Scarred for life

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convict360

convict360

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Dec 9, 2013
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Scotland
So I was talking to K krichardson about being scarred for life (joke) when a pleco husk/skeleton fell out onto my hand years ago, when the pleco trapped himself in a shell and disappeared, and there have been other wtf moments in the learning years; including discovering fish missing eyes in the morning, and/or shedding slime coats from lack of knowledge at a young age!

It's actually testament to the durability of fish that they survived, especially when mistakes were made regularly such as removing and boiling filtration pads to "clean" them, or housing total mismatch species in undersized tanks!

So share any stories that you think back on and shudder, cause I know I do!
 
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Its definitely a case of survival of the fittest, read a study recently that only around 10% of ornamental fish make it from birth/collection to one year in captivity. Most die in the distribution channel from source to pet shop.
 
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jwh said:
Its definitely a case of survival of the fittest, read a study recently that only around 10% of ornamental fish make it from birth/collection to one year in captivity. Most die in the distribution channel from source to pet shop.
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:(

Nice pleco avatar btw
 
I haven't been in the hobby long...about 3 years and have yet to experience a WTF moment.

But OMG, missing eyes...that's what I'm afraid of.

Every morning, I do a head count before feeding my RBP's and I ALWAYS check for missing eyes!!
 
One time I put a pretty big bluegill in with Earl, my bullhead, to recover from being beat up by his fellow bluegill. After 2 weeks the bluegill was completely healed and never got bothered so I was going to leave him in there. Then one day I came home and both the bluegills eyes had been eaten out of his head and he was dead. Earl is cold blooded and has been alone since lol.
 
Speaking for myself I probably killed fish prematurely due to lack of knowledge, got better when TFH hobbyist magazine was introduced to me.
 
One of my biggest mistakes and I still make it from time to time is forgetting to turn something back on after a water change. Not too long ago I noticed my Leichardti wasn't eating like it usually does so of course "wtf now" is always my first reaction to everything. After a while I noticed the temp in the tank was low, so after another wtf I realized I didn't turn the heaters on after the last water change. Plugged them back in everything was fine.

Here's a recent one just Wednesday I was doing my mid week water changes. I had a 5" Lima shovel nose I just got about a week ago, cool little guy I was looking for one for a while. After the water change it's nowhere to be found, another "wtf now" moment. Turns out it swam up the Python tube stuck itself in the hose "DEAD!". So that got a "wtf sob" along with some more expletives I don't have abbreviations for. I make mistakes all the time most are small some are not. We aren't perfect, none of us, we learn and move on. I should have paid more attention.
 
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Aquanero said:
One of my biggest mistakes and I still make it from time to time is forgetting to turn something back on after a water change. Not too long ago I noticed my Leichardti wasn't eating like it usually does so of course "wtf now" is always my first reaction to everything. After a while I noticed the temp in the tank was low, so after another wtf I realized I didn't turn the heaters on after the last water change. Plugged them back in everything was fine.

Here's a recent one just Wednesday I was doing my mid week water changes. I had a 5" Lima shovel nose I just got about a week ago, cool little guy I was looking for one for a while. After the water change it's nowhere to be found, another "wtf now" moment. Turns out it swam up the Python tube stuck itself in the hose "DEAD!". So that got a "wtf sob" along with some more expletives I don't have abbreviations for. I make mistakes all the time most are small some are not. We aren't perfect, none of us, we learn and move on. I should have paid more attention.
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Recently i did the same. Large water chnage and forgot to switch the heater on. Realised later and switched it on. Sometimes for cleaning I switch on the water pump which is quite powerful then forgot to switch it off. All the fish like WTF. Lol
 
Aquanero said:
One of my biggest mistakes and I still make it from time to time is forgetting to turn something back on after a water change. Not too long ago I noticed my Leichardti wasn't eating like it usually does so of course "wtf now" is always my first reaction to everything. After a while I noticed the temp in the tank was low, so after another wtf I realized I didn't turn the heaters on after the last water change. Plugged them back in everything was fine.

Here's a recent one just Wednesday I was doing my mid week water changes. I had a 5" Lima shovel nose I just got about a week ago, cool little guy I was looking for one for a while. After the water change it's nowhere to be found, another "wtf now" moment. Turns out it swam up the Python tube stuck itself in the hose "DEAD!". So that got a "wtf sob" along with some more expletives I don't have abbreviations for. I make mistakes all the time most are small some are not. We aren't perfect, none of us, we learn and move on. I should have paid more attention.
Click to expand...

I've also forgotten to switch on my 406 once after a change, only realised after 3/4 days when there was no flow; fortunately my sponge filter is always running, so it saved a sufficient bacterial population, and reminded me why I have it running in the first place! :)
 
When I first started fish keeping, I've made so many mistakes and learned from them. Back then internet wasn't available so I read as much as I can from aquarium fish magazines. My first fancy goldfish that I receive( hand size) I ended up putting it in a 10 gallon and I was so excited. Woke up the next morning and sure enough it was floating upside down. I'm like wtf just happened here. Turns out I was in such a rush that I didn't even know I was supposed to add de-chlorinater to the water. Lesson learned.
 
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