In the last year a friend at work gave me a good deal on his old 55 gallon tank. I talk to my kids about it and they were all excited. We setup the tank and let it run. The kids asked daily if today was the day we went fish shopping. After two weeks, we went to the local pet store where the kids picked out 5 beautiful and colorful goldfish.
I was thinking great, goldfish will be easy. After talking to the pet store people and tons of accessories later we had our fish. Everything was great for several weeks. The kids named the fish and enjoyed watching them.
One day my 8 yr old daughter told me there were a few "spiky" things on two of the fish. She was right! I couldn't figure out what caused this.
I had the hood lights working off of the light switch. I noticed when I turned it on the fish swam fast and got real active (waiting to be feed). I had several plastic plants in the tank. I figured one of the "spiky" looking plants must be hitting the fish leaving the small plastic parts in the fish. So, I quickly removed that plant.
Another couple of days went by and I noticed pretty much all my fish had spikes coming off of them. I then removed ALL my plants. It just kept getting worse... I had no idea these were parasites (they never moved and seemed very stiff).
Needless to say, by the time I got advice and purchased all the medicine for Anchor worms it was too late. I lost all my fish but one!!! The kids and I had to have funerals for them.
The moral of this story is to seek out advice to the more experienced people quickly, and don't try to figure it all out on your own. I also discovered to get second and third opinions AND join a fish forum!