Introducing friends to the hobby, good/bad experiences?

[Yanbbrox]

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 . . .

Tried the point blank route, got the kid in the sweet shop effect of seeing a tank full of water with no fish after a couple of days

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.

We are not all here to agree nor disagree, just give opinions based on either personal experience or fact

Personally I think it was a mix of my advise(that I assumed would be listened too) and a lot of information taken in way too quickly, via the LFS(going down the fish cycle) and reading on the net that lead to the panic water change.

Sorry to read about the pacu. I don't really want this thread to turn into a war against LFS. Some are excellent and do provide great advise, others don't and reap the rewards, fact

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!

Again as above, not true of all LFS but a good point.

No one can be right all the time, unless you happen to be me, which your not

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!!!!

I'm glad to here the good outcome, happy fish keeping

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...

It's true, I don't sell fish I keep them(Georgina aside). 1000's upon 1000's of gallons? The last time I checked it was only 3737

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

Not wanting to start an argument here, the op was a bit rushed. I agree with what you are saying, using dirty tank water transfers everything in the new tank, nitrate(by product), nitrite(by product of fish waste in the dirty water) I aim to keep my tanks at 0 ammonia.

Anyway my point is that I take great pleasure it keeping a new tank a dirty as possible for a few weeks as I spend the rest of it's life keeping it clean and safe

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)

Nice to hear that he's got some good advise to help

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.

Glad to hear it went well, as for Dan he was thinking about plants One step at a time

As for Dan, he wanted a small pleco to start with as they are bullet proof(IMO), the LFS said that high ammonia will kill it and to start with 5-10 small fish

I find all my fish do really well with high ammonia j/k


Zen,

Do you have a secret page of random youtube tube vids just sitting there just incase, or is it that you drink too much coffee

 

[Alexxxxsv14]

my friend wanted a tank so igave him my 30 gal with filter lights ect. overall he didnt listen to me he quit and threw away his tank and equipment.. wat can i say he was ignorant

 

[yogurt_21]

lol I do the same thing with all my freinds wanting to get into the hobby, start with a betta, a 10g tank, a hob filter, light, etc. show them about wc, testign the water, dechlor, etc, I take the media out of one of my 10g filters in use and put it in their new filter to do an instant cycle and there usually good to go.

some get into it and go for life, most don't like the work and quit.

this way only 1 fish is put in the crosshair instead of the typical lfs massacres you see from new fish owners who get lazy.

 

[Yanbbrox]

my friend wanted a tank so igave him my 30 gal with filter lights ect. overall he didnt listen to me he quit and threw away his tank and equipment.. wat can i say he was ignorant

So are you still friends?

The way I look at it is I bought a second hand tank for £50(I think) and wanted to see it in use. This is the big problem with the tank game, there is a guy Lepisosteus platyrhincus who really likes the tank and wants one, similar design and has been quoted $800 for a custom build. No doubt I could have placed it on the market and got double and never seen it again, not my style.

The secondhand market is huge but is swamped with dealers looking for a cheap buck. Right place right time for me but I couldn't find the space for the tank so I gave it away, along with other things that are now worthless to me, yet another spare heater test strips I've got lying around etc. etc

This way I get to enjoy 'my tank' when having the odd beer without the trouble.

I'd be gutted if a 'friend' had taken some kind offering and simply dumped it when they got bored rather than simply give it back

 

[revmeter]

it was a firend that got me into this but i did start small i got a firbelly newt to get used to wc and the like then after a few months i give the newt to the zoo im sure hes enjoying it more there then got a new filter heater and light let the tank cycle then added the fish he also showed me a small lfs that offers very good advice i did everything h said cus he has been doin the fish thing alot longer than me but i also wanted to find stuff out for my self and the one thing i found true over most id that you never stop learning i hope your friend tank goes well

 

[SimonL]

As for Dan, he wanted a small pleco to start with as they are bullet proof(IMO), the LFS said that high ammonia will kill it and to start with 5-10 small fish

That would be the proper advice. Plecos are sensitive (especially small ones) to new tanks. 5 black tetras or other hardy small fish would have been the best choice.

 

[krichardson]

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

Years ago a co worker got me into fishkeeping and now I have a few current co workers who into the hobby.

 

[Yanbbrox]

That would be the proper advice. Plecos are sensitive (especially small ones) to new tanks. 5 black tetras or other hardy small fish would have been the best choice.

5 small tetra's is what I advised to start with

 

[R0B]

I have 2 friends that are into the hobby. One has recently given it up becuase of money issues but the other is still going strong with 2 tanks of his own. I did not do much by way of helping him learn beacuse he did alot of reading on his own. The other day a picked up a new project tank (150G glass tank and stand that needs some serious refurbishing) and my budy that has been out of the hobby helped me pick it up. One of the things he said was in helping me pick up the tank he became motivated to start into the hobby again.
I think it makes the hobby just that more enjoyable when you have freinds to share it with, but then again, you do have all of us on this forum!

 

[INDK617]

I got my aunt into it. I tried to get her to start with freshwater but she insisted on getting the pretty saltwater fish.

so she bought a 90 gal and had me set it up. (its my masterpiece). it was like fish shopping with someone elses money. and now she's got a nice tank with hardy fish.

however, every month or so i get a call with her screaming hysterically about how she touched something and now its not working anymore. so i go fix it.

luckily, she goes to a really knowledgable lfs and gets her water tested all the time. thank god, cause she did a HUGE water change once and forgot to add salt. the lady at the lfs screamed at her to go home before the fish die. and she STILL went out to dinner first, thinking it was no biggie.

but mostly my experience has been good.