Stupid ways to kill a fish

[Mosaic]

Ok, so I ripped up my 10g to add new substrate and begin my first true aquascape, which I'm going to blame squarely on you all. The rest, though, is my fault.
The night before all this, I mixed up a batch of DIY CO2. I placed the bottle in a bucket in case it made a mess (which I expected, as so far all my attempts have ranged from unsuccessful to catastrophic, as you will see. I think I'm 0/4 on the DIY CO2 attempts). Sure enough, I awoke to a half filled bucket of water, as the system had siphoned water out of the tank overnight. I took the bottle out of the bucket and went back to try again. During that time I got a little distracted and decided just to redo the whole tank. So I pulled out my plants and put them in a small holding tank and added water from the bucket. I had a smallish ctenopoma in the 10g (growing out) and put him in there too, figuring he'd be happiest with his plant cover and in the same water he'd been living in while I redid his home, rather than putting him in another tank. That's right, I put my fish in DIY CO2 water!! I guess I just didn't think about because the water was diluted clear, while my mix was a tea color (experimenting with unprocessed raw sugar). When I finally figured out what killed him (it took a while) I couldn't believe how stupid I was. This was a species I'd wanted for a long time, and he didn't disappoint. He was a cute little guy with a surprisingly fun personality. Still, I don't think I'll get another any time soon. A moment of silence, please.

As if I needed another reason to go pressurized. This better turn out to be a fantastic tank. We paid a price for it.

Anybody else willing to share regrettable things they've done that have killed fish?

 

[tropicfishman]

when I first started in this hobby, prolly about 5-6 years ago, I was jammin out on guitar to metallicas sad but true when for some stupid reason I decided to try and swing the guitar around my neck, instead it went right through front of my first 10 gallon, I stood thee stunned, since most damage was near the top[ I was able to save alot of the water and fish, except one, my prized green tiger barb, who had flopped under the stand I ahd him on, I found it weeks later when I rearranged my room ,.quite nasty

 

[Orcus332]

I've went through my fair share of fish/aquacritters, and I've only been at this for about 6 months. I had a few african dwarf frogs, but one day I noticed one was missing. I knew that they're able to escape from an open top, so I looked all around the tank, but couldn't find him. I figured that my cats had eaten him after he escaped. Well for the next two weeks I slowly lost a dwarf puffer, 2 otos, and 3 ghost shrimp one after another. About a month later when I was giving my tank a thorough cleaning, i found this fuzzy mass under a rock. After close inspection I noticed something that resembled a small femur and some other miscellaneous bones. I'm pretty sure that one frog was responsible for killing most of my fish
On a side note, I've had two dwarf puffers get trapped in the narrow slots on my filter intake tube. Needless to say, I've converted to some larger fish since then.

 

[Squirt0170]

My first set of fish I bought was guppies... Well no one at the store told me I needed a heater and since I'm "not on the ball" sometimes... It didn't kick in that "Tropical" fish MIGHT need something to keep them warm. They all (4) went into shock one day at a time and died.. the snail is still living today.. When one of my guppies was on the bottom of the tank... the snail had him in his mouth and my 6 year old seen it.. He said to me "Look mom it's a KILLER snail" LOL..

I lost a silver dollar because he got stuck inside the hole of my decorations.. his head was inside with his tail sticking out.

My first Ghost knife lasted 3 days and starved himself to death but I personally think he was sick anyway... the one I bought after that has lasted almost a month.

 

[toddnbecka]

I lost an ornate bicher to a diatom filter, forgot to put the intake strainer on. Poor fish was jammed head-first in the intake, with its eyeballs bulged out when I found it.
Then there was the time my 55 sprang a leak, from the heater being too close to the silicone seal. 8O I moved the fish into another tank, and put in a powerhead with a quickfilter canister for additional circulation. A Synodontis cat I'd had for several years got itself stuck in the middle of the filter insert and died. I hadn't realized there wasn't a bottom cap on the quickfilter.

 

[DeFeKt]

nobody told me that oscars jumped at moths and flies attracted to the light when the lid was off.

 

[SCFatz]

ummm.....well......gosh.......algae eaters need to really eat.

 

[czcz]

I cracked my tank while installing a standpipe and reacting to a phone ring. Lost several fish and shrimp, including Psuedomugil gertrudae aka Spotted blue-eye Rainbowfish.

Just thoughts on your CO2 setup for your next attempt: a check valve or a gas separator bottle above the tank will prevent siphon while allowing you to hide the generator bottles. I've experienced back siphon when not allowing bottles adequate time to cool and generate CO2, fwiw.

 

[trotty]

I too have lost oscars through a gap and also while feeding. hungry little buggers....
I have also lost a few batches of fry from various fish to filters aswell.

 

[Tiffi]

I have lost my GBR male that already paired up with my female because he got stuck in the L piece of a Hagen powerhead. I've been looking for him for days and when I found him I have never seen such a nasty looking fish before with his eyes buldging out and stuff.

Until today I haven't found a male that my bossy female accepts. I guess she's happier with her female friend.

 

[tbonem91]

I had a gold nugget pleco get stuck headfirst inside of a large apple snail shell and die.

 

[Mosaic]

Wow, a lot of filter stories. I never would have guessed.

Also, I've electrocuted a fish with a cracked heater. Good thing I didn't have my hands in there.

I have one particularly stupid fish that got himself stuck behind the co2 bubble ladder on a number of occasions. He went to a different tank.

Thanks czcz. I actually got a check valve the last time my system did this. Then I heard that pressure could cause the bottle to explode, so I didn't use it 'cause I didn't know if it could contribute to the problem. I'd rather have a leaky situation than an explosive one. This last time I know it did it because I boiled the water first (aseptic preparation) so I know the water was too warm. The first time, though, it started siphoning days later (close to replacement time), and did so much slower. Maybe it was just a regular leak.
Regardless, its time to go pressurized.

 

[F-18 TECH]

In the 17 years I have been in the hobby I have los a lot of fish due to stupidity. I lost a "rope fish" due to a lapse in memory. I left the tank lid open after a feeding and he took the leap of faith. He survived the leap but my cat Merlin acted on the oppertunity and the rest was history. I also had a horrible experience with all my fish recently when I moved from Ontario to Alberta. I went to every lfs in the area and also posted the fish for sale on every web forum I was a part of and nobody wanted them. I even offered to drive them to anyone within 5 hours. So I had to flush them. To this day I still think about it In retrospect I sould have had them shipped to my mothers house..