SILLIEST thing you have ever done as a beginner!

[Hendre]

Let the in-laws look after our tanks for a month... Lost my baby due to overfeeding and no water changes. :/ I will NEVER EVER let someone who's not a 'fish person' look after my fish again!

If i go away and there is someone coming to check the house twice a week, i prepare food doses for each viv0sit and 9ut prime in little bottles eith a dose to remove some nitrate

 

[RangerBlue381]

set up my first big tank with a canister filter. had everything running, tried to prime it and get everything running. nothing. recut the tubes got water everywhere. tried it again. nothing. now past midnight. look over. surge protector switched off. turned it on and it all worked.
guess that's not beginner issue as common sense.

 

[CaoBoy23]

Putting a crayfish with bamboo shrimps .

 

[Cloudk]

What is the silliest thing you have ever done when first starting out in the hobby?

Mine: When I first started thinking about wanting to keep fish, I started with a 10 gallon tank. My plan was to just use jugs of spring water for water changes instead of using a dechlorinator because I wanted the "purest water" for my first fish and I figured the jugs were cheap at Walmart. I didn't realize how ridiculous and impractical this was until it was time to do the first water change.

Not mine, but my husbands dad had an alligator gar "Gar" for like 15 years in a 150 gallon. Lost his house, gave the fish to a friend who put him in a 90(gallonage changes each story). Something happened with the water(it had some kind of automatic drain and refill), so, Gar(renamed Leviathan) turned white, stopped eating and died. Lesson: gar are not for people who don't own houses without large ponds.

 

[Ihsnshaik]

You're gonna get half the people
Here upset gar isn't for aquariums lol

Not mine, but my husbands dad had an alligator gar "Gar" for like 15 years in a 150 gallon. Lost his house, gave the fish to a friend who put him in a 90(gallonage changes each story). Something happened with the water(it had some kind of automatic drain and refill), so, Gar(renamed Leviathan) turned white, stopped eating and died. Lesson: gar are not for people who don't own houses without large ponds.

 

[bandicoot]

I was 11 and wanted to get my mom some Tiger Barbs for her Birthday (they are her favorite fish besides Neons) so I went to a LFS with a friend and her parents. I got everything I needed, and then went to look at the fish and there were the "tiger barbs" on sale for .25 each.
When I set the tank up and and she saw it, my mom informed me that the "tiger barbs" were in fact Tiger Oscars. O_O ( a lot of my friend's parents got Oscars for free )

It is still a running joke 20 years later. Every time i have gone to a store to look at the fish, some one in my family has to point out the Oscars and say "there are your Tiger Barbs Jess!"

*facedesk*

 

[FishTanksOfCO]

When I was 3 I tried to give my grandmother's betta a bath by taking it out of its bowl and putting soap on it. Had no idea what I was doing.

 

[THAT1GUY818]

On my first 10 with mollies and gold fish. I didn't have an oxygen source. The fish either died of ammonia or suffocated

 

[EighthNotch]

I used GE silicone with MOLD INHIBITOR on my girlfriends tank to silicone tile to the bottom for substrate. You all know how that one ended.

 

[Ihsnshaik]

I used GE silicone with MOLD INHIBITOR on my girlfriends tank to silicone tile to the bottom for substrate. You all know how that one ended.

You mean ex girlfriend?! lol