Fun kind of game, but not for the lounge!

with my first tank - only topping off, never doing WC's or gravel vacs, breaking down the tank and cleaning it completely every 2 months. all my guppies lived for almost 6 months until columnaris killed them all in about 18 hours, but any new ones i tried to add all died. thankfully i gave a few to my boyfriend before my tank totally collapsed, and their descendants are still with us. theoretically.
 
I have to admit, I fell victim to seeing tons of fish in a tiny tank at petsmart, and thought I could get away with the same thing. I had 4 lemon tetras, 4 serpaes, and an albino cory cat in a 5 gallon eclipse corner tank. I'd done basic research as far as nutrition, siphoning, water parameters, aggressive fish and which don't mix, etc. but I suppose I never came across anything that indicated stocking suggestions per volume of water. In my defense, they all thrived for the entire duration which I had them, but then I made newbie mistake number two. I sold my tetras and got 3 baby bala sharks. >_< Thankfully, I have more than learned from my experiences, and now have a healthy 55g community tank as well as a 10g tank with maybe 8 amano shrimp and a single gourami.
 
Mine was totally newbie syndrome - 3 bala sharks, 2 platys, 6 cardinals, 1 betta, 2 female betta, 3 bristlenose, 6 black phantoms. all introduced to a 20 gallon within 9 days of getting the tank. Oh and getting the electrician in to add an extra power point for the tank so the whole thing was turned off for just under 8 hours. You can imagine the crap in the tank but I had no idea it was bad. took 15 days to zero. Now have a 50 gallon and said 20 gallon working lovely. but there should be some rule that the fish shop has to tell you about cycling. We even went back a few weeks later when we had learnt about cycling and were doing it properly to be told that we shouldn't wait that long to add fish!!!!!! Yeah cos 7 days is a long time.
 
if you go to the famous Baensch Aquarium Altas volume 1 and look up "black pacu" you will see that the adult size of the fish is listed only as 'over 12 inches'.

so, what was the first new fish I bought for my 90 gallon tank back in 93?

you guessed it! a nice little pacu.

fast foward to two years later and me with a 20 inch fish that was 3 inches thick between the eyes and probably weighed 6 pounds...

had to relocate him to the LFS because through circumstances beyond my control at the time, he had to live in a 65 which of course was impossible..but he was an AWESOME fish none the less..
 
it was the first tank i ever went out and bought on my own.... my family had outdoor ponds all my life and so i decided to go with two fancy goldfish and a comet..... in a 5 gallon....
 
When I first started a few years ago I put 4 Tiger Barbs in with 4 guppies. 3 of the guppies didn't last a week... the tiger barbs saw to it. One of them stood up to the barbs and survived though... he's still alive today.
 
morfin said:
but there should be some rule that the fish shop has to tell you about cycling. We even went back a few weeks later when we had learnt about cycling and were doing it properly to be told that we shouldn't wait that long to add fish!!!!!! Yeah cos 7 days is a long time.
Click to expand...

Yeah seriously it should be a law that any fish store has to tell you about cycling before they can sell you a fish... would save so many fish.
 
My first tank... The whole thing... sigh.

I was 14... I put two clown loaches, an angel, a common pleco, and assorted tetras in a ten gallon with only a UGF... oh, did I mention the kuhli loaches? I must have killed ten of them with the UGF and popcorn sized gravel.

At one point, after not changing the water for three months, I measured the pH and it was about 3.5.

I hang my head in shame (in fact, I'm blushing as I write this) when I think about what I've done. Now, I'm painfully understocked, have a slightly oversized canister filter, and clean the whole thing weekly.
 
I got my first tank when I was 10 years old, so what did I know? I guess my worst mistake was to relentlessly try to keep fish species that kept dying on me. I should have figured out sooner that there were some species that just didn't like my water parameters.
 
Leaving my two 7" Oscars and one 5" pleco in a 60 gallon tank for two months while I moved out of state for the summer. My mom house sat for me and fed them but no water changes. For 2 months... Everyone survived but I still feel terrible about that. I was a complete noob at the time.
 
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