SILLIEST thing you have ever done as a beginner!

Hendre

Bawitius
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Jan 14, 2016
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Yeah, my dad got me into fishkeeping pretty much as soon as I was old enough to show any interest (around age 3-4), but he had a lot of oldschool misconceptions, like "fish grow based on the size of the aquarium." I never knew better until I started using the internet.
My dad used to keep fish as a child, and we had a 5 gallon that quickly died out due to him forgetting most of it.

Now that 5 gallon sits on my desk and houses my betta and a few refugee danios
 

Wiggie

Jack Dempsey
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Feb 5, 2017
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Back when heaters weren't submersible my hanging heater somehow got all jacked up. I came home and all the fish were frantically nose diving into the bottom of the tank, looking for cooler temperatures I suppose. It was like 90 some degrees in there! I panicked of course (bc that's what I do) and started throwing ice cubes in the tank. Temp came down,....then everybody died from chlorine poisoning.
 

jonah h2o

Candiru
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Aug 2, 2016
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being told not to do water changes too frequently on a breeder tank now doing 50% every other day or so

not noticing a heater defect killed a lot of fish but my tank was tall and I have a sump so the heater wasnt directly in the tank water so many fish where able to survive

but still only been into fish keeping about 1.5 years ( who else hates fractions?)
 
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Yulli

Exodon
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Oct 9, 2016
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Back when heaters weren't submersible my hanging heater somehow got all jacked up. I came home and all the fish were frantically nose diving into the bottom of the tank, looking for cooler temperatures I suppose. It was like 90 some degrees in there! I panicked of course (bc that's what I do) and started throwing ice cubes in the tank. Temp came down,....then everybody died from chlorine poisoning.
My first tank was 20g with a male beta and maybe 10-15 neon tetras, was like 10 or so. Noticed temp falling asked my father for help, he noticed the nob for the temp wasn't staying in place so we jammed a piece of plastic in between to hold it in place. Next morning notice condensation on the wall, maybe 15-20% water missing from tank all neons dead, and the Betta was lethargic at the bottom. He lived for a year or 2 more but was never the same.
 
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Hendre

Bawitius
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That's pretty sad :(

Apparently neons are cooler water fish

Sadly the ones that do know what they are doing are forced to do stuff like that to meet sales goals or they risk not having food on the table. o_O
Why I like having a lot of normal shops around.

being told not to do water changes too frequently on a breeder tank now doing 50% every other day or so

not noticing a heater defect killed a lot of fish but my tank was tall and I have a sump so the heater wasnt directly in the tank water so many fish where able to survive

but still only been into fish keeping about 1.5 years ( who else hates fractions?)
I like big water changes. Preventing nitrate creep.

9/10 months into serious keeping for me
 
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GamerChick5567

Dovii
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Nov 1, 2016
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My first tank was 20g with a male beta and maybe 10-15 neon tetras, was like 10 or so. Noticed temp falling asked my father for help, he noticed the nob for the temp wasn't staying in place so we jammed a piece of plastic in between to hold it in place. Next morning notice condensation on the wall, maybe 15-20% water missing from tank all neons dead, and the Betta was lethargic at the bottom. He lived for a year or 2 more but was never the same.
Yep. Don't let your dad do your fish keeping when he's an old forgetful fart. You shoulda seen my 20 gallon and my 10. So full of guppies and fungused mollies at 60 degrees because he forgot to put the heater back in. Had to euthanize 2 mollies but the rest of the fish and my cory cats were fine when I moved them. The plants in the 20 must have helped but the 10 had literally 80 guppies in it with only one big ass hygrophila, i was moving out and the process took like 3 months so I was gone that whole time. :eek:
 

Vukmir13

Plecostomus
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Mar 22, 2016
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I bought my whole first 55 gallon set up at Petco. Years later, I realize how much I over paid for such mediocre equipment. I can probably put together 2, maybe 3, 55 setups together now for what I paid for that first 55. Now I just never step foot in any of the big box stores for anything, ever.
 

thefredpit

Goliath Tigerfish
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Jul 28, 2012
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lets see here is a very small portion of my list

1. let the guy who was sleeping on the couch wash the filter cartridge in the tap water daily for about 3 weeks before I did some reading
2. put a baby bichir in a community/breeding tank(50 platys gone in 2 weeks)
3. moved that bichir to his own tank and got him some extra large Giant river prawns(7" body 16" with claws) the bichir was 3". I found him the next morning with no head

eventually I learned the 3 main things in fish keeping research, research, research
 
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