What Fish Do You Regret Buying?

[Neleono]

I defiantly have a fish that I love so much but wish I had never gotten. Siamese algae eater. Got him at petsmart, they labeled him as "algae eater" recommended for a 10 gallon tank and would only get 3 inches long... I moved him to a 29 gallon, which is the biggest one I have, now hes 7 inches. Still not a big enough enclosure for him, but working on getting something better. And to add to all of that... he hasn't done anything to help the algae problems I've had. However, it was a good experience that told me to never trust the signs at petsmart... just wish it wasn't at the cost of one of those beautiful creatures...

 

[FishGuest5123]

I did similar. The Assassins reproduced so I gave some back to my LFS

Did they help with the other snails?

 

[Stan510]

Pink long skirt Glowfish. Did it for the granddaughter..and now 2 years later...Well,at least they are no burden. Little guys,2 of them. Still..gaudy. The yellow ones could pass as real wild fish of some kind...but not these two-lol.

 

[FishGuest5123]

From my experience pond, bladder, and ramshorn snails can reproduce on their own.
Thanks to @Essjay ,
I now know MTSs are live bearers!
Nerite eggs are unsightly, but well worth the benefit you get from the snail.
?.
Also, Assassin snails will reproduce with two so be careful to check substrate if you have more than one.
The eggs show up on the bottom of plant stems (at least in my tank) and look like tiny square tags. Then they go into the substrate...the babys are sooo tiny!

At least they don’t reproduce as often!

 

[Ladytcat2003]

It is possible, but you have to know what you are looking for, and even then it can be hard to see without a powerful magnifying glass.
This shows how to tell in nerites, but to be honest I find it hard to see in the photos

Nerite Snails – Detailed Guide: Care, Diet and Breeding - Shrimp and Snail Breeder

Nerite snails are a great addition to any planted aquarium and they will be really good friends the dwarf shrimp. They do not reproduce in freshwater.

aquariumbreeder.com

This site is for mystery snails - the site no longer exists but it can be accessed via Wayback Machine so it will take longer than usual to open. Click on Anatomy in the menu on the left of the home page.

The Apple Snail (Ampullariidae) Website

Information about apple snails (Ampullariidae): ecology, care, anatomy, species and genera, FAQ, literature, photographs, diseases and more.

web.archive.org

But it is doubtful a store will allow to you st get a snail out of a tank and let you study it with a magnifying glass before buying

Lol!! I doubt it as well...UNLESS...I get someone as curious about it as I am. But I assume there will be some resistance from store management.

 

[vanalisa]

Did they help with the other snails?

Absolutely.

 

[Boundava]

I defiantly have a fish that I love so much but wish I had never gotten. Siamese algae eater. Got him at petsmart, they labeled him as "algae eater" recommended for a 10 gallon tank and would only get 3 inches long... I moved him to a 29 gallon, which is the biggest one I have, now hes 7 inches. Still not a big enough enclosure for him, but working on getting something better. And to add to all of that... he hasn't done anything to help the algae problems I've had. However, it was a good experience that told me to never trust the signs at petsmart... just wish it wasn't at the cost of one of those beautiful creatures...

I love my SAE's, they eat algae in my tank 24/7 along with a whole lot of other foods. Flying foxes and Chinese Algae eaters can be sold as the SAE's since when small they can be slightly confused for one another. However when they grow you can definitely tell between them by mouth shape and body stripping/coloring.

This is a great guide that describes the differences between the species

Algae Eating Cyprinids

Or

New names - well known fishes - much confusion - Aquarium Glaser GmbH

Two of the most often traded algae eaters have been re-named some time ago, namely the Stone Lapper and the Flying Fox. The Stone Lapper has been called Garra taeniata for a long time, but this name is a synonym to the elder name Garra cambodgiensis, which is valid.This species has been confused...

www.aquariumglaser.de

 

[Faith_16]

Hmmm good thread... I’ve had a variety of cichlids that haven’t worked out the biggest was a severum that killed my Nicaraguan but that was my fault really. I’ve had low activity fish too like plecs but usually not kept them that long. I don’t think I’ve ever accidentally bought a giant which is good as I was prone to impulse buys when I was young

After reading up on the fish, I would say I regret getting my dwarf gourami. I absolutely love him and think he’s the perfect temperament for a pet fish, but that’s why I regret getting him. Because of the frequent “dwarf gourami disease” (which mine more than likely has atm), I regret getting a fish with such frequent health issues that I get attached to so quickly.

 

[vanalisa]

At least they don’t reproduce as often!

That's true.
Also,
@Essjay
@Ladytcat2003
I didn't have a MTS problem then, only the other "pest" snails.
(Alrhough I did have MTS pretty bad).
In fact, one of my tanks was acquired in tandem with my Assassin snail acquisition. I had to use manual removal, Assassins, and a new tank with a Dwarf Pea Puffer to get rid of my problem.
if that wasnt enough, I also had to set up a 2.5g snail bubbler bucket to keep the snails in after removing from main tanks until Niblet's mealtime!

So funnily, I did such a good job I've actually had to hunt for Niblet's food now.
I traded some Hornwort for Ramshorns recently, and his diet is bloodworm-heavy as I wait for snails to grow out!

MTSs are jusr another thing all together.
My Dwarf Puffer, well Dwarfs in general, have a hard time with the way MTSs shells are made...I think they are too hard, so I'm going to have to find someone with a bigger Puffer to give them too. I know they are good in sand and I don't mind a few.

I know it's been noted, probably by myself, too, that snails are of great alue as to where we are at with our tanks.
My current MTS issue means I am to cut back on food and do more water changes.
?

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

My bristle nose plecos. They are hardly ever seen and just another thing to feed. Although they aren’t fish, I also bought Malaysian Trumpet Snails in my early days. Who does that? A normally reputable guy on another forum told me to get them since I had added sand as my substrate in a tank. Now they are everywhere!

that is the exact opposite of my pleco, he is always exploring and cleaning, maybe there is something scaring them and that is why they don't come out?

 

[663]

My first fish was an albino catfish that had pink eyes. He was about 8in when I bought him. I named him lucifer. The LFS suggested that he be offered feeder goldfish. I did and he would eat them like popcorn. Things were fine until I bought my first show fish. He was a beautiful, large, black bubbled-eyed fantail. His handle was bruce. I "foolishly" thought that that his larger size would avoid him viewed as food by a markedly smaller meat-eater. Jesus, was I wrong.

Lucifer didn't eat bruce so much as rip and tear him to shreds. To make it worse, bruce was still alive and gasping for oxygen at the surface. While I've seen some terrible things happen to helpless animals, this incident was in a class all its own.

 

[FishEs2978]

Raphael catfish I have two have ever seen them

 

[FishFriend11]

Silver Dollar fish, since they ate all of my plants.

 

[MimiDawn]

Years and years ago, when my husband and I first started to get into fish but still didn't know that much about them, a fish store sold us a pair of "red-bellied cichlids." After they got upsurdly large and we saw their grotesquely horrifying human-like teeth, we realized that they were red bellied pacus! They got so large and were pretty aggressive that the one we named Montana jumped up and broke our housing for our light. We had to rehome them ASAP to lovely folks that literally have thousands of gallons worth of tanks in their home and seascapes painted all over their basement walls. LOL

 

[dman67]

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 ?

Jewel Cichlids! About 15-20 years ago we had a beautiful African Cichlids tank... until the Jewels! We were told to put 2 so they would be happy. They bred and wiped out the tank. Oh the horror! Took me this long to get back into the hobby.