What Mistakes Have You Made While Fishkeeping?

[itiwhetu]

What mistakes have I made?
I have made all of them so this is going to be along list.

Back in the day when I started fish keeping there weren't a lot of books and people that ran pet shops wouldn't give out any information on how to keep fish. So it was all trial and error and you kept fish until they died and went back to buy more.

Starting off I kept 2 small fantail goldfish in a fish bowl that held about 4 litres of water. Each week I caught the fish out with a plastic cup and put them in an icecream bucket with a bit of their water. I washed the bowl and gravel out and refilled it with tap water. Added some "water conditioner", which turned out to be sodium chloride (salt) with Methylene Blue added to it, basically blue salt. Then put the fish back in the bowl. They lasted 6 months.

Bought a 2 foot long tank and put goldfish in that. Did the same thing as the fish bowl. Lost heaps of fish. Tried tropical fish in the 2ft tank and they did better.

Picked up a 14 and an 18 inch tank and set them up. Tried keeping fish in them and some did ok but most didn't.

Tried using air operated box filters with filter wool/ floss in. I was told to replace the floss every month and did that when I cleaned the tank. The fish didn't do well.

Kept angelfish, swordtails and neon tetras in the 2ft tank for a while.

Tried keeping marine fish in the 2ft tank. Went to the beach and got some sea water, beach sand, rock and fish from rock pools. Put them in the tank and the fish ate well and did great for a week, then started dying. The tank wasn't cycled but nobody would tell me anything.

Managed to find a book of marine fish and it took me a while to save up enough money to buy it. The book was about $20.00 but that was back in the 80s. It told me all about the nitrogen cycle and how to cycle a marine tank. If that book was available when I first started fish keeping I wouldn't have killed as many fish as I did.

Did water changes on my tanks and filled them up with a hose from the tap. I added a double dose of dechlorinator when I started filling the tank and it worked for a few years. Then one day the water company did work on the pipes and increased the chlorine in the tap water. I did water changes and filled the tanks like normal. Within 5 minutes I lost half the fish in my fish room. Never added chlorinated water to my tanks again.

Did a water change on a tank during winter and forgot to turn the heater off before draining the tank. The cold water overloaded the heater and the water never warmed up. The following day I had a tank with 5 degree Celsius water and a heap of dead fish.

Cooked fish when a heater failed and got the temperature up to about 40C in an hour.

Had fish and moray eels jump out of tanks and dry up on the floor because I didn't have coverglass on the tanks.

Poisoned heaps of fish because I didn't know how to and didn't bother trying to work out how much water was in them. I simply used the tank volume the shop said was in the tanks. eg: 50 gallon. Turned out the tanks held a lot less water than that and I overdosed and killed heaps of fish.

Poisoned fish because I tried using medications to try and treat diseases I knew nothing about and nobody at the pet shop would help. They just said try this, try this, try this.

Tried to keep fish that nobody had kept before and there was no information about keeping them in captivity. There is now thanks to me and a few others like me, but we killed a lot of fish learning how to look after them.

Experimented on rainbowfish and other types of fish trying to stop them dying from various diseases including ulcers and TB. Those 2 problems are linked and there is no cure for Fish TB.

Kept real nasty Rift Lake cichlids with tetras, barbs and Corydoras. The cichlids were young and had nice blue and yellow colours but quickly turned bad.

Fed fish the wrong types of food and killed them all. Tropheus cichlids are true vegetarians and do not do well on frozen bloodworms and marine mix (prawn, fish & squid blended up).

Bought fish from a shop and the young guy who caught them chased the fish around for 20 minutes even though I was saying stop, don't worry about it, your stressing them out. I lost half the fish on the way home and the rest where dead the following day.

Bought fish from a shop on the day they came in and lost them the next day.

Bought fish from a shop when they were doing water changes and lost those fish over the next few days.

Tried using CO2 in the tank to encourage plants to grow. It went badly. and killed everything from CO2 poisoning and a massive sudden drop in pH.

Fed goldfish a heap of dry food and watched them float around for the next 2 days while they farted the air out.

Didn't clean power filters until they stopped flowing, about 6-12 months later, and wondered why the fish were sick and dying.

Didn't test the pH or anything else on a regular basis and wasn't doing regular water changes.

Tried growing plants in tanks but it turned out the plants were garden plants and rotted under water. They were nice colours though, pretty reds, purples, silver and pink.

Kept black fin pacu in a 4ft tank. They were only babies and started off at 2 inches but quickly hit 4 inches in a matter of months.

Let my pet ferrets run around the fish room when I wasn't home and came back to find them swimming in a tank and sitting on the coverglass eating the fish they caught.

Been electrocuted by salt creeping onto light units and faulty heaters. Blown up fuses in the fuse box by draining too much power for the fish tanks and heaters.

Cracked fish tanks by putting them on the lawn in summer and the glass heated up and split the base. Also chipped and cracked tanks trying to move them myself when I should have had someone help me. And cracked tanks by putting them on a wooden stand without a sheet of polystyrene foam under the base.

Cut my leg open with a sheet of coverglass that was cracked and should have been thrown out but didn't get chucked out. It was leaning against a wall but fell over when I walked past pulling a garden hose into my fish room and the glass hit the back of my leg above the ankle and cut my leg open. Lots of blood and my mum and aunty laughing saying look at him, he's gone white as a ghost.. A couple of bandaids and I hopped around for a couple of weeks. It got infected so I was taken to the beach and told to go play in the ocean. Surprisingly enough that actually cleaned the wound and it healed after that.

I'm sure there's other stupid things I have done regarding fish but that is probably enough for now.

Now that's a cool list. I had forgotten the boiling the fish in the tank thing, those old heaters were a menace

 

[Colin_T]

Now that's a cool list. I had forgotten the boiling the fish in the tank thing, those old heaters were a menace

Yeah it's a beauty isn't it
The old heaters were bloody awful. They cost heaps and had crap rubber on top that used to break down when wet. Der, not good for an aquarium. When Rena heaters became available in Australia they cost even more but had good quality rubber on the top and the adjustment dial was under the rubber so there were no leaks. The Rena heaters cost a lot of money ($60-100) back in the early 1980s but they were worth every cent. I had most of mine for over 20 years and they never let me down.

 

[itiwhetu]

Yeah it's a beauty isn't it
The old heaters were bloody awful. They cost heaps and had crap rubber on top that used to break down when wet. Der, not good for an aquarium. When Rena heaters became available in Australia they cost even more but had good quality rubber on the top and the adjustment dial was under the rubber so there were no leaks. The Rena heaters cost a lot of money ($60-100) back in the early 1980s but they were worth every cent. I had most of mine for over 20 years and they never let me down.

I used to wire my old heaters to a thermostat and plug them in, I was doing that at age 14 or 15. It is amazing I didn't kill myself. At one stage if I touched two tank stands at the same time you would get a shock, my school mates thought it was a laugh

 

[Colin_T]

I used to wire my old heaters to a thermostat and plug them in, I was doing that at age 14 or 15. It is amazing I didn't kill myself. At one stage if I touched two tank stands at the same time you would get a shock, my school mates thought it was a laugh

I used to wire up fluorescent light units because they didn't sell them at pet shops, and later when they became available, they cost hundreds of dollars. So I would head down to the hardware store and buy a couple of fluorescent light units and an extension cord and wire away. I was about 14 or 15 too when I did my first light unit. I didn't know a thing about electronics and still don't. Just don't lick the power sockets.

 

[itiwhetu]

I used to wire up fluorescent light units because they didn't sell them at pet shops, and later when they became available, they cost hundreds of dollars. So I would head down to the hardware store and buy a couple of fluorescent light units and an extension cord and wire away. I was about 14 or 15 too when I did my first light unit. I didn't know a thing about electronics and still don't. Just don't lick the power sockets.

I still do that, cos I'm to tight to pay for real units

 

[Colin_T]

I still do that, cos I'm to tight to pay for real units

LOL, I shouldn't laugh because I do it too for desk lamps and I have been checking out LED lights and extension cords to use in the house.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I think my worst mistake was overfeeding....especially when those cute little faces are pleading with me through the glass "I'm still so hungry" and like a complete softy I give in to them....

I have cured the problem.

All my fish food - flakes, crisps, tabs, wafers & freeze dried - mixed together and kept in a Tupperware cereal box. The hole where you would usually pour the cereal from is the perfect size to stop me taking out too much food. Hand in through the hole, get a pinch of food and if the hand refuses to come out the hole then I know I have far too much food so I drop some back til hand exits easily.

 

[Spyro]

My niece asked me if I can buy her fishies and keep them at my place, because mum and dad won't buy them for her. And I said yes!
Second tank was all me!

 

[Deleted member 149562]

My niece asked me if I can buy her fishies and keep them at my place, because mum and dad won't buy them for her. And I said yes!
Second tank was all me!

You big softie lol

MTS.....you've caught it.....there is no hope of recovery now....destined to a life of being up to the armpits in water and fish poo and having an empty hole in your bank balance forever

 

[Spyro]

You big softie lol

MTS.....you've caught it.....there is no hope of recovery now....destined to a life of being up to the armpits in water and fish poo and having an empty hole in your bank balance forever

Yup. I've been eying a spot around the house where I can park the car, for weeks now

 

[Herpin Man]

When I was a kid, there was only one room in the house that had a floor smooth enough for me to play on my skateboard (in the winter).
It was also the room where the aquariums were set up.

 

[anewbie]

It is hard for me to tell if i over feed my fishes. I might over feed the angels but i have so many loaches and pleco in that tank they suck it all up and I have to put a bit of extra in for them to have time to get out to find it. What they miss the snails waiting for loaches go after.

 

[JemZ]

I think my worst mistake was overfeeding....especially when those cute little faces are pleading with me through the glass "I'm still so hungry" and like a complete softy I give in to them....

LOL I used to be so guilty of that

 

[JemZ]

When I was a kid, there was only one room in the house that had a floor smooth enough for me to play on my skateboard (in the winter).
It was also the room where the aquariums were set up.

Not a good combination haha

I still play footy in the living room and the foam ball hits the tank of my platy, a couple times has gone in

The old girl doesn't appreciate it I can tell you that

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Another method I now use to avoid overfeeding is once I get my hand out of the plastic cereal box, I put my "pinch" of mixed food into an old screw cap from a fishfood container...1" diameter. If I can shimmy the food to cover the bottom of the cap without it being more than one flake deep, then I have about the right amount of food for my munchkins. I can add or remove food as required before it reaches the aquarium then just tip the cap over the hatch and munchkins fed but not over or under fed.