Don't do what I did! Some beginners mistakes

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MDcrinos

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Jun 26, 2006
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I hope some will find this article helpful, others interesting and insightful (especially in dealing with older aquarists and our eccentricities), and a few (my target group) will hopefully smile and remember.

This article deals with common beginner's mistakes, and while it may not give you the concrete solutions it most certainly will tell you a ton of things you should not do!

I began my lifelong interest in keeping fish in small glass boxes over 30 years ago at the ripe old age of 7 and have had tanks for most of the years since. We live in a very rural area and made a trip to a larger town 50 miles away about every 4-5 months. It was here I found the most awesome sight I had ever seen in all my long seven years, a rack of tanks of water filled with the most amazing varieties of small brightly colored fish in a store that had the strange moniker "Wal-Mart"! I fell instantly in love, and the sight of stacks of tanks with the array of inhabitants still grab my attention and well……. Make me happy! I would not set foot into the nirvana that was a LFS until I was an adult and married (there were none within 100 miles and out of reach until then).

I seem to remember that the huge 10 gallon kit ran over $50.00, which for the time and area was a small fortune. It took months to save, slave, and beg enough to buy my dream tank. I finally stood in awe of the young gentleman (wizened and wise in my eyes) while he helped me assemble what I would need.

1 10 gallon tank kit
1 bag of gravel [Red]
1 net
1 jar of flake food
3 plastic plants

The kit came with a lid, but no light or heater and the state of the art corner filter with filter floss and charcoal.

I still remember my first stock choices:

8 neon tetras
3 of those little catfish to clean the bottom of the tank
and four fish that I would (decades) later realize were Mollies.

I bought this all with the help of the store worker (who likely had never kept fish) who assured me they would do just fine and rode the hour plus ride in an major state of excitement. Upon arriving home, I took a bowl, filled up the tank with gravel and water from the tap (thankfully we had our own water source, no chlorine), stuck my 3 plants into the gravel, dumped my fish into the tank, threw in a handful of flakes to feed my small pets, and settled in to watch. It was beautiful (at least to me) and everything I'd hoped for. I feed my fish liberally 2-3 times a day and by the end of the first week they were all dead.

I remember being at a loss and heart broken! It would be months before I would be back to the only store in the area that was large enough to have fish.

I can hear everyone groaning…. Many of us started out this way and these mistakes are still being made today. For the younger readers I would like to point out that we had no library in our town and it was two decades or so before the computer would hit the market. The pimply guy at Wal-Mart was the "word" in fish keeping.

I sought advice from the only other source I had access to, an aunt who kept fish in those old metal framed tanks. Looking back, I recall that they were Guppies in 5 gallon tanks. After taking her lessons to heart and getting my money together I added my next group of fish. This time, I bought different types, because the fish must have been defective. I took them home and dumped them into the tank. After feeding heavily for a week and being told I must keep the tank clean, I scooped the fish out into a glass bowl, broke everything down, scrubbed everything down, ran fresh tap water and back in the fish went. This group by some twist of fate lasted a few days longer than the first. This cycle went on for a long time until mom put her foot down, it wasn't concern for the fish, "NO MORE MONEY WILL BE SPENT ON **** FISH"!

I then added local shiners, chubs, darters, blue gill, and crawfish to my victim list. I was becoming quite the little killer. The entire mess was eventually banished to the basement by the parents for a pretty good while.

This cycle would repeat it's self many times over the years (I feel awful about the sheer number of causalities). During one such time after all the fish had died but I had not broken down or cleaned the tank a friend from school called. He had just bought a fish for his 10 gallon tank (very similar story) and it had proceeded to kill everything in the tank and wanted to know if I wanted it before he threw it out. I did of course and we arranged to drop the little green/tan and black stripped beast into the 10. It turned out to be a Jack Dempsey and it proceeded to destroy everything in the tank, but it lived. He (dubbed Homer) lived with us for many years. He got to about 6 inches long and destroyed, killed, or moved everything that was ever placed in the tank……. But he lived. I made the educated guess that old water was the difference, (not a bad guess as far as guesses went). He eventually went on to fishy heaven, from old age I thought, and was replaced with four gold fish. They quickly did what gold fish do, grew and grew and grew! When it became painfully obvious they were too large, into the farm pond they went. Two of them lived for years and grew to well over a foot. I had live fish for over 5 years and thus in my eyes, I was an expert. I had varying levels of success after that, finding out what worked and what didn't without knowing any of the science behind it. My old 10 gallon tank stress cracked on the bottom one afternoon dumping the water on the kitchen floor and I retired.

I eventually got the bug again and upgraded (2 ten gallon tanks). By this time I was married and working and had three steps on my path to enlightenment appear, our town got a public library, the distant town had a nice Chinese man open a fish store, and I discovered this wonderful thing…. The Internet.
I read everything I could get my hands on and asked questions until everyone I knew that had fish had to have cringed when they saw me coming. I learned lots and must give credit to Badman's Tropical Fish site and Pandora who would answer the most trite of questions tirelessly and with good grace. This allowed me to keep many types of fish and successfully breed a few. I'm still learning after all these years. So to sum up all the beginner's mistakes and what I've learned before you see ANY success and begin enjoying your tanks:

1. Learn the cycle process, old water is not the answer. If you don't understand the cycle process your fish will die. If you don't understand, read and/or ask until you do. The learning curve is steep on this one!
2. Do not buy equipment and fish on the same day because of number 1 above and the fact your temps and conditions are not stable.
3. Fish do not need a handful of food 3 times a day! In fact they need very little. Your biological filter will not handle this type of abuse.
4. If you are unsure ask someone about your stocking schedule and plans. My original tank would have likely have crashed even if the tank had been cycled. The inch per gallon rule everyone will throw at you does not work.
5. Know your water and know what you will have to do to get it acceptable to keep fish in. Remove chlorine, do not keep hard water species, soft water, etc…depending upon your parameters.
6. DO NOT BREAK DOWN AND SCRUB EVERYTHING IN YOUR TANK. I've heard that a good scrubbing or rinse will not destroy your bacteria colony on gravel from a few sources but I'm somewhat skeptical. Esp. if you're rinsing with municipal water.
7. Know what you are getting before you put it into the tank. A 2-3 inch Jack Dempsey will live in a 10 gallon tank, but it will not thrive or reach its full size or life span. It's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to know what you are buying. In this age of information at our finger tips there are no excuses. Don't buy a fish that won't work with your setup or that eats your other pets and blame the guy at the store!
8. There are tons of new equipment now we didn't have and much of it makes our lives much easier. However, don't let some elitist get you down. Many of us still use sponge filters, undergravel filters, and yes you can still buy the little corner filters.
9. It's your tank! If you want red gravel, skulls, castles, fake coral, or whatever, go for it. You don't need someone's permission or acceptance -- advice maybe -- but not permission!
10. And the biggest lesson of all is take all advice with a grain of salt and get as many opinions as possible before making your decision. The know it all expert that is telling you what you have to do may very well have a Jack and four goldfish in a 10 gallon for four months or so!!!!
 
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