What Fish Do You Regret Buying?

[anewbie]

A synodontis many years ago. It disappeared from view as soon as I put it into my tank and I Never saw it again until it’s rotting corpse revealed itself a couple of years later. I didn’t know they were nocturnal! Kuhli loaches were also pretty disappointing.

I have two 29 setup near each other. In one i see the kuhli once every 3 or 4 months; in the other i see them daily (during the day); they really are unpredictable. Like wise my synodontis would hang out in the open during the day but died after i added some diseased oto. I tried to replace him but none of the others i tried would hang out during the day.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I regret buying my three spot/golden/sunset/ gouramis. Not only do they chase one another, they chase smaller fish as well. They just chase, don't fight. I'm tempted to turn them in for something else. They are beautiful, but a pain in the derriere.

 

[Herpin Man]

Blood fin tetras. I recently bought a group of them, and within days, all of my black tetras died. There was no sign of actual disease, but they all had problems swimming before they died. I think it was stress.
The blood fins are neat, but I would have rather had my black tetras.

 

[Attenbruh]

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!

I bought a really rare and expensive BN who had a hole in its head. I wanted to get her so I could help her and within a week I watched her slowly die of a disease that cause the hole.

 

[Fish4dawin]

A rainbow shark in a 5 gallon tank. Probably one of the most dumb decisions I've made. Lived for about 5 years remarkably. As someone said a while back in this thread (was the one of the first 10 or 15 posts I think) I instantly saw shark and got it. Also bought 1 singular bosemani rainbowfish in the same tank with the shark. I guess the colouring appealed to me. Lived for a year or so but I doubt he was very happy.

 

[robmcd]

Abramites hypselanotus, the marbled headstander. A really cool little fish, very personable and a great addition to any SA community, but the little so and so was really nippy, and would take chunks out of it's cohabitants fins constantly. 1 month after rehoming it my geos had trophy worthy streamers.

The little fin nipper.

Geophagus altifrons, 1 month post removal of the headstander.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I LOVE my yellow Pleco's. Although there are plenty of caves they only use them occasionally ( I have 6) but generally they are out in the open - in the past I have had pleco that hid all the time, but for whatever reason these pleco are quite comfortable out in the open. My worst fish are those plecos that require demanding temperatures, and live inside a cave, only to come out at night to eat. I paid $110 for a beautiful pleco = it was quite a splurge. He lived 4 year but spend 3.99 of those years hiding in his cave. We had some disasterous water change (sitll don't know what happened, other than if we somehow forgot to add Prime to the water - but I lost nearly all my fish with the exception of the yellow plecos - so they are tough too.

My least favorite fish are those tiny tetras and the colored tetras - BORING - constantly trying to keep them from getting sucked up into the filter. Since they are schooling fish you by 5 or more at a time - none of mine have lasted over 6 months. I think they breed these too fast and then ship them when they are still fry - bad idea. Every online seller I've purchased these from have sent super small fry versions of the tetras. So it's more the seller's fault than the fish themselves.

 

[Trop65]

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

Probably the fancy Guppy

 

[djohm23]

Serpae tetra. They do absolutely nothing but bully each other all day long. Really aggressive and territorial even with plenty in the tank. Even my tiger barbs are more fun.

 

[Beastije]

Doesn't have to be alone; could add some mystery or nerite snails or even a rabbit.

OMG no, do not add a rabbit snail to a betta. I bought two snails not so long ago, thinking the requirements match, betta likes high temp, tylomelania likes high temp, perfect match. NO. almost any betta is a menace, is interested in their tentacles, pokes at them. You will end up with stressed hidden tylomelania and annoying betta. Or mystery snails, same story with the tentacles.
I do recommend neritina though, they have almost nothing sticking out except these hair thin tentacles ( i know it is their eyes guys) and the betta never notices it.

I love this topic, so many recommendations on what to not get or not do. Totally agree.
For me my regret is this betta (and funnily enough the one I had 8 years back as well), while care for him is easy, they should not be kept with other fish, as you end up just trying to merge conditions together and someone ends up unhappy. Had betta with boraras, somehow boraras died (granted they were 4 at that time), added 10 pygmy cories, they disappeared (in a year or so), had a small ancistrus and it disappeared, had cherry shrimp, he ate all of them. Sure, could have been the tank or the green algae I guess, but the betta was always ok. Now he is alone in a 40l with 29°, with a neritina and recently two african dwarf frogs, they work well (except the feeding, have to figure that one out).
I also regret not listening to advice and getting cyprichromis leptosoma in the begging of my large fishtank. I could not get the appropriate numbers cause nobody had them, had only 14 pieces and lost all of them over 3 year span, especially lost all females that had fry in their mouths.

What I never did regret was snails. I read here as people are frustrated with them, but I have had them all and I cant complain! they are a necessary part of the ecosystem, nothing will get rid of a surface film, wood fungus, weak plant leaves,...better than a snail.
I had few mystery snails in the years, absolutely love the color, the behavior and the eye waving. Neritina snails are bit boring temperament wise, good algae eaters, poor things die of hunger in most tanks since they are algae exclusive. Had mine for 4 years now, it is very large and very happy, I even move it between tanks to make sure there is food for it.
Have had malaysian trumpet snails in every one of my tanks that had sand or sand like substrate, I purposefully put them there, even sift through the substrate to get them out and move them and I cannot be happier. They make sure there are no dead zones in the sand, now when I added wood they keep eating the film and making sure the wood is healthy, in their nightly migration to the surface they clean the algae of the glass. I have around 200 by a rough evening calculation in my 360l and it is almost not enough. If you seen my tank pictures, had 12 very massive cryptocoryne with large root system, they never disturbed it, never caused the plants to not multiply, not reach out or have new plants. Same with vallisneria, had a root system with sand instead of a sand (like solid root instead of sifty sand), had mts, no issues plant breeding and no issues with rotted roots or dead spots. I think if you overfeed, sure, they can be a problem, but they are awesome sand helpers.
I was even very unhappy I didnt have any ramhorns in any of my tanks, I have only few (like 10) physa snails and it slowed down nitrification cycle of the new tank significantly (there was noone to eat the film).
I even have clithon snail now, very cute, good worker.
In the end I didnt add the tylomelania to the betta tank, I put them to a different larger almost empty tank where I raised the temp to just 27° (even though 29 would be better, the remaining fish and plants would not agree), and I am so much in love with them I am getting 3 more next week. Never seen more awesome or cute snail, super fun to watch

 

[Essjay]

Now he is alone in a 40l with 29°, with ............two african dwarf frogs, they work well (except the feeding, have to figure that one out).

That is something I regret doing.

It was almost impossible to feed the frogs. I even tried putting their food under an upturned terracotta plant pot with a frog sized hole cut in the rim and a stone over the hole in the bottom of the pot. The betta still managed to get in, then couldn't get back out.
The final straw was when one of the frogs mistook the betta's tail for food and I found the betta frantically swimming round the tank with a frog clamped to his tail. I set up my quarantine tank, moved over half the filter media and the frogs. The betta got finrot in the damaged part of his tail.

 

[Beastije]

boraras died (granted they were 4 at that time)

As in 4 years old, not 4 pieces of them. There were like 10 or so

 

[Beastije]

That is something I regret doing.

It was almost impossible to feed the frogs. I even tried putting their food under an upturned terracotta plant pot with a frog sized hole cut in the rim and a stone over the hole in the bottom of the pot. The betta still managed to get in, then couldn't get back out.
The final straw was when one of the frogs mistook the betta's tail for food and I found the betta frantically swimming round the tank with a frog clamped to his tail. I set up my quarantine tank, moved over half the filter media and the frogs. The betta got finrot in the damaged part of his tail.

I am fairly sure if I feed when is dark and it will be small enough, like cyclop or so, it will be ok. The betta doesnt really pick up small food from the ground (unless it is red, large and moving), so the frogs have some chance to find it.
I am in a state where I overfed the betta in the beginning before getting the frogs, as I was afraid he will try to eat them, and now he is in need of a weeklong starving diet, since he has a distended belly, but the frogs need to be fed. They are also quite stupid when it comes to food, I have no idea how they survive in the wild. What I did was temporarily move the betta to a bowl for 30 minutes when I needed to feed the frogs in the first few days, and now I just stand around them if I feed them during the day and gently chase the betta away.
Or the during the night feeding might work in the future, at least I hope so. Because the frogs are hilarious. I have yellow colored ones and they spend most of their time with all limbs extended, motionless, pale and short, looking dead, and then attempting a swim somewhere which usually startles me as I almost believed they were dead.

 

[Essjay]

Do you have African clawed frogs or African dwarf frogs? When I had my frogs the dwarf ones only came in brown; the pale ones were clawed.
The reason I ask is that clawed frogs will grow big enough to eat a betta Look at their front feet. If there is webbing between the toes, they are dwarfs and will stay small. But if there is no webbing between their front toes, they are clawed frogs and females grow 10 to 12 cm long.

 

[Beastije]

Do you have African clawed frogs or African dwarf frogs? When I had my frogs the dwarf ones only came in brown; the pale ones were clawed.
The reason I ask is that clawed frogs will grow big enough to eat a betta Look at their front feet. If there is webbing between the toes, they are dwarfs and will stay small. But if there is no webbing between their front toes, they are clawed frogs and females grow 10 to 12 cm long.

I know, I was worried because I never saw a pale dwarf one either, but they do have webbing everywhere, I checked before buying. Here is a picture, the front legs cant be seen that clearly but it definitely has webbing. And both are this pale, they have soft brown spots on the back though and they are getting slightly darker than when bought (and stressed)

Btw the stupid betta fits in this hideout with the frog too, even though he must try really hard