What's the biggest mistake you've ever made?

R

racingjason

Big Fish Tank..Small Fish Knowledge
Feb 7, 2005
354
0
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Fish related that is. :)

I thought this might be a good idea so the same mistakes are not repeated by others.

I bought a 10" African knife fish from a LFS on the owners recomendation. I had Malawi Cichlids at the time and he assured me they would co-exist. I dropped him in and he instantly hid in one of the caves "owned" by a dominant 6-7" male cichlid. That male then evicted another male from a different cave who then killed another male in the 3rd and smallest cave. Well I tried feeding the AKF everything he told me but I never saw it eating :confused: , I assumed it was on hunger strike until one day I noticed my favorite juvie missing from the tank. :mad2 I then counted up the fish and realized 5 juvie sized fish (some were expensive!!!) were missing. The AKF looked great... when it would come out of the cave for 5 minutes a day. :rolleyes: It took me 3 days to catch that darn thing and I dropped him into a 15 gallon tank until I could return him to the store. (no refund, but I didn't care) I came down the next morning and the tank was empty... and the cover was laying on another tank! I forgot to put it on!!! I found the fish totally dried out on the floor. (floor is heated in the tank room) and thought he was dead. After watching my dad revive a goldfish once long ago I decided to tried my luck with the AKF. To my amazment it worked, but was short lived because 3 days later he died.
So it cost me a breeding male, an AKF, 6 juvies and who knows how many smaller fish! Lesson learned.
 
In making up some water for my favorite betta to put him in a new 2 gallon tank I bought for him....I grabbed the "Easy Balance" instead of the "Aquasafe" ...both bottles look very similar.....put my betta in the new tank....and went to bed. When I got up to check on him the next morning he was floating !!! He managed to survive this blunder but was never quite the same afterward and I lost him about 2 months later....dispite all my TLC.... :(

Poor Jaxom....
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One of My most memorable mistakes was not having a hood at first on the 90g tank that I had built. I thought I could cover the tank with styrofoam sheets until I built a hood. In the meantime though, my cat jumped onto the aquarium, fell though the styrofoam, and into the tank. It was kinda funny, except for that little bits of styrofoam were floating around in my tank for months. My cat thinks it was my mistake too.
 
My biggest mistake was being a complete newbi at this and buying 4 clown loaches for an uncycled 6 gallon tank that I had. Oh boy. Then I done the research on the net and found out that I couldn't keep clowns in a 6g tank. Now 2 years later I have 25 clown loaches and a 218 gallon set-up. I think I'll be up to 1000g by the years end.
 
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Emg said:
In making up some water for my favorite betta to put him in a new 2 gallon tank I bought for him....I grabbed the "Easy Balance" instead of the "Aquasafe" ...both bottles look very similar.....put my betta in the new tank....and went to bed. When I got up to check on him the next morning he was floating !!! He managed to survive this blunder but was never quite the same afterward and I lost him about 2 months later....dispite all my TLC.... :(

Poor Jaxom....
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That really sucks, it always has to be the favorite too. I hate that about all my additives, the bottles are 99% the same. Maybe I should color code them to avoid that senario.
 
biggest mistake I have made so far is not paying attention to the news better during flooding to make sure I know what they are dumping in my water.
 
My most recent was hooking up a DIY CO2 bottle. I didn't test the KH of my water and later found it was 0. This caused a huge PH swing that killed my apistogramma caucatoides I had breeding. The tetras all survived of course and now 5 months later they are all still swimming. Now I know to test KH and add baking soda before adding CO2.
 
I brought a 8 inch catfish and put him in my 20 gal when i first started out :)
 
haha, mine was I got a new rena air pump about 2 months ago, and replaced the older one, to find out the rena was LOUD! Being all mad, I just unplugged the air tube and the power, and not haveing a one way on, I went out for 3 hours, to come back to my tank half empty/full in a 72g and being a renter and living upstairs, the guy living downstairs said it was raining in his living room!!!! :thud: AHHH renters insurance kicked in! Good thing it wasn't too bad.

Its amazing what a little 50 cent piece can do and how much water can be emptied through a little hose! :dance
 
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