What's The Biggest Mistake You've Ever Made In The Aquarium Ho

[fry_forever!]

What was the biggest mistake you've ever made in the hobby? I've made MANY mistakes, but I have to say, one of the biggest ones was when I turned up the heater to treat for ich, and I didn't keep an eye on the temp. Came back later that day to check, and it was over 100F!

Needless to say, of about 10 fish that I had in that tank, 4 or 5 died, and most of the others were hanging on by a thread.

I keep an eye on that a lot more closely now (Though I very rarely have to treat for ich - I've had maybe 3 cases in total).

Share your stories. We all learn from our mistakes.

-f_f!

 

[killudead]

So far i can say, my biggest mistake was using a smaller net to catch floating leaves and somehow catching one of my platies in the process. I put the net away as nothing was in it and went for it about a week later. I discovered his dried little body in the net. He was staring at me . I felt bad about it, so i always check my nets before i put them away now.

 

[fry_forever!]

That must have been upsetting to discover.

 

[killudead]

That must have been upsetting to discover.

extremely upsetting. Not like crying but i was like... bloody hell!! I cant believe i let this happen. How did i catch the little guy, when I want to catch him. Its a chase like smokey and the bandit. Somehow he must have been curious or hungry.
Oddly enough, the little friend Barney had named Bam-Bam was recently noticed missing. After searching the tank. I looked around under the stand. Low and behold, there he is all dried just like his little friend. very strange that both would die from suffocation in those almost identical ways.

 

[Katty]

So far my biggest mistake has been putting some very tiny (some were close to fry-sized) green neons in a QT tank without putting any sort of prefilter on the intake tube. I thought the little slats in the filter would be too small for them to get sucked up. Two hours later I did a head-count and one was missing. Bet you couldn't guess where I found him. His poor little back was bent completely but he some how hung on for maybe 4 hours in a little floating tupperware. So far my only fish death (knock on wood).

That and not checking if my filters are actually broken before going out and getting a new one. First time, the impeller was just stuck. The second time, I forgot to check and see if the power strip was turned on.

 

[Mark Z.]

I went away for the weekend and left my aquarium lid open. My tank has a glass piece across the top in the middle between the front and back about 9 inches wide, I guess for added support. I used to have the return pipe from my filter suction-cupped to that glass piece with the water holes facing out, making a rippling effect across the water surface.

This worked well for many years, until that weekend, when the suction cups loosened and the tube fell into the tank on an angle, with one of the water holes facing out of the tank!

Through the course of the weekend, the water shot out of the last hole of the pipe (which had about seven holes) and out of the tank, eventually draining the 48 gallon tank down to about three or four inches.

But it gets even worse....

A few feet away from my aquarium, I had a charger for my battery-powered drill plugged in and without the drill battery in it. The water stream from the filter tube lined up perfectly with the battery charger and the water filled the charger up, connecting the metal contacts and filled the house with a terrible burning smell!

So, I had a ruined battery charger, a soaked carpet and a smoke-filled house. Luckily, there was no fire! And...all the fish survived!

So, always close your lid!!

 

[killudead]

This worked well for many years, until that weekend, when the suction cups loosened and the tube fell into the tank on an angle, with one of the water holes facing out of the tank!

Through the course of the weekend, the water shot out of the last hole of the pipe (which had about seven holes) and out of the tank, eventually draining the 48 gallon tank down to about three or four inches.

But it gets even worse....

A few feet away from my aquarium, I had a charger for my battery-powered drill plugged in and without the drill battery in it. The water stream from the filter tube lined up perfectly with the battery charger and the water filled the charger up, connecting the metal contacts and filled the house with a terrible burning smell!

So, I had a ruined battery charger, a soaked carpet and a smoke-filled house. Luckily, there was no fire! And...all the fish survived!

So, always close your lid!!

all of these are my worst nightmare. I dread the day i have 75g running through my house.
hope home insurance covers this type of thing!?

 

[tahneen]

It liekly starts with adding too many fish to an uncycled tank, putting goldfish in a 10 gallon, not doing water changes

fish jumping out
one time my old reedfish jumped and I found him a day later still alive and put him in and he was fine other than being a little torn up on the fins
but his swim bladder was messes so he swam funny for another 2 months until he died

 

[arobinson1984]

The biggest mistake I've made was to trust juwel internal heaters

Thermostat failed on one of mine with the heater stuck on, lost about £200 worth of fish

Needless to say I dont use them heaters anymore


Andy

 

[Athena]

Oh, I made various mistakes in the early days - like putting incompatible fish in the same tank (obviously I was unaware at the time, just relying on my LFS to tell me what fish I could put together!) - e.g. a male and female betta in a community tank which led to mayhem and the female almost killing the male by stripping him of all his beautiful finnage!

A more recent mistake was a pure accident...had been doing some tank maintenance and decided that one of the tank decorations (one of those sunken boat things) needed a clean, so I took it out and put it in a large plastic bowl and then put that in the bath whilst I carried on with sorting the rest of the tank out. A while later I went to the bathroom with a small tub of tank water, to begin cleaning the ornament with and, as I lifted up the boat, to my horror I saw one of my African Dwarf Frog's lying there spreadeagle in the bowl!

I screamed in panic, thinking he was dead but as I moved the bowl, his little legs began kicking. There was barely any water in there, just the drops that had come off the boat so he was lucky to be alive.

Thank goodness the little guy was ok once I rushed him back to the tank!

Strange thing is that I always check under things before taking them out of the tank - but I think he must have somehow climbed up inside one of the narrow hollowed out sections of the boat ornament to hide from me as I began the gravel vac and then got transported out of the tank when I removed the boat.

Poor thing eh?

Regards - Athena

 

[kizno1]

Mine was having 2 common plecs in a 15G. But luckily i joined here about a month after i got them and found out what they where before i did them any real damage.

 

[Curiosity101]

Mine had to be mixing a betta, male dwarf gourami and female dwarf gourami in a 60l tank together. This was the same tank that I also decided to put red claw crabs into because 'Yeah they're fully aquatic and are peaceful towards fish'

The female gourami was bullied to death by the male dwarf and the betta as they chased her out of each of their territories (male dwarf had taken the right half of the tank, betta had taken the left... she had nowhere to go

And the crabs were spotted 'fishing' and I soon noticed a few scratch marks on my corys.
Very soon one had died due to either drowning/incomplete shedding and the other was re-homed.

Never EVER again will I just go by a fish shops advice, although for the record the shop I used to go to was particularly bad.

 

[GAB99]

i havent posted this anywhere on the forum for fear of bad things but...

Oreo+open lid = NOM NOM NOM for fish and back breaking water change for me

also, usual noob mistake of researching everything before hand and going on the chainstores advice
i lost a weather loach, 2 silver hatchets, 3 dwarf gouramis, and 2 otos

 

[fishy55599]

putting a betta in a tank with a albino red fin shark

 

[Verminator89]

Worst i've ever done is start a complete rescape of my Juwel Rio 180 nad foolishly left the heater on, even after i'd drained 80% of the water. Well probably about 30 mins later i was rescaping and i could smell burning, and melted plastic. I looked up (how i didnt see it before i'll never know) but the heater had melted itself to the side of the internal filter box, and there was dripping plastic down the inside like melted wax does on a candle. I quickly unplugged it and prised it free from the tank and legged it to the bathroom prompto. There i quickly filled the sink (foolish!) and dropped in the heater. It cracked instantly and shattered. Whats the one thing you dont make a REALLY REALLY HOT object do, cool down equally fast. Glass everywhere. So i had to take out the internal filter (proved to be more worthwhile actually!) and thats how i got onto using external filters And i never ever ever leave my heaters on during water changes and/or rescapes now