confession time: worst fishkeeping screw ups! come on folks we've all done them!

[pleconut]

On the back of Eric ' breeding cave topic homemade pleco breeding caves I had an idea for a new topic. What are your fishkeeping misadventures we've all had them. We don't like to admit them. I will start with my latest and my very first. My latest -come on i was actually trying to save my fish- it was about 6 months ago I was working in my fish tank and accidentally knocked the end of my flourescent light unit tube in place the bulb blew but my only thought was for my fish...so I stuck my hand as quickly as i could to grab the unit from the water my fish were all ok as i looked down in relief to see them swimming normally around...with the tube still in my hand and relief that no I didn't get a new hairstyle that day . My first fishkeeping blunder was buying a koi carp in with my fish group of fish for a small tank ... i thought it was a goldfish . When i realised it ended up in my lfs pond. It's a learning process right. And on forums we learn from eachother -come on folks .

[bekateen]

Okay, I'll bite. This didn't jeopardize any fish or me, but it was stupid:

Recently I bought a 10 gal aquarium during the workweek, but I had planned to set it up on the weekend. When we came home, I had not yet cleared a space for the aquarium on any shelf surface, so I placed it on top of my (laundry) washing machine. The aquarium sat there for several days.

When the weekend arrived, as part of routine chores, I started to do my laundry prior to setting up the aquarium. I ran several loads of clothes through the washing machine without incident.

Later that day one of my kids walks in from the garage (where the washer and dryer are located) and asked, "Dad, why are you keeping that broken aquarium?"

Naturally, I replied, "What broken aquarium? I don't have any broken aquariums!" And they said, "Of course you do - the one that's smashed on the floor in the middle of the garage!"

You guessed it: Although it didn't happen during the first 2-3 loads of laundry, apparently during the fourth load of laundry, the empty aquarium vibrated off of the washing machine and crashed to the floor.

What is ironic is that I had deliberated so much with myself about getting that tank at the time of purchase; literally, I argued with myself:

• "I don't need it."
  "Yes I do."
  "No I don't."
  "Yes I do."

... Well, "Yes I do" won. Only to be undermined a few days later...Karma? Apparently I didn't need it after all.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Not had a broken aquarium yet. But lots of equipment in full working order until I got hold of it I didn't completely submerge a new submersible internal filter accidently plugged in a new heater I'd not yet installed in the tank the worst- potentially -one was buy a new tank when I first started but if there wasn't a basic fishkeeping guide included i would have even thought of dechlorinator! Shocking but most of my blunders are to do with electrical equipment .

[Jools]

I once kept a cichlid.

Jools

[pleconut]

Done this one as well hasn't worked for me yet especially the dwarfs but I have jurupari eartheaters which are doing well at least these are "peaceful".

[Birger]

I once kept a cichlid.

Thats okay Jools, I sometimes use cichlids as cleaners in my catfish tanks...they will eat anything...

My best example when I feel I blundered the most is getting a fairly rare fish and instead of passing it to someone that would have the knowledge and capability to spawn such fish try to spawn it myself...such as the wild killies (

Cynopanchax bukobanus

) that Jools passed to me...lesson is If I would have passed them on I probably would have for sure been able to get young back and spread them into the region.

Ohh and having to abandon some large Synodontis at the airport for Shane to pick up because they thought I should have shipped them freight....lesson is I need to plan ahead better.

Birger

[pleconut]

Planning ahead I've learnt a lot about planning ahead and research. I try to avoid impulse buys now -us fish keepers can be prone to my motto below says it all here in the uk I regularly get the practical fishkeeping magazine so in my head I plan setups for almost every fish featured in main articles but I always end up with eventually those that continually return to mind my latest one from PFK you may have seen is my group of L397s I'm looking to breed my next is a group of rocket panchax then...then... Going back towards the pleco kind of area my next subscription will be to Amazonas maybe more set ups in mind and I've already looked up every pleco profile on PC. My next pleco project...possibly green phantoms. I try to keep a sense of priorty i can't keep (and breed possibly) every fish I see in only one fish room.

[Dave Rinaldo]

I once kept a cichlid.

Jools

I still haven't! But I've been tempted with a West African that @Dale Ernst bred

[Scleropages]

There was that time during a WC where I accidentally bumped the thermostat on the heater in my former 65gal tank with Uaru, pearl gourami, and giant danios in it. Wound up killing all of the danios, a few gourami, and one Uaru before realizing the temp was ~100°F. I quickly brought it down with a water change with cold water. Those Uaru eventually went on to sire two generations. It was a great run.

I also had a heater in a 55gal tank malfunction and get stuck on which made the tank 95°F. It had congo tetras, royal panaque, clown loaches, and Denasoni barbs (roseline sharks). Everything lived except for the Denasoni barbs.

The worst I can remember was this time my power went out and the canister filter on my 30 gallon tank stalled when the power went back on. I was feeding the tank later that week and realized the filter had stalled. I grasped the filter and gave it a shake and it knocked the impeller loose, allowing the filter to restart. I then went to bed. I woke up the next morning and all the fish were dead. Poisoned by the results of an anaerobic bacteria bloom in the stalled filter followed by flushing the contents of that filter into the tank. I certainly learned my lesson re: the byproducts of anaerobic bacteria in a stalled canister filter with that instance.

[tomgiammarco]

I thought long ago that a 'little duckweed' would look nice in my tanks. I having been battling it ever since...

[pleconut]

West African cichlids is one of those I keep returning to a project for nannostomus transvestitus I've experienced heaters getting stuck but noticed it before it became dangerous. In terms of adding things to the tank i've certainly had some 'classics' mainly with fish such as putting time and money and effort into planting a tank then letting my brother go and buy a 10 inch sailfin pleco or believing it when I was told by that a giraffe catfish could go in a 4ft tank long term this one I fell for when I realised he went back to the lfs who also told me my 4 ft would house an MBU puffer i didn't buy the MBU straight off but i went home to research and found out its potential size, lesson learned here - if i see a fish I'm not definately sure of i leave it in the shop and go home and research.

[jp11biod]

My family calls me a hoarder all the time because I tend to keep stuff long past its useful life. Sometimes the clutter gets so bad as to leave myself only trails through the clutter. Last year I had been cleaning up some spilled food in the fishroom and drove the end of the broom right into the side panel of a 20 Long with some L-134 growing out dumping 15-some gallons of water all over the floor. You should have seen the look on my sisters face. Luckily, no fish were harmed in the incident.

[pleconut]

as I'm writing this I'm currently watching my little finger swell up and go blue i was installing an additional internal filter the heavy lid on my tank slammed shut I really need to repair those hinges

[Marine590622]

My wife and I share a fish room. She is really in love with the long finned form of the Ancistrus, especially in the gold/albino forms. She has been trying for a while to spawn them without much luck, So a friend of mine loans her a proven pair of albino longfin Ancistrus. A no-brainer spawn you would think. I put them in a 120 which I have set up as a reparium. IE the tank is only half full. Has tons of plants, driftwood that runs from the substrate to the top of the tank, terrestrial plants growing on the driftwood, A heavy duty pump in a poret wall on one end. lots of caves. and just some guppies for company. No spawns. months pass no spawns. Then one day my wife comes home with some archer fish Toxotes blythii, a nice rare find, and a fish that it would be neat to spawn, but not one that I had set up a tank for. I opted to add them to the riparium thinking the higher oxygenation and cleaner water would be good for them. We would shake crickets onto the driftwood above the water line and enjoy watching the arching spit a stream of water and knock them into the water. Where upon they would swim over and enjoy the fruits of their efforts. All was well, and then one afternoon when I went down to the basement all the archers where dead. As I was collecting the dead bodies, I noticed that each of them had died with a bably pleco stuck in thier throat.

[pleconut]

It can happen either with those likely to breed or with those with larger tank mates with catfish and their defensive spines sometimes they work sometimes it can go wrong

[NCE12940]

One day recently, in the midst of a bad allergy attack and being totally non compos mentis, I decided I HAD to get rid of the black hair algae in my 45g, like right then. So out comes the H2O2 bottle and, instead of re-reading how to use this, I go to work and successfully overdose the whole tank. Fatalities = algae and a few regular BNs, plus my 5 red BNs, including a proven adult male (my most expensive fish...).

[bekateen]

Fatalities = algae and a few regular BNs, plus my 5 red BNs, including a proven adult male (my most expensive fish...).

At least the algae was on this list. I can't imagine the frustration, but I can envision the scenario, if the fish had all died, and yet the algae survived.

[pleconut]

Ok then time for another confession in all truth what is the most expensive fish either monetery terms or the lengths gone or trouble we get into to to obtain it a slight change of topic but on many occasions it can be inter-related to our screw ups.

[NCE12940]

Yep, the algae was completely done in, the high point of a bad day

[JamesFish]

1) exiting the hobbie
2) Telling Mrs I miss the fish sounds
3)Buying a juwel tank - I hate their kit now with a passion nearly as much as Hate cold callers.
4)Not remembering all the lessons I should or taking my own advice

[Psy]

I once kept a cichlid.

Jools

Well, what was it?

[Jools]

Actually, I have kept a few. My favourite is

Steatocranus tinanti

however I also like many of the South American species.

Jools

[catfishchaos]

Worst mistake was leaving the hobby and always being a little less knowledgeable than I could be because of that rest period.

Most Recent mistake was taking a sponge from my established tank and switching it for a sponge in a tank with a major ammonia spike. I knew I was introducing beneficial bacteria with one but forgot I was introducing pure poison to the other... I did 80% water changes every day for a week and luckily no fish were lost.

[pleconut]

I'm working towards a tank rearrangement plan over the next couple of weeks so for me its swapping filters media setting up tanks and testing and matching parameters then finally moving fish those kind of things we all have to do maybe not always within in a few days. It's been a excellent resource here to move us all further on I mention this as I've just read my way through a topic posted this year and another from this year similar in nature a few days ago that I learnt a lot from.

[wiccandove]

Ok heres mine - way back when I was in high school I had my very first tank, a mirror back oak trim 15 gallon high. I thought I was very cool by having black gravel, florescent plastic plants and a huge group of neon tetras. Ahhh, the tackiness....anyway a few months into having this tank everything was going great and I decided I needed a catfish. My lfs sold me a pictus. Need I say more? about a week later I had no neons. Sad and stupid high school me returned the pictus and changed the tank over to a terrarium for newts

[ElTofi]

the one of the day :

refilling water in the 720 liters living room tank after a WC, I suddenly decided I easily could go down into my fish room (basement), to quickly make a cleaning on the external filter... and you know how it works... about 15 minutes later, completely forgot that water was filling upstairs... till my wife shout in the "AngryPowerMode" : YOU GOT WATER IN THE LIVING ROOOOOOOOOOOM !

around 15 m2 of water to dry and clean...

3 time in 10 years... but this time was a BIG one...

[bekateen]

Oh my! Indeed, I bet this is one of the most common "worst mistakes" any long-time fish keeper will be guilty of. . In my teenage years, my brother and I did that to our bedroom while using a garden hose to fill an aquarium. What is it about distraction?!? LOL I'm sure I would have done this more than once by now if I hadn't had a 35 year hiatus from the hobby between then and now.

I hope your wife was kind to you afterward.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

One I need to be especially cautious of as I live in an upstairs apartment had some close calls though!

[Psy]

Actually, I have kept a few. My favourite is

Steatocranus tinanti

however I also like many of the South American species.

Jools

I had those. Very fun, I had 5 that turned into about 30 in a 5 ft 80 gallon.

Then the whole tank crashed, and they all died within a week, leaving the Congo tetras swimming around like nothing ever happened. Still have no idea what happened there.

[Andrew]

I almost killed a hotel maintenance engineer...

I was working on a ~300-gallon saltwater tank in the lobby of a Holiday Inn hotel and spilled a couple gallons of saltwater on the floor. No one told me the power supply/transformer for the hotel elevator was directly under the aquarium on the level below. Water got in the transformer and it exploded, sending the steel electric panel door flying across the room so hard that it was embedded 6 inches into a cinder block wall on the other side of the electrical room. The maintenance guy was in the room at the time and the panel door flew past his head.