Only Human!

[Miss Wiggle]

right just thought i'd start this thread to show we're all only human, fess up to your biggest fish keeping mistakes, newbie mess ups etc.

don't get on anyone's back and flame please, we've all learnt the error of our ways. thought this might make newbies feel a little less silly and daunted when they're first starting out

in my first tank i diligently cleaned the filter every week like i'd been told to. i scrubbed it under the cold tap until everything was completely spotless i think my first tank was probably cycling for the first 6 months of it's existence until i leanrt better!

miraculously i didn't seem to loose that many fish, and i still have 2 neons and 2 opaline gourami's that lived through it and are still here 5 years on!

 

[FroggFrogg]

Ok here goes:

I purchased a rekord 60 with the intention of keeping a ACF (an impulse buy) but then i decided to buy him some friends in the form of a parrot cichlid, 3 bala sharks and an armoured rock shrimp (which became parrot food as soon as he shed-despite my best efforts to keep them apart till he armoured up again)....annnywaay i thought my tank had sprung a leak so purchased a rekord 96. I still had no idea about cycling (i think my frog may have cycled my first tank without me realising) and so my favourite parrot died from new tank syndrome. A single dwarf gourami survived and cycled that tank for me...
I have made more than my fair share of mistakes with many casulties along the way!
And after all the the rekord 60 didn't even have a leak!

 

[WILDER]

I don't believe in flaming too, we have all made mistakes, it only makes matter worse and they go off in a huff, then can't help the fish keeper or the fish.

 

[kev350d]

Took my custom to Pets at Home, family members took advice from them and stocked my tank with some of my favorite fish as a suprise for me arriving home INFECTED my original stock... (Quarentine and using a good LFS is the game now)

Bought a cool looking plec many years ago as i started out and a couple year later struggled to re-house the monster. (research)

(Flushed fish down the toilet when younger) dont start as i bet more of you have, in all honesty "one of the biggest wrong doings in fish keeping", as above washed all filter media out under tap water,

Never wanted to understand fish disease and just read the bottle "so to speak" now along with the chemistry behind fish keeping i see it the most important subject you can study if you intend to keep a clean and cared for aquairium..

Most importantly and a HUGE NO NO installed a diver with real bubbles "original with helmet and dagger" many moons ago (yeah yeah weve all been there at some stage) ohh look a subarine that drifts around the tank) god help the fish if the remote control ones were out back then

 

[FroggFrogg]

I got excited then and thought that Wilder was going to tell us about a newbie disaster or a time when she couldn't save a fish!

 

[WILDER]

Only adding new fish without quarantining then and paid the price.
Good lfs took me through the beginner stage step by step.
Never overstocked or bought a fish to big for the tank.

 

[Underwurlde]

NUMBER BLOODY #1 ON MY (numerous) LIST OF F-UPS. ('F' for Foul kiddies).
Buying just ONE single sodding plant from Pets-At-Sodding-Home that came with a single Sodding Snail hitchhiker which has since invaded and taken over my tank with its evil Spawn-Of-Sodding-Hell.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG.
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG. (Twice for good measure).

Number #2:
Shrimp jump.... out of a COVERED tank through ANY holes and bid for freedom ... and die.

Number #3:
Coming across this forum 2 weeks AFTER getting a new tank and adding fish the day before. Fish thankfully OK, but who knows.

Number #4:
Getting 'into' the hobby of fishkeeping and hence becoming a sad w**ker according to my wife. (Hell, she bought me the tank for my birthday )

Numer #5
Thinking that keeping fish was gunna be easy.

Number #6
Thinking that keeping plants was gunna be even easier than keeping fish.

Good thread BTW

Andy

 

[madmom]

Didn't have a lid and the fish jumped out and smacked my daughter in the face.

 

[WILDER]

Didn't have a lid and the fish jumped out and smacked my daughter in the face.
Sorry was your daughter and fish ok after the dramatic entrance from the tank.

 

[starrynightxxi]

ten goldfish in a ten gallon tank.

another ten gallon tank with one common plec, 2 (and then 1) african cichlids (pseudotropheus socolofi), and various other little fishes.

I almost never vacuumed the gravel or changed the water. I only topped off, and even then it would often be let to go until the water level had dropped so far that the filter began sucking air before I replaced the water.

I often went between overfeeding and completely forgetting to feed them at all, I hardly ever changed filter cartridges...


just thinking about it makes me pretty depressed. I probably shouldn't have been allowed to be in charge of my own tanks as a child...


oh, and my mom once sucked up one of my baby black moores while doing a water change for me. She wouldn't let me see but it was apparently pretty gross...

 

[Gazoo]

When I first started keeping fish I had no concept of what cycling a tank meant as well as the need of certain bacteria or test kits. When changing the water (because it stunk), I would rinse all of the media under the faucet until it looked brand new. I'm sure I would go through a min-cycle every time.

One time I decided to use cold water that would come from the garden hose for a WC and was surprised that all of my fish got these funny looking white spots and died.

When I look back, overall I was very lucky during my early years of fish keeping considering all of the errors I made. I think it shows how resilient many fish are.

Since I came across this forum, my knowledge has increased dramatically and I've prevented friends from making a lot the same mistakes.

 

[mr williams]

remember, no flaming!!!

I'm still pretty new the contents of my tank are as follows..... (No flaming)

400L

3 salifin plec 5in

5 red tailed shark 2in

5 bala shark 4 in

2 firemouth 2in

3 oscar 4in (opps)

2 angel fish 3in

1 mbu puffer 4 in

2 ornate bichir 5 in

8months its been running with no fatalities, except a blue crayfish that died of old age, I think he just vanished....

No one is fighting yet but I have been told to expect a bllodbath at some stage....

Am currently purchasing a second bigger tank. On the plus side I have an internal and external filter and my water quality is excellent.

And of course I did that wash the filter too. As I have 2 filters will this matter??? Will the bacteria spread from one to the other? Help pls fish people.

 

[puddle_inc]

the top 2 biggest mistakes i have ever made was one 1. buying feeder goldfish and putting them in my tanks for temporary homes until someone one them in a game i made to help the local humane society in a festival. and two 2. not filtering my 10 gallon long enough before adding a green spotted puffer

 

[QuotheRaven]

Mistake 1: Buying clown loaches not knowing their size and succeptability to white spot...died 2 weeks later from white spot...

Mistake 2: Leaving lid open a little a kuhlii loach jumped out..it was ok...I have since had about 4 fish jump out of my tanks at times and die even though lids have been on..I don't know how some fish escape.

Mistake 3: Taking advice from LFS in regards to filter pads....

Mistake 4: Smashing cover glass of two tanks...luckily no glass got into my tanks.

Mistake 5: Not knowing what cycling was when I started fish keeping....

There are a few but I really haven't been a regular disaster fish keeper but I attract minor troubles Lol

 

[mr williams]

can you give me some advice on filter pads? why not listen to lfs?