What did you do when you started fishkeeping?

[Sasha]

When I was a beginner at fishkeeping, I NEVER cycled my aquarium. I just thought that it had to run for a couple of days to get oxygen into the water and then it was ready to add fish. That's why no fish I kept ever lived very long. My first fish was a black moor named Tinkle. He only wanted the 10 gallon tank to himself and never enjoyed the company of other fish. I once bought 5 neon tetars (reme,ber I was young at the time) and put them in the tank. Tinkle attacked them and killed 3, so the remaining two had to be returned.

 

[mrcrabbs]

My parents had a 50 gallon salt water tank. It never cycled and my grandmothers husband bought some yellow tangs for it. Never lived.

 

[Sorrell]

I just told my husband about this topic and he said when he was young, he rode his bike to the grocery store, bought a live lobster, rode home, cut off the rubber bands, and dumped it in his freshwater tank. Not so good.

 

[diVer]

"Hey everbody, look at the feeding frenzy my tiger barbs go into when I dump half the bottle of flakes into the tank!"

Luckily the people at the fish store told me what I'd been doing wrong (after all the barbs died)

 

[ladynaoko]

back in the day I had 6 goldfish in a 15G tank - 2 comets and 4 regular goldfish in a non-cycled tank.

The tank got cleaned once a year, the fish were put into a casserole dish with some water - the gravel was boiled, the filter was completely cleaned out and the water was replaced with water straight from the tap (no treatment at all). Suprisingly all the fish survived for years, we only had one bad patch (when fish #6 brought in whitespot) and amazingly most of the fish are still alive in my aunts pond. I saw them the other day and I swear.. they looked more like koi carp than goldfish!

 

[G_Sharky]

My first ever tank is a 10 gallon and i bought like 15 fish in the same week, none of them made it today . My sister is the one who bought the tank with 2 cory's and 2 irridescent sharks that the LFS sold her, i fell in love with it and took over the maintenance and offcourse did my research which lead me to this awesome forum where i learn a lot. Actually i still have the 2 peppered cory's that my sister bought...I can't believe they survived all the ammonia and nitrite poisoning on my 10 gallon and I used them to cycled my current 33 gallon ...........

 

[luxum]

Fancy goldfish + a single cory in a brand new THREE GALLON eclipse. Poor fishies. Both survived, suprisingly, but of course the goldie outgrew that tank very quickly.

Now, i control the impulse buying and make sure something is appropriate for my tank before i purchase, and minimize their exposure to the establishment of the nitrogen cycle if possible.

 

[NDIrish7]

had 1 tiger barb, 1 molly in a 1 gallon goldfish bowl, then another time my father put the tiger barb in COLD water cause he didnt know , i wasnt their and i was so mad! (WHEN I WAS A KID)

 

[freshmike]

I had tropicals......

Was a tenner....

The tank temp was at a steady 68.....

Ich, Ich, Ich, Ich.......

Bacteria bloom for 3 months straight......


....looking back, I wonder why I ever kept going.....

...but I do love my fishies!

 

[Gill]

when we were younger.

a freind gave us some fish called firebellies something.

our neons and fish under 3", lasted 2 days

 

[millym]

anaesthetised our tiger barbs for 4 days by ovedosing medication, lost a yoyo who swam into the filter outlet ( been watching him trying for ages.........stupidly thought he'd never actually make it up there....till he did of course )
i wish i could say that we were kids when we did these dumb things but i have to confess is been in the past year.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

I got my first goldfish when I was like 8. The man at the store said he would be just fine in the little bowl he sold me. And I wondered why he only lived like a month. So then when I move in with my bf, he had some inherited fish. The 60gal had a full grown red devil and a full grown nic. 2 7-8 inch common pl*cs. Neither of us knew anything about fish, cycling. We did water changes maybe once a month. They actually seemed quite happy, and lived that way for 4-5 years, dispite everything. In fact since they were full grown when he got them, I think they ended up dying of old age. Any way when the devil got sick thats when I discovered forums, but unfortunately it was too late to save him. And that brings me to now. Armed with lots of knowledge we are working on our next tank.

 

[Sid]

When was younger, I had a 10 gallon with at least 30 fish in it. I remember having a common plec, a couple of angel fish, a chinese algea eater, a few goldfish, crabs, ghost shrimp, mollys, neons and a bunch of others, all at the same time!

My mom and I used to completely clean the tank every month or two (tore the whole tank down and scrubbed it!)!

The fish actually survived for a few years!



Now I know a heck of alot more about fishkeeping

 

[llamalord305]

Amazing how life finds a way even in the most direst of circumstances. No offense to anyone, wait till you hear my
story. I had a tiny little maybe 3/4 gal with one betta and an UGF. He lived pretty long. I also had two zebra danios in a little bowl, maybe 1/3 gal, but we did water changes often. They lived maybe a year or two. One day one died, and as I recall it, the other didnt live very long after.

 

[Forestpisces]

When i was 7 i did the typical win a fairground fish and kept it in a 21litre critter keeper or something, poor guy lived 4 years (i'll never know how)

Poor dear nelson