Mistakes you have made in this hobby

Hi all'


I came across a thread on another forum that many of you belong to and, found it very interesting and informative. So the idea is to share all those common mistakes you have made keeping fish. Trust me, new members and old will seriously learn and have a little fun with this.

I hope I am allowed to replicate another thread from another forum.

 

Good idea,i don't think anyone would mind (take a look at the Thread killer on Mybroadband and MyGaming)

Things i've done wrong.

Not cycling my tank (when i first started the hobby)

Not researching fish before buying them (when i started the hobby)

Listening to Petshop advice and ID on fish (guy tried to sell me some pangasius catfish for a 100L tank, latest fail ID was when one of the staff told me a blue acara was a firemouth)

Not doing waterchanges

Having too many aggressive fish

not properly checking fish before buying

buying fish i want at first sight (i wanted Oscars so badly and so i got the red ones,wish i went for the tiger oscars)

 

The day I bought my first 4 fish (black neon's), I was talked into buying a 225g can of dried food that they didn't eat at all
because the pellets are too big and sunk too fast.

And I thought a Cascade 300 on its own will keep a 60 liter tank clean...

 

Hi.
So, let me start. Many years ago when I was still living in JHB, I had a 4foot tank with tinfoil barbs, silver dollars and a nice school of bala sharks. All was going good and the tinfoils were getting to about 20cm in length. At this time I some how made the mistake of getting a baby black shark. All was fine until he grew up. I was investing in a bigger tank but it was far too late. Over time he grew up and destroyed 2 20cm tinfoil barbs and 2 15 cm bala sharks. I took him out one night and left him in a bucket to give him to the LFS in the morning. Well I did not know that they are serious jumpers. Found him dried out on the kitchen floor in the morning. So lost all my prized fish and the devil that killed them!

 

starting 2 quick and not doing my homework first did my first tank and it looked bad started over and thanks 2 sites like this i am on the rite track only doing this for 5 month now still learning lol

 

-Swap friend fish, no first to QT, get virus
-Buy different LFS, get virus
-Quickly move to new tank, Not enough cycling my tank
-Waterchanges with trapwater (lfs says cape town good water)

June 2010-Feb 2011 :banghead:

 

Uhm read somewhere that you can treat a sick fish(fungus on boddy) with high concentration salt in a bucket of water. I did not read further, it should only be soaked for 30 seconds, and not 10 minutes. Hmm I felt so sad after that!!!! (It was before I joined this site).

 

You can also permanently have salt in your tank (Warning:Some fish are very sensitive to salt)

Hardy cichlids,eels and some catfish can befit from a little salt as long as it's not concentrated.

I had some in a convict tank and i was astounded how fast they healed (they tend to fight allot).Then again most cichlids heal pretty quickly from minor scrapes.

 

Glad this thread is working out.


Ok so was doing a water change manny years ago and yes I forgot to turn off the heater. Do I even need to tell you what happened next? Well the glass tube cracked. I never got shocked thank god. I always use a multi purpose plug with a built in fuse. It cut off and I had to rush off and get a new one.

So it's really important to get plugs with fuses

 

Its weird that something so small and simple to be forgotten when doing a WC.

I don't use salt because I have corydoras.
I healed finrot with salt on one of my fish.

 

Very true. It could result in a very costly and dangerous mistake

 

My biggest mistake was to put 2 moonlight gouramis,1goldfish,1common carp(I got from our dam) 6 guppys,and my first gost knife in a 30Liter.well the knife and the guppys died one of the moonlights is still with me to day(2years old) the other died the beginning of the year with a swimbladder disorder.Second was to put 2kenyis 2 cobalt blue zebras and a colden malawi in a 64liter,I sold 3 of them and 2 died.

 

Hey all, like this thread

I get regular shocks from not turning off the power to the lights, arm in water and touching the reflectors at the same time, but more like a light tingle. Just this week I plugged in a 2 pin plug with a wet hand the jolt placed me flat on my a... No damage or burns though.:idea:

So to all out there, Turn off the power and dry your hands when plugging in equipment afterwards.

 

I've killed at least 3 heaters doing this

 

One the mistakes I made, maybe 6 months ago was doing a water change to a dirted tank (no fish). It was super brown and cloudy and it was going to take a while to clean so I thought " hey! If I siphon water out on the dirty side and put the hosepipe on the other side I can go do something else while this cleans." (We all know where this is going) Lol. Maybe 45 minutes later I come back to about 2cm of water in the spare bathroom (where the tank was) and the CARPET passage completely waterlogged :embarrest:. I was frantically running up and down the stairs fetching towels hoping to get rid of most of the water before I showed my parents what had happened. :bigsmile::embarrest: I never did that again.

 

So some time ago I decided to get my first cannister filter. It was a cascade 1000 I think. Any ways, got the filter all set up and started to prime it. Turned on the plug and nothing. I could here the pump running but know water flow. The filter was slowly filling up and air was on its way out. Remember, this was my first cannister. So trying to be clever I decided to open the lid clips while the thing was running.

The pump for that filter sits on the lid. The Dan thing started shooting water everywhere. I got up as fast as I could to get to the plug. Turning off the plug was only one issue. The pipes started acting like a syfin m. Little did I no the filter has taps that you could shut off lol. I guess panic sets in.

 

Not quarantining new fish.:sick: (it's as bad as licking a public toilet seat)

 

I have also been zapped a few time with the lights,it feels like small ants running and biting you.

 

I have made many many many mistakes while in the hobby part of the fun really - the most recent using ceramic diffusers for CO2 - a reactor is the way to go for me from now, low maintenance - some guys have brilliant DIY versions non of that for me thanks.

Later Ferdie

 

Those getting minor shocks should maybe check the earth leakage at the plug and socket as that should usually carry away the stray voltages