy]

2 red platies......due to cycling
1 red platy.....found under tank, no idea how it got there
1 yellow comet platy.....finrot and ich advanced
1 neon tetra.....no symptoms, just died
4 glolight tetras......cycling
1 clown loach.....no reason, died 12 hours after purchasing
2 red platies.....dropsy (overfeeding....me bad)
1 baby platy (3 months old)......ate bnose eggs and died

 

[Guppylover]

I had a few deaths...

7 Swordtail fry : 2 was squashed behind the filter, 3 just died, 2 died from fungus
5 Guppies : 1 Tubercolisis, 1 killed by my betta, 3 died from fungus
6 Neon Tetra : 1 died from Unknown disease, 5 died from fungus
2 Peppered Corydoras : fungus
1 Golden Algae Eater : Suicide
1 Common Pleco : Fungus
26 Guppy fry : 23 just died, 3 died from fungus

I was a really hopeless fishkeeper once... I was so bad I nearly wanted to quite fishkeeping... but I told myself that I could try once more. So I did, very carefully mind you and well I did pretty well from then on

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

I congratulate you for your perserverence Guppylover

I wonder why're some fishes more prone to certain dieases than others. Just before the deaths of my platy's, I had noticed how prone they were to fin-fungal infections. I'm sure they didn't 'give up' in their struggles against the infection, but they just seem unable to fight it.

Since platy's are from brackish water, from what I've read, their immunities are supplemented by the salt in their environment. If this is the case, I assume you now fortify your tank water with a little salt?

I'm sure someones gonna recorrect me?