Tropical Fish Forums

RJ-Aquatics · New Members Joined: 14 Oct 2006

Improve your karma and help current newbies by sharing with us your blunders when you were an amateur! Heres some of mine...

"Copper pipes are used in our drinking water right, so theyre pretty inert and nontoxic; then its OK to use this piece for my filter intake..."
-NO!! Bad idea! this caused the extinction of ghost shrimps in my tank!

"Whats that burning melting plastic smell? OH MY GOD!! Oh crap oh crap oh crap"
-Switch off your heater when doing water changes!

Get ready to fall off your chair for this one....trying to solve ick, by taking the fish out., and manually scraping the white spots off....with your fingernails!
-Stupid stupid stupid, ick has multiple life stages and is best targetted in their free swimming stage!

Your turn!

ceci9293 · Benefactors Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Location: Austin, TX

* Neglected to cycle, which resulted in being nicknamed "Fishkiller" at the LYS. Sad

* Kept a three spot gourami in a 5-gallon tank. And then tried to introduce tankmates. And then was surprised when the gourami slaughtered them.

* Forgot to put the lid back on a betta tank. And then was surprised at finding the betta dried out on the floor when I returned home. (He survived!)

* Killed another betta by doing a water change from home RO filtered tap immediately after husband changed the filters.

More recent newbie mistake:
* Forgot to rinse the new carbon and bio-max filter media before putting the filter back into the tank. Almost killed the tankful.

silenoz · Members Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: Davis, CA

*Put netting over the intake on your powerheads, you may end up with a pearl gourami who has all the blood sucked into his face Sad

*A senegal bichir, even a blind-as-a-bat albino, can eat an entire 7 member school of zebra danios in less than 30 minutes. RIP little buddies.
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Minsc · Regulars Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Location: Framingham, Mass

My main mistake was thinking I would never want plants, and not setting up for them from the start. It's cost me quite a bit of money in stuff I no longer want.

kimbalilly · Regulars Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia

My biggest mistake was stuffing an 8 gallon tank with:

- 1 rainbow shark
- 3 red eye tetras
- 5 white clouds
- 2 kribs
- 1 green spotted puffer
- 3 cories

Once I started researching on here, the numbers quickly went down. (From me returning them, not killing them!)

Also when I very first started I killed off sooo many goldfish by leaving the water changes to once every few months, and when I did do it I completely rinsed out all the water and never bothered dechlorinating it. I feel so bad for those little fishies! Saying that though, nice one to the LFS who sold me 8 goldfish and an 8 gallon tank on the same day without asking any questions!

I now feel very pleased with the knowledge I gained from this website. I wouldn't have the obsession I do today if it wasn't for you guys!

I guess I'm just trying to say thanks.

Cathy G · Advisors Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Wisconsin

Here goes...

*Cycling with fish - or "Why is my angel fish having trouble swimming rightside up?"

*Buying 2 male gouramis, a large angel, 3 danios, 2 blue rams, and a siamese algae eater for a 20g. Or "Why are my fish killing each other?"

*Pulling out an undergravel filter while the fish are in the tank. No questions needed here, it was just dumb.

*Overfeeding my fish -or "Why did my gourami blow up and die in less than 12 hours?"

Cathy

Jack_Dempsey11 · Regulars Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Location: At the LFS

Cramming 13 fish (incompatible, of course) into a 5 1/2 gallon tank. (Why is my neon tetra missing an eye?)
Doing 100% water changes on said tank.
Constantly rearranging the decor of my first saltwater tank. (How did I manage to kill a damsel?)
Putting swordtails in an mbuna tank Exclamation

Trying to put an oscar in a 20 long.

and worst of all,

NOT buying a huge tank during Petco dollar a gallon sale!!! Evil or Very Mad

Now a 55 gallon is back up to $120USD! Oh well, they'll have another sale soon.

Jack
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DF Bobo · Exemplars Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Location: Canada

putting in the first fish too early and the next one was stupid of me and it took a while to notice since I don't regularly check the temperature anymore, but I left the heater off in my tropical community for a week. I unplugged my heater for a water change and didn't plug it back in.....
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DF Bobo · Exemplars Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Location: Canada

EDIT: second time something got posted twice by accident. can somebody delete this post please?
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TJ · Regulars Joined: 26 Sep 2005

-Not cycling tank Sad

, only lost a few neons, still have 1 after 2 years! They were bought at what I know now as a bad place to buy fish.

-Three spot gourami and a betta in a 20 gallon. Only one night, could not stand the flaring and stare downs.

-4 clown loaches in a 20 gallon, returned them shortly after some research
- 15 gallon:
1 Rainbow shark
1 Common pleco
3 Guppies
2 male german rams
3 Bronze cories
3 Black tetras(One of my favorite fish, had them for 2 years and plan to get more)

The 15 gallon was not that bad actually. I put my pleco in my pond after some research, my rainbow shark was young and peaceful, when he grew a bit more, he went to a firends new 30 gallon.