In my early days of fishkeeping, I never performed a water change! If I had to put more water in the tank because of evaporation, I wouldn't add water conditioner, and I put burning hot water in the tank because I thought they were "tropical" and liked hot water. Whoops!
SILLIEST thing you have ever done as a beginner!
- Thread starter MikebNJ
- Start date
I tried to put a small tank with a dark background and lid- in a bright window sill. As a micro tank it didn't do so well but as a solar shrimp oven...
My silliest thing was I put an electric catfish in a cichlid community tank. Very bad idea
In the wild the fish that are too big to kill and eat are electrocuted to induce involuntary regurgitation. Electric cats are not opposed to "abc" food.
When I was like 9 I put a goldfish in a 3 gallon saltwater aquarium. petco guy said it was okay. I was going to get a saltwater fish but they were too much for me to afford so I asked the guy if there was any saltwater fish for under a dollar. Goldfish were under a dollar but little did I know they weren't saltwater. Looked back three years later and finally figured out why he died.
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I lost my last 4 Channa Micropeltes, literally the last 4 snakeheads in the state of Washington before the ban. We had them with 2 channel cats while finishing setting up a 300. One of them killed a channel, so we moved them to another tank which we FORGOT housed a 12" electric catfish at the time. Next morning all 4 snakeheads had broken backs and swam with a ridiculous wiggle as they couldn't control their tails.
Weeks sourcing the last 4 fish, paying way more than they were "worth" finally getting them and then a stupid mistake cripples all of them. I still feel stupid and guilty over that ordeal.
Weeks sourcing the last 4 fish, paying way more than they were "worth" finally getting them and then a stupid mistake cripples all of them. I still feel stupid and guilty over that ordeal.
Typical beginner mistake as a child, putting 3 or more goldfish in a small fishbowl without any tap water treatment and overfeeding them. They didn't last very long. 
Then, later on, already having several aquaria and being well informed, or so I thought... a friend of mine asked if I could keep a bala shark because it had grown too large and was eating other smaller fish. I said ok, but since I had no spare aquarium at the time, I decided to put it temporarily with an albino chiclosoma.
Bare in mind, the bala shark was already 3x the size of the chiclosoma, so I thought no bigger harm would be done aside some nibbled fins. And it was only temporary. Huge mistake!!! 2 days later, I suddenly see the chiclosoma mouth wide open, guills hyperventilating... with the bala shark's head down his throat... it had tried to swollow it whole, but the bala was too large and the chiclosoma nearly chocked! It was stuck, and when I finally managed to pull the poor bala out of its mouth, it was already a skull!!! It made quite an impression, believe me. And I almost lost both fish due to it. So huge lesson learned, with agressive fish size doesn't matter. ^^
Then, later on, already having several aquaria and being well informed, or so I thought... a friend of mine asked if I could keep a bala shark because it had grown too large and was eating other smaller fish. I said ok, but since I had no spare aquarium at the time, I decided to put it temporarily with an albino chiclosoma.
Bare in mind, the bala shark was already 3x the size of the chiclosoma, so I thought no bigger harm would be done aside some nibbled fins. And it was only temporary. Huge mistake!!! 2 days later, I suddenly see the chiclosoma mouth wide open, guills hyperventilating... with the bala shark's head down his throat... it had tried to swollow it whole, but the bala was too large and the chiclosoma nearly chocked! It was stuck, and when I finally managed to pull the poor bala out of its mouth, it was already a skull!!! It made quite an impression, believe me. And I almost lost both fish due to it. So huge lesson learned, with agressive fish size doesn't matter. ^^
