Aquaridiots :P

[Ilikefishes]

My girlfriend and I started our aquarium as something to do together about 2 months ago. We went through the noob phase but quickly (mostly from AA) picked up on how to maintain a beautiful, healthy, and lively aquarium. She has been wanting fish for years and her parents never wanted to buy one for her so I fabricated her dreams of fish keeping to my apartment.

I kick myself for when I was little having a small aquarium and just constantly killing my fish due to not knowing what I was doing. And I see people making the same mistakes I did when I was little, but as adults. And when I try to help, they get so offended!! I call them aquaridiots. My girfriends twin sister (my favorite aquaridiot who always feels need to compete with her bought a small aquarium cube thing and stocked it with two guppies (smart move) but doesn't monitor the water quality and got annoyed when she heard she needed to front money for water conditioner and put time and effort (not much for a 10 inch by 10 inch tank) for PWCs.

She just put an oscar into her tank and it ate the guppies... I don't know how to make her understand she needs to read the fish specs on the tanks at the stores before she buys the fish. I get so frustrated.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Thats my brother. He has a 30L (just under 10G) tank and I reckon he has about 50 Tetras in the thing. I've told him a tonne of times he got to many fish but it's all "NO I DON'T!!! SHUT UP THIS IS MY TANK!" Does anyone know a good lawyer???

 

[dkpate]

People tell me they would love to have a tank, and then I tell them all I went thru and how much money I have spent, and they change their minds .
My sister-in-law has 4 tanks, with livebearers, bala sharks, a johanni, a pleco, a BGK, turtle, and guppies, and I have been on the phone with her for HOURS educating her about cleaning and feeding. At least the fish are happier!

 

[jimmy c]

i know the feeling, my sister doesnt know much about tanks. her fish die and she calls me to ask me questions but it doesnt help. gggrrrrr

 

[Ilikefishes]

Oh man, people are nuts!

 

[redneckgearhead]

lol Everytime i show my tank to someone the first thing they say is "man thats alot of rock in there, the fish have no room to swim." I usually just laugh and reassure them there is plenty of room for them to swim and that the rock in a SW tank is part of the filtration/eco system. And my Mom said "whats the point they dont do anything?" Again i laughed and said they do alot more than the thousands of "knick knacks" you have in your house.

 

[Aquarium1]

When I checked out one lfs for some cichlids, they only had two in the tank and one looked very sick. The lady taps on the glass with her fingernails to try to make it come out from behind the filter intake . I almost felt like snatching her hand away lol. And I have a neighbor that thinks their filter is good enough so that they never change their water, let alone cycle a tank or acclimate their fish right.

 

[mfdrookie516]

everybody that sees my 150g asks me why i dont have any "nemos" in it... i politely explain the difference between saltwater and freshwater

 

[Mitchell0605]

lol

 

[bobberwobber]

I kick myself for when I was little having a small aquarium and just constantly killing my fish due to not knowing what I was doing.

lol its funny, we were just talking about this earlier. but i find it funny because way back when, when i was little, and had the 10gallon in the bedroom, i would always win those goldfish from the fair, you know, shoot the target win a fish. dont see them much now as it was pretty bad for the fish hanging in bags all day in the sun... but i never had any die. up until just a few years ago actually, my mom had a few of them in her pond, and **** they had to have been 10 years old.
i didnt do anything to the tank, didnt know better. didnt condition it, do water changes, check anything, always figured, it ok to drink, so must be ok for fish too lol... they always seem to do very well though. now i know better and spending all this money and all this time, for the same results... guess lot to be said for those fairground fish....

only one i know that seems to have issues is an EX, who got a 10 gallon for her daughter, stuffed it full of tropical fish, then let her daughter feed them every 10 minutes lol.. eventually i had to explain to the kid why one day they had all died... poor thing, her excuse was, they looked hungry. tank sitting empty now, as she spent about $40 on those fish..

 

[Ilikefishes]

Yeah most of my fish did okay in the TAP WATER when i was little, exept the fish that weren't genetically altered (platys, tetras, pleco) the ones that have the green and pink dye in their back did fine. But wow all these stories are so funny. People crack me up. Props to redneckgearhead for the knick knacks around mom's house. My mom is the same way!

 

[dkpate]

Well, I don't think I would need to use dechlor where I live, because we don't have chlorine in our water, but I am NOT taking the chance. I was wondering why my aunts fish were still alive when I first saw them LOL.

 

[Viper]

I have a friend that bought a Red-Bellied Pacu not too long ago and he has a 46 gallon tank. I have told him to immediately take it back to the store before he gets attached to it because that fish should be in a tank 5 times larger than what it is currently in. He doesn't want to listen though so eventually the poor fish is going to die or break the aquarium glass, at which point he will probably die anyway. I will then say I told you so.

I hope I can convince him to take it back to the store because it is already getting too big for the tank.

 

[marina]

LOL!! You guys are too funny!!! I feel like "one of those" right now....Although I TRY to do the right thing, what i found the hardest is to WAAAIIIT!!! I have to say, that my level of patience has been challenged to the limits of giving up, but, I will not end up selling my tank in a future garage sale, NO SIR!!! So, after killing all my fish (5 in a 10 gal uncycled tank-my very 1st one EVER) I am starting again...Awwhhh but it is soo worth it!!! Thank God for this Forum!!! Thank you all for helping this former aquaidiot!!!

 

[redneckgearhead]

wow just had a fb friend complain about losing all of her fish to ick. She said she didnt know what happen, she started her tank two weeks ago added an undisclosed amount of fish. she added one more and went away for two days. she is blaming it on the new fish. I asked about a cycle, of course she didnt know what i was talking about. I asked about ammonia she didnt know that you could test the water. she stated she had tanks for years and never tested or cycled. I directed her to this site and explained the cycle so maybe some fish will be spared.

 

[sarahh]

It seems i am slowly emerging from my aquaridiot phase
this site, and a few of the amazing people on it have without a doubt saved a few lives for us. (A1, dk, jim and others) And encouraged a few births.

Now when i walk into a fish store, i internally cringe.. Mr "oh let me have a tank and some food and the biggest bag of fish you got please" and the kiddies bashing away at the glass. Yeesh!! i want to cry for the poor things

 

[Krypt]

It seems i am slowly emerging from my aquaridiot phase
this site, and a few of the amazing people on it have without a doubt saved a few lives for us. (A1, dk, jim and others) And encouraged a few births.

Now when i walk into a fish store, i internally cringe.. Mr "oh let me have a tank and some food and the biggest bag of fish you got please" and the kiddies bashing away at the glass. Yeesh!! i want to cry for the poor things

I know what you mean, whenever I'm restocking supplies I always see a guy and his kids with a 10 gal tank kit in one arm and a bag of like 10 fish in the other. I mentally play taps in my head for the soon to be dead fish.

 

[Zer0]

My parents think i'm insane that i spend most of my money on my fish tanks. I beg to differ.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Same here Zero.

 

[jessibell]

everybody that sees my 150g asks me why i dont have any "nemos" in it... i politely explain the difference between saltwater and freshwater
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lol when I worked at petland this was a constant thing for a while after that movie came out. We actually had several "nemos" and even a couple "dorys" in this huge sw tank (I think it was about 150 g) and people would come in specifically asking for nemos and dorys. I still don't know what the proper name for a "dory" is, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what my boss put down on the order form.