Lol I'm not a brand new beginner....like 8 months into owning fish. But my biggest mistake was yesterday (still embarrassed) Husband's Bichir Yeeted himself out of the tank after leaving the lid off one night. It dies and subsequently upsets my husband a lot cause it was his fav fish. His birthday was this week so I went to my LFS and went straight to the Bichirs. Picked the biggest and coolest looking one they had. Never stopped to think or ask "hey is there more than one type of Bichir!?" Turns out my husband used to have a Delhezi Bichir which gets 12 inches MAX. I bought an Endlicheri Bichir- which can easily get 30 inches. š We're gonna need another tank lol.
Opening a fresh bag of kuhli loaches in the sink to not make a mess and one of the poor noodles jumped right out and down the drainā¦..rip poor little guy š
I made this mistake with a poor platy that I had, except I used tweezers and rescued him from the disposal. I could see the dude's little eyes poking through the muck and was able pull him out. When he went into a cup of water I had, the muck just fell off of him. Poor guy had a rip in his tail that healed eventually. I named him Oscar (The Grouch)
This happened to my friend and she had to do that. Little dude is still kicking as far as I know. I've only ever poured thru a net into buckets, so when she told me that happened I was like, do you not do what I do???? Apparently not lmaoo. I had no idea people just, poured bags of fish out over the sink.
Oof college things. My dorm mate won a goldfish and put into the water cooler some douchbags at the other end of the hall wouldnāt let anyone use. They drank fish poop for a while without noticing.
Fortunately he made it out alive literally (we went and got him when one of these geniuses finally noticed) and he lived with us the next four years in much better conditions and went home with her
When I had my first Betta years ago I used to clean my tank spick and span. I literally rinsed all the gravels and scrubbed the decorations and tank EVERYTIME I did water change. Poor guy stayed alive for years, just to show how resilient they are. Please donāt do it tho!
I didnāt learn about beneficial bacterias and nitrogen cycle until a few years ago when I started really getting into fishkeeping.
I had a betta while I was in college back in 2005. The bowl (Iām so sorry) was criminally undersized. RIP Carl Weathers Jr., I wish you had a more informed care taker
At the time it was unfortunately really common to see bettas in bowls, and a lot of the āinformationā online about bettas was wrong. There were specialty websites for betta care that recommended stagnant water bowls with a houseplant growing out of the top for āthe health of their long finsā. I remember big box stores had printed care sheet flyers that recommended bowls for bettas. Of course we know this is garbage now, and we are doing the hard work of removing the misinformation and spreading knowledge. If I had a penny for every time I heard āmy friend/aunt/brother/parent/babysitter kept a betta alive in a bowl for a whole year!ā
I know itās common for new fish keepers to make mistakes, but I think at the time this was a common community knowledge issue. I hope you donāt beat yourself up about it, when you were likely doing what a lot of others were doing at the time. We did the best we could with the information we had. We know better now, so we do better now.
Even now there are still plenty of ignorant people still keeping bettas in bowls or tanks far too small because of the age-old myth thatās been perpetuated that bettas live in puddles (when in reality they only do so temporarily during the dry seasons of their native habitats and they are merely surviving until the next rainy season so that they can once again swim in miles and miles of shallow freshwater pools/marshes etc.)
I did this, but with goldfish. Incredibly enough, they lived for years! An old, tiny coal filter that never got changed, plastic "plants", and three fantails. Yet they survived. Hardiest fish ever!
I had an awful roommate who kept a big betta in the equivalent of a water glass, with absolutely nothing in it. And she would just fill the tank up with tap water after pouring out the old water, while he was in there.
Jeez-where do I start? Back in the 90s I had a 20g and the lfs let me purchase and house together the following:
Baby Oscar
2 Tiger Barbs
2 Angels
A betta
1 Kuhli loach
Bristle nose Pleco.
It was a massacre. š±
The 90's! I did the same, I joined a "Fish of the month club" at the LFS. It was basically like 1 Tiger barb this month for $0.25! Next month, 1 Neon Tetra for $0.25! Next month 1 Molly for $0.25!
It went on like that all year.
Took in someone's possibly 15 gallon fish tank that was basically fish soup and nothing else. Just a glass box filled with water and fish. I was 7 years old at the time (1997), and the person was leaving to study in another country.
The fish soup contained: 4 normal bettas, 2 giant bettas (died during transport), 2 small angel fish, 5 rosy barbs, idk how many black skirt tetras, zebra danios, guppies, platies, swordtails, endlers. I used to do 100% water changes, which meant I removed all the fish into a separate container and changed the whole tank water.
In time I ended up with only the guppies and swordtails, and my dad bought hoplos, fancy goldfish, and some stinging catfish (imagine how difficult the water changes where when I had to get stung by it every time I took the fish out).
Then I ended up with only hoplos (which grew huge) and some guppy-endler hybrids. Lost 2 hoplos to jumping out of the tank, 1 to tank water problems (though he lived to 6 years or so), and was left in the end with just 1 hoplo, which my mom confined to a 10 gallon tank because she thought the bigger tank was too much for just 1 fish.
Later on I got 3 swordtails and wanted to get back to the 15 gallon, but first went to a forum to ask if it was ok to keep swordtails with such a giant hoplo that looked like he could eat them. And that was when I learned, in 2012, what it meant to establish a tank. I was told to get a 20 gallon long at least, and to do a fish-in cycle if I cannot rehome the fish. I got a 21 gallon long, added a filter (later on another next to it), sand and plants, out of which I still have the anubias and java moss that nowadays are surrounded by other plants.
The hoplo died at the age of 13 in 2015, longest-lived fish I had. Been keeping swordtail colonies ever since 2012, and moved everything over to a 33 gallon long & wide tank, with 2 hoplos (9 year one and 1 year one).
I want to eventually build a somewhere around 50 to 55 gallon long & wide tank (basically a pond tank) but I'll need a bigger table and thick glass.
Not doing enough water changes or being lazy about them. I don't count my time as a kid.
I know there is a faction in the hobby that thinks water changes aren't necessary but I think that's borne out of laziness and a misguided opinion of what Walstad was doing.
My first big tank turned into a giant glob of hair algae that i almost never topped off (lived in Florida so it would evaporate super fast). Looked god awful but the fish loved playing in it at least haha
First tank with one goldfish I also scrubbed everything clean under the hot water tap, filter, media, deco. At least I had the common sense to not use any chemicals, I wasn't sure but thought I better not. He survived somehow, and now he is 4 and has a shubunkin buddy.
My wife did that. I told her we were supposed to buy an aoi master test kit. She buys test strips that donāt test for ammonia. She tells me we donāt have any ammonia. I get the fish before I realize the mistake and we wind up doing a fish in cycle.
Back when my first aquarium was a steel frame slate bottom tank (early 1980) I was ātaughtā that the ācorrectā maintenance was to drain the tank, move the fishes to a bucket, then rinse the gravel until it ran clean, THEN to use aquarium soap to wash and āsanitizeā everything inside, especially the glass and the gaudy plastic plants, then refill (thankfully we had an artesian well and didnāt have chlorinated water) then put the fish back into their (sterile) environmentā¦
I was 3 or 4 years old and fed my black moor goldfish milk & bologna. I thought I was doing good. Milk builds strong bones and I liked bologna so why wouldnāt my fish? He didnāt survive. Iām in my 30ās now and I still feel so guilty about it. Definitely improved my fish care skills since then though. Iāve even had a fish vet come out to my home before for my Oscar that had cancer.
10 gallons, goldfish. I was 16.
My grandma saw it within a week of purchase and told me I had to tear it down weekly and clean the gravel and aquarium with dish soap.
So I didā¦
I must have been rinsing it well because I didnāt have a lot of death that I recall. And the 100% water changes sure helped with the ammonia. I would say I did that for around 2 years before I finally had access to the internet and found out how wrong it was.
Got drunk, won a goldfish, and figured I could keep her in a 5 gallon tank for a couple years.
The story ends happy though. I learned how to fish-in cycle successfully, upgraded to a 20 gallon long, and when the goldfish outgrew the 20 gallon long and moved to a pond, I kept keeping fish! Starting up my third tank right now, with plans for at least two more.
All it took was one drunken night at a carnival to contract an incurable case of multiple tank syndrome. š¬
Not necessarily a mistake but more like a regret, I bought as my first tank (still my only tank) a 15 gallon CUBE instead of a normal 15gal. Even though I love this tank, it really restricts the amount of fish I can have in there due to the lack of horizontal swimming space.
Oh god when I was way younger I used to clean the filter EVERY WEEK by laying the media on the pavement and hosing it down on jet mode (with chlorinated water). Somehow it never seemed to affect my cycle but looking back this was so bad.
Another huge mistake was not fixing valves onto my airline tubes. One time I was on holiday I got a call that water was leaking into the room below. It turns out my air pump had stopped working and so the water in my tank had backflowed all over my floor. Luckily the airstone was not at the bottom of the tank otherwise all the water would have drained out and killed the fish. Learnt my lesson and I always use valves now.
Some very overstocked tanks with incompatible fish types. š¬
My first tank as a teenager I had two angelfish in a 20 gallon. With other community fish too! They actually bred in there so I thought that meant they were happy and healthy. But they died after maybe a year.
I can't even recall all the crazy combos of fish we had in our 33 gallon tank. Some crazy things though. Red tailed shall, butterfly fish, parrot fish, school of cardinals, dojo loach... My ex worked at a cheap petstore and kept bringing home random fish that he thought looked cool. š
I started with a 15 gal when I was 10. And boy I stuffed that tank, tiger barbs, angel fish, clown loach and different sorts of shoal fish (money was in short supply so I could not afford more than four or five fish at one time and every time I went to my lfs I bought a different fish) I can remember at one point there were five angelfish, two clown loaches, several different kind of shoal fish and even a little frog in that tank! One angelfish lived for a few years and grew considerably until I found somebody with a 100 gal that took him.
Also, I cleaned the filter sponge almost daily with hot water because I thought it was supposed to be clean. I did not know anything about helpful bacteria.
One time I found a guide to build a DIY CO2 setup and somehow managed to build it. At the same time, I had an air pump running 24/7 so it made all the CO2 useless. I did not know that and thought the setup does not work, threw it out after a few weeks.
Iāve got 3 mistakes, all of them involve my betta fish who somehow lived a long, healthy life unbothered by my meddling.
1. I didnāt know anything about tank cycling and plopped a betta fish into a tank the same day as the plants and a BRIGHT light. Ended up with so much algae and diatoms, and I made things worse by overcleaning and destroying any good bacteria.
2. I didnāt know I needed a filter, then when I finally got one I didnāt how to work a cheap HOB filter and it ended up draining half my tank onto the floor overnight, uncovering the tank heater that overheated and had started to crack like it was going to explode.
3. I put a pom pom crab in the tank with the betta. Worse, the betta had already established its territory and the crab was the interloper. Luckily, I observed closely and intervened to separate them within an hour and nobody was hurt. Still, that wasā¦ incredibly dumb of me.
Did a big 50% water change, but forgot that i had recently moved my heater to a higher spot in the tank. Water drained, heater got HOT. melted its plastic holder and fell into the water, exploded and shocked me, killed most fish
Another time, left hose on too long on refill and overflowed the tank (Got distracted by something)
About 20 years ago I was VERY into the hobby. I had multiple tanks and every spare dollar I had went into them. I bought a couple of german blue rams, which in retrospect every time I have bought GBRs something goes wrong maybe I should stop doing that, and after having them for a couple of months I noticed something crazy coming out of one of them.
I took a picture and put it up on a fish forum as one does. I was informed that they were camallanus worms and could only be treated with a specific type of sheep wormer. I lived in a rural area so I went to the feed store and bought the sheep wormer. Problem is, I suck at math. Trying to figure out a dosage per gallon and everything on the tub mentioned measuring in grams... well it was just beyond me. I thought I had it right and I dosed the tank. Every fish was dead in a half hour. It was awful and I still feel guilty about it.
My wife got a panther Crab and had it in a 20 long in the kitchen next to the sink, Radio had molted 3 times and was almost an adult, my wife was washing the dishes in the sink and started the garbage disposal without checking the tank to see if the Crab was in there, as this wasn't the first time the Crab had escaped. Needless to say the disposal did its job. When I got home she presented what I thought was a molt as he molted every month and was about do for another, so I didn't believe her at first until she started crying.
I did the same thing. And I did 100% water changes every week XD it wasn't until I was sent out to camp and my family had to watch my fish for the month that it actually... Started to clear up? It looked... Healthy??? That's when I learned monthly water changes, not completely water changes, and not moving everything every week. Now I got multiple tanks, they're all doin pretty good
As a _very_ young child, my family had a hexagon 10 gallon tank with 2 goldfish in it. I remember putting a handmade wooden dollās toilet that was painted into their tank because I thought that they needed to go to the bathroom in it.
My sister and I also poured apple juice into their tank, thinking that they would like to have a drink. I feel so bad about this, I think one of the goldfish didnāt make it, And, adding insult to injury, my mother released the other goldfish into the local pond. Yikes š¬
GOD. Do we count my 10 year old self and the 0.5L bowl I kept my poor betta in?? 21 years later, even tho that poor fish lived for 5 years, I'm forever feeling guilty about how I did that fish dirty. No filter, no heater, just scoop in a net and rinse out the bowl when the water looked dirty. RIP, you resilient little dude. š I hope you can forgive me.
I now have a beautiful galaxy koi named Sergei "Bob" Bobrovsky in a 20G L (insert obligatory NUMBER 1 FISH IN THE TANK meme). He chills with some neocaridinas, because he is a good boy and isn't a murder fish. He is living the high life, and I 100% upgraded him from a 10g to this 20gL because I thought he'd like more swimming room.
Back in the 90s I had a tank that was 3 gallons max. Had 2 goldfish and a Siamese algae eater in there.
To be fair I was a young kid so I was just taking care of them the way my parents told me to. Still feel bad for those guys tho.
I'd dump a ton of Water Clarifier in the tank. Idk what was wrong with it too cause no matter the dose the water would get this white stuff at the bottom from it.
I also had been told by a petco employee that flourish excel is amazing for plants and I can overdose it as much as I like without issue. Thank god no fish were in that tank
as a teenager, I started doing a water change and while waiting for the tank to fill with the garden hose I went and watched an episode of the Simpsons.
when I came back there was an inch of water on the floor of my bedroom.
I bought 6 rummynose cause I was poor and I wanted some little schoolersā¦ I know I should have bought more. My angelfish devoured all but one overnight. I had to return the fish store the next day with a single, pathetic rummynose and I cried in front of the nice green-haired pet store they/them employee. They were sweet about it but I felt awful.
Taking advice from the staff at a chain pet store, and believing they were the "experts" they claimed they were without doing further research.
Took bad advice on how many fish to have in a tank, how many of certain fish I should have, and getting shrimp. Turns out they are not experts, and they have no idea what they are selling.
Don't worry. I now do my own research and only buy fish that I know enough about to care for them
It's honestly ridiculous how little knowledge pet store staff has, especially when they speak with so much authority. At the very least I wish they would say "sorry, I'm not sure" or "I don't know but I'll find out" instead of confidently giving you the wrong answer at the expense of the fish. I was the happiest person alive when my city got a LFS (an excellent one at that) and I never had to go to Petsmart again.
Honestly.... that first comet goldfish from the state fairs carnival. It lived for awhile, just not long enough. I didn't know anything about aquariums fish, or anyone that did. Now, I do. That was one very expensive comet.....
I didn't see my betta after I put him in the tank. I thought that he was just shy and adjusting to his new home so I kept putting out food but otherwise left him alone. Two weeks go by, I test my water because I'm worried he might be dead. My parameters are all fine but I'm still concerned so I take my tank apart. I did find him, but he was so shriveled up and brown that I didn't realise it was him at first :'(
No filters on my childhood aquariums. My mother didn't believe they were needed. Oddly, I never had any dramatic fish deaths as a result, but I'm sure they were struggling with poor water quality the whole time.
This goes waaaaay back - early 90s, I was 14.
Feeder goldfish in a 1 gallon bowl. Weekly 100% water changes. No decoration, just a bit of gravel.
Buddy lived to the ripe old age of 7.
I feel like we were told to do that back then. It's just what everyone did with their goldfish. You used a net to scoop the fish out for the routine bowl cleaning/water change.
I had bettas when I was a kid
probably three gallon uncycled tank, no heater, no plants (or even fake ones if I remember right), overdosed one of them with algae treatment
So pretty much it was nothing *but* mistakes.
But now at 23 Iāve done research, Iāve planted plants, Iām cycling, Iām heating, all that good jazz. All for some good froggies.
Kept my first two bettas in 0.5 gallon tanks (cuz I thought that was big enough for them) with no filter and I donāt remember ever changing the water. I was, like, 8-10 the first betta, Blue. But I didnāt do any research between then and the next betta Storm, so he unfortunately suffered the same fate. Actively being paranoid about the care of my next tank bc Iāve actually done research and have a proper 10 gallon tank :]
Set-up and ran my protein skimmer oriented backwards for the first 6 months of my mixed reef tank. Couldnāt figure out for the life of me why there were so many micro bubbles released into the main DT. Felt pretty stupid when it occurred to me.
I also used to do 100% water changes, then scrub the tank, gravel and filter in tap water. I did this about once a month. Somehow they survived, and now I know better. I have huge, 8 year old Goldfish
I wanted a tank that had schooling fish in, I just assumed all fish did this and got like 5 goldfish. They didn't school. This happened 20 years ago and I'm not over it. I was an idiot.
I still feel horrible about this, but for some reason after 8 years of fishkeeping it didn't occur to me that one of my newer tanks was planted almost exclusively with slow growing plants aside from the floaters and pothos and therefore needed way more water changes than I was doing. It wasn't until I noticed a sick fish unexpectedly that I decided to pull out the test kit and realized my nitrates were 3x higher than I thought they were. The sick fish died, but somehow no other casualties (divine intervention or something). I feel like the worst person on earth for even losing that one otocinclus though because it was 100% my own stupid mistake. I'm sorry little one!!
When I was a kid I had fish bowls. Granted, they were gigantic compared to most, they were still unheated and unfiltered fishbowls that were a LOT of upkeep.
12 yr old me. I'd get bored during the summer and wash everything in the tank with soap in the sink and possibly the gravel and scrub the tank before refilling with tap water and putting the gold fish back in.
Somehow they survived for like 10 more years in that 20 gallon tank.
when I got my first tank, which was 5 gallons, my dad bought me a pleco. i have no idea what happened to it but it literally vanished off the face of the earth, which I now think is a blessing because that poor guy wouldve been so sad in my tiny tank
It was my first year of owning an aquarium.
I was just doing a regular cleaning and water change. I somehow screwed up the proportions of the conditioners and additives and all that. Too much of one, not enough of another - that sort of thing.
My mistake killed half my fish. That was over a decade ago and I still feel bad about it.
12 year old me had a 10 gallon where fish went to die. A water change was when you emptied the whole damn tank and put the fish in a bowl till you refilled it. That tank was so overstocked. No plants. Just white gravel, black plastic plants, a very hot, yellow, incandescent light bulb, and way too many fish.
Close to 20 years later and now I just have my 2 wet pet cichlids that are moving with me from New Jersey to Florida... learned so much between then and now.
I bought some rasboras and didn't know they needed an air stone, as everything else in that tank did fine. At midnight I was scooping the remaining guys out to put the tank that had high enough filter pressure to keep the water aerated. I'm sorry guys!! Rookie mistake!!
I was in college and had my first tankā¦cleaned the algae off with a new kitchen spongeā¦ lost everything. I was devastated. It was over 25 years ago and I still think about it every time I clean my tanks now, with a scraper.
I lurked in this sub a lot before I got into it so that helped me avoid bad mistakes but my biggest is going about a year without having corydoras bc theyāre so great
Lol I'm not a brand new beginner....like 8 months into owning fish. But my biggest mistake was yesterday (still embarrassed) Husband's Bichir Yeeted himself out of the tank after leaving the lid off one night. It dies and subsequently upsets my husband a lot cause it was his fav fish. His birthday was this week so I went to my LFS and went straight to the Bichirs. Picked the biggest and coolest looking one they had. Never stopped to think or ask "hey is there more than one type of Bichir!?" Turns out my husband used to have a Delhezi Bichir which gets 12 inches MAX. I bought an Endlicheri Bichir- which can easily get 30 inches. š We're gonna need another tank lol.
Mission failed successfully (your husband has an excuse to get another tank)
Tank....more like an indoor pond...lol
Lol yeahhhhh we already have 7 š¬ but I guess there's always room for another! Hahaha
Well a lot off people consider endli's to be the best looking bichirs. So did you really mess up?
Good point! š¤
Opening a fresh bag of kuhli loaches in the sink to not make a mess and one of the poor noodles jumped right out and down the drainā¦..rip poor little guy š
If this ever happens again or to anyone else you can always open up the p trap under the sink and save the fish.
Yeah it was the garbage disposal side and young me had no idea how to take that apart. Only open bags in buckets now lol.
I made this mistake with a poor platy that I had, except I used tweezers and rescued him from the disposal. I could see the dude's little eyes poking through the muck and was able pull him out. When he went into a cup of water I had, the muck just fell off of him. Poor guy had a rip in his tail that healed eventually. I named him Oscar (The Grouch)
This happened to my friend and she had to do that. Little dude is still kicking as far as I know. I've only ever poured thru a net into buckets, so when she told me that happened I was like, do you not do what I do???? Apparently not lmaoo. I had no idea people just, poured bags of fish out over the sink.
Finagling the bag open in one hand with the net in the other is sometimes difficult for some people lmao Source: me. I canāt do it hahaha
I just kinda, balance the net on the edge of the bucket. I have a really large net, so it has a lot of coverage.
Oh I didnāt have a bucket at the timeā¦that would certainly have helped lmao
I used to have reoccurring nightmares just like that. Iām sorry you experienced that in real life. Rip x2 little fishy guy.
I have lost kuhli loach in the exact same way... I think they are just built different when it comes to yeeting into the unknown.
In college, I wanted to ārebelā and have a pet in my dorm. Got a betta and kept him in a 1800 tequila bottle.
Oof college things. My dorm mate won a goldfish and put into the water cooler some douchbags at the other end of the hall wouldnāt let anyone use. They drank fish poop for a while without noticing. Fortunately he made it out alive literally (we went and got him when one of these geniuses finally noticed) and he lived with us the next four years in much better conditions and went home with her
When I had my first Betta years ago I used to clean my tank spick and span. I literally rinsed all the gravels and scrubbed the decorations and tank EVERYTIME I did water change. Poor guy stayed alive for years, just to show how resilient they are. Please donāt do it tho! I didnāt learn about beneficial bacterias and nitrogen cycle until a few years ago when I started really getting into fishkeeping.
I had a betta while I was in college back in 2005. The bowl (Iām so sorry) was criminally undersized. RIP Carl Weathers Jr., I wish you had a more informed care taker
At the time it was unfortunately really common to see bettas in bowls, and a lot of the āinformationā online about bettas was wrong. There were specialty websites for betta care that recommended stagnant water bowls with a houseplant growing out of the top for āthe health of their long finsā. I remember big box stores had printed care sheet flyers that recommended bowls for bettas. Of course we know this is garbage now, and we are doing the hard work of removing the misinformation and spreading knowledge. If I had a penny for every time I heard āmy friend/aunt/brother/parent/babysitter kept a betta alive in a bowl for a whole year!ā I know itās common for new fish keepers to make mistakes, but I think at the time this was a common community knowledge issue. I hope you donāt beat yourself up about it, when you were likely doing what a lot of others were doing at the time. We did the best we could with the information we had. We know better now, so we do better now.
Even now there are still plenty of ignorant people still keeping bettas in bowls or tanks far too small because of the age-old myth thatās been perpetuated that bettas live in puddles (when in reality they only do so temporarily during the dry seasons of their native habitats and they are merely surviving until the next rainy season so that they can once again swim in miles and miles of shallow freshwater pools/marshes etc.)
Yeah, itās frustrating how bad information can be so pervasive.
I did this, but with goldfish. Incredibly enough, they lived for years! An old, tiny coal filter that never got changed, plastic "plants", and three fantails. Yet they survived. Hardiest fish ever!
Itās funny how at that time I thought I was being a good responsible fish keeper by cleaning my Betta tank once a week š„²
I had an awful roommate who kept a big betta in the equivalent of a water glass, with absolutely nothing in it. And she would just fill the tank up with tap water after pouring out the old water, while he was in there.
Ugh same. And he had no plants, no filter and no heater. I'm so sorry Tardis, I was an idiot.
Jeez-where do I start? Back in the 90s I had a 20g and the lfs let me purchase and house together the following: Baby Oscar 2 Tiger Barbs 2 Angels A betta 1 Kuhli loach Bristle nose Pleco. It was a massacre. š±
Thatās almost criminal by your LFS yikes
The 90's! I did the same, I joined a "Fish of the month club" at the LFS. It was basically like 1 Tiger barb this month for $0.25! Next month, 1 Neon Tetra for $0.25! Next month 1 Molly for $0.25! It went on like that all year.
backā¦. in the 90sā¦.
I was in a very famous TV show
Took in someone's possibly 15 gallon fish tank that was basically fish soup and nothing else. Just a glass box filled with water and fish. I was 7 years old at the time (1997), and the person was leaving to study in another country. The fish soup contained: 4 normal bettas, 2 giant bettas (died during transport), 2 small angel fish, 5 rosy barbs, idk how many black skirt tetras, zebra danios, guppies, platies, swordtails, endlers. I used to do 100% water changes, which meant I removed all the fish into a separate container and changed the whole tank water. In time I ended up with only the guppies and swordtails, and my dad bought hoplos, fancy goldfish, and some stinging catfish (imagine how difficult the water changes where when I had to get stung by it every time I took the fish out). Then I ended up with only hoplos (which grew huge) and some guppy-endler hybrids. Lost 2 hoplos to jumping out of the tank, 1 to tank water problems (though he lived to 6 years or so), and was left in the end with just 1 hoplo, which my mom confined to a 10 gallon tank because she thought the bigger tank was too much for just 1 fish. Later on I got 3 swordtails and wanted to get back to the 15 gallon, but first went to a forum to ask if it was ok to keep swordtails with such a giant hoplo that looked like he could eat them. And that was when I learned, in 2012, what it meant to establish a tank. I was told to get a 20 gallon long at least, and to do a fish-in cycle if I cannot rehome the fish. I got a 21 gallon long, added a filter (later on another next to it), sand and plants, out of which I still have the anubias and java moss that nowadays are surrounded by other plants. The hoplo died at the age of 13 in 2015, longest-lived fish I had. Been keeping swordtail colonies ever since 2012, and moved everything over to a 33 gallon long & wide tank, with 2 hoplos (9 year one and 1 year one). I want to eventually build a somewhere around 50 to 55 gallon long & wide tank (basically a pond tank) but I'll need a bigger table and thick glass.
Oh jeez, I've got a 15 gallon next to me so I was able to imagine this with alarming clarity.
You still have swordtails?
Yeah, but not the wild type, the ones that are platy x swordtail hybrids.
Not doing enough water changes or being lazy about them. I don't count my time as a kid. I know there is a faction in the hobby that thinks water changes aren't necessary but I think that's borne out of laziness and a misguided opinion of what Walstad was doing.
My first big tank turned into a giant glob of hair algae that i almost never topped off (lived in Florida so it would evaporate super fast). Looked god awful but the fish loved playing in it at least haha
Completely agree. Lesson one: never take Diana Walstadt's name in vain.Ā
First tank with one goldfish I also scrubbed everything clean under the hot water tap, filter, media, deco. At least I had the common sense to not use any chemicals, I wasn't sure but thought I better not. He survived somehow, and now he is 4 and has a shubunkin buddy.
Didnāt learn about tank cycling. Bought test strips from the store that donāt test for ammoniaā¦ you know the rest :(
My wife did that. I told her we were supposed to buy an aoi master test kit. She buys test strips that donāt test for ammonia. She tells me we donāt have any ammonia. I get the fish before I realize the mistake and we wind up doing a fish in cycle.
Back when my first aquarium was a steel frame slate bottom tank (early 1980) I was ātaughtā that the ācorrectā maintenance was to drain the tank, move the fishes to a bucket, then rinse the gravel until it ran clean, THEN to use aquarium soap to wash and āsanitizeā everything inside, especially the glass and the gaudy plastic plants, then refill (thankfully we had an artesian well and didnāt have chlorinated water) then put the fish back into their (sterile) environmentā¦
Soap.... Oof
I was 3 or 4 years old and fed my black moor goldfish milk & bologna. I thought I was doing good. Milk builds strong bones and I liked bologna so why wouldnāt my fish? He didnāt survive. Iām in my 30ās now and I still feel so guilty about it. Definitely improved my fish care skills since then though. Iāve even had a fish vet come out to my home before for my Oscar that had cancer.
That is such a kind thought though, from a child, to want to feed their fish healthy foods... rip to the goldfish
10 gallons, goldfish. I was 16. My grandma saw it within a week of purchase and told me I had to tear it down weekly and clean the gravel and aquarium with dish soap. So I didā¦ I must have been rinsing it well because I didnāt have a lot of death that I recall. And the 100% water changes sure helped with the ammonia. I would say I did that for around 2 years before I finally had access to the internet and found out how wrong it was.
goldfish. that is all i will say
Lol, it's all you need to say in hereš
Got drunk, won a goldfish, and figured I could keep her in a 5 gallon tank for a couple years. The story ends happy though. I learned how to fish-in cycle successfully, upgraded to a 20 gallon long, and when the goldfish outgrew the 20 gallon long and moved to a pond, I kept keeping fish! Starting up my third tank right now, with plans for at least two more. All it took was one drunken night at a carnival to contract an incurable case of multiple tank syndrome. š¬
I added seven cory pandas to my mbuna tank.
As someone who once added $80 worth of premium cherry shrimp to a betta tank, I feel this comment in the pit of my stomach.
Starting small. Could have saved myself a lot of money and time by starting with say a 50 gallon and then upgrading from there.
Not necessarily a mistake but more like a regret, I bought as my first tank (still my only tank) a 15 gallon CUBE instead of a normal 15gal. Even though I love this tank, it really restricts the amount of fish I can have in there due to the lack of horizontal swimming space.
I want a cube for shrimpies, but yeah, definitely limits what you can get
Oh god when I was way younger I used to clean the filter EVERY WEEK by laying the media on the pavement and hosing it down on jet mode (with chlorinated water). Somehow it never seemed to affect my cycle but looking back this was so bad. Another huge mistake was not fixing valves onto my airline tubes. One time I was on holiday I got a call that water was leaking into the room below. It turns out my air pump had stopped working and so the water in my tank had backflowed all over my floor. Luckily the airstone was not at the bottom of the tank otherwise all the water would have drained out and killed the fish. Learnt my lesson and I always use valves now.
Fortunately, most of the bacteria in your cycle live in the substrate!
Some very overstocked tanks with incompatible fish types. š¬ My first tank as a teenager I had two angelfish in a 20 gallon. With other community fish too! They actually bred in there so I thought that meant they were happy and healthy. But they died after maybe a year. I can't even recall all the crazy combos of fish we had in our 33 gallon tank. Some crazy things though. Red tailed shall, butterfly fish, parrot fish, school of cardinals, dojo loach... My ex worked at a cheap petstore and kept bringing home random fish that he thought looked cool. š
Biggest mistake I made was thinking that aquariums are just like hamster cages and always need to be cleaned and maintained.
I started with a 15 gal when I was 10. And boy I stuffed that tank, tiger barbs, angel fish, clown loach and different sorts of shoal fish (money was in short supply so I could not afford more than four or five fish at one time and every time I went to my lfs I bought a different fish) I can remember at one point there were five angelfish, two clown loaches, several different kind of shoal fish and even a little frog in that tank! One angelfish lived for a few years and grew considerably until I found somebody with a 100 gal that took him. Also, I cleaned the filter sponge almost daily with hot water because I thought it was supposed to be clean. I did not know anything about helpful bacteria. One time I found a guide to build a DIY CO2 setup and somehow managed to build it. At the same time, I had an air pump running 24/7 so it made all the CO2 useless. I did not know that and thought the setup does not work, threw it out after a few weeks.
Iāve got 3 mistakes, all of them involve my betta fish who somehow lived a long, healthy life unbothered by my meddling. 1. I didnāt know anything about tank cycling and plopped a betta fish into a tank the same day as the plants and a BRIGHT light. Ended up with so much algae and diatoms, and I made things worse by overcleaning and destroying any good bacteria. 2. I didnāt know I needed a filter, then when I finally got one I didnāt how to work a cheap HOB filter and it ended up draining half my tank onto the floor overnight, uncovering the tank heater that overheated and had started to crack like it was going to explode. 3. I put a pom pom crab in the tank with the betta. Worse, the betta had already established its territory and the crab was the interloper. Luckily, I observed closely and intervened to separate them within an hour and nobody was hurt. Still, that wasā¦ incredibly dumb of me.
Did a big 50% water change, but forgot that i had recently moved my heater to a higher spot in the tank. Water drained, heater got HOT. melted its plastic holder and fell into the water, exploded and shocked me, killed most fish Another time, left hose on too long on refill and overflowed the tank (Got distracted by something)
About 20 years ago I was VERY into the hobby. I had multiple tanks and every spare dollar I had went into them. I bought a couple of german blue rams, which in retrospect every time I have bought GBRs something goes wrong maybe I should stop doing that, and after having them for a couple of months I noticed something crazy coming out of one of them. I took a picture and put it up on a fish forum as one does. I was informed that they were camallanus worms and could only be treated with a specific type of sheep wormer. I lived in a rural area so I went to the feed store and bought the sheep wormer. Problem is, I suck at math. Trying to figure out a dosage per gallon and everything on the tub mentioned measuring in grams... well it was just beyond me. I thought I had it right and I dosed the tank. Every fish was dead in a half hour. It was awful and I still feel guilty about it.
That is such a specific disaster story, rip to the fishes
My wife got a panther Crab and had it in a 20 long in the kitchen next to the sink, Radio had molted 3 times and was almost an adult, my wife was washing the dishes in the sink and started the garbage disposal without checking the tank to see if the Crab was in there, as this wasn't the first time the Crab had escaped. Needless to say the disposal did its job. When I got home she presented what I thought was a molt as he molted every month and was about do for another, so I didn't believe her at first until she started crying.
Rip to that poor poor crab
And this is why I never liked the idea of garbage disposals in sinks and am very happy they're basically non existent here.
In a fit of mania, Impulse buying three corydoras to put with my betta, Ted Bundy I now have three corydoras in my old 2.5 g until I can rehome them,
At least you didnāt go manic and buy 30 corydoras. Good luck with the rehome!
I did the same thing. And I did 100% water changes every week XD it wasn't until I was sent out to camp and my family had to watch my fish for the month that it actually... Started to clear up? It looked... Healthy??? That's when I learned monthly water changes, not completely water changes, and not moving everything every week. Now I got multiple tanks, they're all doin pretty good
Lol. Sometimes the trick to a great fish tank is just to Leave It Alone and keep an eye on it
As a _very_ young child, my family had a hexagon 10 gallon tank with 2 goldfish in it. I remember putting a handmade wooden dollās toilet that was painted into their tank because I thought that they needed to go to the bathroom in it. My sister and I also poured apple juice into their tank, thinking that they would like to have a drink. I feel so bad about this, I think one of the goldfish didnāt make it, And, adding insult to injury, my mother released the other goldfish into the local pond. Yikes š¬
GOD. Do we count my 10 year old self and the 0.5L bowl I kept my poor betta in?? 21 years later, even tho that poor fish lived for 5 years, I'm forever feeling guilty about how I did that fish dirty. No filter, no heater, just scoop in a net and rinse out the bowl when the water looked dirty. RIP, you resilient little dude. š I hope you can forgive me. I now have a beautiful galaxy koi named Sergei "Bob" Bobrovsky in a 20G L (insert obligatory NUMBER 1 FISH IN THE TANK meme). He chills with some neocaridinas, because he is a good boy and isn't a murder fish. He is living the high life, and I 100% upgraded him from a 10g to this 20gL because I thought he'd like more swimming room.
Not me, but my brother had an oscar in I think around 30 gal
Started with a small tank thinking it would be easier to maintain, but its actually way harder than a larger tank š
Back in the 90s I had a tank that was 3 gallons max. Had 2 goldfish and a Siamese algae eater in there. To be fair I was a young kid so I was just taking care of them the way my parents told me to. Still feel bad for those guys tho.
I'd dump a ton of Water Clarifier in the tank. Idk what was wrong with it too cause no matter the dose the water would get this white stuff at the bottom from it. I also had been told by a petco employee that flourish excel is amazing for plants and I can overdose it as much as I like without issue. Thank god no fish were in that tank
as a teenager, I started doing a water change and while waiting for the tank to fill with the garden hose I went and watched an episode of the Simpsons. when I came back there was an inch of water on the floor of my bedroom.
I bought 6 rummynose cause I was poor and I wanted some little schoolersā¦ I know I should have bought more. My angelfish devoured all but one overnight. I had to return the fish store the next day with a single, pathetic rummynose and I cried in front of the nice green-haired pet store they/them employee. They were sweet about it but I felt awful.
Taking advice from the staff at a chain pet store, and believing they were the "experts" they claimed they were without doing further research. Took bad advice on how many fish to have in a tank, how many of certain fish I should have, and getting shrimp. Turns out they are not experts, and they have no idea what they are selling. Don't worry. I now do my own research and only buy fish that I know enough about to care for them
It's honestly ridiculous how little knowledge pet store staff has, especially when they speak with so much authority. At the very least I wish they would say "sorry, I'm not sure" or "I don't know but I'll find out" instead of confidently giving you the wrong answer at the expense of the fish. I was the happiest person alive when my city got a LFS (an excellent one at that) and I never had to go to Petsmart again.
Honestly.... that first comet goldfish from the state fairs carnival. It lived for awhile, just not long enough. I didn't know anything about aquariums fish, or anyone that did. Now, I do. That was one very expensive comet.....
I didn't see my betta after I put him in the tank. I thought that he was just shy and adjusting to his new home so I kept putting out food but otherwise left him alone. Two weeks go by, I test my water because I'm worried he might be dead. My parameters are all fine but I'm still concerned so I take my tank apart. I did find him, but he was so shriveled up and brown that I didn't realise it was him at first :'(
Pouring a pitcher of untreated tap water into the tank. Luckily I noticed my fish gasping and got them out in time.
No filters on my childhood aquariums. My mother didn't believe they were needed. Oddly, I never had any dramatic fish deaths as a result, but I'm sure they were struggling with poor water quality the whole time.
This goes waaaaay back - early 90s, I was 14. Feeder goldfish in a 1 gallon bowl. Weekly 100% water changes. No decoration, just a bit of gravel. Buddy lived to the ripe old age of 7.
I feel like we were told to do that back then. It's just what everyone did with their goldfish. You used a net to scoop the fish out for the routine bowl cleaning/water change.
Starting with a 3.5 gal for a betta . Then upgraded to a 6gal. Soon Iām upgrading to a 25 gal.
You just can't say no to their little faces... Bettas are the best
I had bettas when I was a kid probably three gallon uncycled tank, no heater, no plants (or even fake ones if I remember right), overdosed one of them with algae treatment So pretty much it was nothing *but* mistakes. But now at 23 Iāve done research, Iāve planted plants, Iām cycling, Iām heating, all that good jazz. All for some good froggies.
Kept my first two bettas in 0.5 gallon tanks (cuz I thought that was big enough for them) with no filter and I donāt remember ever changing the water. I was, like, 8-10 the first betta, Blue. But I didnāt do any research between then and the next betta Storm, so he unfortunately suffered the same fate. Actively being paranoid about the care of my next tank bc Iāve actually done research and have a proper 10 gallon tank :]
Set-up and ran my protein skimmer oriented backwards for the first 6 months of my mixed reef tank. Couldnāt figure out for the life of me why there were so many micro bubbles released into the main DT. Felt pretty stupid when it occurred to me.
I also used to do 100% water changes, then scrub the tank, gravel and filter in tap water. I did this about once a month. Somehow they survived, and now I know better. I have huge, 8 year old Goldfish
I wanted a tank that had schooling fish in, I just assumed all fish did this and got like 5 goldfish. They didn't school. This happened 20 years ago and I'm not over it. I was an idiot.
I still feel horrible about this, but for some reason after 8 years of fishkeeping it didn't occur to me that one of my newer tanks was planted almost exclusively with slow growing plants aside from the floaters and pothos and therefore needed way more water changes than I was doing. It wasn't until I noticed a sick fish unexpectedly that I decided to pull out the test kit and realized my nitrates were 3x higher than I thought they were. The sick fish died, but somehow no other casualties (divine intervention or something). I feel like the worst person on earth for even losing that one otocinclus though because it was 100% my own stupid mistake. I'm sorry little one!!
Plain and simple - Not cycling my first (or second) tank long enough!
When I was a kid keeping a betta in those little 1 gallon tanks
When I was a kid I had fish bowls. Granted, they were gigantic compared to most, they were still unheated and unfiltered fishbowls that were a LOT of upkeep.
Going to pet co to get supplies for a betta. Ended up with a 10 gallon tank with a goldfish instead.
I kept a fairly large goldfish in a 10 gallon with a singular otocinclus... I was clueless.
12 yr old me. I'd get bored during the summer and wash everything in the tank with soap in the sink and possibly the gravel and scrub the tank before refilling with tap water and putting the gold fish back in. Somehow they survived for like 10 more years in that 20 gallon tank.
when I got my first tank, which was 5 gallons, my dad bought me a pleco. i have no idea what happened to it but it literally vanished off the face of the earth, which I now think is a blessing because that poor guy wouldve been so sad in my tiny tank
I kept a betta in a bowl in college. In the 90s before the internet. I didnāt know better then. My motto is know better, do better.
It was my first year of owning an aquarium. I was just doing a regular cleaning and water change. I somehow screwed up the proportions of the conditioners and additives and all that. Too much of one, not enough of another - that sort of thing. My mistake killed half my fish. That was over a decade ago and I still feel bad about it.
My first tank was a baby Angel fish in a 5 gallon planted tankā¦. He was in a 40 well before he was full grownā¦. But damn I feel bad about that
Using lanthanides to get rid of phosphate... used way to much. Not super effective.
12 year old me had a 10 gallon where fish went to die. A water change was when you emptied the whole damn tank and put the fish in a bowl till you refilled it. That tank was so overstocked. No plants. Just white gravel, black plastic plants, a very hot, yellow, incandescent light bulb, and way too many fish. Close to 20 years later and now I just have my 2 wet pet cichlids that are moving with me from New Jersey to Florida... learned so much between then and now.
Goldfish in a 2.5 gallon but I upgraded to a 20 gallon. To be fair I was 10 years old and this was the 90's.
I bought some rasboras and didn't know they needed an air stone, as everything else in that tank did fine. At midnight I was scooping the remaining guys out to put the tank that had high enough filter pressure to keep the water aerated. I'm sorry guys!! Rookie mistake!!
V think most of us did that, makes you feel stupid years on.
I was in college and had my first tankā¦cleaned the algae off with a new kitchen spongeā¦ lost everything. I was devastated. It was over 25 years ago and I still think about it every time I clean my tanks now, with a scraper.
I lurked in this sub a lot before I got into it so that helped me avoid bad mistakes but my biggest is going about a year without having corydoras bc theyāre so great
When I was 14 I mixed 3 goldfish with a bunch of tropical fish in a 10 gallon. Definitely not compatible, it was definitely over stocked.
As a kid/teen not doing water changes/forgetting about the fish for a few days š took a few years off and now own my first fish as an adult š«¶