What's the dumbest thing you've done?

[bigben]

one time during a water change a neon swam too close to my siphon hose and got vacuumed to the end. it had a big round mark on its side for a couple of weeks. all better now though!

 

[skimpy]

I left my heater off on baby tank after a water change and did not notice until 24 hours later, the fry all seemed to get through it ok though.

 

[clutterydrawer]

i regularly unplug filter + heater to do a water change then forget to plug them back in.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Buy them with absolutley no clue as to what it takes to look after them. This included:

- 8 goldfish and 1 weather loach in a 10gallon tank
- No knowledge of cycling
- Moved them into a 4ft tank without cycling
- No water changes

Luckily I learned properly and actually got rid of the goldfish and rehomed them to a pond.

 

[Nidge]

I once turned the power off by mistake during the winter, It was off the whole night luckly there was no harm done.

And as Cheese said buying fish without doing my research.

 

[parker313]

I was changing my substrate from gravel to sand and had all my fish in a big 5g bucket. I filled the tank up too much and forgot to leave room for the 5 gallons of water in with the fish, so I had the bucket at the sink. I was dumping out some of the water and one of my cories just swam right out and all the way down the drain I was so sad!

 

[Crystal]

I forgot to put in water treatment for my betta, thankfully when I change his water, I let him adapt to the new water slowly (using his cup he stays in) so he only got a tiny bit of that water. He is a happy fish though, didn't seem to mind it at all.

 

[LadyMinion]

I was dumping out some of the water and one of my cories just swam right out and all the way down the drain I was so sad!

Oh no! Did you manage to save/find him? I assume not as you mentioned you were sad....

 

[Aquascaper]

I sucked my GSP up the syphon hose during a water change )

 

[MAM]

i had some zebra danios in my big tank. i was moving them to another tank to make way for a new stock. as you who have them know, they are fast little buggers and tough to catch. well, after an hour i finally caught the biggest one, but in the process, his head got caught between the rim of the net and the glass..... he died about 20 minutes later i felt just awful about it.

 

[TorPeteO]

I forgot to treat my tapwater once, so I added chlorinated water to the tank. As soon as I'd finished, I remembered I forgot to, so I added the dechlorinator to the tank and hoped for the best. Luckily, no deaths.

 

[Paul_MTS]

when i didn't have a thermoter for my coldwater fry tank i broke a normal thermomter in the water.......it was oily so bailed it out quickly.

 

[Dave - Astronotus]

I've made a few major cock-ups, mostly when water changing. I have a 6 footer with a 25 gallon refill tank which I left running during a water change & fell asleep on the settee. I awoke as about 15 gallons of water rushed over the edges of the aquarium.

I've also re-connected a canister filter forgetting to secure the top, the carpet got bloody soaked.

Ow & the biggy was when I moved a huge piece of rock in the aquarium & sqwashed a bronze Corry (oops).

 

[SirMinion]

Many many years ago, when I was about 12, I used to take a net down to the local river and fish for minnow, stickleback, stone loach & gudgeon to put in with my fancy goldfish (black moors, comets, shebunkins)

I had quite a little community going for a while untill one day I caught something new, brought it home and put in in my tank.

It was about eight inches long, torpedo shapes with a spikey dorsal fin and a dark barred body. I thought it was a perch.

The next morning I found nothing left alive in the tank except some sticklebacks and the 'perch'. Everything else had been torn apart or was simply missing altogether.

I did a little bit of research in the library (no internet in 1979!) and found my mystery fish.

It was a zander, introduced into British rivers in the mid 70s to 'increase sport' and slowly eating it's way through our native species.

I kept the zander for about a month before it jumped out and got eaten by the cat.

After that, the sticklebacks went back to the river, and the tank became a vivarium.

 

[SilverDollar_03]

i havent done many dumb things yet (havent had enough time, haha)

i have, though, put silver dollars in an uncycled tank, and bought a common pleco for a 55 gallon tank (too small for the pleco)

luckily though, no harm was done, all the silver dollars are still alive and well, and i simply returned the pleco to the petstore