Does everyone follow all the "rules" of fish keeping?

i have made poor decisions on stocking,over stocking, and such just because i wanted a fish or somthing. i since have seen how it turns out and try to make wiser decisions and ask as many questions and research as much as possible befor purchasing lol i try to not be annoying. but yers ive broke the rules unfortunatly.

I meant to hit yes =[ =[

I have 3 fire eels.. atm in a 40B... And atm it's my biggest tank. I know when I say I will upgrade i mean it. I usually advise not to get a fish thats max size is to large for your current tank. I am meticulous though on my water changes. I think i've skipped 1 water change in the last year. I'm also bad about mixing.. lol.. I don't reccomend off the wall mixes.. because fish are each individuals.. but I've done some mixes.. I'de never suggest another fishkeeper do.

btw I don't believe there are many "rules" to fishkeeping.. but Good solid guidelines to follow. There are a few exceptions. Just like their aren't many "rules" to follow w/ other pets. Just good solid guidelines to follow.

As long as my fish are healthy and happy I'm following the "rules".

the world wont explode if you dont follow them, you just risk losing your fish.
there not rules there just recommendations to help you avoid possible negative outcomes

Question is, are they rules or guidelines? Way too many variables to consider, no way to follow all these so called rules.

I am not going to lie. I over feed my fish all the time. I love watching them eat.

This thread has the potential to mislead people in a harmful way...

Every last one of us has bent or broken a rule here or there. So if we vote honestly the new guy will show up seeing a poll that shows we do not follow our own rules and can be mislead into believing we are all hypocrites.

If I test my water and find my nitrates are under 20 ppm... and I skip a water change that week... did I "break the rules" because I didn't do my weekly water change?

I recommend only stockign a tank with fish that the tank can house as adults. But I have over a hundred fry in a 10 gal tank... Am I breaking my own rule?

The "Rules" are there for a reason. Depending on the circumstances any one of them can be bent from time to time with no ill results. But at other times bending them can be a complete catastrophe.

My suggestion is... follow "the rules" unless you properly understand why it is safe for you to bend the rule in your particular situation.

I do 75% water changes all the time..
I don't use carbon. well hardly ever.
I wash all my media (except the substrate pro and bio glass) in hot tap water frequently to clean it off (Cartridges , floss cartridges etc all gets washed weekly)

Then again its hard to say. What is a fish keeping rule ?
Are we talking like the 10 commandments or general belief of what is necessary ?

the fact of the matter is, there are no rules to fishkeeping. there are entirely too many individual factors.

as NCN said, the basic concepts of fish keeping should be maintained by novice keepers until you are experienced/ educated enough to stray from the basics.
this includes the ideas of weekly 25%-30% waterchange, turnover rate/ media volume of filtration, 1"/gal stocking, basic water parameter levels, cycling process, etc.