What Fish Do You Regret Buying?

[anewbie]

I had an interesting experience with pygmy cory and kribs. Mind you it took a while to reach this end point and a few of the pygmy were killed; but once the end point was reached it was a sight to behold. In my 40B the kribs made a home under a piece of driftwood near the front of the tank. They kept everyone away from their home so the pygmy would always settle infront of the kribs cave (since no other fishes were allowed in the area); and after a whlie the kribs accepted them as docile and even let the pygmy mingle with their frys without hostilities. the by product was the pygmy were no longer hiding in the back but always up front in the open

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I always found Kribs to make excellent parents.

 

[biofish]

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 ?

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 golden algae eater! I’m a newer fish owner and my tank was going crazy with hair algae. I asked the fish store what algae eater they would suggest for a ten gallon and they said the golden algae eater. Well. My trust in them diminished after that. After I brought home Nibbles, I immediately researched them only to discover that they get 12 inches long and outgrow a ten gallon within months x-x. Also read about their aggression and tendency to stop eating algae as they grow older, but I held onto hope. It was good for a couple weeks.

until of course, I put a new fish (dwarf algae eater to give Nibbles some help) in the tank and Nibbles immediately killed it.

I returned Nibbles promptly and peace returned to my tank.

I got a pleco and named him Waldo. Rather than being sad about never seeing him, I make a game of it with my sister to see who can find him first. He’s really good friends with my Cory cat and the two often cuddle.

 

[TomW]

I regret purchasing a Bristlenose pleco which I assumed would be okay as it was from a top rated fish store in the UK (christ I'm never going to assume anything again) but unfortunately passed away within 6 hours and introduced ich into my tank, currently dealing heat treatment now.

Lesson learned, buy a QT to avoid these issues.

 

[Sunnyspots]

A golden algae eater! I’m a newer fish owner and my tank was going crazy with hair algae. I asked the fish store what algae eater they would suggest for a ten gallon and they said the golden algae eater. Well. My trust in them diminished after that. After I brought home Nibbles, I immediately researched them only to discover that they get 12 inches long and outgrow a ten gallon within months x-x. Also read about their aggression and tendency to stop eating algae as they grow older, but I held onto hope. It was good for a couple weeks.

until of course, I put a new fish (dwarf algae eater to give Nibbles some help) in the tank and Nibbles immediately killed it.

I returned Nibbles promptly and peace returned to my tank.

I got a pleco and named him Waldo. Rather than being sad about never seeing him, I make a game of it with my sister to see who can find him first. He’s really good friends with my Cory cat and the two often cuddle.

I rehomed a rat called Nibbles. He was the most vicious rat I've ever known. He'd run across his cage to sink his teeth in you if you dared to put your hand in. He was renamed fast to B#####d and only handled with pruning gauntlets.

 

[Colin_T]

We had domestic rats in the shop that were extremely tame. The only time I ever got bitten was by one of the females who was pregnant and not due for a few days. At least we didn't think she was due. I went to pick her up to show to a customer and she bit me on the finger. About 10 minutes later she had 8 babies. The poor girl was in labour and I disturbed her. She was fine a few days later and was back out running around on the counter when she took a break from the babies.

We used to get some horrible looks from parents though when we suggested rats as pets. Ahhh God no. But once the parents had seen and handled domestic rats, it was, wow, ok, they are quite nice and affectionate.

Ferrets were fun, but don't handle them after handling rats or mice or rabbits or guinea pigs because the ferrets smell them on your hands and bite you. Same deal with snakes, don't handle animals before handling snakes or you get bitten.

 

[Sunnyspots]

Yes, all my other rats have been tame. I suspect B had been squeezed by a child, probably bit it, and was then sent back to the pet shop from where I rehomed him. He was clearly terrified really. But his bites drew blood.

 

[ThatFishGirl6231]

dwarf gourami. bullied all my fish and had to get rid of him the next day. worst part was that i wasted almost $20.

 

[fish48]

Many years ago a friend visit me to pick up a lima shovel nose catfish when removing the catfish from its aquarium and placing it into a large bucket of water I somehow managed to get it’s pectoral fin stuck in my hand.

The pectoral fin bone has a row of teeth down one side similar to the edge of a saw
my hand quickly become very swollen and painful I couldn't remove the fish from my hand the only option was to cut through the pictorial fin and a trip to the hospital

The doctor had no luck trying to remove it he told me it would be best to let the one-inch fish bone work it's way out
and 3 months later it came out through the other side of my hand

 

[anewbie]

Many years ago a friend visit me to pick up a lima shovel nose catfish when removing the catfish from its aquarium and placing it into a large bucket of water I somehow managed to get it’s pectoral fin stuck in my hand.

The pectoral fin bone has a row of teeth down one side similar to the edge of a saw
my hand quickly become very swollen and painful I couldn't remove the fish from my hand the only option was to cut through the pictorial fin and a trip to the hospital

The doctor had no luck trying to remove it he told me it would be best to let the one-inch fish bone work it's way out
and 3 months later it came out through the other side of my hand

Did the fin regrow on the cat ?

 

[fish48]

Did the fin regrow on the cat ?

no it didn't regrow I had no choice but to cut the fin and as close to my hand as possible

 

[Rocky998]

A male betta named comet that I got and put in a 33.5 gallon... didnt live for a month. I felt so bad

 

[sepuku]

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!

Throw a couple of assassin snails in there. I had a bit of a snail problem, and stuck ~8 assassin snails in my tank. Now there are just empty shells around I think the assassin snails are taking each other out now, but I'm fine with that unless there are eggs/baby snails that I haven't seen yet (haven't seen any live snails other than the assassins for months).

 

[sepuku]

Guppies. The kids were distraught when we lost a couple of them, although that was my own fault really. I saw someone (on a different forum) say "Throw a couple of guppies in the tank for the fish in cycling process", not realising that some people do this as (I believe) they see them as expendable as they are cheap fish. I did my best to save them, water changes every day, etc.
After they died, I was reading around (which is how I found this forum), and found that guppies are extremely over-bred, so I decided not to buy any more. Beautiful looking fish, but they seem to be really sensitive.

 

[thrujenseyes]

This has been a fun read!
great topic!
My fish regret was many many years ago and it was a red devil.
He was so adorable that I couldn’t say no.
I brought him home to my empty cycled 60gallon and admired him for hours.
went to bed and woke to every single thing in the tank (gravel included) pushed up one side of the tank.
it was so methodically done.
It looked like it was pasted to the wall.
I couldn’t believe it.
I fixed it and he redid it ….every single time.
I realized he hated his home, or me..or both.
Luckily the LFS took him back.
I was very sad. I loved him.