NaughtyT
Fish Crazy
Well we were all new to the hobby once upon a time,and lets face it even the most experience of fish keepers can end up having a disater.
What i would like to know is,what is your worst disaster,either tank wise or fish wise,maybe even both...........
Mine have been
Around 19 years ago i owned a beautiful 6 foot tank with 3 fully grown pairs of gorgeous discus,some neons a common plec and a golden plec.
Although the tank looked lifeless at times i was more than happy with my stocking,unfortunately at the time i still lived with the parents and dearest mummy thought she would surprise me with 5 new pet frogs
I personally don't even like frogs but seeing as she was being nice i said thankyou,well the next morning to my horror every single one of my fish was dead except for my plecs 
I was absolutely devastated,£300 quids worth of stunning discuss DEAD!!! I will give mother dear her due,she fished out the frogs and promptly took them back to the store,i left the tank a few weeks (with vigirous cleaning) before re stocking,and mother did pay for all my new stock,so i really couldn't hold it against her.To this day i have no idea what type of frogs they were or why they wiped out my tank.
And my 2nd one
Just a few months ago i was in my LFS and spotted the most stunning catfish i had ever seen,he was around 7 inches in length and looked remarkably like a shark(im sure most of you have worked out what he was already),so i asked the girl at the counter what he was,i was told "hes a silver cat fish",i asked how large he would get,"oh hes almost fully grown,maybe one or 2 inches more at the most",next question was could i put him in my 4foot tank...............you guessed it she said yes because they are lazy bottom dwellers that don't swim alot,finally i asked her if it would be ok with my current stock (gouramis,plec,featherfin cat,neons) OH YES she said ABSOLUTELY FINE!!!!!
So me being be decided this fishy was far too gorgeous to be left in the store,and i had never seen one before
Absolutely delighted i toddled off home absolutely over the moon with my stunning fishy,all my visitors thought he was amazing and my 4 kids fell in love with him.
First few days he kinda hid,i figured that was just his settling period,then on day 4 when i got up he was swimming all over the tank and to me he looked very happy.
I then noticed that he was swimming along the front of the tank with his belly hard againt the glass,going round the back of the tank then back along the front glass CONSTANTLY.
I called the LFS to be told this was the normal behaviour of a silver catfish and not to worry (so much for being lazy,he was tiring me out watching him)
The next day my internet was switched on (was changing provider) and first thing i did was try to find out about silver catfish,and almost everything came back as either silver tipped shark or columbian shark
Looked at photos and low and behold,i was the owner of a columbian shark catfish,i went on to read a mountian of information on the species and was horrified to not only find out that my tank was too small for him at his current size,but they they are major tank busters,will munch on anything that will fit into thier huge mouths,and the clincher......they need brackish water once they start to reach adulthood,and info suggested that mine should have been in brackish water a good while ago
I was really upset because we had fallen in love with this big guy and now i had to rehome him,LFS where i got him called be a liar and under no circumstances would they take him back,i spent the whole day ringing all over scotland to try and find him a good home,to no avail.
The next day i noticed his belly was red and his tail was looking rather beaten again i called around places with no luck,i went out to pick up the kids from school and when i returned my poor fella had died.
My kids were very upset begging me to get another one and i was upset too,the lfs again was not interested and said i must have had a disease in my tank,as if i didnt already feel guilty for putting sharky through hell.
Needless to say i have never been back there.
3rd disaster
was my 4 foot tank suddely cracking right infront of my eyes,luckily i had just got a 3 foot tank so i quickly transferred all the fish,and just as i got the last one out it gave way.I no longer have carpets downstairs,i decided laminate was maybe the safer way to go after the stench that disaster caused
PS sorry for the long winded post.
What i would like to know is,what is your worst disaster,either tank wise or fish wise,maybe even both...........
Mine have been
Around 19 years ago i owned a beautiful 6 foot tank with 3 fully grown pairs of gorgeous discus,some neons a common plec and a golden plec.
Although the tank looked lifeless at times i was more than happy with my stocking,unfortunately at the time i still lived with the parents and dearest mummy thought she would surprise me with 5 new pet frogs
I personally don't even like frogs but seeing as she was being nice i said thankyou,well the next morning to my horror every single one of my fish was dead except for my plecs I was absolutely devastated,£300 quids worth of stunning discuss DEAD!!! I will give mother dear her due,she fished out the frogs and promptly took them back to the store,i left the tank a few weeks (with vigirous cleaning) before re stocking,and mother did pay for all my new stock,so i really couldn't hold it against her.To this day i have no idea what type of frogs they were or why they wiped out my tank.
And my 2nd one
Just a few months ago i was in my LFS and spotted the most stunning catfish i had ever seen,he was around 7 inches in length and looked remarkably like a shark(im sure most of you have worked out what he was already),so i asked the girl at the counter what he was,i was told "hes a silver cat fish",i asked how large he would get,"oh hes almost fully grown,maybe one or 2 inches more at the most",next question was could i put him in my 4foot tank...............you guessed it she said yes because they are lazy bottom dwellers that don't swim alot,finally i asked her if it would be ok with my current stock (gouramis,plec,featherfin cat,neons) OH YES she said ABSOLUTELY FINE!!!!!
So me being be decided this fishy was far too gorgeous to be left in the store,and i had never seen one before
Absolutely delighted i toddled off home absolutely over the moon with my stunning fishy,all my visitors thought he was amazing and my 4 kids fell in love with him.
First few days he kinda hid,i figured that was just his settling period,then on day 4 when i got up he was swimming all over the tank and to me he looked very happy.
I then noticed that he was swimming along the front of the tank with his belly hard againt the glass,going round the back of the tank then back along the front glass CONSTANTLY.
I called the LFS to be told this was the normal behaviour of a silver catfish and not to worry (so much for being lazy,he was tiring me out watching him)
The next day my internet was switched on (was changing provider) and first thing i did was try to find out about silver catfish,and almost everything came back as either silver tipped shark or columbian shark
Looked at photos and low and behold,i was the owner of a columbian shark catfish,i went on to read a mountian of information on the species and was horrified to not only find out that my tank was too small for him at his current size,but they they are major tank busters,will munch on anything that will fit into thier huge mouths,and the clincher......they need brackish water once they start to reach adulthood,and info suggested that mine should have been in brackish water a good while ago
I was really upset because we had fallen in love with this big guy and now i had to rehome him,LFS where i got him called be a liar and under no circumstances would they take him back,i spent the whole day ringing all over scotland to try and find him a good home,to no avail.
The next day i noticed his belly was red and his tail was looking rather beaten
again i called around places with no luck,i went out to pick up the kids from school and when i returned my poor fella had died. My kids were very upset begging me to get another one and i was upset too,the lfs again was not interested and said i must have had a disease in my tank,as if i didnt already feel guilty for putting sharky through hell.
Needless to say i have never been back there.
3rd disaster
was my 4 foot tank suddely cracking right infront of my eyes,luckily i had just got a 3 foot tank so i quickly transferred all the fish,and just as i got the last one out it gave way.I no longer have carpets downstairs,i decided laminate was maybe the safer way to go after the stench that disaster caused
PS sorry for the long winded post.
whilst on holiday came back to a freezing tank full of dead fish roting plants and an awful smell
