What Fish Do You Regret Buying?

[cascades4vrbo]

Hey everyone! I've seen this topic on a few fishkeeping yt channels and I thought it would be cool to hear everyones answers on this aswell!
What fish have you owned that you regret owning/buying and why?
Heres a few of mine:
Sailfin Plecostimus - I got one of these when I was Quite young and inexperienced in the hobby, only expecting it to grow to around 7 inches but as we all know, that number is usually triple hahaha.
Three spot gourami - Again I was more inexperienced and had no idea how to handle aggression at the time especially when I wasn't expecting it from the gouramis.
Electric Blue Ram - I had bought a pair a couple months ago but I made a huge mistake by buying them off a huge chain store where they had clear deformities and thinking I was doing them a favour by "rescuing them" they were already too far gone and did not survive further than a week even in good water perametres.
Firemouth Cichlid - A few years ago I was obsessed with these fish and owned a trio, Great fish but destroyed my community which is my own fault for not doing the full research on the breeding activities of these fish and understanding the space needed to succesfully house three let alone one in a community setup.
Last but not least
Bala Shark - As a kid, I saw these in the store and thought "Shark I want!" which ended up me unkowingly buying a fish that grows to over at least 1ft and housing it in a 30 gallon tank, fish stores should definetely make a huge effort to either ensure the customers have suitable tanks or just not sell them at all! Such a beautiful fish that is unfortunately always sold even if you don't have a suitable aquarium and I will always feel awful for the poor bala I bought all those years ago. I hate my decisions for buying all of these fish and I really wish I researched them all before considering buying but it's all learning and I wish I could've been a better fishkeeper for the sake of the fish as I love them all and all animals and people ?

A large Pleco. He was great in the beginning cleaned my Algae filled tank overnight, but he was messy constantly pooping and I was constantly cleaning up after him. My Ammonia levels would spike. Then I ended up with all my fish diseased with bacterial and fungal infections.

 

[Stan510]

2 months ago I saw Cardinal tetras for $1.99 each..just out of the bag too and looked perfect. I didn't buy them. If I had? Many would be dead right now on the way to all being dead soon!
I know some people- like Rachel on youtube- have said that they have a neons 8 years old. That's got to be one in a trillion for neons.
Your odds go up if you try to stick to keeping fish with like minded fish. The problem is,people- like me plenty of times- have thought it natural to have fish that are from other parts of a stream...like Rams with fast movers. Not a good idea. Try to keep fish that like the same things,move the same way. Variety of behavior in an aquarium will work against you say I, the sage...

 

[Sandy's fish and botia]

Hey everyone! I've seen this topic on a few fishkeeping yt channels and I thought it would be cool to hear everyones answers on this aswell!
What fish have you owned that you regret owning/buying and why?
Heres a few of mine:
Sailfin Plecostimus - I got one of these when I was Quite young and inexperienced in the hobby, only expecting it to grow to around 7 inches but as we all know, that number is usually triple hahaha.
Three spot gourami - Again I was more inexperienced and had no idea how to handle aggression at the time especially when I wasn't expecting it from the gouramis.
Electric Blue Ram - I had bought a pair a couple months ago but I made a huge mistake by buying them off a huge chain store where they had clear deformities and thinking I was doing them a favour by "rescuing them" they were already too far gone and did not survive further than a week even in good water perametres.
Firemouth Cichlid - A few years ago I was obsessed with these fish and owned a trio, Great fish but destroyed my community which is my own fault for not doing the full research on the breeding activities of these fish and understanding the space needed to succesfully house three let alone one in a community setup.
Last but not least
Bala Shark - As a kid, I saw these in the store and thought "Shark I want!" which ended up me unkowingly buying a fish that grows to over at least 1ft and housing it in a 30 gallon tank, fish stores should definetely make a huge effort to either ensure the customers have suitable tanks or just not sell them at all! Such a beautiful fish that is unfortunately always sold even if you don't have a suitable aquarium and I will always feel awful for the poor bala I bought all those years ago. I hate my decisions for buying all of these fish and I really wish I researched them all before considering buying but it's all learning and I wish I could've been a better fishkeeper for the sake of the fish as I love them all and all animals and people ?

I really have only two. Chinese algae eater. Through some accident he came home in a bag unnoticed by all. Pet shop said keep him. By morning the little b#%&@+d had sucked EVERYTHING off the side of a large goldfish. I caught him in the morning. I had to euthanize the goldfish (one of my favorites) and had to force myself to return the Chinese Fish eater to the store. The other was a couple of dojo loaches. I am a full fledges loach and botia lover but not these. I do not know what comes off or out of them (maybe someone can enlighten me?). They give off what sometimes looks like a filmy substance or a gas or something that is the same color as the albino, kind of pinkish. Too nasty for me. But I will say I had no other problems with them.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I really have only two. Chinese algae eater. Through some accident he came home in a bag unnoticed by all. Pet shop said keep him. By morning the little b#%&@+d had sucked EVERYTHING off the side of a large goldfish. I caught him in the morning. I had to euthanize the goldfish (one of my favorites) and had to force myself to return the Chinese Fish eater to the store. The other was a couple of dojo loaches. I am a full fledges loach and botia lover but not these. I do not know what comes off or out of them (maybe someone can enlighten me?). They give off what sometimes looks like a filmy substance or a gas or something that is the same color as the albino, kind of pinkish. Too nasty for me. But I will say I had no other problems with them.

I have heard so many stories about chinese algae eaters! Nasty little sods by the sound of it.. I'm so sorry about you're goldfish

Dojo loaches are a new one for me, they sound cool but the gas release doesn't haha! ?

 

[Stan510]

The Chinese algae eater has made a living for decades now on the confusion of it with the Siamese a.e. that from all reports it very good at what it does and peaceful. Even worse the Chinese is often sold as the Siamese since they look near identical when small.
I would say the Chinese is like land plants sold as aquatics...never goes away the practice.

 

[DAnCSF]

Monster fish. All of them. Never had the big tank that I thought I had for them. Decades ago 240 gallons was huge..as big as they came. So,I tried all the big fish..coming and going. All of them. Looking back I needed an aquarium about half the size of my house to give them room to turn around in. Fish that can reach 3 or 4 foot or more just shouldn't be sold..or with proof you have that giant tank. Some do.

But if think about monster fish can serve as an emergency food source in the upcoming Zombie apocalypse.... LOL

 

[DAnCSF]

I hear pacus are fairly decent eating...

BBQ or grilled? LOL

 

[Sandy's fish and botia]

If you had to pick a favourite livebearer out of the ones you've owned though, which would it be? ?

Definitely orange lyretail mollies.

 

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

I regret ever buying a chinese algae eater they don't eat algae and they get sooooo big + they live a long time!!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I regret ever buying a chinese algae eater they don't eat algae and they get sooooo big + they live a long time!!

I see lost of these on Craigslist, because people don’t know the facts. They usually get adopted though.

 

[dsch132]

Most of the fish I owned from age 3-7. Don't get me wrong, those fish inspired me to do further research and continue in the hobby. However, my father and I had a 40 gallon tank and a massive, unsustainable community of incompatible fish species- pictus cats, angelfish, tinfoil barbs, black skirt tetras, gold barbs, platies, and, perhaps worst of all, goldfish in a tropical aquarium. We eventually re-homed many of the fish and upgraded to a larger tank but the shame burns.

 

[dsch132]

haha yes, one of my first threads were if you can put guppies, neon tetras, a betta fish, gouramis, or angel fish together lol

Oh my gosh...

Black Skirt Tetras.

I bought a school of 10. Put them in the tank, and they just formed a gang and started to kill everything. I had 3 dead angel fish in one day. THey kept grabbing them by the training fins, dragging it down to the bottom, and then they would all just sit there and bit it over and over keeping it pinned to the bottom.

Never seen anything like it. I think they might have been half breed pirahana's.

I just recently put some Trumpet and Mystery snails in. Lets see how that goes.

Th

Black Skirt Tetras.

I bought a school of 10. Put them in the tank, and they just formed a gang and started to kill everything. I had 3 dead angel fish in one day. THey kept grabbing them by the training fins, dragging it down to the bottom, and then they would all just sit there and bit it over and over keeping it pinned to the bottom.

Never seen anything like it. I think they might have been half breed pirahana's.

I just recently put some Trumpet and Mystery snails in. Lets see how that goes.

That is frightening. I was nervous about black skirts nipping my angelfish but it's been years and I haven't seen it with my shoal yet. Even though certain attributes are common in a species, fish (or shoals) can still display unique, individual behavior. I'm sorry your experience was so terrible.

 

[Sgooosh]

Oh my gosh...

Th

That is frightening. I was nervous about black skirts nipping my angelfish but it's been years and I haven't seen it with my shoal yet. Even though certain attributes are common in a species, fish (or shoals) can still display unique, individual behavior. I'm sorry your experience was so terrible.

Hahaha I had no idea what I was doing back then with other fish. I even thought 8 ph was too MUCH for guppies

 

[Aquavulpes8]

I'm a little late to this one but the platy I have now (trying to rehome) but I didn't know any water chemistry until I came here and now found out that my water is soft and platys need hard ontop of that I have neon tetras with it now so cant do anything about water hardness otherwise the tetras suffer I'm getting another tank though so if i cant rehome it i can hopefully change the water hardness to suit it ☹?

 

[Spyro]

I also think there is a tendency towards dogmatism to beware of as well. I've only been on this forum a short time, but the number of times I have seen people asserting that something simply "won't" or "can't" work, to then have many people contradict it with their experience is astonishing. It's becoming an expectation of mine here.

While it is true that there are certain situations that are highly unlikely to result in success (perhaps a full grown oscar and guppies being long term compatible?), others seem as though people hear something from a "trusted" source and take it as unassailable fact. For example, pH tolerances of many fish seem much higher than people give them credit for. I've already contradicted, and likely irked some in doing so, that Endler's can't be kept with tetras because of the difference in preference for hardness and pH. I've kept these two together. They both did well. It leaves me wondering where dogma like this arises. Can we trace its origin? Probably not. But I do wonder what drives some of the dogmatism I see. It's interesting and I'd like to understand that better.

Excellent point!
I think a lot of it depends on personal circumstances and surroundings.

For example:
2 people on this forum (or internet) have African Cichlids.
-one of them is serious pro hobbyist, with years of experience. Has tank set up for lake Malawi PH, hardness, etc. Buys fish from reputable sources or raises their own
- 2nd one is beginner/semi-pro that buys African Cichlid from fish store. That Cichlid spent their life from egg to bag living in water that has nothing to do with lake Malawi. Just like many generations of their ancestor.
The last ancestor of their's that lived in lake Malawi water parameters might be comparable as me and my ancestor in Africa from 200,000 years ago.
That fish will probably die or have hard time adapting to lake Malawi water parameters and be quite happy in the same water as Guppies and Tetras; And have no benefit of being aclimatized to lake Malawi conditions due to stress and aclimatisation strain. Although their offspring born in pro hobbyist lake Malawi replica tank, might thrive better in lake Malawi paramaters and die and witter in the water African Cichlid I buy from the shop lives happily in.

Something I have contemplated and heard quite a few people say on YouTube, forums, articles in my research.
Keep in mind I'm a newbie and my theory is just theoretical contemplation as I have not tested it.
But it is logical and supported by anecdotal evidence from different fields. Like evolution, adaptability, etc.