What Mistakes Have You Made While Fishkeeping?

[I Like Rare Fish]

I listened to you guys (JOKE!!!)

Realistically, the worst mistake was not controlling algae when I first saw it and letting it spread, not checking my Water companies yearly chlorine flush page, and Getting fish small enough to fit in my Delhezi Bichirs mouth.

My best things that happened were getting my Delhezi and getting the Gymnogeophagus Terrapurpurra. They are so fun to watch!

 

[itiwhetu]

I listened to you guys (JOKE!!!)

Realistically, the worst mistake was not controlling algae when I first saw it and letting it spread, not checking my Water companies yearly chlorine flush page, and Getting fish small enough to fit in my Delhezi Bichirs mouth.

My best things that happened were getting my Delhezi and getting the Gymnogeophagus Terrapurpurra. They are so fun to watch!

Cichlids are great, do you have fun trying to remember how to spell his name Gym Terra would just about do

 

[JemZ]

Cichlids are great, do you have fun trying to remember how to spell his name Gym Terra would just about do

I hear a lot about Cichlids but have never considered it myself...

Aren't they aggresive? I've heard some harrowing stories

 

[itiwhetu]

I hear a lot about Cichlids but have never considered it myself...

Aren't they aggresive? I've heard some harrowing stories

I have never really had any issues, a couple of the larger ones can be challenging but that's half the fun. I would suggest starting with some dwarfs Apistogrammas maybe, if you wanted big Cichlids start with Severums, they will give you the least head aches. Have a tank just for them, don't mix species and don't try and keep them in community tanks to start with until you have some understanding of how they behave and interact with each other. So many people who are new to keeping Cichlids separate them at the first sign of trouble, often you have to let themselves sort things out, also people keep moving stuff around in their tanks. Cichlids like things just left alone.

 

[anewbie]

I hear a lot about Cichlids but have never considered it myself...

Aren't they aggresive? I've heard some harrowing stories

Depends; some are dogs biting all tank mates; other are kittens purring all day long. Also some bicker but only among themselves and others bicker with everyone but themselves. Depends on the species and sometime the individual fish. For smaller tanks such as a 20 long look at borelli apistogramma or even Laetacara araguaiae; I just listed two but there are 100's if not 1000's of options. For larger tanks - well skip the larger tanks smaller tanks are nicer

 

[ClownLurch]

Forgot to clip my home made “plastic muzzle” to my python when refilling tank.
I think that contributed to mass die off earlier in the year. Water massively disturbed the sand resulting in bacteria bloom/water clouding which I believe caused fungus infection to guppy bites on a number of fish. Once that got started it was downhill for a couple of months with only one fish surviving.

 

[JemZ]

Another to add to the list:

Believing the whole "change your filter cartridge every 30 days" nonsense.

 

[jimwg]

Let my pet ferrets run around the fish room when I wasn't home and came back to find them swimming in a tank and sitting on the coverglass eating the fish they caught.

Holy Crap!!! I had ferrets, they are evil. I bet they had a blast though.

 

[jimwg]

Now that's a cool list. I had forgotten the boiling the fish in the tank thing, those old heaters were a menace

I had an old heater once that was leaking electricity. Fish died and when I reached into the water I got a shock. Fortunately that's all I got.

 

[itiwhetu]

I had an old heater once that was leaking electricity. Fish died and when I reached into the water I got a shock. Fortunately that's all I got.

You have an Oscar, did one of yours ever pick up a heater and smash it. I had one of mine that did that, it shorted everything out so no damage

 

[jimwg]

You have an Oscar, did one of yours ever pick up a heater and smash it. I had one of mine that did that, it shorted everything out so no damage

I used to have oscars and yes one of them used to attack the heater every time the red light came on. I had to get an expensive metal heater with the thermostat hanging on the wall behind the tank.

 

[Colin_T]

Holy Crap!!! I had ferrets, they are evil. I bet they had a blast though.

Ferrets are cool. The two I had were handled as babies and loved being around people. Although most people saw them and ran away. My grandmother was over once and I brought the ferrets outside to run and play in the backyard. They also had a pond that they went swimming in and played submarine. Anyway, they took off across the backyard and my gran saw them. She goes oh god what are those, and lifts her feet up and puts them on the chair. We all laughed coz we had never seen her move that fast. The ferrets didn't even go near her at the time but we did catch them and show her what they were like. She touched their backs but kept her fingers away from their mouths. They never bit anyone but they do have a reputation for biting.

We used to let the shop ferrets out in the morning before we opened up for business. One day we here this high pitched squeal and see this white thing tear across the room. It was a big white rabbit that had gotten out and had been hiding in the shop for weeks and the ferret was latched onto its butt. This rabbit was racing around doing laps with a ferret hanging off its ass. It was hilarious

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

The gym tera’s are not aggressive towards the dithers, but aggressive towards themsleves. They are quite hard to find. I looked for over 3 months to find them, and then I found a breeder on Aquabid that would sell me 6 of them at .75” for 60 bucks. Hooked me up with a great deal, and now I’m waiting for a pair to form. They are the cutest fish ever, and are so pretty. While doing homework, I sit outside and watch them. They’re quite distracting.

 

[anewbie]

Another very regretful mistake i made was thinking a small hole was too small for a loach to jump through. Then 3 of my gold zebra made a game of jumping out of the hole.... grrrrrrr.... I now cover the back of my tanks with fiber screening... of course i once left the top open for 30 minutes after feeding and another couple of gold zebra loaches..... sigh.

 

[JemZ]

Another very regretful mistake i made was thinking a small hole was too small for a loach to jump through. Then 3 of my gold zebra made a game of jumping out of the hole.... grrrrrrr.... I now cover the back of my tanks with fiber screening... of course i once left the top open for 30 minutes after feeding and another couple of gold zebra loaches..... sigh.

I had a swordtail who gave me a scare when he jumped too... I will never forget it:

A Terrifying Experience

So I had taken my swordtail out and put him in a separate container temporarily so as to keep him from harassing my female platy while I wait to take her to a warehouse to be temporarily rehomed. I started to play some video games but was keeping an eye on him just to make sure he's doing fine...

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