Biggest scares you've had as a fish keeper?

[Jexnell]

Mine would be when my 55gal acrylic tank popped a seam and dumped half of its water before I intervened.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

1. When I came home on New Year’s Day and Sparky had a Tetra in his mouth.
2. When I came upstairsat 2 am and the Tetra‘s were twitching and had no depth perception. Never figured out the cause.
3. When the Tetra’s where on the ground not moving. Turns out they were sleeping ?

 

[Niki_up]

One of my bigger scares was when I was filling up one of my tanks I saw the glass was steaming up, when I checked the water it was filling up with shower hot water!

I was doing water changes on all my tanks that day and took a break in between tanks. My bf must have taken a shower and hooked all my fish stuff back up to the shower and didn’t tell me. I didn’t check the temperature before filling the tank as I had it set for filling up the previous tank.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Had that happen yesterday. It was set at 80 degrees, and I turn the water up fully, and I’m filling and notice the hose was steaming. The water was 119 degrees. Every fish was fine tho, because it was Only a few seconds, plus they were on the other side of the tank.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

I had a Octopus get into a HOB filter and it grabbed my fingers with a couple of the tentacles so I panicked. I didn't want the Octopus to bite me. I personally would never keep a Blue ring as a pet it will kill you with a bite.

You had a blue ring octopus?

 

[Gourami Swami]

Most memorable was a long time ago, maybe 15 yrs. I lived with my parents and had a 90 gallon with an oscar and some things downstairs in their house. In the middle of the night my mom yelled and woke me up and said the oscar had jumped out. I ran downstairs and put him back in the tank. The power strip had tripped i think? Power to the tank was cut and the fish were all breathing at the top, with little oxygen. My mother still swears she was having a dream that the fish was dying and then heard the sound and woke up.
Also flooded their house by overfilling at least once, and did that in another apartment as well. Now I am much more careful, easy to get caught up in something an forget the tank is filling.

 

[neutrino]

Adding some epsom salt to one of my kapampa giberrosa tanks-- part of my water change routine for them, they like the magnesium-- then realizing when I was putting the (brand new) bag away it was PERFUMED epsom salts. Removed the fish into buckets of water from another tank and immediately did virtually a 100% water change-- fish survived the scare without any issues and I never made that mistake again.

I have had a couple of scares finding a leaping kapampa drying out on the carpet after I don't know how long, but that comes in second-- kapampa are tough fish!

 

[FINWIN]

I dropped a 15 lb. Limestone rock into the tank. Thank goodness for thick glass.

Knowing I was getting an Oscar I decided to get tempered glass sides. When I hear him cracking rocks I don't regret the decision!

 

[tlindsey]

You had a blue ring octopus?

Not a Blue Ring just a smaller tropical specie.

 

[Heymikki]

I had two over the years that really stick out:

-finding out that I am severely allergic to bloodworms, I had to be hospitalized after having a really bad reaction as a kid
-when I was about 16 I had been saving up all year for a large tank. Working babysitting jobs on the weekends and I had a life guarding job that summer. I saved all of my money from those jobs to buy a 180 gallon tank. One of the guys unloading the tank from the back of a truck dropped his end, the tank fell and the corner landed on the paved driveway