What's The Hardest Lesson You Learned?

[Truck]

Using a juwel heater

 

[grumpysteve]

not being single. no matter how many fish i want apparently they'll all fit in my one tank. and no matter how many tanks i want, 1 is enough

the moral of this story is, if you're single, stay that way or find someone else that likes fish!

 

[Paradise3]

not being single. no matter how many fish i want apparently they'll all fit in my one tank. and no matter how many tanks i want, 1 is enough

the moral of this story is, if you're single, stay that way or find someone else that likes fish!

missus not letting you have anymore tank?

Xxx~misscosmo~xxX

 

[Gazoo]

I once chose not to unplug my heater before doing a water change because I thought I wouldn't be removing that much water. Yep, you guessed it - CRACKLE POP! I never moved so fast in my life to get my hands out of the water. (I really should have known better.)

I will now never forget to unplug everything when doing water changes.

 

[flix_cw]

I once chose not to unplug my heater before doing a water change because I thought I wouldn't be removing that much water. Yep, you guessed it - CRACKLE POP! I never moved so fast in my life to get my hands out of the water. (I really should have known better.)

I will now never forget to unplug everything when doing water changes.

I do that every time. "I won't be removing THAT much water."

I'll learn from that one now, thanks!

 

[FWFishLover]

Adding 1 Jewel Cichlid, 2 Yellow Labs, A Synodontis Euruptus, And A Neon Swordtail In My 20g The Day After I Got My Tank Assuming It Was All Good.
Then Adding A Molly, And Angel In Too 3 Days Later.
ALL without cycling.
Lessons Learned:
Always Fishless Cycle
Never Listen To LPS Employees

Put some small 1inch innocent looking jewel fry in my livebearers tank, thinking they were harmless babies. Within 48hrs they killed and ate my male swordtail. Cichlids are mean killers

exact same thing happened to me
lucky the male lived, but was EXTREMELY torn up.
died of motor uncooridination a month later. due to ich on torn fins

Mine would probably be:
1) Putting a sailfin pleco in a 2ft tank.
2) Putting 1m and 1f guppy together. He later stressed her soo much she died.
3) When i was younger we had a very big tank with goldfish in it. One morning i decided to go fishing in it. Most fish died, bar 1. I had them out of water to long and they practicaly dried out. One decided to go down the back of the tank and i couldn't reach it, we later found it still alive after about 5 hours down there.
4) We also had a 4ft tropical tank when i was about 5 or 6 and one morn i decided the fish would like a drink...... of milk. I poured 2 pints of milk in the tank. All fish survived.
5) Putting an angel fish in a 2ft tank with platies, mollies and guppies. NEVER AGAIN.
6) Putting guppy fry into an uncyled tank. All 23 later died.
7) Putting a male fighter with male guppies. It wasn't that he attacked the male guppies but he killed all his female tank mates 1 day after the guppies were added. He had lived with them for 2 years with no probs.

My list is endless i no no gonna say more.

Xxx~misscosmo~xxX

the angel and livebearers one interests me because i currently have 1 angel and 3 mollies and 2 guppies in my tank and they are fine together

 

[rdd1952]

Mine would probably be:

3) When i was younger we had a very big tank with goldfish in it. One morning i decided to go fishing in it. Most fish died, bar 1. I had them out of water to long and they practicaly dried out. One decided to go down the back of the tank and i couldn't reach it, we later found it still alive after about 5 hours down there.
4) We also had a 4ft tropical tank when i was about 5 or 6 and one morn i decided the fish would like a drink...... of milk. I poured 2 pints of milk in the tank. All fish survived.
Xxx~misscosmo~xxX

You were mischievous. The one about fishing in the tank brings back old memories. My dad has had a goldfish pond in the back yard since I was about 5 (57 now and pond still there). I got more than one spanking as a kid for fishing in it (I have always loved to fish). I even caught one without a hook, just a cricket tied to a string. I still got a spanking for that one too.

 

[antere07]

I'm still new to the hobby but have had gold fish. But my main lesson learnt was when i had a mate to stay over and he kicked my fish bowl off the side in his sleep breaking it (was only a cheep thing someone bought me for my birthday) only to wake up the next morning to find water all over the floor so we moved the sofa seen two fish on the floor so i nudged them with the net and the started moving i **** myself because i thought they were dead eventually my mom stuck the bowl back together because it was on a sunday and the shop was closed and put the fish back in and they survived. So my lesson learnt was not to let that mate stop again ahahahha

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Having someone feed my fish while I was away. I gave very good intructions, put three piles of food I wanted fed on the lid of the tank (all pellets) and told my uncle to give one pile every two days while I was gone. I also hid all the food containers so he'd only have those piles to feed with. Needless to say I came back to a tank that was a literal blizzard of food. He'd completely ignored the piles I'd left and managed to find all the food I had hidden. Flake food was swirling around the tank, and freeze dried shrimp were clogging up the filter intake. I ended up losing two cories from bacterial infections because of it and a baby firemouth, and learned it's better to have the fish go hungry for a week than trust most people to feed them.

Adding tap water treatment. When I'd had fish as a kid we'd always had well water or used water from the creek next to our house to fill up tanks. When I ended up on city water years later I didn't give any thought about it until I accidently killed two tadpoles because of it. Lesson learned.

Cycling.

Tropical fish. It sounds funny, but growing up the only tropical fish we had were my stepdads oscar and my older brothers ill-fated piranah (jumped out of the tank). For the most part, anything we caught in a minnow seine or trap that was interesting was taken home and put in the tank. If it started getting too big or we had to move we'd just let it go again. With tropicals it was like 'crap, I have to pick these fish long term' and pick things that wouldn't eat each other, and not get too big for the tank, and having to pay for a fish...

 

[Paradise3]

Mine would probably be:

3) When i was younger we had a very big tank with goldfish in it. One morning i decided to go fishing in it. Most fish died, bar 1. I had them out of water to long and they practicaly dried out. One decided to go down the back of the tank and i couldn't reach it, we later found it still alive after about 5 hours down there.
4) We also had a 4ft tropical tank when i was about 5 or 6 and one morn i decided the fish would like a drink...... of milk. I poured 2 pints of milk in the tank. All fish survived.
Xxx~misscosmo~xxX

You were mischievous. The one about fishing in the tank brings back old memories. My dad has had a goldfish pond in the back yard since I was about 5 (57 now and pond still there). I got more than one spanking as a kid for fishing in it (I have always loved to fish). I even caught one without a hook, just a cricket tied to a string. I still got a spanking for that one too.

Yep i was very mischievous
My mum heard something hit the wall behind the fish tank (i had been sent to my room) so she went to have a look and then she shouted me down. When i got down there she said "quick come and look at this" so i looked and there it was that lone goldfish.

Xxx~misscosmo~xxX

 

[umpsfar]

Had a 60 liter on a kitchen counter top, emptied out 1/3 of the water then tried to slide it along the counter ( and CRACK, WHOOSSSSEE water everywhere).lessen is not learned , i'm still sliding my two big tanks around the room

 

[Paradise3]

Not good
I bet the fish weren't happy about losing their water and their home.

Xxx~misscosmo~xxX

 

[CrystalClear16]

Never ever trust people in the LFS. I went in asking about algae problems and was given a plec to clear it up. I made a point of asking how big it would get and was told that he was aleady fully grown at 1.5" and perfect for my 10gal.

So I merrily put him in the tank, 5 years later he was about 5". Because I was told he wouldn't grow that big I assumed that meant he was healthy, so I didn't do anything for ages. It wasn't until he reached the 5" mark that I found this forum and asked. I was duly informed that my poor little plec was cramped and probably stunted

Took him straight to a recommended LFS. Have since been back and he seem happy - and grown an extra inch.

Moral - ALWAYS do your own research when buying a new type of fish and NEVER base your decisions soley on what the LFS says.

 

[Littlemonkey]

Mine was thinking I could get away without using de-chlor when doing a water change in my snail tank. Killed every single one of them, they went green YUK.

 

[Shelby]

I can think of a million and one things I've done wrong...

1. overstocking
2. fish in cycle
3. listen to the LFS
4. let me kids feed the fish
5. didn't shut the heater off during a water change
6. wrong fish for tank size
7. used full ich med with tetras
8. bought a common plec (again LFS)
9. bought dried out plant bulbs that were supposed to sprout again after 3 weeks in the water (waste of money)
10. put angels in with guppy fry (oops)
11. thought I could keep guppies with a painted turtle (which is how the fish thing started)
12. told my kid they could by 1 fish while they were at thier dads. They bought a 10" pleco for a 10G tank with no algae in it.

and many many more I'm sure.