biggest mistakes you have ever made in fish keeping

[ember04]

Hi there

I have created this thread so people can discuss their biggest mistakes with others

mine is getting a fish tank to young (got my first tank when I was 4) and having no idea what I was doing, along the road I have put angles in a 10-gallon common plecos in a 15 all overstocked my tank to death (don't judge to much I did all these things when I was like 10)

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Um... probably mine was actually starting fish keep keeping.... MTS!!!

No seriously: Mine was the first fish I ever got, Zen. He was just a regular veil tail betta, that was light purple/light blue/white. I put him in a 0.5g (yes, 0.5g) “show tank”, no filter or heater. After just simp,y googling bettas, I learned they needed a WHOLE lot of other stuff. So I got him a 2.5g tank, filtered and heated. He died later due to dropsy.

I really only started caring for my fish more and more, when I moved to KY and found TFF! TFF has helped me get a grip on my fish keeping, and I am enterally grateful.

 

[ember04]

yes pheonixKingZ lots of people make the mistake you made so it is great you have now become an excellent fish keeper

 

[ClownLurch]

Listened to the man in the LFS who was selling me fish. I nicely thought he cared about em as much as he cared bout money.

 

[ember04]

yes that is a big issue I was once told by a fish store employee that 2 full-grown angles in a 5 gallon were fine, I have also heard fish 'experts' in fish stores say "what is cycling" and "oh that is where you put the dechlorinate in the tank" as well as "no cycling is only for more hard fish not for bettas and goldfish they don't like a cycled thank"

 

[Colin_T]

I've made lots of mistakes, including keeping fish as pets

I had a marine tank and the fish developed white spot. I didn't bother to work out how much water was in the tank and just treated it as 50 gallons because that is what I was told it held. Turns out it did not hold anywhere near 50 gallons and I killed everything in the tank within about 5 minutes of adding the medication.

I wiped out a tank full of rainbowfish when I did a water change and filled the tank with tap water. I added a double dose of dechlorinator before turning the hose on and filling the tank but it didn't matter. The water company had done work on the pipes and added heaps of chlorine, which poisoned my fish.

I killed some rare cichlids when I forgot to turn the heater off in their tank. I did a water change and the new water was cold and caused the heater to burn out. The following day the water was really cold and all the cichlids were dead.

I killed all my fish (over 600 adult brood stock) because they had fish TB. I should have bred them and got some eggs before killing them but was too stressed out and didn't think logically. I murdered all my fish and lost over 100 species that I can't replace.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I'm fairly new so I can only think of 3 mistakes so far. Give me time... I'm sure I'll be able to add a lot more to the list.

1. Buying too small of a tank to start because I didn't do sufficient advance planning for the type and number of fish I was adding.
2. Not adding enough of the same type of schooling fish
3. Buying a cheap aquarium starter kit. The filter was such crap it killed one of my fish and nearly wiped out the whole tank. You get what you pay for.

 

[Guyb93]

My biggest mistake was a while back and I completely scrubbed my external filter clean , disaster ended up cycling all over agin with fish

 

[Utar]

My first mistake was a doosey. When I was young and living out on my own for the first time I got myself a dog. While in the pet store I saw a beautiful 55 gallon tank on a very nice wooden stand. I have no idea why I wanted it, I just did, maybe to impress girls.

When I bought the tank I filled it up with bags of fish all at the same time, and no it was not cheap. I had people at the fish store help me load it all up, and a friend of mine help me set it all up at home. Filled it with water added fish, and several days later the fish started dying. I had Angel Fish, Bala Sharks, Gold Fish, Neons, a few others I can't remember and two Oscars.

I did not have a clue what I was doing, when the water evaporated down enough I just filled it back up. The only fish that survived was one Oscar, who grew big and sassy. I was feeding him live feeder fish. Then one day the Oscar jumped out of the tank, and I found him dead on the floor.

After that the tank became the home of an Iguana. Then when my first wife left me and cleaned me out she took the tank, Iguana and all my furniture.

 

[xxamyxx85]

When I first got my Betta fish I had no clue what I was doing, TFF (essjay) helped me to finish my cycle and then rather than ask when he showed slight signs of fin rot I dumped melafix in his tank and he had a terrible reaction, in the panic of seeing him struggling to breathe I grabbed a my water change bucket, forgetting it was not up to temp or dechlorinated and dumped that in on top!! Realised after about 5minutes what I had done and put dechlorinator in the tank and had to wait for the temp to slowly rise. He made it.... just. I’m sure I will make many more unfortunately.

 

[Blackwater guru]

I have been quite succesful in the approximately 1 year I have been keeping fish since early January this year.

I also researched intensively about the fishkeeping hobby and everything I could find for several months prior to make sure I did not do common beginner mistakes like not cycling the tank(I have aspergers so that was probably the main reason because it also became one of my big special interests besides computers and technology).

Probably my biggest mistake and the only major mistake I have made as a fishkeeper so far was buying 15 silvertip tetras for my 145 l freshwater aquarium because they ended up being such little aquarium terrorists killing most of themselves by bullying and the rest of the silvertips died from stress induced lockjaw.

They also killed some of the other fish from stress ,1 marbled hatchetfish and possibly some of my cardinal tetras,my german ram cichlid died from hole in the head disease because of stress caused by seeing the relentless bullying of the other fish .

It is most certainly a fish species I will never keep again in my care .

 

[DAnCSF]

Wayyyy too many to mention...LOL

 

[GlosGraham]

In order of mistakes,

Used WCMM to cycle my tank. Always fishless please....

Bought a sucking loach for my first ever tank. LFS didn't explain how big it would get.

Bought a 2nd hand tank which I didn't ask about leaks...

Killed a tank for faulty heater (to be fair I did leave it plugged in while not submerged)

Had a temperate tank but didn't factor in my living room climbs up to 32 degrees in the summer.
Killed all fish but one WCMM and 3 shubunkins.

Thought it was a faulty heater went out and bought a top range expensive heater.

Said heater failed after 14 months. Budget ones haven't ever failed.

 

[ember04]

In order of mistakes,

Used WCMM to cycle my tank. Always fishless please....

Bought a sucking loach for my first ever tank. LFS didn't explain how big it would get.

Bought a 2nd hand tank which I didn't ask about leaks...

Killed a tank for faulty heater (to be fair I did leave it plugged in while not submerged)

Had a temperate tank but didn't factor in my living room climbs up to 32 degrees in the summer.
Killed all fish but one WCMM and 3 shubunkins.

Thought it was a faulty heater went out and bought a top range expensive heater.

Said heater failed after 14 months. Budget ones haven't ever failed.

all very common mistakes

 

[Metalhead88]

At my old house, the sink was around the corner from my tanks. I gravel vac into a drum and move from tank to tank and have a submersable pump that goes to the sink. Just as I was about done draining I noticed water seeping through the wall from laundry room and yep....the hose popped out of the sink. 200 gallons of dirty fish water on the ground.....that was a fun clean up.

Also, when I was a teenager I bought a piranha my 10 gallon tank. He wouldn't eat flakes so I gave him salami which he devoured. He didn't live long.

Lots of water change mistakes.... water on the ground exploding heaters..... smashed lids.....definitely learned from my mistakes.