What mistakes did you make when you started out?

[sargie]

I have done everything right second time around in the hobby and im already reaping the rewards of a great looking lil tank.

Which got me thinking back to when i was 18 and gave the hobby a try i had no paitence no knowledge and no pc to look things up at the time .I bought the wrong equipment (filter was too small) i put loads of fish in all at once,and probably my worst mistake was cleaning the entire tank out!

I used to get the fish out into a bucket of aqaurium water empty the entire aqaurium and clean everything under tap water set it all back up with fresh water and then wondered why my tank water went milky white all the time fish died and algea thrived.

Which is why i gave up for all this time.

So what mistakes did you guys make if any when starting out in this hobby?

 

[Nic]

i checked my water params....

 

[Freeze_Dried_Bloodworm]

didn't have a test kit, did 100% water changes, didn't really cramp fish thankfully
that was all before turning 13 though

 

[sargie]

didn't have a test kit, did 100% water changes, didn't really cramp fish thankfully
that was all before turning 13 though

yeah i think that is a common one changing all of the water.

 

[Toodleypops]

i never changed all the water.... i never changed any of the water lol.
most of my mistakes came from putting either too many fich at one time in my 20g or putting in fish of bad compatability.
my worst one was when i put 3 tiger barbs in my tank that already had a bunch of fish but namely my beautiful year old betta (welll thats how long i had him). I put in 3 tigers cuz they are "schooling community fish" (petco failed to mention the finnipping aspect of them and also the school of at least 11 part)... anyway when i woke up the next morning two tiger barbs were dead missing huge chuunks on their face and fins, and my betta was dead all torn up too :'( ;(
at one point in time i also had 4 gouramis but i never noticed a problem with them...

 

[sirdavidofdiscus]

Assuming that a 55 gallon tank was a monster. So any freshwater fish in a lfs could be housed in one for life.

 

[Sanjo Eel]

Not cycling the tank properly and not doing proper water changes.

 

[gomezladdams]

not quarantining lfs purchases.
overstocking

 

[sargie]

not quarantining lfs purchases.
overstocking

what does lfs mean? local fish supplier?

 

[Toodleypops]

local fish store yea same thing