How many fish have you lost since keeping fish?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I too have lost thousands since I started in the 50s, and the first thing I do everyday I enter the fishroom, is check for dead ones, and am surprised where there are none.
A bit off the main subject, but I think worth mentioning.
The trouble with most water softeners is they simply exchange the calcium ion for the sodium ion, which softens water for making suds (the real point of softening water for humans), but not same kind of soft water for a fish, it is actually slightly brackish (hardly the water Uaru fernandezyepizi or Apistos live in), one of the reasons it is not recommended humans to drink water from most softeners.
By the way Jon, I believe I ended up with your longinmanus from the box swap. excellent!
jonclark96 said:
I think a lot of us have lost more fish than they remember. I know that I have lost quite a few, at first from rookie mistakes, then just trying to figure out what works well with the set ups that you have. Personally, I've lost way too many soft water species trying to get them to acclimate to my tap water which is pretty hard and alkaline. I am on a well and have a system wide water softener, but I think that it does something to the water that many fish just don't like. Eventually, I learned what fish work well in my water and that is what I now keep.

Don't get discouraged. Learn from your mistakes and keep going.
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After 30+ years (on and off), PLENTY! But nowadays with all the literatures, forums, and prior experiences, it occurs much, much less frequently. Like us, fish will ultimately dies whether it be from natural incurable diseases, ignorance on our part, or old age. Its okay to be bummed out after a lose, but keep at it and keep learning and you'll keep enjoying the hobby with a much higher percentage of successes than failures.
 
Most anyone who has kept fish for many years will have lost track. It's certainly something you can reduce or limit with time, experience, knowledge, etc, but it still happens to the best of us. You can be doing everything right, not lost a fish in ages, then randomly and mysteriously lose a top fish in a tank where all the others remain perfectly healthy. (yeah, if you're in it long enough you eventually lose fish to old age, but I see that as a different subject)

Not to get into personal philosophies here, but, basically, while becoming an experienced and successful aquarist is rewarding, to get there we pretty much have to come to terms with the fact that we might make some mistakes along the way and that an animal can get sick or die in even the best of circumstances.
 
God I don't know.

Between heaters going on the fritz, people over feeding on vacation (MOM!!!), fish getting ate that weren't supposed to be food, putting a tank in my wife's classroom (elementary kids man), battle royals, fish jumping, dumb noob decisions when younger,

*shudders*
 
I have lost a lot, and most were probably fry. Some I had to sell, donate, or trade along with the ones that have died.
 
Seems like all of you guys have been keeping fish for a long long time. Gonna wait a few month for the illness to clear out and then hopefully come back stronger.
 
I can't even count what I have lost in the last 35 years of fish keeping.

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