What Fish Do You Regret Buying?

[ClownLurch]

I regret buying a pond tench on the account that it is black and olive green making it nearly impossible to see. I have only managed to spot it swimming in front of more colourful fish a handful of times in the last 12 years!

I know where you’re coming from.
I’ve a species tank of Heterandria Formosa. They’re olive n black and small. M18mm & F30mm fully grown. In a 120L tank you’d have to sit for 15 mins or so to see one. More than two at a time was a party!
Now they’re in a 10G species tank it’s down to 5 mins sitting watching. Its only when they move that you see em.
I’m sitting watching one struggling atm.

 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

There was a study done in Germany in the 1980s on cardinal tetras kept in hard water. Examination of the body after death showed calcium deposits in the bodies. I wish I could find a link to the study, it's probably on some website I don't have access to.

Quick snoop around (only about a half and hour) and I couldn't find it. I'll keep looking later, but if you can recall anything else about the study that would be awesome.

I did learn:
1) People are pretty amazed by how acid tolerant neon and cardinal tetras are
2) Guppies die at anything at or below 4.75 pH (with some tetras tolerating 3.5!!!)
3) Danios can acclimate to a very wide range of pH
4) We are still trying to figure out what the physiological drivers are of fish death in low pH water

Okay, that was way more fun than writing a lecture for species interaction equations, but duty calls.

 

[Snagrio]

some websites say random tankmates for fish that aren;t even compatible with the hardness, like neon tetras and guppies. whaa???

Granted it's one unplanned guppy that was a stowaway but who's asking.

 

[Sgooosh]

Granted it's one unplanned guppy that was a stowaway but who's asking.

its honestly fine it probably alreadfy adaped to low hardness

 

[CraigDalton]

I got a Pleco, the species was not listed at PetSmart, and I never see him. He found a cave structure I put in my tank and only leaves when I move the structure to clean it.

I also regret getting goldfish as a kid lol that little bowl was no good for them

I

My bristle nose plecos. They are hardly ever seen and just another thing to feed. Although they aren’t fish, I also bought Malaysian Trumpet Snails in my early days. Who does that? A normally reputable guy on another forum told me to get them since I had added sand as my substrate in a tank. Now they are everywhere!

I have the exact same problem with my bristlenose pleco. I have a juwel lido 200 tank which has a bioflow 3.0 filter which is hollow at the bottom, that's where it hides all day. The only time I see the pleco is when I am turning the tank lights on in the morning and that is for 3 seconds max, as as soon as the lights come on he darts for below the filter again.

 

[vanalisa]

That's a very good point. Just because a fish is alive and breeding, doesn't necessarily mean it is experiencing optimal health. To be sure, we humans do this to ourselves all the time.

I have N-class Endler's from a specialist breeder, so sounds a bit similar to your situation. I don't know how long they live either. Some of mine are up to 3 years at this point, so at the very least I've not run into the same longevity you found. Who is to say why. Could it be that you got a genetically weak strain? There are just so many factors. And that's really all I'm getting at.

I do think this is natural human responses to things to overly cling to belief. We start uninformed, make mistakes, someone kindly suggests modifications (or we discover them), they work, we accept that those modifications are necessary, we continue with them and begin to believe that those modifications are the only road to success. It happens in many human endeavors. Once we've decided something is true, we, as humans, are very good at amplifying data that supports our previous conclusion and minimizing data that contradicts it. It's a whole type of study in psychology. That said...

Sounds like there is a study out there with data that suggests tetras have physiological issues (I'm assuming the deposits were correlated with increased morbidity and mortality) in harder water. Though I've had them in non-optimal conditions, perhaps I should not. I'll see if I can find the study - I have access to nearly all those sort of sites. If I can find a sharable link to a PDF or something similar, I'd be happy to send it your way for future reference. That way you have that at your disposal for future discussions such as this one.

My eyeglass prescription is messed up at the moment...I thought I read psychological issues...
?

 

[vanalisa]

haha yes, one of my first threads were if you can put guppies, neon tetras, a betta fish, gouramis, or angel fish together lol

Eeee gads !

 

[mark4785]

haha my spotted cories blend in with my sand perfectly(dont regret buying those)

I’m sure if one of them was sick you would be able to spot the problem in a lighted tank. When you have a pond, a fish to match its colour and the pond base is 9 foot from your head it will be close to impossible to

I know where you’re coming from.
I’ve a species tank of Heterandria Formosa. They’re olive n black and small. M18mm & F30mm fully grown. In a 120L tank you’d have to sit for 15 mins or so to see one. More than two at a time was a party!
Now they’re in a 10G species tank it’s down to 5 mins sitting watching. Its only when they move that you see em.
I’m sitting watching one struggling atm.

It is a real pain. I really am nervous about my Tench getting sick because I’d have to dive in the pond to find and remove it. On a more serious note, I bought a pond endoscope with a light on the end for that eventuality. It hooks up with Bluetooth to my phone and you can record the footage.

 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

My eyeglass prescription is messed up at the moment...I thought I read psychological issues...
?

Nope. Perhaps if we were taking about me, but I'd never put that on poor, little fish. I'm not a monster. ?

 

[vanalisa]

Nope. Perhaps if we were taking about me, but I'd never put that on poor, little fish. I'm not a monster. ?

People without issues have an issue with having issues and need therapy.

 

[Falconwithaboxon]

I replied before but I forgot the worst. I bought four Chinese Algae Eaters as a clean up crew for my tank. I now have four 7" fish in my little 29 gallon tank. ?

 

[Jay83]

Hey everyone! I've seen this topic on a few fishkeeping yt channels and I thought it would be cool to hear everyones answers on this aswell!
What fish have you owned that you regret owning/buying and why?
Heres a few of mine:
Sailfin Plecostimus - I got one of these when I was Quite young and inexperienced in the hobby, only expecting it to grow to around 7 inches but as we all know, that number is usually triple hahaha.
Three spot gourami - Again I was more inexperienced and had no idea how to handle aggression at the time especially when I wasn't expecting it from the gouramis.
Electric Blue Ram - I had bought a pair a couple months ago but I made a huge mistake by buying them off a huge chain store where they had clear deformities and thinking I was doing them a favour by "rescuing them" they were already too far gone and did not survive further than a week even in good water perametres.
Firemouth Cichlid - A few years ago I was obsessed with these fish and owned a trio, Great fish but destroyed my community which is my own fault for not doing the full research on the breeding activities of these fish and understanding the space needed to succesfully house three let alone one in a community setup.
Last but not least
Bala Shark - As a kid, I saw these in the store and thought "Shark I want!" which ended up me unkowingly buying a fish that grows to over at least 1ft and housing it in a 30 gallon tank, fish stores should definetely make a huge effort to either ensure the customers have suitable tanks or just not sell them at all! Such a beautiful fish that is unfortunately always sold even if you don't have a suitable aquarium and I will always feel awful for the poor bala I bought all those years ago. I hate my decisions for buying all of these fish and I really wish I researched them all before considering buying but it's all learning and I wish I could've been a better fishkeeper for the sake of the fish as I love them all and all animals and people ?

I see a lot of people saying they regret their pleco or bristle noses and they are some of my favourite ones because they help keep everything clean I have around 11 babies in my community guppy tank waiting for them to grow up big enough to be able to have them in my Cichlid tanks and my Oscar tanks. My goldfish tanks airlines are always clean but my Cichlid and Oscar tanks have build up on their airlines almost instantly. As soon as I have enough spare cash I’ll be getting some big catfish for my big Oscar tanks. I don’t have anything but 4 convict Cichlids in my 4 ft tank because I don’t want anything to eat their babies or eggs and they are great to watch

 

[DancingBetta]

Guppies. Bought three female and the next day, “Hey, why are there baby fish in there?”

 

[Circus]

I most regret getting guppy fish. And my Glofish Betta. I love him, but he was so expensive and his colors are just meh.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I most regret getting guppy fish. And my Glofish Betta. I love him, but he was so expensive and his colors are just meh.

I've heard so much about Glofish in general, How's you're experience with the betta?