What's the worst aquarium mistake you've made?

[fearlessfisch]

1. All those years not understanding about cycling. All those poor fish who suffered and died after total cleanings of the filter and the resultant ammonia and nitrite spikes.

2. Ditto for not understanding about stable pH. All those times I dumped pH UP and pH Down into the water to "help" my poor fish and instead shocked them to death.

3. Putting 2 dwarf frogs into my 55-gallon tank, not realizing that they were too little to swim to the top. They drowned.

4. The betta who dropped on the floor and died.

 

[GeoPink]

Buying three tinfoil barbs to put in my 20 gallon without first knowing how big the dang things get... (This was seven years ago and I've since gotten rid of them.) It just kills me everytime I go to the LFS and still see them selling those beasts-in-waiting to unsuspecting aquarists.

 

[jrp1588]

I have been keeping fish off and on since I was about 5. Most of my big mistakes happened when I was below 10. But anyway, when I was about 5 I was sitting at the counter drinking some kool-aid watching my tank, and a thought popped into my head. I like kool-aid, I bet my fish would too! So I dumped the rest of the glass in there. There were no survivors. haha

About a year later my unwise parents bought me a fish bowl and a betta...a mistake in its own right, I know, but not what I mean. This betta was my pet, literally, I would regularly take him out of the tank with my hands and pet him. I think he got used to it, he never struggled or tried to escape. This went on for months until my mom caught me. he was a fighter though, lived at least a year. \

More recent mistakes...while changing the water in my grow out tank, I put in water that was too cold. Killed off all my acei and kenyi fry. Put a GBR directly from the pet store to my tank. It carried ick. I lost a breeding pair of angels, several mollies, and some other random fish, it was a few years back. Last week I managed to kill off all 150 or so of the angel eggs in my grow out tank. Not sure what went wrong. And yesterday I spilled a some tank water from a bucket onto an electric socket...That one was a little scary, but no harm done.

 

[marchmaxima]

Messiest blunder.

Dropped a 15 litre bucket of freshly dechloronated water on to the floor.

Tragic Mistake

This is when I was a real beginner and didn't know 1/2 what I needed to. Cycled a tank, and went to a "reputable" aquarium in the city to stock. It's still touted as one of the "top three". I asked the manager (it said "Manager" on his tag) and asked him to suggest somethig suitable for a community tank. Must be non-aggressive.

They sold me a 4 tetras of some species I can't remember right this sec.

The next 24 hours played out like Texas Chainsaw Massacare. At the end of the carnage, the only fish left were the 4 tetras.

I wrote a complaint letter to the store. Never even got a phone call to apologise.

 

[Dave66]

Biggest blunder when I was eight or nine was to capture all sorts of minnows and killies from an obliging stream, then fill a 10 gallon tank on the floor with water from a 29 gallon above it. Of course, full of fish and water on the floor, which of course wasn't dead flat, the tank burst, shooting water, fish and glass all over the floor.
Put all the fish in the bags I had them in and returned them to the stream, sorrowfully.

Dave

 

[trotty]

My biggest blunder was unknowingly knockin a roll of sticky tape into a 8ft tank with some very large and very loved fish.... two days later the tank was white and most of the fish dieing... Very sad

 

[rbailey]

Bigest mistake was saying yes to the Wife when she asked if we could go over to Salt Water, my wallet is still in pain .

Cheers,
Richard B.

 

[happygirl65]

Not quarantining new arrivals (including plants).....subsequintly losing half my stock due to ich that arrived seemingly out of the blue several weeks after adding the last fish.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

I thought this was a good thread so since I'm new heres my 1/2cent.

Mistakes, well on my B-day in March, my girlfriend showed up with 3 medium sized fancy Goldfish and a 1 gallon fish bowl. I knew basically nothing about fishkeeping but had common sense enough to know that those fish were too much for a 1G bowl. So we went to the store and I picked out a 10G kit and set it up at home.

Then the reading/learning began. Basically if I had to do it over I would have just taken the fish back and did the reading/planning 1st. I would not have bought a kit, I would peice one together with better equipment. Would have gotten a 20G instead. And a couple other things that I know now. I did keep those 3 GF in my 10G to cycle, 1 died, then as soon as it was cycled I took the 2 remaining back and got some smaller fish(in sig).

 

[Mdakotared]

Worst Mistake

As already mentioned: introducing fish before 55 gal. tank was completely cycled. Did not lose all my fish, but enough of my old veterans to really regret my impatience!

 

[SomethingSmellsFishy]

Buying a channel catfish for my 55 gallon. It was an awesome fish...until it grew too big.

 

[haykay]

messiest -
forgot that I was refiling my clean water jug so it could age.. sat down in the living room to admire my fish. heard a splash.. managed to flood my kitchen

Didn't QT a pleco before adding him to my tank.. killed all my fish but my angel...

Prolly have to say buying kits, although I like to add extra filters so It's not really a problem I just get the better fulltime equipment seperate

 

[saffikeagan]

I just made my biggest one yet today (I'm 1 month into this whole tank bizzo). My Beta, Sammie, is in QT/temporary accommodations until my tank finishes cycling. I was going to give him one blood worm for a treat, and for some reason decided that blowing across the container of blood worms was a good idea. I had blood worms all over his abode, the table, the floor, and my hand, and two cats curious about the commotion while I'm trying to skim all the bloodworms out of the abode before Sammie gobbled himself to death.

 

[lynda orourke]

I just made my biggest one yet today (I'm 1 month into this whole tank bizzo). My Beta, Sammie, is in QT/temporary accommodations until my tank finishes cycling. I was going to give him one blood worm for a treat, and for some reason decided that blowing across the container of blood worms was a good idea. I had blood worms all over his abode, the table, the floor, and my hand, and two cats curious about the commotion while I'm trying to skim all the bloodworms out of the abode before Sammie gobbled himself to death.

my step dad did similar when feeding my fish droped the tub of food in, much skimming and cleaning to sort that mess out.

 

[cinnastix911]

My biggest mistake would be being passive when it came to shipping my 9" paroon shark to Ohio. I packed him all up in a bag with just the right amount of water, then went to the LFS that said they could pack him for shipping. Their idea was oxygen, 2 layers of bags (My fish had barbs, it was a catfish...), in a box. I had brought my own box line with styrofoam and I asked for 4 thick bags and extra knots up top.

DOA. my favorite fish who I was just trying to ship to a better home with no cost to the receiver had cut through his bags. :/