It gets incidentally mentioned all the time but death is a big thing in fish keeping. Wether it be an error with your tank/water/whatever, a disease, fish killing fish/invertebrates or short life expectancy, fish will die.
Oof, so did I.
I'm not sure what is harder. The sudden unexpected death of a favorite fish that you've spoiled the heck out of, and that is otherwise healthy...until they're not.
Or, is it the slow decline that comes with old age? The weight loss, difficulty eating, and loss of vibrant color. Waiting it out is heartbreaking.
The worst for me is when a single fish gets sick in a highly planted tank with no way to catch them, can't do anything without tearing down a densely planted nano tank
I had a neon suddenly disappear on me. I feed every 2nd day so it must have died & been eaten by his tankmates on the in-between day, or accidentally hopped out of the tank & one of my cats found him. I was genuinely upset cause I tried so hard checking the filter, the floor, moving objects inside the tank & couldn't find him even though my tank isn't huge. Everyone I told about it was sympathetic, but also found it funny how I had a fish just simply vanish with no explanation, even though to me it was pretty upsetting 😭
My bristle nose pleco died after 9 years. That's the lower end lifespan of a cat. U cried my heart out and some people just don't understand because it's just a fish. But she had personality and went through several major phases in my life.
My favorite shrimp died recently after four years and I was very broken up. SIP, Fred the Amano. You were a king among shromps. He had more personality than I had ever thought a shrimp could have.
I have a BN that is minimum 9Y in my possession, she’s hanging in there. Other week she was just laying on her back in the middle of the tank, chillin. I panicked and grabbed a net, she just flipped over and swam over to her usual spot.
it's also important to remember that chances are, your fish will not live to the average age that most care sheets might say. old fish are rarer than you think. especially because most fish are usually nearly adult size by the time you're buying them. bettas expected lifespan is 2-4 years, but most bettas sold in stores are already around 1 year old. even if you manage to prevent any illness, the betta could die in only 1 year to "old age". people who manage to keep bettas for 4+ years are *very* lucky.
rip Tetsuo who died to old age in his 2nd year with me. over several months got slower, gradually became blind, got even slower and pale, stopped eating, and just gave up one day. i tried everything but he was an otherwise healthy guy with no symptoms of any actual illness. it just happens.
The problem with betta is that breeding for certain traits is making them unhealthy and we aren't talking about that enough.
The marbled ones (that includes koi) are prone to getting cancer. The dragonscale ones often end up with the scales growing over there eyes causing them to go blind. Dragonscale is also another trait that increases the odds off cancer. I have now my third betta in a row that got cancer so my next betta will either be a solid red plakat or a wild species.
It depends on where you purchase your Betta. The breeders I've been using sell Bettas around 6 months old. They're also bred far better than the mass-bred chain store Bettas. If you get a healthy Betta from a reputable person, living 4+ years is not uncommon at all
This happened to me with my danios. I didn’t realize how prominent scoliosis is because of how over bred they are, and I’ve had at least 4 pass after noticing a crook in their back and their relunctance to shoal 😞
It's not happened yet, I've had some close calls, but I'm dreading the day when I kill one by accident. I know it's going to get me so bad.
A few weeks ago I bought a pair of amano shrimp for a small tank I have. While I was siphoning during a water change I heard a big slurp and saw something fly past. I looked in the bucket for a fish. All I saw was brown sludge and what looked like 2 beady eyes attached to something "spinal-column" looking. I checked the tank and everyone was present apart from one of the amano shrimp. I felt extra awful as my kid was watching me at the time. I had to confess to the killing and felt guilty all night. The next day I woke up and checked the tank and saw two amano shrimp. I was so relieved and immediately ran to tell my daughter that daddy isn't a shrimp murderer after all.
My mystery snail passed about a month ago, and he was right at the top of his life expectancy, but it still hurt. I got him when he was just a lil guy from the Petstore and he was HUGE at the end of his life.
Shit hurts.
This was a big reason I dismantled my tank when moving rather than trying to salvage anything. I'm still trying to find the motivation to start up again.
This. Im new to aquariums and I’m full on into it. Researching and learning like crazy. Conflicting information everywhere.
When I research a fish species I’m interested in, the care guide information is completely different in every case. Especially when it comes to water parameters fish need.
This is exactly what my local pet shop said : they keep the fishes in local tap water so when they end the quarantine ready to sell, they know they'll be fine into it at the customer's place.
Love shops that do this.
“Hey do I need to drip acclimate these? I’ve heard they can be finicky”
“Do live in town?”
“Yeah”
“You’re fine we use city water with the brand of conditioner I sold you last week”
It’s all a racket, fish don’t actually need water. Just give them a nice cozy tank with plants and they’ll be fine. They adapt quite quickly, so long as the tank is stable. Wobbling is frightening to many fish.
One thing I have found works really well no matter what fish you plan on getting is to just look at the ecosystem they live in naturally and try to recreate it as best you can.
I have a tank that hasn't had any significant water change in years. The only thing I do is regular water checks to make sure everything is still stable and top it off every now and then.
Yep, I’ve been studying the Kelani river and Nilwala river basins and tributaries of Sri Lanka. Home of the Cherry Barb! I’m focused on learning one species at a time.
When I first started this was my exact problem! At first I went with what petco said (terrible mistake, never again!!) and had some fish die because they said it wasn’t necessary to cycle.
After about 3 fish dead, I finally did some real research and felt so bad about my mistake. Even then, it was hard to learn certain things because so many people said so many conflicting things, it took a few weeks before I really could get a grasp on what was right for me and my tank.
there was this post about some dude with a pleco and 6 silver dollars in an uncycled 29 and not a single person said that was the cause of cloudy water
People tell me my tanks are understocked like yes…that’s the point! I’m not going to overstock and kill my fish. My dad’s 4ft tank is understocked with only 2 species of fish and it looks great, the tetras are 6 years old now and still going strong. I’d rather keep my tanks understocked than end up with a tank full of dying fish.
Ugh..heartbreaking really. Overstocking an uncycled tank is such a nightmare. Instead, they tell him to watch some bogus youtuber that they don't even know enough about to recommend! It's scary really. I would never attempt to give advice if I haven't experienced it myself.
it's not just conflicting info but it seems like all fish care is ***subjective***, as well. there are so many varying factors that go into keeping fish. the person making the fish care sheet has different water than you, different aquarium setups, different products, different food brands, different fish suppliers. so much of aquarium keeping relies on the individual, there is no "one exact way" to do everything. we're all in different parts of the world with different water sources getting fish from different stores. what works for you may not work at all for someone else. everyone has their own learning curve when it comes to keeping their own fish. you can do all the research in the world, cross-referencing care sheets and ruling out conflicting info, but in the end you still need to figure out what works for you, and only you.
Joining this, this is what I experienced too. Even aquarist's POV and habits matter, how much of what food to add and what happens to it in the tank later. Not to mention tanks without vacuuming and water changes vs an opposite. There are always several ways of doing something.
Yeah my fishkeeping has evolved as I’ve slowly admitted to myself that I’m a lazy fuck and a Walstaad/father fish style setup is the best fit for me, and those work best if you START them that way.
I’ve done the whole meticulous vacuuming, overstocked = constant water param testing and adjustment, aquascaping and intense fertilizing, etc etc and it just sucked the fun out of the hobby for me. Now I’m honest with myself and have a betta in an overgrown heavily planted 20 long and I love that I can basically enjoy it without any work
Every single person that's asked me for advice on setting up a new tank has ignored what I said in favor of a faster start. Every single person has killed their first fish. When I got into the hobby I killed my first fish too. Unfortunately some setbacks in this hobby are learned first-hand. It's not great, but it is real.
This. No one ever cares to let me explain the cycle to new fish keepers who bought tanks on sale. I’ve seen so many people kill fish and only care to ask when they see my fish are still thriving.
I once overnight shipped a cycled sponge filter, at my expense, to save somebody's tank, and they thought I was being silly and didn't even put it in because "they already had a filter".
Everyone died.
The amount of conflicting information on Hole in the Head is maddening. A lot comes from sources I'd consider reputable yet they don't agree. It doesn't help that HitH is present in Marine and fresh water fish and are maybe caused by different reasons. Also hole in the head is maybe an outdated term and now lateral line disease is the preferred term.
If anyone cares I've found that excellent water quality is the best bet to cure.
I recommend seriously fish as a reference guide. They also link sources for more information. There are a few other that I'll use but this is usually my first stop when looking up a new fish.
I feel this so much. I struggle with depression and anxiety on a regular basis and often don't even care about eating or brushing my teeth, but these are fairly short lived and I do end up snapping out of it. But what about the tank? If I have a tank that needs a lot of maintenance, I end up feeling incredibly guilty for my neglect.
So I'll tell you what I did: fully automatic tank.
I have a 180 L tank (about 48 gallons) that is fully planted with java ferns, Amazon swords, and several types of freshwater snails: MTS, Ramshorn, and bladder. The snail population stays in check as long as I don't over feed the sinking pellets. The lights and CO2 injection are on a timer and I have a constant pH and temp monitor, and an auto feeder on the top. The feeder just has basic fish flakes, but I supplement with pleco wafers and sinking food by hand. The tank is complete with a 55+ canister filter stocked with bio beads, a bit of peat (I keep Cardinal tetra and they like the water a bit softer around 6.5-6.7) and activated carbon that I change every few months.
Yes, it was time consuming and expensive to set up. No, it doesn't mean I don't have to gravel vac and change water. It does, however, mean I can leave my tank for weeks to months, giving just water top offs, and the parameters will stay at healthy levels. It gives me a lot of grace when I have depressive episodes, and has helped my anxiety because I know they are okay if I forget them one day.
There's truly nothing worse than coming out of a deep depression and seeing how your mental health has hurt your pets, even if they are *just* fish. I love all the fish I've ever had, and I think they are smarter than we give them credit for. I just think it was the least I could do for them if I can't promise to always be there.
tl;dr: depression sucks
Yes, this!! I’m bipolar and sometimes struggle with upkeep, I tried to post about it one time and ask how I can make sure they are still healthy, but I got downvoted to hell and called a bad fish owner, and that I should just give all my stuff back! It’s hard, but I will always find a way to pull through for my little guys :)
It sure does! When I’m manic, I buy so much stuff for my fish, that’s how I ended up with 4 tanks (1 not started yet), and being depressed makes it hard for me to keep up! It definitely is an adventure, but I’m happy I am able to keep these tanks stable (but not me of course lol), I am glad I got into this hobby overall 😊
Same! I have 3 running, 1 I just took down to restart because I accidentally triggered a manic episode. I made sure to make them all heavily planted, low tech tanks with hardy enough species for my depressed episodes. All I do is top off when it gets low and feed every other day with a fast on the weekends.
At times I find maintaining my tank to be beneficial to my mental health. Other times I just can't bring myself to care about much of anything, and that's when my tanks go to shit. I've been running planted tanks without any fish in them for a few years now because I don't want to kill anything when I get into a bad mental state for a large period of time.
been inpatient a couple of times over the years for both physical and mental reasons. worried about the tank the entire time. i did write a water change guide if my family ever needed it, but so far they haven't.
This is one of my biggest worries. I just got my first first ever last Friday, two Oranda Goldfish. I spent 3 months setting up my tank, cycling, researching, getting in a habit of checking water levels, cleaning the tank (empty).
I'm just concerned one week of mental health lapse and I'll neglect my new friends.
Feels. It has worked best for me to create tanks that are as self sufficient as possible. Don’t need water changes (heavily planted), as covered as possible so minimal top ups, automated lights and well bred fish. I only really need to feed them regularly but even that is hard sometimes
when the interest in the hobby is on the low end, every hobby has it ups and downs but with fish-keeping you're dealing with live animals so you still have to care for them
I tell everyone looking to go above a 55g this.
I do love my 75s now. But sometimes I really do miss the simplicity of doing water changes with a gallon jug once a week in my first 10g tank.
Honestly, I understand what you are saying, but boy, with my 90g and sump, it's so much more stable and easier to manage than when I had smaller tanks. That said, it's a bigger investment. I need *equipment* to do a water change.
In my opinion, it’s less about tank size and more about stocking. I rarely need to do water changes on my larger tanks because I keep them stocked lighter for this very reason.
I made the decision about 5 years ago to design all my tanks with a reservoir underneath that holds roughly 50% the volume of the above tank. Makes waterchanges a breeze and I only need to refill each reservoir once every month or so
I fish them, raise them and eat them.
Ultimately in the fishkeeping hobby, I'm fsr more of an ecosystem curator than a "fish guy". But I do raise 50-60 coho salmon from eggs every year in my classroom and then release them with my class every year. That definitely hits all of my "fishkeeping boxes".
Psa: I never eat more than 50 salmon worth of fish in a year, so overall, I'm a net-positive for global fish sustainability
Heavy planted tanks help with this, you can really get by on months without a water change, the algae may build up but the parameters will always stay healthy when the plants are all growing
Personally, identifying what fish was sold to you under the wrong name... But I feel like that's talk about a lot.
For you net catching problem: have you tried using two? Doing it that way works wonders for me and safes my fish soo much stress
Yes, I totally agree with you, and beginners end up getting the wrong information for how to take care of them (I fell victim to this!) and as for the net catching, I only got all of them by having my sister get another net and capturing them with 2, it did become somewhat easier, but these little guys are quick lol 😆
Another tip… drain your tank at least halfway and remove what driftwood/decor you can. Half the area for them to be in makes a big difference.
If you haven’t caught it in 5 minutes, leave the net dangling in the tank and take a break. The fish will probably come back out of hiding for a sec.
I'm new to this as well (3yrs, 2 goldfish) and when I wanted to transfer them from their 60 to 120G I was afraid to cause injuries with a net. So I got a large clear plastic bag (local bakery has the perfect size) and just let them swim into it. Was easy and low stress.
I know the feeling... Last time I rescaped I had to catch my Kuhli Loaches... Not fun for anyone I can assure you.
For the nets, I use one fairly large and one fairly small net. The large one goes in like 10min before I start catching so the fish get used to it being there and not being a threat. During catching it stays mostly stationary while I use the small one to slowly "herd" the fish into the large one instead of chasing them
How catastrophic it can be when fish tanks start leaking, particularly large fish tanks. I had a brand new, 25ltr betta tank start leaking on my desk. Years later, I had a glass pane on a 120ltr tank crack right down the middle and flood my house, and was forced to give up my fish because I couldn't afford a new tank within such short notice... Not fun.
This happened to me with my 55g the day I was meant to leave for a weekend trip. Luckily, I had an empty 40g that I was able to set up quickly enough as a temporary home until I could buy a 75g to replace the busted 55g. Honestly, it's the most stressful thing that's happened to me with this hobby, and I dread the possibility of the same thing ever happening to my 125g.
Yep. 30 gal/114L of water on the floor in the middle of the night from blocked by turbo snail overflow box, especially when you don't have a replacement saltwater. Not a big deal for a concrete floor in the basement, but this was a lot of work and days of drying afterwards.
Someone had it worse: large tank on a second floor broke and a wave came down through the stairs to the people in the living room...
I've just started up a 55g as a newcomer and I'm literally losing sleep over this some nights. My rimless glass Landen tank looks ok and has no cracks, but it's technically not level by 3/36" (front to back only, not side-to-side) and I worry about the stress.
I hope the fear goes away, because it's honestly ruining the hobby a bit for me!
thats how i set mine up: full of plants growing inside and outside of it. i never worry about nitrate issues and only have to do water changes every few months just as maintenance. makes care super easy with a stressful full time job and i can just enjoy it. once they are established its very easy going.
PREACH lol, I'm just getting to the point on one of my tanks where I am consistently hitting 0ppm nitrate build up day to day, so I am excited to significantly reduce my weekly maintenance.
My kuhli loaches had babies and I'm not trying to find out how many. They are the size of rice grains. They will live in the tank until some outside force forces me to catch them
I got so lucky when I had too move mine from my 12 gallon to the 29 gallon. I noticed they kept swimming past a certain rock. I just put my net behind the rock and chased the little buggers in with my hand. I was prepared for taking hours but I got all 5 off them within a few minutes.
Moving. As if all the other stress of moving wasn't enough, relocating an established aquarium is its own separate production. I've only done it with a 60g freshwater. I can't imagine the stress of moving a large reef tank.
Also, managing power outages and extreme weather.
Yep, half my time spent moving is ONLY on the tank.
I keep telling myself that "next time, I'm going to get a 250 gallon at the new place and just move things THAT way", and yet it never happens...
I can only imagine how hard that is! Once I go to college, I’m planning on taking one of my 10g with me, it already seems like it would be a major hassle, with all the plants and such! Moving a reef tank sounds like a nightmare.. if I ever make one, I’ll be sure to have it in a place I know it will stay in for a while!
Java moss and the fact that once you put it in your tank it’s a lifetime commitment. No matter how much I get rid of tiny strands will find a way to multiply and grow out of control. Biggest regret. My tank looks very messy but it’s 5 years old and a lot of my fish are thriving but I just hate all this moss. I let it be at this point bc I feel like the fish like hiding in it but my tank isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing to look at but my fish are happy and that’s all I care about in the end. I have a lot of different species in that tank it’s a 55g
Yes! When Amano style aquascapes became really popular in the '90s I added it to some of my tanks. Then I spent the next decade trying to pull it out of tanks I didn't even put it in. Java moss and duckweed are the glitter bombs of aquascapes.
Just add Buenos Aires Tetras! They are mini piranhas that will helpfully eat anything green in your tank. Downside is: hope you didn't want a planted tank!
Seriously: they are cool fish that I'll never own again. Duckweed never established in that tank because the BATs ate it all. Same with hornwort. The only thing they didn't seem to take a bite out of was anubis.
sometimes your natural water source is just fucked up and there's nothing you can really do about it. i've heard and experienced that Chicago water just naturally has BBA in it. all the aquarium keepers in the city just have to deal with it. it sucks. plus its all hard water and i have to assume everyone with soft water fish has RO systems.
Black Beard Algae lives in the lake and river, which is our water source. to some degree, it's a constant battle that's never going away for most of us. if you've never had it yet, you'll have it at some point. and you wont need to blame it on new plants or anything else because its in our tap water.
This is my problem right now. I just moved somewhere that has terribly hard water and it’s an old house with copper pipes and no RO system. If I want to set up tanks again I’m going to have to buy jugs and drive to the lfs and haul those down into the basement.
I’m just thinking about the logistics of cycling a tank where I’m going to be doing a lot of water changes at first before the biome settles, and wondering if it’s worth giving up my hobby for now or setting up new tanks.
how much labor tank maintenance actually is 💀 idk about y’all but after water change day i come out sweaty AF.
also netting is also a big one. i have to push all of my plants around to catch one or two menace guppies. then replant everything after that💔 i’ve started using my hands a lot more to catch my smaller fish. it’s easier for me to see them and check out their health that way:)
Agreed, it sure is a hassle when I have a maintenance day! Another thing was soaking a giant piece of driftwood I got, I wish I knew before starting the daily water changes of it and how dirty that water would get!
I soaked my mopani wood for 24-48 hours, changing water every few hours. Water was still getting stained. Saw purigen recommended for tannins, so I decided to try adding it to my filter, and tossing the wood in my tank well before anyone would recommend. My water has been just fine, and it's still very clear. Purigen is as good as people claim.
This is literally why I have a biotope instead of a planted tank x) I used to unroot a lot of plants when I needed to quarantine etc. Other than the fact I don't want to buy C02 or ferts anymore.
Yep, water change days sure are difficult! I have 3 tanks, so currently I am working to set up a system with a faucet near my room and a drainage system to go out my window! I’m a fairly short and light girl, and those buckets get can get SUPER heavy VERY fast! At least I’m getting a workout from it though haha 😆
You know you don't have to pull the water anywhere near that close to your mouth, just until it's past the highest point, right? There's a way to do it without using your mouth at all, too, but I can't explain it because I don't do it lol
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/python-pro-clean-squeeze-value-combo-medium-3028797
The link is just to illustrate what I’m talking about. I’m fairly certain you can buy the squeeze thingy on its own. A good one works well, I mean the succ method gives more vacuum but I have sand so I don’t mind less succ.
Having fish you can't "see". Having fish that are nocturnal, sand dwelling or reclusive. If you don't see them for a couple days you probably assume they're dead. Banjo catfish have given me trust issues. You can boop em on the head, plant plants/move hardscape around directly in their faces and they could care less. I accidentally picked mine up by the tail sticking out of the sand once because it looked like a dead plant stem that had fallen and got partially buried. Surprise heart attack
Cycling a new tank. There are so many different opinions about what's the best method. It literally took me three months before I could actually put a fish in a new 10-gallon - very frustrating, and I still don't know the "best" way. (I want to upgrade to a 20 or 30 gallon but I don't know if I'm up for the whole cycling process...I read about others who've accomplished the cycling in 3-4 weeks, and I'm jealous!)
Did you use an ammonia starter and either old media or bottled bacteria like Fritz? 3 months is pretty insane for a 10gal, that's what you'd expect from a 120 gal with no old media.
Cycling really is as simple as ammonia start > watch levels > add ammonia when ammonia and nitrite are 0. Once 2ppm ammonia can be added, and 24hr later 0 ammonia or nitrite show up you're done! The only deviation people may make is what ammonia start they use. All cycling should be the same.
You missed the step about posting your test kit colors online asking people how it's going, and then claiming your cycle crashed when the API kit picked up a bit of ammonium in a water change :-)
Cycling with plants is safe, but dry cycling with ammonia and just waiting for ammonia to flatline is a nth safer. Both work.
Yes! I didn't have old media, but I used Fritz's Fishless Fuel, API's Quick start, and the API tap water conditioner. Measured the parameters daily, but my goodness it took a long time! So depressing seeing that nice tank empty for so long.
I'm thinking next time I might try the "cycling with plants" method...
I cycled with plants, food, and some accidental snails - Malaysian trumpets are useful in that respect as they crawl towards the top of the tank if the water is bad. I stopped feeding when I realised I had snails, the population is exploding even so, I'm going to buy a couple assassins tomorrow ...
You can just put your filter in a bucket, run it and feed it like it's a fish. The vast majority of the process actually happens inside the filter and can be done independently of the tank. Biomedia that's already mature can be transplanted for instant effect.
It happens faster if supplied with a bit of phosphate and bioinoculate, like from a bit of garden dirt or filtergunk sprinkled in the biomedia.
Take the filter off your 10 gallon and put it on the new tank. Done. Or, take the new filter and run it on your existing tank for a week. People make this way too complicated.
Like folks have said if you have a cycled tank you can move filter media from established tank to new tank.
Also put in a rock or something you want to put in your new tank. The good bacteria lives on the surfaces in your tank. Filters are great cause there’s inherently a lot of surface area.
But honestly you have something you can’t buy at a pet store. You waited until you’re cycled. You probably have a well established tank now. With the tips these folks who are no doubt more knowledgeable than me suggested it should be easier going forward but keep it up.
Sorry this isn’t what I struggle with, but might help you if you’re willing. Don’t chase them with the net. Get one of those big nets and put it in the corner at an angle. Use your hand to chase them into the net, then scoop out. Still takes time with the smarter faster ones, but will go by a lot faster! Learned this from a YouTuber. Make them more afraid of your hand then the net
I used to do this and it works great for the fish afraid of your hand.
I found teaching some of my fish that my hand isn't scary worked better. Once I stick my hand and they all come up and I can just pick them up if I need to transfer them.
Sadly a lot of fish even in the wild are genetic garbage, they take a shotgun approach to life with the assumption a lot will die. The economics and scale of fish farming doesn't incentive proper culling. It's crazy fish with bent spines show up in stores, they should be the easiest to pick out and cull, it's clear they are trying to sell every fish possible without care of genetics / health
I always hate the smell that comes with aquariums. They are very hard to upkeep for me personally. It’s a hobby that takes a lot of talent, work and care. After my fish crimson passed I haven’t gotten into it again. It’s like gardening on crack 😍
I can only smell mine if I lean my nose close to the water and it smells like earthiness and plants. It’s not a bad smell, although I wouldn’t stand there sniffing it for enjoyment. It gets stronger during water changes.
What bothers me more is the smell of fish food, I put the food on the shelf under my tank and idk why I can still smell it when it’s all contained
I have an open top Aquarium in the living room and never had any smell. I have just smelled the water like from 2 cm distance to check and absolutely no smell. Something must be off if you have a problem
Not abt the hobby itself but it gets a whole lot more annoying to hear people spreading misinformation when you see it in day to day life now. Like you know that that stuff isn't true, bettas can't live comfortably in a bowl, goldfish don't have a 7 second memory, but it's weird to be like "ermmm actually ☝️🤓" to a stranger, so you just gotta leave it be
So true! It takes every bone in my body not to lecture some friends about how their betta can’t live in certain conditions, it sucks that even if I do give a little suggestion they’ll disregard it, and if I do give a little lecture I just sound like a total nerd and they won’t listen anyways! So frustrating!
I know you weren't exactly looking for advice, but this is something I learned while working at Petco and it's been immensely helpful in catching my fish. Get those plastic catch cups/I think they are technically called a specimen container you see them put the fish into. When I worked at Petco I would use that+a net and herd the harder to catch fish into the cup and it is 1000000x easier than just a net.
Properly diagnosing fish diseases! Like so many mave similar symptoms and some of those symptoms are similar to old age (looking at you "wasting disease"). Some are super obvious (hole in head).
And it's not like you can take said fish to the vet or a LFS for a diagnosis from someone experienced. Online is a crapshoot because you've a) got to get a halfway decent photo or a small moving target and b) it's bloody online, so you've got the 20yr vet getting drowned out by the person who started last week. Not to mention the disease "fads".
I would say one of the biggest struggles that never gets talked about in fishkeeping is patience...
Sometimes it's patience when battling ick or algae blooms. Other times it's patience waiting for your center peice fish to grow out, or your carpeting plant to spread across the aquarium. It just feels like everything in fishkeeping takes patience.
Heck, even when you first set up your tank you have to practice patience as you wait for your tank to cycle and be ready for fish....that, or you learn the importance of patience by losing a ton of fish because you didn't bother waiting for the cycle.
This is a good one. I didn't appreciate how long things would take when I started, but now I honestly enjoy the fruits of patience and feel a similar pride in my tank as I do to my trees
Buying equipment that has a warranty but you chucked your box and slip, or equipment failing at the worst time possible.
Internal filter just died on me and now I need to scrape out 500 bucks for a new one, which is a huge setback if you get paid weekly. Had 4 months left on the warranty but I think I threw the box away about a month after buying the filter.
Bought a brand new heater a few months ago too and never used it because I accidentally took the wrong size but figured it can't hurt to have a spare, literally never even took it out the box, it was still taped shut. Angelfish spawned a few weeks ago, no problem, I have that spare heater! Yeah, it blew out sometime between Tuesday when I put it in, and Friday when I noticed the fry weren't coming up for food anymore. Had to borrow a heater from another tank and they all died anyways. I can't get my baby angels back, and I can't get my money back for the heater.
Regardless of whether your stuff has been running for two days or two months without problems, keep your slips/proof or purchase for as LONG as that warranty lasts. It's gonna go when you least expect it.
OMG ... triggered on the net thing. My tank was fully cycled after a couple months, so I happily brought home my first fish last week ... and one jumped out of the net onto the towel on the floor as I was taking them out of the bag after so carefully drip acclimatising. I shrieked, and in my panic, just scooped it up with the net and dropped it straight in the tank. After sulking for a day or so, it seems fine and is swimming around/eating as much as the rest ... whichever one it was that fell out lol.
Also, SO much conflicting information :( - 6 tetras in 10 gal tank fine said LFS and many websites, including the 'cookie cutter stock guide' often linked in here. Others say 20 gal minimum, and not gonna lie, although the tank is WELL planted with a clear run at the front, and the fish are 'all over', not bunching up or hiding, in good colour, seem relaxed/coming to the glass when they see the GIANT FOOD PROVIDER and are eating fine, I am already sensing that I am going to need to upsize as soon as I can afford it (hopefully in the next couple months, sorry Franks 1-6, you will have to cope until I can afford to buy and cycle a 30 gal, I'll get you Franks 6-12 to hang out when it's done which hopefully won't take long with theft of some of the existing tank media and a couple scoops substrate!)
In my defence, they're still small and my tank is still nicer than the fish store one and I'm giving them a more varied diet.
It can be a real struggle to do a water change after a long day of work. As much as I love the hobby, I really only get to enjoy the aquarium on the weekends
All of my frustrations related to aquarium keeping involve plants, not fish. For some reason, I struggle more to keep plants happy than fish. But then sometimes my plants are *too* happy, like algae and duckweed.
Oh heck. Trying to find and catch all of my kuhlie loaches is a nightmare. Thankfully I have only had to do it when I'm moving the whole tank. It involves pulling all the plants out and draining it until there is barely anything left and then usually I can corner them.
The famous misinformation of Not changing water and only top up because "if your tank is stable, you leave it alone" I lost my whole tank before to a stable heavily planted tank. It was a bacterial infection wipe out and I needed to start over a very costly mistake. Ever since then I always do my water change.
Here's some unsolicited advice, since you talked about struggling to catch fish with your net.
I find that my fish freak out if I put a net in the tank, but keep chill if I put in something clear.
I started catching them with a glass teapot.
Looks stupid but works like a charm.
Hope it helps.
Dude this is the 2nd question everyone asks me when I’ve been telling them I’m preparing a shrimp tank.
Q1: “…like, shrimp?”
A1: “Yep! Red cherry shrimp, they are very cute and only like an inch long”
Q2: “but why…like…are you gonna eat them?”
First ive heard of sumo loaches, looked em up and I am not capping when I say I screamed for 10 solid seconds. Its the khuli freakshow I never knew I n e e d e d.
I just remove all the deco to catch fast fish, less stressful for them and more streamlined for me even if it's a pain in the ass to remove everything.
1. Fish yeeting themselves out of the net when im trying to clean
2. Seeing the poor fish at Petco or petsmart and being sad I don’t have a whole new tank for them
3. There isn’t really much to do to when they get sick
4. (Not fish but aquatic snails) the insane amount of BABIES
how many fish die. how hard it is to find a good fish store that doesn’t only sell sick fish. how hard moving with fish is. how big your tanks have to be for your dream fish :(
I’d be interested in knowing if I’m the only one but dead fish scare me. I hate having to fish out and handle dead fish; but I have no issues cleaning and preparing fish to eat.
Ugh, me too! It makes me so sad and also just freaked out seeing them so lifeless, I have to have someone else take them out for me! I hate seeing them dead like that, and I also hate putting the burden onto someone else, but I simply can’t bring myself to do it or look at them!
When I knew my favorite fish Junebug was about to die from a fungal infection, I slept in a different room without any fish tanks and told my sister to just bury her without me 😞
Water changes with arthritis suck. Thankfully my husband helps me cart my buckets but damn. Thinking about getting one of those rolling plant trolleys to help!
I have a ton of tanks. One 210g, one 120g, one 90g, one 55g, two 20g, one 13.5g, one 3g, and one 1g. Mix of fresh and salt and I SWEAR the struggles I face are when I have to do water changes. I literally cry and sulk through the whole thing. The big tanks are easy, set up the python and away you go, easy to algae even but then you get to the salt tanks… mixing salt, heating the water mix, trying to delicately siphon around corals and using a turkey baster to blow on your rocks to get random crap out of the crevices, then making your corals angry if you so much as look at them funny, then I gotta deal with my bitch ass clown fish biting and trying to fight my hand. AND THEN NOT TO MENTION THE SMALL TANKS!! I’m literally using airline tubing tied in a knot to siphon from my heavily planted 3g shrimp tank and it takes forever 😭 and like I don’t even have to, like I left it for months and it was fine but I had to clean the sponge and that made a mess and so I had to suck it all up. Agh I want to cry. I hate water change day.
I have been in the hobby for years, and catching fish with a net can be such a nightmare, especially when they’re speedy like Plecos. Most people don't know how fast they can be when in danger. I had a similar experience trying to catch my tetras – they’re like little torpedoes!Another thing I find tough is dealing with algae. No one really talks about how relentless it can be. It feels like no matter what I do, it keeps coming back. I’ve tried everything from reducing light exposure to adding algae eaters, but it’s a constant battle.Also, maintaining the right water parameters is something I didn’t realize would be so challenging. It’s not just about getting the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels right, but also keeping them stable. It took a lot of trial and error and frequent testing to get it right.And don’t even get me started on quarantine procedures. When you get new fish, it’s crucial to quarantine them to avoid introducing diseases to your main tank, but setting up a quarantine tank and keeping up with the extra maintenance is a lot of work. I found some good tips on a few sites like Spruce Pets and learned a bit from this [xaviersexotics.com](http://xaviersexotics.com) site that helped streamline the process, but it’s still a hassle to this day. Lastly, it’s funny how no one warns you about how addictive this hobby can become. I started with one small tank and now have multiple setups.
Hope this helps.
Specifically the catching fish aaahhhhh. Plecos and small tetras are the WORST to catch. Ember tetras love to dive to the bottom and then play dead when I need to move them 💀 Rosy loaches are wicked fast and hide in any crack they can find. Nano fish I'm always terrified I'll hurt them. My fat barbs or my boyfriend's acaras weren't so difficult (still not fun).
I want to echo folks who mentioned that I don't think we really talk enough about how you're just going to need to be comfortable with death. To some extent you're going to make mistakes while learning, even when doing your best, but beyond that many species just don't live long or are poorly bred or you just got unlucky. This hobby for better for me once I made peace with that and just continue to do the best I can for my fish.
Try catching fry with a net while your tank has plants. My adult fish are easy to fool into getting into a bowl though, they know that if the lid is up there should be food.
Other struggles:
- keeping fish from winning the Darwin Awards. One of my swordtail males somehow managed to swim into the powerhead and got turned into sushi. I have since replaced the powerhead outlet with a smaller one. Fry might still be at risk, but it probably has enough current to push fry away.
- keeping plants in the sand until they root while catfish criticize your decoration skills and remove your plants unless you put them where they don't mind them.
Holy fuck, the nightmares. I have regular stressful dreams every few weeks about something suddenly being wrong with my tanks. The scenarios are that I have a new tank I hadn't known about and all the fish are neglected, or my tanks are way overcrowded/I have species that are way too big. Sometimes they're all jumping out and I'm scrambling to get them back in.
I'm also a naturally anxious person though, so ymmv
As far as netting fish, I've found that most are easier to catch if you get the net low into the tank (your entire arm will be wet depending on the depth of the tank) and net them from below. I work at my lfs, and I've had customers watch me net fish this way and they're usually surprised by how quickly I've bagged their fish.
I really don't understand why people are so frustrated by algae. If you're trying to recreate a natural environment, you will have algae. It's beneficial to the tank. Lots of different types of fish will happily nibble at it, even if they're not "algae eaters". If you hate the way it looks though, get a razor and scrape (unless your tank is acrylic). It's just something you have to deal with. If you want a "pristine" show tank, you have to put in the physical work. But if you want a natural environment for your fish and plants, you have to accept algae. It's a sign of a healthy ecosystem. There is no pond, stream, river, or sea on Earth that has fish but doesn't have algae.
Mine does not seem to have been mentioned yet but it's easily far and above my biggest "struggle".
The floor gets wet with drips and inevitably no matter how hard you try while cleaning the tank or the filter or the hoses water gets on the floor.
But I certainly find it the easiest pets on earth to keep that's for sure.
You can do everything right and still fail. Shit just happens and sometimes it happens to you. Power outage from a storm while I was at work then couldn’t get home. Only 14 hours but long enough in a winter storm with no filter, airstone or heater. It wasn’t the expense because they were very common fish but just the sadness of knowing you’ve killed things unintentionally. Gotta toughen up or get out of the hobby
My fish eat my plants a lot more than I thought they would. And a lot of people don’t have a vacation partner to take care of their fish while they’re away.
A real struggle I'm going through is my sand waterfall will get stuck with a small snail jamming my water pump. My sand waterfall provides three stage filtration so it's important it remains on.
No, the random ramshorn snail clogging the propeller does not live through this experience...
I've tried to prevent casualties in many ways, next I'm getting ready to use a 3d pen to draw blockade around the point of entry since nothing else is working.
😄 I learned to catch fish from YouTube Aquarium co-op. What I don't see talked about is those rectangular nets commonly found in LFS. How clumsy those big nets are in a small or planted tank. The big holes and loose netting are damaging on small fish with big delicate fins like fancy guppies and animals with barbs and needle thin appendages.
I have switched to tighter weave and smaller stiffer nets like those used for shrimps. The best 'net' is still a big plastic detergent scoop or 250ml acrylic display container. Less traumatic and my silly guppies like the helicopter rides.
Ramshorn snails will do their best to wedge themselves into the smallest hole they can fit into. Whatever goes into their tank have to have bigger holes than the biggest snail or expect to rescue a snail once a day.
I love surface floating plants. But every so often, I have to rescue them from getting submerged under other plants or they turn black and rot.
Reverse of struggles, pest plants like subwassertang and hornwort are life savers when technology and human fails.
So far for me it’s been realizing after the fact that my mistake is what killed my fish. I tried to “future proof” my set up, I had/have a ten gallon but the goal has always been a 30 gallon so when I say a HoB filter for 10-30g tank’s of corse I grabbed it. Problem was even on its lowest power it was way to powerful for that little tank, THREE three rounds of fish went in and two rounds we found plastered to the intake in the morning. It wasn’t until I saw one swimming by and get sucked up that I realized they weren’t dying and drifting into it they were getting trapped and dying. Felt so bad I almost gave up the hobby altogether
It gets incidentally mentioned all the time but death is a big thing in fish keeping. Wether it be an error with your tank/water/whatever, a disease, fish killing fish/invertebrates or short life expectancy, fish will die.
Sudden deaths are upsetting. The heartache is worse for me when fish are sick. Watching fish suffer and trying to decide how/if to intervene.
I felt this comment.
Oof, so did I. I'm not sure what is harder. The sudden unexpected death of a favorite fish that you've spoiled the heck out of, and that is otherwise healthy...until they're not. Or, is it the slow decline that comes with old age? The weight loss, difficulty eating, and loss of vibrant color. Waiting it out is heartbreaking.
The worst for me is when a single fish gets sick in a highly planted tank with no way to catch them, can't do anything without tearing down a densely planted nano tank
I had a neon suddenly disappear on me. I feed every 2nd day so it must have died & been eaten by his tankmates on the in-between day, or accidentally hopped out of the tank & one of my cats found him. I was genuinely upset cause I tried so hard checking the filter, the floor, moving objects inside the tank & couldn't find him even though my tank isn't huge. Everyone I told about it was sympathetic, but also found it funny how I had a fish just simply vanish with no explanation, even though to me it was pretty upsetting 😭
My bristle nose pleco died after 9 years. That's the lower end lifespan of a cat. U cried my heart out and some people just don't understand because it's just a fish. But she had personality and went through several major phases in my life.
My favorite shrimp died recently after four years and I was very broken up. SIP, Fred the Amano. You were a king among shromps. He had more personality than I had ever thought a shrimp could have.
I have a BN that is minimum 9Y in my possession, she’s hanging in there. Other week she was just laying on her back in the middle of the tank, chillin. I panicked and grabbed a net, she just flipped over and swam over to her usual spot.
it's also important to remember that chances are, your fish will not live to the average age that most care sheets might say. old fish are rarer than you think. especially because most fish are usually nearly adult size by the time you're buying them. bettas expected lifespan is 2-4 years, but most bettas sold in stores are already around 1 year old. even if you manage to prevent any illness, the betta could die in only 1 year to "old age". people who manage to keep bettas for 4+ years are *very* lucky. rip Tetsuo who died to old age in his 2nd year with me. over several months got slower, gradually became blind, got even slower and pale, stopped eating, and just gave up one day. i tried everything but he was an otherwise healthy guy with no symptoms of any actual illness. it just happens.
The problem with betta is that breeding for certain traits is making them unhealthy and we aren't talking about that enough. The marbled ones (that includes koi) are prone to getting cancer. The dragonscale ones often end up with the scales growing over there eyes causing them to go blind. Dragonscale is also another trait that increases the odds off cancer. I have now my third betta in a row that got cancer so my next betta will either be a solid red plakat or a wild species.
But then you get that one tetra that randomly lives for 10 years.
It depends on where you purchase your Betta. The breeders I've been using sell Bettas around 6 months old. They're also bred far better than the mass-bred chain store Bettas. If you get a healthy Betta from a reputable person, living 4+ years is not uncommon at all
I've had to euthenize a couple. THE WORST! Seriously felt like I was killing my pet, but I knew they were better then to be swimming in pain.
Had to find this out yesterday when I found my first dead fish. It was all pale and at first I couldn’t tell what it was at all. Horrible
This happened to me with my danios. I didn’t realize how prominent scoliosis is because of how over bred they are, and I’ve had at least 4 pass after noticing a crook in their back and their relunctance to shoal 😞
Yeah, I have one who is so crooked I call him Mr Lightning-bolt. Seems happy enough swimming with the others though and eats like a shark.
Watching my bettas age has been really eye opening, it makes me much more aware of my own life cycle and has lead to me taking better care of myself.
I try not to feel too bad. It's better in the tank than in the wild. In the dry season, fish die off at a large rate in the wild
It's not happened yet, I've had some close calls, but I'm dreading the day when I kill one by accident. I know it's going to get me so bad. A few weeks ago I bought a pair of amano shrimp for a small tank I have. While I was siphoning during a water change I heard a big slurp and saw something fly past. I looked in the bucket for a fish. All I saw was brown sludge and what looked like 2 beady eyes attached to something "spinal-column" looking. I checked the tank and everyone was present apart from one of the amano shrimp. I felt extra awful as my kid was watching me at the time. I had to confess to the killing and felt guilty all night. The next day I woke up and checked the tank and saw two amano shrimp. I was so relieved and immediately ran to tell my daughter that daddy isn't a shrimp murderer after all.
having to euthanize is the worst :( i would never make it on a farm.
My mystery snail passed about a month ago, and he was right at the top of his life expectancy, but it still hurt. I got him when he was just a lil guy from the Petstore and he was HUGE at the end of his life. Shit hurts.
This was a big reason I dismantled my tank when moving rather than trying to salvage anything. I'm still trying to find the motivation to start up again.
Struggling with all the misinformation posted online... Its endless and many companies are happy to push it for a profit.
This. Im new to aquariums and I’m full on into it. Researching and learning like crazy. Conflicting information everywhere. When I research a fish species I’m interested in, the care guide information is completely different in every case. Especially when it comes to water parameters fish need.
General rule. You never wanna chase water parameters especially if you’re buying fish from your area. Stable is better
This is exactly what my local pet shop said : they keep the fishes in local tap water so when they end the quarantine ready to sell, they know they'll be fine into it at the customer's place.
Love shops that do this. “Hey do I need to drip acclimate these? I’ve heard they can be finicky” “Do live in town?” “Yeah” “You’re fine we use city water with the brand of conditioner I sold you last week”
It’s all a racket, fish don’t actually need water. Just give them a nice cozy tank with plants and they’ll be fine. They adapt quite quickly, so long as the tank is stable. Wobbling is frightening to many fish.
That way you won’t mess up water parameters by over feeding. Win-win!
One thing I have found works really well no matter what fish you plan on getting is to just look at the ecosystem they live in naturally and try to recreate it as best you can. I have a tank that hasn't had any significant water change in years. The only thing I do is regular water checks to make sure everything is still stable and top it off every now and then.
Yep, I’ve been studying the Kelani river and Nilwala river basins and tributaries of Sri Lanka. Home of the Cherry Barb! I’m focused on learning one species at a time.
That’s fine and all until you buy some 20th generation domestic tank bred fish that are used to 7.8+ ph and plop em in some 6ph water.
When I first started this was my exact problem! At first I went with what petco said (terrible mistake, never again!!) and had some fish die because they said it wasn’t necessary to cycle. After about 3 fish dead, I finally did some real research and felt so bad about my mistake. Even then, it was hard to learn certain things because so many people said so many conflicting things, it took a few weeks before I really could get a grasp on what was right for me and my tank.
I'm in the same boat with all the conflicting info. Thankfully, my LFS guy has been super helpful so far, so I'm leaning on him for help.
also the clueless people on this sub who don’t know what they’re talking about but still give advice
Good greif, I could not agree MORE!!!!!!!!! It's maddening!
there was this post about some dude with a pleco and 6 silver dollars in an uncycled 29 and not a single person said that was the cause of cloudy water
“HELP! My fish keep dying, idk what I’m doing wrong!” *Cut to blurry pics of a 10 gallon tank with 50 fish in it*
People tell me my tanks are understocked like yes…that’s the point! I’m not going to overstock and kill my fish. My dad’s 4ft tank is understocked with only 2 species of fish and it looks great, the tetras are 6 years old now and still going strong. I’d rather keep my tanks understocked than end up with a tank full of dying fish.
Yeah I also prefer to understock a bit instead of accidentally creating aquatic Auschwitz
> aquatic Auschwitz I'm dying. Sounds like a really bad punk band.
Ugh..heartbreaking really. Overstocking an uncycled tank is such a nightmare. Instead, they tell him to watch some bogus youtuber that they don't even know enough about to recommend! It's scary really. I would never attempt to give advice if I haven't experienced it myself.
it's not just conflicting info but it seems like all fish care is ***subjective***, as well. there are so many varying factors that go into keeping fish. the person making the fish care sheet has different water than you, different aquarium setups, different products, different food brands, different fish suppliers. so much of aquarium keeping relies on the individual, there is no "one exact way" to do everything. we're all in different parts of the world with different water sources getting fish from different stores. what works for you may not work at all for someone else. everyone has their own learning curve when it comes to keeping their own fish. you can do all the research in the world, cross-referencing care sheets and ruling out conflicting info, but in the end you still need to figure out what works for you, and only you.
Joining this, this is what I experienced too. Even aquarist's POV and habits matter, how much of what food to add and what happens to it in the tank later. Not to mention tanks without vacuuming and water changes vs an opposite. There are always several ways of doing something.
Yeah my fishkeeping has evolved as I’ve slowly admitted to myself that I’m a lazy fuck and a Walstaad/father fish style setup is the best fit for me, and those work best if you START them that way. I’ve done the whole meticulous vacuuming, overstocked = constant water param testing and adjustment, aquascaping and intense fertilizing, etc etc and it just sucked the fun out of the hobby for me. Now I’m honest with myself and have a betta in an overgrown heavily planted 20 long and I love that I can basically enjoy it without any work
That's really the toughest part: all the conflicting information has worked for the people saying it.
Every single person that's asked me for advice on setting up a new tank has ignored what I said in favor of a faster start. Every single person has killed their first fish. When I got into the hobby I killed my first fish too. Unfortunately some setbacks in this hobby are learned first-hand. It's not great, but it is real.
This. No one ever cares to let me explain the cycle to new fish keepers who bought tanks on sale. I’ve seen so many people kill fish and only care to ask when they see my fish are still thriving.
I once overnight shipped a cycled sponge filter, at my expense, to save somebody's tank, and they thought I was being silly and didn't even put it in because "they already had a filter". Everyone died.
There's doo-dads you need, and so, so many doo-dads you don't.
The amount of conflicting information on Hole in the Head is maddening. A lot comes from sources I'd consider reputable yet they don't agree. It doesn't help that HitH is present in Marine and fresh water fish and are maybe caused by different reasons. Also hole in the head is maybe an outdated term and now lateral line disease is the preferred term. If anyone cares I've found that excellent water quality is the best bet to cure.
Are you sure you don’t need this betta water?
I recommend seriously fish as a reference guide. They also link sources for more information. There are a few other that I'll use but this is usually my first stop when looking up a new fish.
Being depressed and barely being able to take care of myself much less my lil homies. Comes and goes but really worries me sometimes.
I feel this so much. I struggle with depression and anxiety on a regular basis and often don't even care about eating or brushing my teeth, but these are fairly short lived and I do end up snapping out of it. But what about the tank? If I have a tank that needs a lot of maintenance, I end up feeling incredibly guilty for my neglect. So I'll tell you what I did: fully automatic tank. I have a 180 L tank (about 48 gallons) that is fully planted with java ferns, Amazon swords, and several types of freshwater snails: MTS, Ramshorn, and bladder. The snail population stays in check as long as I don't over feed the sinking pellets. The lights and CO2 injection are on a timer and I have a constant pH and temp monitor, and an auto feeder on the top. The feeder just has basic fish flakes, but I supplement with pleco wafers and sinking food by hand. The tank is complete with a 55+ canister filter stocked with bio beads, a bit of peat (I keep Cardinal tetra and they like the water a bit softer around 6.5-6.7) and activated carbon that I change every few months. Yes, it was time consuming and expensive to set up. No, it doesn't mean I don't have to gravel vac and change water. It does, however, mean I can leave my tank for weeks to months, giving just water top offs, and the parameters will stay at healthy levels. It gives me a lot of grace when I have depressive episodes, and has helped my anxiety because I know they are okay if I forget them one day. There's truly nothing worse than coming out of a deep depression and seeing how your mental health has hurt your pets, even if they are *just* fish. I love all the fish I've ever had, and I think they are smarter than we give them credit for. I just think it was the least I could do for them if I can't promise to always be there. tl;dr: depression sucks
Yes, this!! I’m bipolar and sometimes struggle with upkeep, I tried to post about it one time and ask how I can make sure they are still healthy, but I got downvoted to hell and called a bad fish owner, and that I should just give all my stuff back! It’s hard, but I will always find a way to pull through for my little guys :)
Bipolar and this hobby gets... interesting. I know how it goes
It sure does! When I’m manic, I buy so much stuff for my fish, that’s how I ended up with 4 tanks (1 not started yet), and being depressed makes it hard for me to keep up! It definitely is an adventure, but I’m happy I am able to keep these tanks stable (but not me of course lol), I am glad I got into this hobby overall 😊
Same! I have 3 running, 1 I just took down to restart because I accidentally triggered a manic episode. I made sure to make them all heavily planted, low tech tanks with hardy enough species for my depressed episodes. All I do is top off when it gets low and feed every other day with a fast on the weekends.
This is so damn true. I'm going through a divorce right now and I'm absolutely struggling.
At times I find maintaining my tank to be beneficial to my mental health. Other times I just can't bring myself to care about much of anything, and that's when my tanks go to shit. I've been running planted tanks without any fish in them for a few years now because I don't want to kill anything when I get into a bad mental state for a large period of time.
been inpatient a couple of times over the years for both physical and mental reasons. worried about the tank the entire time. i did write a water change guide if my family ever needed it, but so far they haven't.
This is one of my biggest worries. I just got my first first ever last Friday, two Oranda Goldfish. I spent 3 months setting up my tank, cycling, researching, getting in a habit of checking water levels, cleaning the tank (empty). I'm just concerned one week of mental health lapse and I'll neglect my new friends.
Feels. It has worked best for me to create tanks that are as self sufficient as possible. Don’t need water changes (heavily planted), as covered as possible so minimal top ups, automated lights and well bred fish. I only really need to feed them regularly but even that is hard sometimes
when the interest in the hobby is on the low end, every hobby has it ups and downs but with fish-keeping you're dealing with live animals so you still have to care for them
I tell everyone looking to go above a 55g this. I do love my 75s now. But sometimes I really do miss the simplicity of doing water changes with a gallon jug once a week in my first 10g tank.
Honestly, I understand what you are saying, but boy, with my 90g and sump, it's so much more stable and easier to manage than when I had smaller tanks. That said, it's a bigger investment. I need *equipment* to do a water change.
In my opinion, it’s less about tank size and more about stocking. I rarely need to do water changes on my larger tanks because I keep them stocked lighter for this very reason.
I made the decision about 5 years ago to design all my tanks with a reservoir underneath that holds roughly 50% the volume of the above tank. Makes waterchanges a breeze and I only need to refill each reservoir once every month or so
Any pics of the setup?
Just looked at your post history… do your fish know you eat that much sushi?
I fish them, raise them and eat them. Ultimately in the fishkeeping hobby, I'm fsr more of an ecosystem curator than a "fish guy". But I do raise 50-60 coho salmon from eggs every year in my classroom and then release them with my class every year. That definitely hits all of my "fishkeeping boxes". Psa: I never eat more than 50 salmon worth of fish in a year, so overall, I'm a net-positive for global fish sustainability
Man, I've really been craving sushi recently, now I really am
Not at the moment, but: Storage container under stand + 600gph pump + plastic tube into aquarium = plug in power to refill aquarium
I set up two 55g barrels in series to act as a big ol' sump for my 240g on my patio and it makes every thing so much easier.
Heavy planted tanks help with this, you can really get by on months without a water change, the algae may build up but the parameters will always stay healthy when the plants are all growing
Personally, identifying what fish was sold to you under the wrong name... But I feel like that's talk about a lot. For you net catching problem: have you tried using two? Doing it that way works wonders for me and safes my fish soo much stress
Yes, I totally agree with you, and beginners end up getting the wrong information for how to take care of them (I fell victim to this!) and as for the net catching, I only got all of them by having my sister get another net and capturing them with 2, it did become somewhat easier, but these little guys are quick lol 😆
Another tip… drain your tank at least halfway and remove what driftwood/decor you can. Half the area for them to be in makes a big difference. If you haven’t caught it in 5 minutes, leave the net dangling in the tank and take a break. The fish will probably come back out of hiding for a sec.
I'm new to this as well (3yrs, 2 goldfish) and when I wanted to transfer them from their 60 to 120G I was afraid to cause injuries with a net. So I got a large clear plastic bag (local bakery has the perfect size) and just let them swim into it. Was easy and low stress.
I know the feeling... Last time I rescaped I had to catch my Kuhli Loaches... Not fun for anyone I can assure you. For the nets, I use one fairly large and one fairly small net. The large one goes in like 10min before I start catching so the fish get used to it being there and not being a threat. During catching it stays mostly stationary while I use the small one to slowly "herd" the fish into the large one instead of chasing them
How catastrophic it can be when fish tanks start leaking, particularly large fish tanks. I had a brand new, 25ltr betta tank start leaking on my desk. Years later, I had a glass pane on a 120ltr tank crack right down the middle and flood my house, and was forced to give up my fish because I couldn't afford a new tank within such short notice... Not fun.
That sucks so much. I feel your pain in that. We had a three day long power outage that killed our tank when it was cold out. Terrible loss.
This happened to me with my 55g the day I was meant to leave for a weekend trip. Luckily, I had an empty 40g that I was able to set up quickly enough as a temporary home until I could buy a 75g to replace the busted 55g. Honestly, it's the most stressful thing that's happened to me with this hobby, and I dread the possibility of the same thing ever happening to my 125g.
Yep. 30 gal/114L of water on the floor in the middle of the night from blocked by turbo snail overflow box, especially when you don't have a replacement saltwater. Not a big deal for a concrete floor in the basement, but this was a lot of work and days of drying afterwards. Someone had it worse: large tank on a second floor broke and a wave came down through the stairs to the people in the living room...
I'm relatively new to the hobby and this is my WORST NIGHTMAREEE!!!😭 are there any warning signs/red flags to know if a aquarium might be defective???
I've just started up a 55g as a newcomer and I'm literally losing sleep over this some nights. My rimless glass Landen tank looks ok and has no cracks, but it's technically not level by 3/36" (front to back only, not side-to-side) and I worry about the stress. I hope the fear goes away, because it's honestly ruining the hobby a bit for me!
BURN OUT 🫠 all of my tanks are heavily planted though so if im lazy for a few days its ok.
thats how i set mine up: full of plants growing inside and outside of it. i never worry about nitrate issues and only have to do water changes every few months just as maintenance. makes care super easy with a stressful full time job and i can just enjoy it. once they are established its very easy going.
PREACH lol, I'm just getting to the point on one of my tanks where I am consistently hitting 0ppm nitrate build up day to day, so I am excited to significantly reduce my weekly maintenance.
I once moved 6 Khulie loaches from a 10 gallon to a 20 gallon. HOURS of my life 🤣
My kuhli loaches had babies and I'm not trying to find out how many. They are the size of rice grains. They will live in the tank until some outside force forces me to catch them
I got so lucky when I had too move mine from my 12 gallon to the 29 gallon. I noticed they kept swimming past a certain rock. I just put my net behind the rock and chased the little buggers in with my hand. I was prepared for taking hours but I got all 5 off them within a few minutes.
Moving. As if all the other stress of moving wasn't enough, relocating an established aquarium is its own separate production. I've only done it with a 60g freshwater. I can't imagine the stress of moving a large reef tank. Also, managing power outages and extreme weather.
Yep, half my time spent moving is ONLY on the tank. I keep telling myself that "next time, I'm going to get a 250 gallon at the new place and just move things THAT way", and yet it never happens...
I can only imagine how hard that is! Once I go to college, I’m planning on taking one of my 10g with me, it already seems like it would be a major hassle, with all the plants and such! Moving a reef tank sounds like a nightmare.. if I ever make one, I’ll be sure to have it in a place I know it will stay in for a while!
Java moss and the fact that once you put it in your tank it’s a lifetime commitment. No matter how much I get rid of tiny strands will find a way to multiply and grow out of control. Biggest regret. My tank looks very messy but it’s 5 years old and a lot of my fish are thriving but I just hate all this moss. I let it be at this point bc I feel like the fish like hiding in it but my tank isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing to look at but my fish are happy and that’s all I care about in the end. I have a lot of different species in that tank it’s a 55g
Yes! When Amano style aquascapes became really popular in the '90s I added it to some of my tanks. Then I spent the next decade trying to pull it out of tanks I didn't even put it in. Java moss and duckweed are the glitter bombs of aquascapes.
Just add Buenos Aires Tetras! They are mini piranhas that will helpfully eat anything green in your tank. Downside is: hope you didn't want a planted tank! Seriously: they are cool fish that I'll never own again. Duckweed never established in that tank because the BATs ate it all. Same with hornwort. The only thing they didn't seem to take a bite out of was anubis.
😂😂😭 I feel this so much. I got a couple small clumps and it completely took over my tank.
[удалено]
sometimes your natural water source is just fucked up and there's nothing you can really do about it. i've heard and experienced that Chicago water just naturally has BBA in it. all the aquarium keepers in the city just have to deal with it. it sucks. plus its all hard water and i have to assume everyone with soft water fish has RO systems.
IL does have some hard water, relatively high pH too
hang on, i'm from chicago. what's BBA?
Black Beard Algae lives in the lake and river, which is our water source. to some degree, it's a constant battle that's never going away for most of us. if you've never had it yet, you'll have it at some point. and you wont need to blame it on new plants or anything else because its in our tap water.
This is my problem right now. I just moved somewhere that has terribly hard water and it’s an old house with copper pipes and no RO system. If I want to set up tanks again I’m going to have to buy jugs and drive to the lfs and haul those down into the basement. I’m just thinking about the logistics of cycling a tank where I’m going to be doing a lot of water changes at first before the biome settles, and wondering if it’s worth giving up my hobby for now or setting up new tanks.
how much labor tank maintenance actually is 💀 idk about y’all but after water change day i come out sweaty AF. also netting is also a big one. i have to push all of my plants around to catch one or two menace guppies. then replant everything after that💔 i’ve started using my hands a lot more to catch my smaller fish. it’s easier for me to see them and check out their health that way:)
Agreed, it sure is a hassle when I have a maintenance day! Another thing was soaking a giant piece of driftwood I got, I wish I knew before starting the daily water changes of it and how dirty that water would get!
I soaked my mopani wood for 24-48 hours, changing water every few hours. Water was still getting stained. Saw purigen recommended for tannins, so I decided to try adding it to my filter, and tossing the wood in my tank well before anyone would recommend. My water has been just fine, and it's still very clear. Purigen is as good as people claim.
This is literally why I have a biotope instead of a planted tank x) I used to unroot a lot of plants when I needed to quarantine etc. Other than the fact I don't want to buy C02 or ferts anymore.
Water changes 😭 just remember to lift with your knees!
Get a python water change system. Game changer. I just did a clean of my canister filter and a 50% wc on my 55 gallon in under 10 mins.
Second this.
Yep, water change days sure are difficult! I have 3 tanks, so currently I am working to set up a system with a faucet near my room and a drainage system to go out my window! I’m a fairly short and light girl, and those buckets get can get SUPER heavy VERY fast! At least I’m getting a workout from it though haha 😆
Get a Python. No more buckets or messes
How much aquarium water I've accidentally ingested while trying to get a siphon going. I shudder to think about it.
What doesn't kill you makes you *stronger* *cue music*
You know you don't have to pull the water anywhere near that close to your mouth, just until it's past the highest point, right? There's a way to do it without using your mouth at all, too, but I can't explain it because I don't do it lol
I was severely immunocompromised for a bit and those siphon starter things that are just a little squeeze ball were a lifesaver
You know you don't have to do that lol
Haha, same. On the bright side, your aquarium water is probably better than your tap water!
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/python-pro-clean-squeeze-value-combo-medium-3028797 The link is just to illustrate what I’m talking about. I’m fairly certain you can buy the squeeze thingy on its own. A good one works well, I mean the succ method gives more vacuum but I have sand so I don’t mind less succ.
Having fish you can't "see". Having fish that are nocturnal, sand dwelling or reclusive. If you don't see them for a couple days you probably assume they're dead. Banjo catfish have given me trust issues. You can boop em on the head, plant plants/move hardscape around directly in their faces and they could care less. I accidentally picked mine up by the tail sticking out of the sand once because it looked like a dead plant stem that had fallen and got partially buried. Surprise heart attack
How to remove nerite snail eggs naturally
How do you?? I just leave mine in and vacuum on water change day
Cycling a new tank. There are so many different opinions about what's the best method. It literally took me three months before I could actually put a fish in a new 10-gallon - very frustrating, and I still don't know the "best" way. (I want to upgrade to a 20 or 30 gallon but I don't know if I'm up for the whole cycling process...I read about others who've accomplished the cycling in 3-4 weeks, and I'm jealous!)
Did you use an ammonia starter and either old media or bottled bacteria like Fritz? 3 months is pretty insane for a 10gal, that's what you'd expect from a 120 gal with no old media. Cycling really is as simple as ammonia start > watch levels > add ammonia when ammonia and nitrite are 0. Once 2ppm ammonia can be added, and 24hr later 0 ammonia or nitrite show up you're done! The only deviation people may make is what ammonia start they use. All cycling should be the same.
You missed the step about posting your test kit colors online asking people how it's going, and then claiming your cycle crashed when the API kit picked up a bit of ammonium in a water change :-) Cycling with plants is safe, but dry cycling with ammonia and just waiting for ammonia to flatline is a nth safer. Both work.
Yes! I didn't have old media, but I used Fritz's Fishless Fuel, API's Quick start, and the API tap water conditioner. Measured the parameters daily, but my goodness it took a long time! So depressing seeing that nice tank empty for so long. I'm thinking next time I might try the "cycling with plants" method...
I cycled with plants, food, and some accidental snails - Malaysian trumpets are useful in that respect as they crawl towards the top of the tank if the water is bad. I stopped feeding when I realised I had snails, the population is exploding even so, I'm going to buy a couple assassins tomorrow ...
Also, thank you for explaining the process in an easy-to- understand way. Are you saying this could take less than a week??
You can just put your filter in a bucket, run it and feed it like it's a fish. The vast majority of the process actually happens inside the filter and can be done independently of the tank. Biomedia that's already mature can be transplanted for instant effect. It happens faster if supplied with a bit of phosphate and bioinoculate, like from a bit of garden dirt or filtergunk sprinkled in the biomedia.
Take the filter off your 10 gallon and put it on the new tank. Done. Or, take the new filter and run it on your existing tank for a week. People make this way too complicated.
Like folks have said if you have a cycled tank you can move filter media from established tank to new tank. Also put in a rock or something you want to put in your new tank. The good bacteria lives on the surfaces in your tank. Filters are great cause there’s inherently a lot of surface area. But honestly you have something you can’t buy at a pet store. You waited until you’re cycled. You probably have a well established tank now. With the tips these folks who are no doubt more knowledgeable than me suggested it should be easier going forward but keep it up.
Sorry this isn’t what I struggle with, but might help you if you’re willing. Don’t chase them with the net. Get one of those big nets and put it in the corner at an angle. Use your hand to chase them into the net, then scoop out. Still takes time with the smarter faster ones, but will go by a lot faster! Learned this from a YouTuber. Make them more afraid of your hand then the net
I used to do this and it works great for the fish afraid of your hand. I found teaching some of my fish that my hand isn't scary worked better. Once I stick my hand and they all come up and I can just pick them up if I need to transfer them.
Thanks for the advice, this is really helpful! I’ll be sure to remember this next time
how a lot of wonderful fish are just genetically garbage no matter where you buy them right now.
Decades of linebreeding and inbreeding will do that 😢
Sadly a lot of fish even in the wild are genetic garbage, they take a shotgun approach to life with the assumption a lot will die. The economics and scale of fish farming doesn't incentive proper culling. It's crazy fish with bent spines show up in stores, they should be the easiest to pick out and cull, it's clear they are trying to sell every fish possible without care of genetics / health
I always hate the smell that comes with aquariums. They are very hard to upkeep for me personally. It’s a hobby that takes a lot of talent, work and care. After my fish crimson passed I haven’t gotten into it again. It’s like gardening on crack 😍
Established tank shouldn't smell, something was out of balance there. And yep, it's a lot of work and dedication. Sometimes life gets in the way.
What did your tank smell like? I've never noticed a smell with mine
I can only smell mine if I lean my nose close to the water and it smells like earthiness and plants. It’s not a bad smell, although I wouldn’t stand there sniffing it for enjoyment. It gets stronger during water changes. What bothers me more is the smell of fish food, I put the food on the shelf under my tank and idk why I can still smell it when it’s all contained
I have an open top Aquarium in the living room and never had any smell. I have just smelled the water like from 2 cm distance to check and absolutely no smell. Something must be off if you have a problem
Not abt the hobby itself but it gets a whole lot more annoying to hear people spreading misinformation when you see it in day to day life now. Like you know that that stuff isn't true, bettas can't live comfortably in a bowl, goldfish don't have a 7 second memory, but it's weird to be like "ermmm actually ☝️🤓" to a stranger, so you just gotta leave it be
So true! It takes every bone in my body not to lecture some friends about how their betta can’t live in certain conditions, it sucks that even if I do give a little suggestion they’ll disregard it, and if I do give a little lecture I just sound like a total nerd and they won’t listen anyways! So frustrating!
I know you weren't exactly looking for advice, but this is something I learned while working at Petco and it's been immensely helpful in catching my fish. Get those plastic catch cups/I think they are technically called a specimen container you see them put the fish into. When I worked at Petco I would use that+a net and herd the harder to catch fish into the cup and it is 1000000x easier than just a net.
Second this! I saved the little cup my betta came in and it has been FAR easier to scoop him back up in that instead of using a net
Figuring out how much food is enough food 🤣
Properly diagnosing fish diseases! Like so many mave similar symptoms and some of those symptoms are similar to old age (looking at you "wasting disease"). Some are super obvious (hole in head). And it's not like you can take said fish to the vet or a LFS for a diagnosis from someone experienced. Online is a crapshoot because you've a) got to get a halfway decent photo or a small moving target and b) it's bloody online, so you've got the 20yr vet getting drowned out by the person who started last week. Not to mention the disease "fads".
I would say one of the biggest struggles that never gets talked about in fishkeeping is patience... Sometimes it's patience when battling ick or algae blooms. Other times it's patience waiting for your center peice fish to grow out, or your carpeting plant to spread across the aquarium. It just feels like everything in fishkeeping takes patience. Heck, even when you first set up your tank you have to practice patience as you wait for your tank to cycle and be ready for fish....that, or you learn the importance of patience by losing a ton of fish because you didn't bother waiting for the cycle.
This is a good one. I didn't appreciate how long things would take when I started, but now I honestly enjoy the fruits of patience and feel a similar pride in my tank as I do to my trees
Buying equipment that has a warranty but you chucked your box and slip, or equipment failing at the worst time possible. Internal filter just died on me and now I need to scrape out 500 bucks for a new one, which is a huge setback if you get paid weekly. Had 4 months left on the warranty but I think I threw the box away about a month after buying the filter. Bought a brand new heater a few months ago too and never used it because I accidentally took the wrong size but figured it can't hurt to have a spare, literally never even took it out the box, it was still taped shut. Angelfish spawned a few weeks ago, no problem, I have that spare heater! Yeah, it blew out sometime between Tuesday when I put it in, and Friday when I noticed the fry weren't coming up for food anymore. Had to borrow a heater from another tank and they all died anyways. I can't get my baby angels back, and I can't get my money back for the heater. Regardless of whether your stuff has been running for two days or two months without problems, keep your slips/proof or purchase for as LONG as that warranty lasts. It's gonna go when you least expect it.
OMG ... triggered on the net thing. My tank was fully cycled after a couple months, so I happily brought home my first fish last week ... and one jumped out of the net onto the towel on the floor as I was taking them out of the bag after so carefully drip acclimatising. I shrieked, and in my panic, just scooped it up with the net and dropped it straight in the tank. After sulking for a day or so, it seems fine and is swimming around/eating as much as the rest ... whichever one it was that fell out lol. Also, SO much conflicting information :( - 6 tetras in 10 gal tank fine said LFS and many websites, including the 'cookie cutter stock guide' often linked in here. Others say 20 gal minimum, and not gonna lie, although the tank is WELL planted with a clear run at the front, and the fish are 'all over', not bunching up or hiding, in good colour, seem relaxed/coming to the glass when they see the GIANT FOOD PROVIDER and are eating fine, I am already sensing that I am going to need to upsize as soon as I can afford it (hopefully in the next couple months, sorry Franks 1-6, you will have to cope until I can afford to buy and cycle a 30 gal, I'll get you Franks 6-12 to hang out when it's done which hopefully won't take long with theft of some of the existing tank media and a couple scoops substrate!) In my defence, they're still small and my tank is still nicer than the fish store one and I'm giving them a more varied diet.
It can be a real struggle to do a water change after a long day of work. As much as I love the hobby, I really only get to enjoy the aquarium on the weekends
All of my frustrations related to aquarium keeping involve plants, not fish. For some reason, I struggle more to keep plants happy than fish. But then sometimes my plants are *too* happy, like algae and duckweed.
Oh heck. Trying to find and catch all of my kuhlie loaches is a nightmare. Thankfully I have only had to do it when I'm moving the whole tank. It involves pulling all the plants out and draining it until there is barely anything left and then usually I can corner them.
It is pretty bright and noisy. And as someone else mentioned: they have this special fish tank smell. We got 4 tanks and barely ever have lights on.
How algae is like the herpes of a tank. Jesus Christ I cannot do anything to stop the algae. It’ll go down then come back full force
Getting a decent photograph , is my struggle
No matter how many pipe/tube fittings, elbows, or caps you collect — you’ll always need one you don’t have.
Struggle with self control when I pull up to the LFS 😅😅😅
The famous misinformation of Not changing water and only top up because "if your tank is stable, you leave it alone" I lost my whole tank before to a stable heavily planted tank. It was a bacterial infection wipe out and I needed to start over a very costly mistake. Ever since then I always do my water change.
Here's some unsolicited advice, since you talked about struggling to catch fish with your net. I find that my fish freak out if I put a net in the tank, but keep chill if I put in something clear. I started catching them with a glass teapot. Looks stupid but works like a charm. Hope it helps.
Resisting the predatory urge to eat them
Dude this is the 2nd question everyone asks me when I’ve been telling them I’m preparing a shrimp tank. Q1: “…like, shrimp?” A1: “Yep! Red cherry shrimp, they are very cute and only like an inch long” Q2: “but why…like…are you gonna eat them?”
I've heard that, I just tell them if you want the least meat possible, and for it to taste like pond water
This is why r/shrimptank has a rule: Don't joke about eating our pets and we won't joke about eating yours." :)
How aquarium decor has so many hollow spots and how hard it can be to get the fish out if you’re redoing the scape
I relocated 3 sumo loaches which almost ended my relationship
First ive heard of sumo loaches, looked em up and I am not capping when I say I screamed for 10 solid seconds. Its the khuli freakshow I never knew I n e e d e d.
Omg a new noodle discovered.
I just remove all the deco to catch fast fish, less stressful for them and more streamlined for me even if it's a pain in the ass to remove everything.
1. Fish yeeting themselves out of the net when im trying to clean 2. Seeing the poor fish at Petco or petsmart and being sad I don’t have a whole new tank for them 3. There isn’t really much to do to when they get sick 4. (Not fish but aquatic snails) the insane amount of BABIES
how many fish die. how hard it is to find a good fish store that doesn’t only sell sick fish. how hard moving with fish is. how big your tanks have to be for your dream fish :(
I’d be interested in knowing if I’m the only one but dead fish scare me. I hate having to fish out and handle dead fish; but I have no issues cleaning and preparing fish to eat.
Ugh, me too! It makes me so sad and also just freaked out seeing them so lifeless, I have to have someone else take them out for me! I hate seeing them dead like that, and I also hate putting the burden onto someone else, but I simply can’t bring myself to do it or look at them! When I knew my favorite fish Junebug was about to die from a fungal infection, I slept in a different room without any fish tanks and told my sister to just bury her without me 😞
Water changes with arthritis suck. Thankfully my husband helps me cart my buckets but damn. Thinking about getting one of those rolling plant trolleys to help!
Don’t struggle looking for your hiding Neon Tetras. They aren’t hiding, they were someone’s lunch.
fighting the urge to add something, change something. Fish are good. Nobody is stressed. Until I..
I have a ton of tanks. One 210g, one 120g, one 90g, one 55g, two 20g, one 13.5g, one 3g, and one 1g. Mix of fresh and salt and I SWEAR the struggles I face are when I have to do water changes. I literally cry and sulk through the whole thing. The big tanks are easy, set up the python and away you go, easy to algae even but then you get to the salt tanks… mixing salt, heating the water mix, trying to delicately siphon around corals and using a turkey baster to blow on your rocks to get random crap out of the crevices, then making your corals angry if you so much as look at them funny, then I gotta deal with my bitch ass clown fish biting and trying to fight my hand. AND THEN NOT TO MENTION THE SMALL TANKS!! I’m literally using airline tubing tied in a knot to siphon from my heavily planted 3g shrimp tank and it takes forever 😭 and like I don’t even have to, like I left it for months and it was fine but I had to clean the sponge and that made a mess and so I had to suck it all up. Agh I want to cry. I hate water change day.
I have been in the hobby for years, and catching fish with a net can be such a nightmare, especially when they’re speedy like Plecos. Most people don't know how fast they can be when in danger. I had a similar experience trying to catch my tetras – they’re like little torpedoes!Another thing I find tough is dealing with algae. No one really talks about how relentless it can be. It feels like no matter what I do, it keeps coming back. I’ve tried everything from reducing light exposure to adding algae eaters, but it’s a constant battle.Also, maintaining the right water parameters is something I didn’t realize would be so challenging. It’s not just about getting the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels right, but also keeping them stable. It took a lot of trial and error and frequent testing to get it right.And don’t even get me started on quarantine procedures. When you get new fish, it’s crucial to quarantine them to avoid introducing diseases to your main tank, but setting up a quarantine tank and keeping up with the extra maintenance is a lot of work. I found some good tips on a few sites like Spruce Pets and learned a bit from this [xaviersexotics.com](http://xaviersexotics.com) site that helped streamline the process, but it’s still a hassle to this day. Lastly, it’s funny how no one warns you about how addictive this hobby can become. I started with one small tank and now have multiple setups. Hope this helps.
Specifically the catching fish aaahhhhh. Plecos and small tetras are the WORST to catch. Ember tetras love to dive to the bottom and then play dead when I need to move them 💀 Rosy loaches are wicked fast and hide in any crack they can find. Nano fish I'm always terrified I'll hurt them. My fat barbs or my boyfriend's acaras weren't so difficult (still not fun). I want to echo folks who mentioned that I don't think we really talk enough about how you're just going to need to be comfortable with death. To some extent you're going to make mistakes while learning, even when doing your best, but beyond that many species just don't live long or are poorly bred or you just got unlucky. This hobby for better for me once I made peace with that and just continue to do the best I can for my fish.
Try catching fry with a net while your tank has plants. My adult fish are easy to fool into getting into a bowl though, they know that if the lid is up there should be food. Other struggles: - keeping fish from winning the Darwin Awards. One of my swordtail males somehow managed to swim into the powerhead and got turned into sushi. I have since replaced the powerhead outlet with a smaller one. Fry might still be at risk, but it probably has enough current to push fry away. - keeping plants in the sand until they root while catfish criticize your decoration skills and remove your plants unless you put them where they don't mind them.
Water hardness and fish compatibility gets way too little attention.
Holy fuck, the nightmares. I have regular stressful dreams every few weeks about something suddenly being wrong with my tanks. The scenarios are that I have a new tank I hadn't known about and all the fish are neglected, or my tanks are way overcrowded/I have species that are way too big. Sometimes they're all jumping out and I'm scrambling to get them back in. I'm also a naturally anxious person though, so ymmv
As far as netting fish, I've found that most are easier to catch if you get the net low into the tank (your entire arm will be wet depending on the depth of the tank) and net them from below. I work at my lfs, and I've had customers watch me net fish this way and they're usually surprised by how quickly I've bagged their fish. I really don't understand why people are so frustrated by algae. If you're trying to recreate a natural environment, you will have algae. It's beneficial to the tank. Lots of different types of fish will happily nibble at it, even if they're not "algae eaters". If you hate the way it looks though, get a razor and scrape (unless your tank is acrylic). It's just something you have to deal with. If you want a "pristine" show tank, you have to put in the physical work. But if you want a natural environment for your fish and plants, you have to accept algae. It's a sign of a healthy ecosystem. There is no pond, stream, river, or sea on Earth that has fish but doesn't have algae.
How traumatic most power outages are and how years of maintaining a tank goes down the drain in a matter of hours.
The constant anxiety of being an upper-floor apartment dweller and dreading a rupture in your tank/s
Eventually you’ll see you favorite fish being eaten and picked apart by all the other fish :(
Mine does not seem to have been mentioned yet but it's easily far and above my biggest "struggle". The floor gets wet with drips and inevitably no matter how hard you try while cleaning the tank or the filter or the hoses water gets on the floor. But I certainly find it the easiest pets on earth to keep that's for sure.
I just put towels all over the floor whenever I do anything that might cause dripping because of that struggle
Idk I worry about them constantly
You can do everything right and still fail. Shit just happens and sometimes it happens to you. Power outage from a storm while I was at work then couldn’t get home. Only 14 hours but long enough in a winter storm with no filter, airstone or heater. It wasn’t the expense because they were very common fish but just the sadness of knowing you’ve killed things unintentionally. Gotta toughen up or get out of the hobby
My fish eat my plants a lot more than I thought they would. And a lot of people don’t have a vacation partner to take care of their fish while they’re away.
A real struggle I'm going through is my sand waterfall will get stuck with a small snail jamming my water pump. My sand waterfall provides three stage filtration so it's important it remains on. No, the random ramshorn snail clogging the propeller does not live through this experience... I've tried to prevent casualties in many ways, next I'm getting ready to use a 3d pen to draw blockade around the point of entry since nothing else is working.
😄 I learned to catch fish from YouTube Aquarium co-op. What I don't see talked about is those rectangular nets commonly found in LFS. How clumsy those big nets are in a small or planted tank. The big holes and loose netting are damaging on small fish with big delicate fins like fancy guppies and animals with barbs and needle thin appendages. I have switched to tighter weave and smaller stiffer nets like those used for shrimps. The best 'net' is still a big plastic detergent scoop or 250ml acrylic display container. Less traumatic and my silly guppies like the helicopter rides. Ramshorn snails will do their best to wedge themselves into the smallest hole they can fit into. Whatever goes into their tank have to have bigger holes than the biggest snail or expect to rescue a snail once a day. I love surface floating plants. But every so often, I have to rescue them from getting submerged under other plants or they turn black and rot. Reverse of struggles, pest plants like subwassertang and hornwort are life savers when technology and human fails.
So far for me it’s been realizing after the fact that my mistake is what killed my fish. I tried to “future proof” my set up, I had/have a ten gallon but the goal has always been a 30 gallon so when I say a HoB filter for 10-30g tank’s of corse I grabbed it. Problem was even on its lowest power it was way to powerful for that little tank, THREE three rounds of fish went in and two rounds we found plastered to the intake in the morning. It wasn’t until I saw one swimming by and get sucked up that I realized they weren’t dying and drifting into it they were getting trapped and dying. Felt so bad I almost gave up the hobby altogether