$150 in prizes! Best/Worst Mistakes Contest

[pearl_aqg]

It's contest time again!

This time, we've upped the stakes.

I want your best (or worst, as the case may be) stories about mistakes you've made in your time as a hobbyist. Don't be embarrassed - everyone has a story! I was actually inspired to run this contest based on another thread on this forum where some of you voluntarily shared such experiences, so I know you've got em.

And I'm willing to shell out for them too - $75 gift certificate to the first place submission, $50 for second place, and $25 for third place - so now's your chance to turn those early mistakes into sweet rewards.

The caveat with this contest is that I want to publish our favorite submissions in a section on AquariumGuys.com - so that fellow beginners can take some solace in the fact that they are not alone and that stumbling along the way shouldn't discourage anyone from learning more and succeeding in the end.

I will use whatever name you wish - forum name, real name, pen name - but I ask that you submit only if you are willing to have your dirty laundry aired on our site!! Hopefully, in the spirit of fun, camaraderie and big prizes, you'll indulge me *BOUNCINGS

So here's the details.

Contest: AquariumGuys.com Best/Worst Beginner Mistakes
Dates: 2/20/08-3/5/08
Post entries in this thread - one per person please (although if you can find a way to combine stories in one entry, that's fine by me)
Prizes: First place - $75 gift certificate; Second place - $50 gift certificate; Third place - $25 gift certificate.

As always, creativity counts!

 

[d3sc3n7]

Ok, after some deliberation, I've decided on this story.

My wife and I had just moved to Ft. Bragg, NC. We had moved into our house on post, and got ourselves a dog. At the time, we only had 1 child. We felt we needed something for our daughter (3 at the time) to be able to interact with. We decided on a betta. Now, you must remember, neither of us had ever truly kept a fish before.

Looking back, we ended up with a 5g hex kit system. No heater, or anything for the poor little guy. I'm not sure if it even had a filter. Anyway, we get this beautiful blue male betta. We did the normal rookie thing, and got the tank and the fish the same day. Got them at walmart even. Lucky for us, the tank came with some water treatment. So, we fill 'er up, treat the water, and drop in Mr. fish. Soon after, we go on vacation for a week. We decide to take the dog with us, but we cant take the fish, now can we! We dont know any of our neighbors what so ever, so we cant have them coming in the house, while were gone now can we? SO! We give him about a double portion of food, and leave for a week.

Upon returning home, my wife and I are expecting a dead betta. However, that wasnt the case, he was very much alive...hungry, but alive.

Surprisingly (well, at least now) he does rather well. We have him for a few months, never do a water change, or clean the tank. We do nothing but feed him his little pellets daily.

Time passes, and I start to notice green algae forming all over the inside of the tank. After being pretty lazy about it...I decide to clean it. I remove a good bit of the tank water, then the betta...putting him in his own water. Dump the tank, clean it up all nice and pretty. Then refill it, allowing it to come back to room temp, since thats where his water temp always was.

Then I put him back in his home...within a few hours he was dead. I didnt even thing about it till I was typing this, but I bet it was the chlorine in the water, since I'm sure I didnt treat the new water!! All these years and I just now figured it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess knowledge really is power!


Edit: Ok, lock the thread and give me all 3!!!!!!

 

[Kissyboots]

Ok. Here’s my stupidity. It was about a week after I put fish in my tank. Being a newbie doesn’t give you an excuse to do this -->

I got a 20g tank and put fish in it a week or so after adding the water (oh yeah, and I didn’t cycle it) There was a gap between the filter and the lid so I was worried my fish would jump out (later learned the gap was too small and my fish don’t usually jump.) So anyway, I put a towel around my filter so the gap would be closed. The next morning I discovered the towel hanging in the water, sucking up the water, and dripping it behind the tank onto the other towel under my tank, the table, and then the carpet. There was probably at least one gallon of fishy water all over my carpet. I spent most of that day emptying the tank and cleaning up what I could. I had to empty the whole thing so I could move it, wash the towel under the tank, and wipe the table which now has water marks all over it. Meanwhile, my fish spent the day in a bucket.

So, what have I learned? Never hang a towel in the tank. The water will go up and over. Nice opportunity to "megaclean" your tank though...

 

[ishar]

hahaha wow, Thank you kissyboots!!!! I htink you have saved my butt!! hahaha. I have been hanging a towel over my tank to protect my bristol board background from the bubbler splashes at night. Guess I won't be doing THAT anymore!!

 

[sweetpickles7]

The only thing i can think of at the moment is when i first started. I of course went to walmart got a 5.5gal kit and fish at the same time. Too bad that wasnt the only thing bad about this! I didnt really have any sort of sturdy table or stand to put it on so i go and put it on my coffee table thinking that ooo that should hold the weight, it cant weigh that much can it? Well it held for a few days, and i was having a little get together that night so i was trying to clean the house and so on. The next thing that i shouldnt have done is i accidentally bumped in to the coffee table[just barely enough to make it wooble]. Next thing i new, my tank was on its side and the carpet was full of water and fish. O man was i in trouble for that one! Always make sure the item you decided to set your tank on can hold it up!

 

[Kissyboots]

Haha, ishar. Nice to know my stupidity was helpful...to someone...other than me...

 

[d3sc3n7]

PSSSHHH! I'm SO winning right now!

 

[charls]

One of my BIGGEST mistakes took place about 6 months ago.....

I was just setting up my new 10 gal. saltwater tank. I was so happy to finaly have a salt water tank. unfortunatly because of my excitment i rushed to complete it. It cost me one or two hundred dollars but a few hours later i was nearly done. All that was left was my very big coral light. I tried to make it fit on the tank, but i had no such luck. Thinking of a fast way out i began to carefully tear off the exterior black lineing so that my light would fit. I was making good progress and thought it would work until....the back of the tank. Once i rounded the back corner the black lineing got stuck so i started to PULL. BAD IDEA! The black lineing ripped off the tank and took with it a foot long piece of glass with it. The water began gushing out all over the Wires(for the Bio-wheel, heater, ect.)!!!!! I acted fast and turned the power to the wires off but the damage was already done. My new tank was rewend and i felt awful. Luckely no fish were in the tank.

So lesson learned don't pull the BLACK LINEING OFF YOUR TANK! So please DON'T do what i did.

 

[silver dollars]

All my life i have loved fish. I started to really get into the hobby in 6th grade. All i cared about is having my favorite fish and pretty fish in my tank. We had this 29gal that i got to put my fish in which was two 15'' goldfish, 3 full grown bala sharks, 4 serpae tetras, 20+ swordtails, and 2 cory cats. Yes i was a newbie and as soon as i got information i removed the bala's and goldfish and sold a bunch of swordtails.

 

[brooklynfish]

Charls, IMO, your winning.

 

[brooklynfish]

About 8 months ago, when I was a newbe (?) (Still am one ), I decided to start a 10 gal. I bought everything I needed and had it all set up within 2 hours. I let the filter run for a wopping 3 hours. However, I become impatient and added my 2 beloved fantail goldfish, Mugo and Wiz *GOLDFISH* . Unfortunetly, both died in about a week.

In the next 4 months, I lost several more goldfish. If I had known what cycling was, I would not have lost so many fish. I'm prolly going to blasted for:

Keeping 2 goldfish That would grow huge in a ten gal.
Not cycling my tank.
Getting more fish when I should not have.

R.I.P...to the goldfish who died
for me

Good luck to all!

 

[d3sc3n7]

Charls, IMO, your winning.

Neck and Neck?

 

[laurahammock]

My worst mistake? Not putting my tank up high enough. My son poured soda into my tank!! Thank goodness there were no fish in there. But, I had to start ALL over. Could've been worse. In one of my freshwater tanks, he put (all at one time!) a pair of his "big boy underwear", McDonald's french fries, a bowl of cucumbers (bowl and all) and a used dryer sheet. Luckily, my hearty little goldfish fared well. They even enjoyed the cucumbers quite a bit. So, maybe, my mistake is just HAVING a tank period with a three year old!!

BEAT THAT BABY!!

 

[d3sc3n7]

My worst mistake? Not putting my tank up high enough. My son poured soda into my tank!! Thank goodness there were no fish in there. But, I had to start ALL over. Could've been worse. In one of my freshwater tanks, he put (all at one time!) a pair of his "big boy underwear", McDonald's french fries, a bowl of cucumbers (bowl and all) and a used dryer sheet. Luckily, my hearty little goldfish fared well. They even enjoyed the cucumbers quite a bit. So, maybe, my mistake is just HAVING a tank period with a three year old!!

BEAT THAT BABY!!

Oh, were getting into what our 3yr old put in the tank? You dont even stand a chance! LOL!!

 

[charls]

Looks like it's you and me d3sc3n7 for first.
Or i don't know having cucumbers, french fries, UNDERWEAR, and soda in a tank that's pretty bad.
Good luck to all and thank goodness for our misfortunes.*thumbsups

Oh and thank you brooklynfish for the vote of confidence.

 

[cra549]

Ok so Here is my story. When my nephew was 4 years old he wanted a pet so I decided to get him a betta. While we got him a very pretty betta and a 5 gallon tank to put him in. We told my nephew this was his pet to take care of which turned out to be a big mistake because he wound up feeding the poor betta peppreroni from his pizza. We did not notice that he did this until the following day when the water was all cloudy. The betta survived that but died the next day when my nephew decided to take him out of his tank and take him for a walk. Morel of the story never leave your tank unsupervised around children.

 

[fur43]

My story starts off under my loft bed (bunk bed like but with no bottom bunk)with my 10g fry tank full of about fifty or so platy fry. While feeding the fry I trip over some boards that's my sister's taken apart futon, causeing it to fall and crash into the tank cracking it up the whole side, it didnt break untill I tripped over the boards a second time. The glass just gave away and water was spilling everywhere. Thank goodness the tank is on a rolling cart, so I rolled it outside. I get a net and a bucket to put the fry in, it being a very windy day...I caught the fish in the net then they flew away. I didnt make an effort to find them in the tall grass.
By this time I have tears rolling down my face because this is the first time I had a breeder tank. My dad comes out and tries to help me find fry in the tanks' substrate. I ended up with about ten of the larger fry and the mothers in a five gallon bucket till we bought a new 10g.

The lessons learned: nothing that can fall around the tank, have a back up tank, and dont have fish out on a windy day.

 

[Devon Greatwolf]

Setup my first tank approximately five years ago. It is a 55 gallon. Got the tank from a friend took it home and cleaned really well with diluted bleach (plants, gravel and all). Set everything up real nice added some plants and decorations to suit my taste. Next I did my homework, learned about the "cycle" slowly added the following fish in this order: first 3 Opaline Gouramis & 6 tiger barbs; second 3 keyhole cichlids; third 5 panda Cories; fourth 5 rosy barbs; fifth 3 giant danios; and finally a rainbow shark. Everything was going swimmingly. Tank looked great if a little busy and crowded. A few weeks after adding the rainbow shark, I was at Wal-Mart buying fish food and picked up some aquarium plant bulbs. I thought having real plants would be great. Well I followed the instructions on the plants and they sprouted in no time. I had 6 red lily plants that all but covered the surface of my tank and some grassy looking plants lined across the back. I was feeling pretty proud of my self. Well the tank was ok for a while but due to heavy aeration and lack of light, the plants started to die back. The grassy ones went first and then after much picking by the rosy barbs the lilies were gone too. A few months later, I started losing fish almost daily and could not figure out why. I finally got my hands on a 30 gallon when I moved to my new house. I relocated the rainbow the one remaining Opaline and 1 tiger barb (and a platinum Gourami which was added right before the die-off started) to the thirty. Seeing as how I was moving, I decided to totally teardown the 55 and that’s when I found the problem. The plants that had died had left a huge cluster of decaying roots under my UGF which I suppose was a great source of anaerobic bacteria. Now all of my tanks (see my post here: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/fre...st-being-needy-looking-ata-boys-old-what.html) are UGF free and all has been going swimmingly for about 3 years.

 

[RoxnSox]

My worst mistake? Not putting my tank up high enough. My son poured soda into my tank!! Thank goodness there were no fish in there. But, I had to start ALL over. Could've been worse. In one of my freshwater tanks, he put (all at one time!) a pair of his "big boy underwear", McDonald's french fries, a bowl of cucumbers (bowl and all) and a used dryer sheet. Luckily, my hearty little goldfish fared well. They even enjoyed the cucumbers quite a bit. So, maybe, my mistake is just HAVING a tank period with a three year old!!

BEAT THAT BABY!!

our son within a matter of 5 minutes of me being outside and smoking put a whole box of goldfish crackers, all our remotes, clothes, toys, 2 canisters of fish food and other variety of foods in our 55 gallon tank.

 

[Kissyboots]

Wow fur, I feel sorry for those poor little fishies in the grass! Anyway, I'm happy I didn't have tanks crack or other expensive problems. Oh, and btw, Roxsox has a beautiful avatar...