Hi Everyone,
just thought I'd put all my thoughts into one post so at least I've got it off my chest. From my own experiences and those of my friends, here's some things you don't want to do when you start out:

1. Don't clean out your filters in tap water (it'll kill the beneficial bacteria).

2. Don't buy a Chinese Algae Eater aka "sucking loach", "golden loach", "Chinese sucking loach", "Golden Algae Eater" etc. as it'll grow big, aggressive and will soon give up algae for a diet of other fish's slime coat and eye-balls.

3. Don't forget to check out your fish's adult size before you buy - you don't want a 20" common pleco in an 18" tank!

4. Don't trust anyone who works in a fish shop until they've proven themselves expert (that should be "Don't" No.1 ). Our experience is that they will lie, blag, exaggerate, mislead and mask complete and total ignorance with unwaranted self-confidence.

5. Don't buy a Common Pleco unless you can accommodate a 20" monster who requires heavy-duty filtration.

6. Don't over-clean your gravel - that's where all your beneficial bacteria hang out.

7. Don't touch your pH. You don't know what you're doing and it's a very hairy process in the hands of an expert, let alone a beginner. The chemistry is extremly complex and pH modifying products usually fill your tank full of algae-enhancing phosphates. Fish rarely die from an inappropriate pH - that's usually an excuse because LFS employees don't understand about cycling (check out my sig if you haven't done so already).

8. Don't mis-spell "Nitrite". It's nitrite - the poisonous stuff in a cycling tank, not "Nitrate", the stuff plants use as fertiliser. One vowel could mean life or death for your fish!

9. Don't put an angelfish in a 10 gallon tank or any tank less than 18" deep unless you want it to impersonate "Jaws" with one fin out of the water! And don't ever keep angelfish with neon tetras - neons are their natural diet in the wild and will get eaten (it's not if, it's when). If you can train angelfish not to eat neons, for your next trick you could train tigers to eat salad.

10. Don't buy a silver shark unless you have an enormous tank and can keep a group of 13" fish that need a lot of swimming room.

11. Don't keep a male betta with guppies, or angelfish, or tiger barbs, or particularly another betta. In fact, be very careful indeed about what you put with a betta.

12. Don't put salt with corys, plecos or loaches as it'll burn their skin.

That's a dozen for now but if you want to argue with me or make further suggestions, please feel free.

This post has been edited by Alien Anna: Oct 16 2003, 07:40 AM

Here's a summary of a few more of your "Don'ts":

13. Don't buy a Black Ghost Knifefish unless you have a 55 gallon tank and no tank-mates under 3" long.

14. Don't trust the LFS's water test results - get your own tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and KH.

15. If cycling with fish, don't go too quickly - just a couple of inches of fish per week at most.

16. Don't over-stock! The "1 inch of fish (excluding tails) per US gallon of water" is a useful rule-of-thumb, but also consider fish depth/width, territory and swimming space. This is for adult size of fish - remember that with proper care, they will grow, and many fish grow fast. Also remember that non-standard tanks may have less oxygen carrying capacity and therefore hold fewer fish. It's always better to under-stock than over-stock.

17. Don't turn your filter off for any longer than necessary as that may cause the beneficial bacteria to die off and a deadly spike of ammonia and nitrite in your tank. Particularly don't switch your filter off at night.

18. And probably the second most important rule after Rule #2 about not trusting LFS employees: Don't beat yourself up about making mistakes - we all make them and that's how we learn!

I suppose my advice would be only keep a betta in an unfiltered bowl, do frequent partial water changes (an unfiltered bowl can still be cycled to some extent) and don't forget to use dechlorinator.

I'd also strongly advise people to get some sort of heater if they possibly can - in the US, Walmart do little betta bowl heaters that keep it at a fixed temperature for under $10 (or so I hear). I've seen a little thermo-filter in UK for use in bowls, although here bettas are less common.

But that's not a "Don't!"

how about Dont forget to do research with scientific names

Opcn

One important don't I have learned over the years is..

Don't believe the feeding guidelines printed on the fishfood container. Remember that the people who wrote this are making money from it and want you to use (and buy) food as often as possible. Overfeeding is often the leading cause of "bad water".

How about add...

DO NOT add new fish or plants without quarantining for about 2 weeks in a QT tank.

This way, if the fish have any diseases or internal parasites, they will show up within the 2 weeks. Yes, plants as well. Don't forget, parasites, such as ich, require fish OR plants as hosts.

Noob no no.

Don't put faith in tips when they start with.

I blabla bla for 6 months, bla bla bla, so my method is working.


Lots of folks overstock, use the wrong food, under filter, under light or whatever the case may be.
6 months is not enough time to tell if a certian system is working. 1 year is a good sign, 2 years is really what you are looking for.

Most folks here are Fresh Water owners. Plz, Plz do not over stock. and do not be tempted to keep fish "because you know you will have a larger home later".

Stock so the fish you have will grow into your tank and be the final fish.

Should they die to accident or old age (should be many years from now!!!) THEN replace the "empty space"

The chalange is setting up a beautiful tank, not how many fish you can succesfully keep per gallon!!!

The imposible urge to cure is all the wonderful choices we want to put in. No logic can combat wanting to have each and every spiecies But, just like cat and dog owners, you must know your limits. Better to have one Chiwawa (sp) in a small apartment, that a gaggle of dobermins.
Be responsible and fish safe.

Let's not forget....

DO NOT do more than 30% water change. Doing so may change the chemistry and the temp of the water. If water changes have to be done consecutively, due to disease, high ammonia/nitrITEs, etc., then perform 15% water change on a daily basis at the most.

Be careful when you take advice from a person "just because it worked for him". Ask him the same question a few months or a year down the line. Just an example, a person can take small quantities of cyanide and will have no immediate ill effects, but will kill that person in the long run.

Just becuase it worked for one, may not work for you. For example, I use aquarium salts in all my tanks, including my tanks with the clown loaches, at full dose. I have had no problems with it, though I would not recommend it to anyone. I just recently stopped adding it with them since I don't know what the long term effects would be. I now only add the salts if I see any signs of parasites or other health issues where salt will be benificial.

I have to disagree with some of the "Opinion" in these no no's. First I would like to add my own No No.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet!

Second, Not taking advice from people at LFS is a ridiculous and offensive statement!
I would have to say use your best judgement. I would have to reword that to say
"Don't take advice from people at chain stores, feed stores or discount superstores. Specifically stores that don't concentrate on aquatics. If you can buy your dinner, a set of tires, a bowling ball and an aquarium I would steer clear of asking their advice. As a matter of fact I would have to say if you were serious about keeping fish you wouldn't even buy anything alive from a place like that unless it comes from the lobster tank and you intend on eating it.

Second, stores that are more interested in letting you bring your dogs to wander around and soil all the isles isn't serious about fish either. They are interested in SELLING fish and especially chemicals like PH adjusting products which you shouldn't mess with anyway. The more crud you add to your water the more fish you will have belly up. They just like the PH test because it turns the vial pretty colors.

Third, if a store you buy your fish from has a crazy gaurantee on your fish like say 15 days they themselves have doubts that they will live long and they can care less how many times you have to return it. Chances are the reason they do it is because they know you will be back because the fish will die usually (unless your lucky) and it's another chance to get you back in the store to buy more stuff like say dog food that's now on sale! Then they blame you for poor water quality and make it your fault but make it seem that they are the nice guys replacing your fish free. I can see 2 days full exchange and 3 additional days at 50% off maximum. Salt water fish, NO warantee!

The fish stores you SHOULD take advice from are FISH STORES! If they specialize in fish, the last thing they want to do is sell you rotten fish. They gain nothing by giving away freebies, remember right off's are NOT profit. Fish stores depend on repeat business and loyal customers. Giving bad advice certainly doesn't help crowd the place with customers. Good word of mouth travels fast but bad travels faster. Look over the place for yourself. If the fish look healthy, the tanks are clean and they appear to take pride in their fish, I see no reason not to take their advice. If the place is a reck, smelly, dead fish floating all over the tanks and they approach you like an insurance salesman (no offense) then walk away. In addition, I wouldn't take much stock in the youngsters on the high school work program either unless they are willing to call the boss to ask or have them call you when you get in. Not saying teenagers aren't smart but its unlikely your going to run into a 16 year old aquatics expert.

One more tip, if you want to know how credible a LFS is. Ask them the chemical makeup of their water they have in their tanks. Then ask them if you can take a sample of their water home with you to test. Pick a tank and take a sample. If it's reasonably close then there you go. If their way off then you know they either don't care about their tanks enough to test or they are liars. Lastly, just use common sense people, most of us can tell if someone is full of it or not.


P.S. Yes, I own a fish store.

This post has been edited by GetTanked: Mar 25 2004, 05:21 AM

dont keep angels with neons? i have never heard of this, angels will live peacfully with neons IF they have a bog enough tank, but they wont eat neons just because they are there angels are terratorial and will fish any thing that gets in there side of the tank.
And betas will also live peacfully with angels, all this is tested by myself and my angels and DISCUS live peacfully with neons and a betta. all the rest of the information is good though.

This post has been edited by Discus man: Aug 20 2005, 07:54 PM

wow iv broken all but liek 2 of those rules at some point

We ALL break those rules...impulse buying, taking the wrong advice when we 1st start...etc

Also, don't buy a fish you know nothing about just because it's cute or because you feel sorry for it. Research, research, research. Try to find out EVERYTHING you can about the fish you're interested in. You don't want to just throw in a bunch of "pretty" fish just to wake up in the morning to 1 fat fish and a bunch of half eaten bodies.

Never heard of that one before. I'm not an expert neither am I a beginner. Is that based upon size of the tank or just one of those common place rules. I have a 125 and do about 50%. I've never had a problem(yet) and I've been doing it that way for 2 years.

is was wondering when i read the no no of no neons with angels. i just brought a complete setup and it came with neons and angels.

the lady i got it from did say that she had lots of neons but they died. i am a begginer so is it ok for me to buy my neons?

i broke like 3 or 4 of those, i read wen i was a begginner to feed regularly on the food , and my tank soon turned green, and when i went to this fish store tht a firend recomended , he sed i tht i shu by atleast 3 fish at a time, which i guess is true on some basis , and i am currently overstoked, gettin rid now tho, lots goin to new homes/ lfs, and i also bought a "suckler loach" under the influence of information tht sed it clears up algae, algae was all over , and my other fish killed it because it got to agressive