Common beginner mistakes

[Joanna]

Same mistake!

I made the same mistake you made. I put too many fish in at once and they all started to dye withing a 2-5 day period. I had no clue what the cycling thing is, untill i went to Petco and they told me. Now my fish are doing fine though

 

[Botch]

The most important thing to do is to read, read, read. And, I must add, to know what to believe and what not, because there is contradicting information out there. But if ten experienced keepers in AC tells you something should not be done, believe them.
There are lots newbies can learn out of the mistakes I have made in my years of fishkeeping:
* Do not mend the heater cable in the part that goes under the water.
* A schoal of bettas is not a good idea. Don't ask the lfs attendant for "six or seven bettas".
* A big fish and a group of small fish looks good in theory. In reality, it looks just like a sole big fish.

Something else: Always consider your partner, because some people are immune to the aquarium bug and often those people are married to fish nuts. My experience:
* Don't buy that big tank without speking to the wife.
* Don't think that puddle of water on the floor will dry by itself before the wife notices. It will not.
* Discus and other fish species do not often make good tank mates. Expensive discus and non-fishkeeping wives don't often make good housemates. They (the wives, not the discus) often insist on a gift to the same value as the fish.
* Remember how much you told your wife that expensive fish cost.
* Keep frozen bloodworms in a container marked "fish food" in the fridge. Wives object to the word "worms" in the fridge.
* If you inquire about an RO system at a home improvement show and your wife looks impressed with you, don't push your luck by telling her it is for the fish and not for household purposes.

 

[Mrditty]

All of the above

The most costly and most agrevating was puttng the water that came from the LFS in my tank with the new fish.
This resulted in a bad case of hair Alage that took years to get rid of Aggg. I get the chills just think about that stuff.

 

[Clownloach458]

not letting tank cycle . was egar to get fish, lol only waited 2 days

 

[Habaceeba]

Don't buy a pair of M. auratus and a pair of Nimbochromis venustus (cichlids) and put them in a 29g at the same time. The auratus will kill everything.

Make sure when making a water change, the water you put in is the same temperature as the water in the tank. If it's hotter, your fish basically go into shock and suffocate. (I've killed some beautiful rainbowfish this way)

Make sure you get a good heater. Submersibles are fine, but they have to be checked every now and then. I killed over $300 worth of cichlids because I came home and the water was over 100F. The only surviver was my synodontis catfish, which I am happy to say is still thriving.

I don't advise using air pumps. They don't work as well as powerheads. The bubbles don't actually aereat the water anyway. It's the churning of the surface that refurbishes the oxygen. Besides, when the hose comes out of the pump on accident, and you don't know about it, you have water everywhere. (I know from experience dude...if you know what I mean)

Learn as much as you can about your fish and the fish that you buy. Try to stay away from genetically "manufactured" fish. Some fish go through cruel and unusual punishments before getting to the LFS. Don't support the people who create them. While some hybrids and interbred fish are ok (platys, swordtails, some discus) others are not (flowerhorn, blood parrots, painted glassfish)

Wow, I've made a lot of mistakes.

 

[cpr4cpu]

My biggest mistake - Don't buy fish that prefer slightly acidic water when you have "liquid limestone" coming out the tap.

I have made the mistake of trying to get the "perfect water" for my aquatic children (5 different tanks) and no matter how many additives, preservatives, or other chemicals my well water just won't stay where I want it (on the 7.2 or lower side). No matter what happens, the ph climbs back up to 9+ and the Kh is well over 380...

 

[NGerdes]

I don't think I would be considered a newbie, but I am still inexperienced. This post has helped me so far too. I made all of these beginner mistakes.... Bougth the 10 gal, thinking I should start small, Through a bunch of fish in at once, poor maintenance, overfeeding, the works..... But I'm a lot wiser now, mostly because of this site. But one thing that I would thought have been talked about a little more is not to trust the LFS, especially if buying from a large store like a Wal-mart, PetSmart etc... While there are exceptions to this, for the most part, the people in these stores don't know anything about fishkeeping. For my first tank, I just went to the LFS and asked them the questions, figuring they would help me out. Not quite, when I walked out of the store, they had sold me (completely true) 6 goldfish, 3 swordtails, 1 irredecent shark, and 1 common pleco, for a 10 GAL!!! And I was too anxious (and stupid) to realize that this was bad... Any person with the slightest knowledge of fish (which obviously wasn't me at the time) would know that this combination of fish is very bad, let alone for a 10 gallon tank.

So do your research first and then buy. Someone else mentioned, go to the LFS, check out the fish and then come back and research. Then buy. After my little experience above, I actually took a notebook with me to the LFS and would write down the names of the fish I liked and then come back here and look them up. My 10 gallon has been running for over a year now w/ 3 dwarf Gourami's. Now I am setting up my second tank (first planted0, and the people around here are probably getting annoyed with all of the questions I am asking. This board has been really helpful and has been responsible for the saving the lives of many fish that would have died without it...

 

[Pam Lowrey]

Originally posted by rockhead44
What about jumping on the medication bus when you thought a fish was sick.I am I the only one who made this mistake?

Nope...

I killed a Betta doing that. Only he was in a bowl, not a tank, so fortunately, I didn't kill any other fish. Poor betta. I still feel guilty about it...

 

[Tim Bo]

One of the most irritating mistakes I have made is attempting to catch 4 zebra danios. First fish I ever bought and after 4 days of sitting watching those guys zip around like flies I decided to take them back to the LFS and exchange them for some slow movers. Ended up injuring two of them (lethally in the end, RIP) trying to chase after them with a miniture net. Fast little buggers