Share your fishie mistakes!!!

[JodiMartin2003]

Well, in order for me to do a proper water change, IE 50% I have to turn off my heater and have never had any ill effects. My fish have always survived, bettas included. As long as the water you are putting in the tank is the same temp as the water you take out, there shouldnt be a problem, your heater shouldnt be off long enough to make that big of a difference.

 

[Blazeherd2306]

My worst mistake was buying a channel cat for my 55 gal. I bought him at about 5" and watched him grow to 10" within about 2 months. I later found out how huge they can get and how predacious they are . An even bigger mistake was when I moved him into the local pond.

 

[JodiMartin2003]

Yeah, I have an albino channel cat in my 55g now, trying to talk the bf into getting rid of him. He is about 5 inces long. He doesnt seem to be growing that fast, but he is growing. I really dont like that thing.

 

[lovemybarbs]

I'd say my worst was buying the crawfish. Oops. He had my frog by the leg! He had to go. Oh, and buying three red-tailed sharks at once. Double oops. There was one by the end the week.

 

[frieked]

When I was much younger (around age 10) I had a betta in a 1 gallon bowl.
My family was going on vacation for a week so I left it with one of those 7 day feeders.
What I didn't know was my dad turned the heat off in the house while we were gone and it was the dead of winter and there was no heater for the bowl. Bowl temp couldn't have been more than 45 degrees F when we got back. I thought the betta would be dead for sure but amazingly, it was lying on the bottom of the bowl and you could still see its gil's moving very very slowly like it was in some sort of hibernation or something. Well, the heat got turned back on and slowly the temp rose in the bowl and with the rising heat, the betta came back to normal and began swimming around and eating normally as if nothing had happened. He lived for quite a while after that too.

 

[Guest]

When I was much younger (around age 10) I had a betta in a 1 gallon bowl.
My family was going on vacation for a week so I left it with one of those 7 day feeders.
What I didn't know was my dad turned the heat off in the house while we were gone and it was the dead of winter and there was no heater for the bowl. Bowl temp couldn't have been more than 45 degrees F when we got back. I thought the betta would be dead for sure but amazingly, it was lying on the bottom of the bowl and you could still see its gil's moving very very slowly like it was in some sort of hibernation or something. Well, the heat got turned back on and slowly the temp rose in the bowl and with the rising heat, the betta came back to normal and began swimming around and eating normally as if nothing had happened. He lived for quite a while after that too.

WOW!!! That is one super betta!!!

 

[willowthepoet]

^^ that's nothing. my friend's kid (who is 4) one hot summer day thought that her betta was too hot (inside mind you, in the air conditioned house... kids are strange), so she put the bowl in the fridge.

we didn't find out that the fish was missing until several hours later when we went in for iced tea... and found the fish just swimming around in the bowl as if everything was normal. fish was fine and is still alive and active as ever a year later.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

One of my mistakes was leaning over the top of the tank while rearranging some decor in the tank. Never do that with a 6 1/2 inch Bala Shark in the tank, lol. He came right up to me and kicked water all over my face and the front of my shirt and quickly swam to the other end of the tank and strutted like, neener, neener, neener, you can't get me, lol. It was then that I learned that fish are definitely smarter than you think they are.