Most common mistake

[xrayjeeper83]

Well I just did the background/paint on the tank i just set up. Filled it all the way up, put sand/rocks/plants stepped back to admire my work, and damnit for got to paint the back.

 

[makoshoemaker]

overstocking
and adding incompatible fish together

I tried adding a 2-2.5" silver arowana with some mollies and swordtails in a 10gal. I wanted a arowana bad, but i couldnt put him w my flowerhorn wo killing him. Turns out a 10gal is way too small for a arowana and the activities of having babies all the time in the tank i think stressed my baby arowana out and he curled up and died. I only got to hand feed him freeze dried krill twice...

 

[Jdmxluv]

putting six 5" flowerhorn in 100 gallon tank. outcome was bad. lost about good 75% of the stock. within 4 months.

 

[KaiserOliver]

The most conmen mistake are these.
1 Not Buying A Big Enough Tank.
2 Rushing Into It.
3 Doing What Other People Think Is Cool.
4 Being Cheap On Equipment.
5 Buying The Wrong Fish.

 

[CLDarnell]

Not buying a python right away. Trying to do water changes with the bucket method. I could not do it without my python and hose now.

Agreed! a 25% water change in my 150 equaled about 15 5 gallon buckets. That's 15 out and of course, 15 in. It took about 2 hours.

Now, with my magic Python, I can do a 50% water change in about 30 minutes with hardly any effort

 

[alvinchungcb]

same

hahaha... agreed.... if i had all the money i wanted... i can set up 200/400/600 gal of tank....

but budget... hehehe

 

[PhinPhan]

Being a ridiculous addict who has to feed my compulsion for an ever-expanding collection of bigger and bigger tanks

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

i think the most common ongoing mistake is taking advice from petco, petsmart, and wal mart employees. example, how many ich outbreaks do you think they have caused by telling you the temperature of your tropical tank should be 72F.

2nd impulsive overstocking.
3rd not admitting that you have an addiction like none other. my mom jokes i should have started doing coke cause it woulda been cheaper and i wouldn't spend so much time in my room

 

[kiru]

Putting in too much fish into a small tank and not noticing how stressed out they are from being overcrowded (4 fishes + 1 pleco in a 10gal.). Lost 2 fishes because of this and now one of them is being treated for Ich..

 

[FlorabamaTrigger]

1. Listening to a Petsmart Employee about advise on anything having to do with water in any way.
2. Rather than painting the back of the tank before setting it into place decided to use the black plastic from Petsmart and actually convicing myself that the small bubbles I could still see would actually go away or not be noticeable?
3. Putting HOT water in the tank, thinking it would be easier on the heaters later. But then noticing afterwards that it really didn't do anything but cause the plastic background on the back to bubble even more...
4. Forgetting after a water change to plug the heater back IN on my 29g. My water went from 84f to 56f before I noticed it two days later. The fish seemed fine after I brought the temp back up, but my two largest African Cichlids died 1 week later from the shock.
5......