Introducing friends to the hobby, good/bad experiences?

[Yanbbrox]

Everyone has friends, sometimes your own tank/s inspire them to get involved in the hobby and they want to start a tank, you offer to help with your experience, spare equipment etc.

Long story short I bought this tank many months ago and have still nowhere to put it:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=263959&d=1223834140

Then my next door neighbor asked if they could have it set and set it up, if you want you can read the whole thread:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258011

but in short:
Chopped the bottom of his av stand
Added a cross brace and 2x vertical braces
He bought a canister(that I recommended)nothing fancy but the tank is only 33usg
We filled it this weekend using nothing but my dirty tank water.

Now when I started out in the hobby many years ago now, if someone had offered me a free tank, heater, lights, various bits and pieces I would have been happy to hang on there every word.

All this was done on Saturday, here's what happened next:

After a little trip to an LFS with him this Sunday to get some bits and pieces, small net etc. I gave him a few nitrate tests and told him to leave the tank for the week and we'd do a water change next weekend and test the tank.

So I get home from work today and was putting the bin out and there he was with a little smile on his face, so I asked what was wrong?

He'd only gone and tested the nitrate, as it was so high(it would and should be)he panicked, went to the afore mentioned LFS who advised him on the 'normal' way of cycling a tank a few day's into a fish less cycle, and told him to do a water change to get the nitrate down as it would kill the fish(he hasn't got, nor should have for a couple of weeks).

Then, he came home and started reading on the net about nitrate, nitrite and ammonia etc. panicked some more and did a 100% water change.

I tried to explain why this is the wrong thing to do as the whole point is not to have fish when doing this and the nitrate would be high to give the bb something to quickly colonize with but it all went straight over his head

I would have quite happily picked up the phone and helped before all that



Just curious if anyone had any similar experiences good or bad?

If your reading this Dan, then I'm only trying to help people learn

 

[Sab_Fan]

I haven't tried to get any of my friends into fishkeeping; if they asked, I would help, but for now I'm the only fish-guy

that being said, IF I did help someone set-up a tank, I would tell him - - point blank - - to check with me before he did anything.

I think there must be at least a dozen people (probably more) on this site alone that I would check with before listening to anyone at an LFS . . .

 

[Toby_H]

I had a friend tell me he wanted to srtat up a tank... we talked about a lot of the details and I offered to give him some equipment and help him out all that he needed...

A few days later he invited me over to see what he had bought... a 29 Gal tank with a whisper filter and 5 baby Pacu... Which the LFS guy said would be fine for life in the 29 gal...

I didn't do everything for him that you did for your friend, but it still seemed every word I said was wasted breath.

I showed him pics Pacus onlnie and then we went to a LFS where they have a 3' Pacu... I took the Pacu and tried to raise them in my 300 Gal Rubbermaid stock tank... which they outgrew... FYI - Pacu tastes horrible...


I can say a tid bit in Dan's defense... I don't agree with some of the advice you gave him and maybe he heard others offering conflicting advice and decided to think for himself. Seeking the guidance of someone with more experience is a very wise thing to do... but verifying that advice and making your own decisions isn't always a bad thing...

I also confess... I am saying I disagree with you having only read your summary above, not reading the links you supplied.

 

[kevbc03]

I have a few "uneducated" friends that tried to start their own tanks and don't listen to my advice at all, they only listen to the LFS people....!!!!! The people at my LFS don't know what they're talking about sometimes and it makes me so angry!

 

[KellyRRoberts4]

I've had some good experiences with getting friends in the hobby.

Yes, they made some of the same mistakes that I did in the beginning....Even with good advice, but they learned that I wasn't a COMPLETE idiot...

Tony, the BF, is totally into tanks now, loves the arowanna.... I'm having to break him of going into the LFS and just buying what looks cool...But he's coming along well! lol

An X bought a house with a (from what I heard) nice sized tank and did some repairs and got it running even tho his first experiences were with me. (then got me a 90G for Christmas that I still have teehee)

Another friend liked mine so much she went and got herself a 75G and just almost all the same fish I had at the time.... Imitation may be the best form of flattery, but to see her throw it all together in 1 week, where I actually had to save $$$$ and eat ramen for some of my fish and additions made me a bit .....

Overall tho, I like helping others as long as they take it seriously or else I tell them from the get go I will steal their fish!!!!

 

[zennzzo]

I do hope he joins MFK so we can all tell him how he buggered great advise, and how LFS are in the business of making money, and to never, never, ever doubt the expert advise of your neighbor who sees to 1000's upon 1,000's of gallons of fish life giving environment...

 

[Freezekougra]

My experience: FISH ARE STUPID YOU CAN'T PET THEM

 

[zennzzo]

My experience: FISH ARE STUPID YOU CAN'T PET THEM

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It's not the fish that are stupid...

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

Everyone has friends, sometimes your own tank/s inspire them to get involved in the hobby and they want to start a tank, you offer to help with your experience, spare equipment etc.

Long story short I bought this tank many months ago and have still nowhere to put it:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=263959&d=1223834140

Then my next door neighbor asked if they could have it set and set it up, if you want you can read the whole thread:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258011

but in short:
Chopped the bottom of his av stand
Added a cross brace and 2x vertical braces
He bought a canister(that I recommended)nothing fancy but the tank is only 33usg
We filled it this weekend using nothing but my dirty tank water.

Now when I started out in the hobby many years ago now, if someone had offered me a free tank, heater, lights, various bits and pieces I would have been happy to hang on there every word.

All this was done on Saturday, here's what happened next:

After a little trip to an LFS with him this Sunday to get some bits and pieces, small net etc. I gave him a few nitrate tests and told him to leave the tank for the week and we'd do a water change next weekend and test the tank.

So I get home from work today and was putting the bin out and there he was with a little smile on his face, so I asked what was wrong?

He'd only gone and tested the nitrate, as it was so high(it would and should be)he panicked, went to the afore mentioned LFS who advised him on the 'normal' way of cycling a tank a few day's into a fish less cycle, and told him to do a water change to get the nitrate down as it would kill the fish(he hasn't got, nor should have for a couple of weeks).

Then, he came home and started reading on the net about nitrate, nitrite and ammonia etc. panicked some more and did a 100% water change.

I tried to explain why this is the wrong thing to do as the whole point is not to have fish when doing this and the nitrate would be high to give the bb something to quickly colonize with but it all went straight over his head

I would have quite happily picked up the phone and helped before all that



Just curious if anyone had any similar experiences good or bad?

If your reading this Dan, then I'm only trying to help people learn

ummm BB dont colonize when theres nitrate they use ammonia and nitrIte for metabolic functions nitrate is there byproduct

and dirty tank water wont help colonize his tank the bacteria dont exist free floating in the water they grow on surfaces

as for getting friends into the hobby a buddy of mine who lives down the street saw my "huge" fish tank (150 gallons) and now he wants one so i told him start small (30 gallon) and work youre way up so hes still discussing it with his parents and such but he plans on getting a 30 gallon breeder (when i showed him the 40 breeder i used as a sump he said he liked the foot print of it more than standard tanks)i showed him some oddball fish he could put in there (he wanted something carnivorous) such as exodons or dwarf puffers (those really tiny ones) so now hes planning to set up a 30 gallon breeder over filter and get a crapload of exo's or some dwarf puffers (hes still making up his mind which he likes better)

 

[Death Pony]

I inspired one of my friends to start up a tank, and so far her experience is going rather well. She has some nice, hefty platies and otos. The java moss I gave her is exploding apparently.