Share Your Mistakes Here

[fish4phil]

Let's be honest, we all make mistakes, including in this hobby. Share your biggest mistakes here so we can all learn not to do what you did!

Let me start...

I was setting up my HOB filter for my quarantine tank, and thought the mechanical filtration sponge was actually the bio filter (ignored the bio ceramic rings), AND thought only a filter floss from my main tank would be enough to seed my QT tank. Unfortunately, I lost 2 African Dwarf Frogs within 36 hours. Fishless cycling for me from now on!

 

[josh7]

Way back at the beginning when I got my first tank at 8 years old my parents and I didn't no anything about fish really I just picked out interesting looking fish. So I went on and picked out 1- African bumblebee cichlid 2 firemouths and 1 jack Demosey along with 2 common plecos. Some how all survived the cycle and the firemouths spawned and killed them all. I won't make that mistake ever again!

 

[Sidman24]

When I knew nothing about fish I got a 10 gallon tank not cycled and stocked it with... a kissing gourami , swordtail , mickeymouse Platy , common pleco , 2 cory cats , 2 dwarf frogs , 2 green spotted puffers , and a blue gourami. I know... It's terrible! But I knew nothing. One dwarf frog and both cories survived, and still have them till this day .. I now am very knowledgable and proud to know never to make mistakes like that again!

 

[GodFan]

We stocked a 10 gallon with 10 fish including a pleco and a red tailed shark. Uncycled.

That orvwhen I set 2 sa bumble bee cats into my nano tank....

 

[bettaowner]

When I started off, I had 4 comets in a 29 gallon tank. I moved them to a pond when they got larger

 

[Khuligirl93]

When I was 13 I got my first tank. It was a 1 gallon with 3 make guppies. I knew nothing about cycling. When the water would evaporate, I would add more, when it started to look dirty, I would completely drain the tank, wash everything off in tap water, and refill. Needless to say the poor fish only survived about 2 months.

But probably my worst mistake was keeping an angel in a 10g for a year. Poor thing got stunted. I still have her today in my 36 gal, and her fins grew longer, but I know she will never be full size because of my stupidity.

 

[vvjosh06]

Well I had a fully stocked 60gal w/ live plants and made a DIY CO2 out of a paintball cylinder. I was unaware that at night plants use oxygen and give off CO2 so I left the CO2 injection on all the time and needless to say my wife woke up after I went to work and got scared shitless. Gotta call and had to rush home to save what fish I could from CO2 poisoning. I felt so terrible I lost 9 fish that day. But I have learned since.

 

[Ayi]

On my first DIY co2 batch I put the check valve on the wrong way. No co2 could get in the tank so the pressure in the bottle was increasing rapidly. I came home from school to see a busted 2 liter bottle and sugar water all over a shelf in my room... Always check that you have everything the right way!

 

[CanadianWaters]

Pfffft I don't need a quarantine. Quarantining new fish is for the weak!

1 problem, and 4 fish, with ich later I am setting up my 15 as a quarantine.

 

[Mebbid]

I am a prime example of doing things the wrong way but am happy that I changed my horrid fish keeping ways.

Before I found this site:

First tank - 10g hex - 19 years old
Was set up for 1 day and then I added 2 angels, black ghost knife, black moor, CAE, Fiddler crab, and a handfull of guppies. They all died quickly and I gave the tank to a friend.

Second tank - 29g - 23 years old
Uncycled but lightly stocked. I bought a pair of jeweled cichlids in a tank with peaceful community fish. They then spawned and killed everything in the tank. That was 4 years ago and I still have the male who is almost completely blind now.

I decided to give fish keeping one last chance when I found this site and now have waaaay too many tanks

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Typical kid who didn't know anything. Set up a 10g as a 10 year old, stocked it with 15-20 fish same day. Lost a bunch, just replaced those. Only added water to replace what had evaporated. When it couldn't stand not being able to see my fish through the algae, I would take it apart, boil & bleach the gravel and decor clean and put a new filter cartridge in. The fish that somehow survived the last tank quickly died, were replaced, and the story started over again. Took a few years off, then got back into it. Same thing all over. Took another few years off, then was going to rebuild my 10g in our new place and my brother offered me his 55g. Started off exactly the same way....

After about 2 weeks, a couple neon deaths, and algae starting to show up, I decided to look into what I needed to do since I wasn't going clean the 55 like I did the 10 every few months.

Thank God I found this site!!!!!!!

 

[Old Scales]

My wallet says this hobby is a big mistake but my heart says its more than worth it. LOL.
OS.

 

[Delapool]

Biggest mistake this time was setting the tank up in the wrong spot, too big to shift easily and only needs to move 10 ft.

Biggest mistake at 17, (years back) was taking the casing off an air pump to see how it worked - live. I can't remember how but a twist tie (metal strand covered in plastic) fell on the electrics. One puff of smoke, a bang, thrown fuse and melted plastics later I learnt an important lesson that electricity doesn't care.

My tank setup now has its own fuse at the powerpoint, just in case of leaks. You hear stories of tanks or hoses leaking and with kids this is my greatest concern for fish-keeping.

 

[Masha]

Delapool "electricity doesn't care" how true! Had my share of shocks.

 

[Bichir Bro]

Well like most I began with a ten gallon. It was "cycled" for about a week then added:
2 Bala sharks
2 goldfish (won at carnival)
1 koi (again won)
8 guppies
3 neon tetras
2 glow light tetras
Stupid carnivals. If I ever get in any slot of political power I'm banning that and making it so illegal it's stupid. I got out of fish keeping for about 8 years then jumped back in. Now I'm going nuts (well as nuts as my parents will let me) so glad I found this site and hobby! Some good news outta this is I released the goldfish and koi into a local pond (with permission). I always went there and fed them from time to time. They got huge! Amazing what a near football field size pond will allow a fish to grow to! Man I was 6 when this all happened and remember it like yesterday.

 

[Nigoodman]

In 1999 i got your typical ignorant fishbowl with two comets in it. Upgraded to a three gallon after 5 years and now a 5 gallon. Im talking no filter, air bubbler or ANYTHING and this comet is now 14 years old. Her name is jessie. I have no idea how the most fundamental mistake is still totally fine.

 

[Alan79]

I spent about 8 years overstocking my 20g with Comets. They would usually last for about 3 years as a community until one outgrew the rest and the rest would die. I guess the bigger fish wind up getting aggressive when they outgrow the tank.

 

[Brookster123]

My most repetitive mistake is going to the fish store when I need absolutely nothing at all, it's like there is some cosmic force that will not let me leave with out buying something, I have a box under my tank table with filters, air pumps, heaters.. I have a problem...

 

[threnjen]

When I got married 10 years ago, our reception table centerpieces were Bettas in little teeny vases. We encouraged people to take them home afterward

 

[Aqualady40]

I remember when I was 18, I had went to lfs and saw the gold fish feeder tanks ( I did not know they were feeders though). I looked at how small their tank was and thought hmmm if they can house that many in a little tank, hmm so can I.....so I bought a 10g tank and about 30-50 gold fish. Well you all know how that turned out...I didn't know about cycling or water changes.....phewwww it was a stinky disaster, daily.....Hahahaha...ameteur mistake