Only Human!

[lljdma06]

I have made too many mistakes to list them all in my 18 years in the hobby, and a special one from way before. Some highlights then.

1. Bright, light blue gravel. I still shudder.
2. 2 angelfish in a 10g.
3. Plecos
4. Non-aquatic plants. I still buy them, but only when I want a nice hardy houseplant.
5. Under-gravel filters.
6. The bubbling diver (I think everybody makes that one). Still want to put him in a dense field of glosso.
7. Keeping bettas in smaller tanks than 2.5g
8. Not changing water often enough.
9. Keeping goldfish in a bowl, but cut me some slack, I was five. I did try and throw a pothos in to give the fish oxygen. Didn't know about chlorine though.

 

[Glod]

My first tank (other than the bowl for the goldfish I won at the fair) was about 25 years ago... a 3 foot tank kept out in the porch (unheated) in NE Scotland, where in winter you could step outside into 6-8 feet of snow!
Ok, they were cold water fish, each summer the tank woukd get its annual clean, well and truly scrubbed, UGF removed and cleaned, the lot ! In the meantime the fish got a swim in the bath, full of chlorinated water straight from the tap The tank had fancy goldfish and chibunkins (spelling?) and a little black catfish. Strangely we lost very few fish, tho it was definitely overstocked.
I remember one summer my mum managed to knock the front of the tank with the hoover and cracked it. There was a mad panic as all the fish were caught and transferred into the bath. Then she found the catfish and let out a scream ! The "little black catfish" was about 10 inches long. We never saw it, it always hid in the rocks and plants. It must have fallen out of the net about 5 times, been dropped twice on the way to the bath and still it lived for about 15 years before being transferred to my uncles pond along with the rest of the fish when we moved house.
Then dad decided to go tropical... (but that's another story.)

 

[alisdairkr]

Its certainly refreshing to know that everyone seems to make the same mistakes. I've done the 'washing filters', and am currently way overstocked.
My main grouse though is with the LFS that gave me so much bad info at first, and therefore so much grief to the fish. We lost so many, it was really upsetting.

Bit worried I still seem to have so many mistakes to make though

 

[double-trouble]

I'm a newbie and this has definately helped already made a masive mistake.
bought two fancy fish (one black moor one chinese fancy) and an 8lt bowl and put them in it no cycling or filter. fish aren't too bad at the mo but have ages to wait before my bigger tank is cycled as only found out about this when read on internet after buying fish. not sure if fish will be alive by the time tank is ready but trying my hardest to keep them alive!!!

 

[JackoUK]

I'm still pretty new and still making mistakes all the time, thankfully only small ones now. Happily I found this forum and have learnt a lot since and also i'm reading many many books to get me up to speed, too many according to the missus. The biggest mistake I made was buying Panda Corydoras befor my tank had finished cycling, unfortunatly they paid the ultimate price.

 

[Lucylou]

Ok, when I was about 12 I got a 3ft tank, filled it with tap water, it had horrible bright red gravel. Got some fancy Goldfish, ones with the big bubbley heads.
I think it had an under gravel filter, and one day, one of the fancy goldfish(the ones with the big heads) got its head stuch up the filter
I didn't know there was surposed to be a pipe going from the filter intake to the bottom gravel so the poor little fish got its head mashed and reshaped
I took it out and put it in a plastic butter tub, to recover. It was horrible to look at and I knew it was suffering, so my mum stepped in and 'dealt with it'.
I felt horrible after, and it gave me nightmares for weeks after. I couldn't go near the tank after that, and any dead fish scared me. I think we kept the tank for about 12 months after that, with only a few deaths. Most of the gold fish got released into the giant pond we had (about 15m x 30m) and we would see them years later, and very large
Now its 16 years later, and I think i'm over my phobia. This time I have done lot's of research and found this forum (which as hepled loads) before I even bought my tank.

 

[Fella]

I can do my own later, but my favourite I've ever read on the internet was someone when they were younger, taking a bath with a bluegill. Still makes me laugh thinking about it.

 

[madmom]

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.

My daughter was . She fell off the chair and landed on the fish though.

 

[cuticom]

I havnt had many fish but when i was six my parents got me a nice 15 litre aquarium and let me choose the fish. I chose 5 redcaps because they were so cute "bobbing around the top of the tank" then dumped them into the tank and for the first week gave them like two handfuls of food a day. Then forgot about them, they were dead within the second week.

 

[blue acara]

my first tank was a disaster.

i had 2 10 inch oscars and a large common plec in a 50 gallon
it was very underfiltered
i turned the filter off at night-because it was in my room and made noise
i cant remember doing any water changes
i only fed the oscars worms from the garden-they wouldnt eat flakes.

amazingly they all survived for 6 months until we moved house, when i took them back to the lfs-lucky fish
this was about 10 years ago

 

[sic0198]

My biggest problem is overstocking.

 

[F.O.H]

right this was a few years a go my grandad had a 3ft aligator gar/ florida gar and i thought some neons and mollies would look good so i went and bought some for him as a surprise any way i went round a few days after i put them in and all that was left was half a dalmatyion mollie i wasted about £20 and it ended up just deeding the poxy gar on the bright side my grandad saved a bit of money on food, i felt so guilty.

 

[Kyrielle]

When I was five or six, I had a pet goldfish in a one-gallon bowl. Poor thing lived for only a few months. At that same time we used to flush the dead ones down the toilet and go buy new fish. That same bowl later housed a small garden snake who lived with me for 6 months before I let him go again. I say all those things are forgivable since I was just a kid.

 

[chardonnay1000]

Ok heres mine.

1) won a goldfish from the fair, bought a tiny bowl off the fair man, didnt have a clue, changed the water when it went green. poor little fish.

2) decided to get a tank 6 weeks ago, my bf told me it came with ev thing, heater, filter etc, oh said if i got a bottle of filter start, i could add fish within a week.

3) put tap water straight in with no declorinater

4) after the 1st week, added 3 neons, and 3 red eyed tetra. found a red eyed tetra stuck in the filter dead had been there probably 2 days. waited 1 week then added an angel fish, 3 harlequins 1 ruby shark, 1 apple snail, 3 cardinals and 1 whiptail.

5) still no testing kit at this stage had never even heard of one.., then after another week, 3 dead neons, 2 dead cardinals, 1 dead harelquin.

6) most of the fish getting red fins and then.......found this site, before having them diagnosed as having septeciamia...

7) now have abdomianl dropsy, still currently treating.

8) i would like to thank everyone on here who has helped me out.