Early fish keeping mistakes

Great tips! Thank you for putting them all in one place.
2 things I've learned (not sure if they are listed, I could have missed it):

1. Be sure your gravel cannot fit into your fishes mouth.
(I was lucky enough to catch this in time, and had to use a toothpick to pop it out of the goldies mouth)

2. Be sure you are happy with the way your tank looks before cycling and adding fish, it's a pain to change it later.

 

Cool, Lucy. Thanks for the tips. Just added them to the list.

I love love love your avatar picture, btw!

 

HaHa, Thanks, needless to say, setting up the tank with him around was quite interesting!

 

Do: Close the filter tubes before cleaning the filter!

or

Don't: Leave the tubes open when rinsing media in filter.

Result: A wet floor and socks! Well, not that 90% of the time something is wet. Socks, arms, shirt, floor, carpet,

 

I love cheeky, nosy, meddling cats. They're just the best! They think they own the place, don't they?

HaHa, Thanks, needless to say, setting up the tank with him around was quite interesting!

 

Dude that is like everyting about keeping an aquarium that was ever discovered ever. The original post is like the complete aquarists almanac of everything anyone will ever need to know about everything other that 2+2=4 and the cure for cancer.

 

he he he. Cool. Glad you like it. That's kind of the intention too (to make it fool-proof for total beginners). Am such a believer in information re-use and sharing experiences.

Dude that is like everyting about keeping an aquarium that was ever discovered ever. The original post is like the complete aquarists almanac of everything anyone will ever need to know about everything other that 2+2=4 and the cure for cancer.

 

Hi!

I've got another one for you Armadilo...

Before you buy, ask us!

To prevent disaster occurring in your tank, plan out all the fish you want to keep and how many of each species and ask us about it. That way - we can stop problems happening before they happen.

 

Cool. Thanks, HH. I've just added this latest tip.

 

my angelfish laid eggs, and I wound up scrambling for extra tanks to house the hundreds of babies in... I got some used 20 gallon tanks cheap... with older, but functional filters/heaters, etc... well the heaters were 'hang on the back' style... and when the water level dropped fractionally from evaporation, the thermostat was left above water... I reached my hand in to do something and was shocked at the temperature! the babies all lived, but I felt horrible.

 

I will add one more DO to the list.

When you purchase your fish, you will probably not be buying them all at once and they will not be housed in the same tanks even at the same store. They will possibly be carrying bacteria that you may not see and may even be carrying diseases you may not see or be aware of until much later. This means that the wise fish hobbyist will have the fish in quarantine for at the very least two weeks before putting them in the finished tank so as not to contaminate the tank or introduce a disease to the fishes that are already in the tank and have already been through their quarantine period. Some fish like Otocinclus catfish and other more fragile fish are recommended to go through a 30 day quarantine period as they are fragile enough that if they live through the first 30 days, they have a very good chance of surviving to a normal lifespan but until then are not considered normal risks. It is also much easier to find and control and medicate a problem at the quarantine stage than to have to deal with a whole tank of problems if you introduce the problem into a whole tank of fish. Quarantine has become less used but it is still vitally important and has saved a lot of fish from death and disease. Fish are not inexpensive and a lot of hobbyists become very attached to their fish. A two week wait before exposing them to possible danger and disease is a small price to pay to keep them from harm. The quarantine tank does not need a lot of fancy things just a cycled filter and a heater. It is easier if it is not fitted out with a gravel floor and a lot of decorations as it is easier to clean and the fish do not seem to suffer for lack of these things. The important thing is cleanliness during this time and warmth and the cycled filter or frequent water changes in its absence. (about 50% every day or more if there are multiple fish present) If the tank is not cycled, testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates should determine the schedule for water changes if you do not do daily changes. Any time the ammonia levels reach 0.5, the nitrites reach 1.0, or the nitrates to to 20.0 the water should be changed.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

There are a lot more comments about Quarantine in the stickied subject in the beginning of the Betta Section. We started it there and I thought the subject important enough and some of the members suggested it be included in other spots of the forum. Since the other posts dealt a lot with Bettas I left them there but want to invite those of you who may be intereste to view them there.



Rose

 

Got another one....

Do unplug your heater when doing water changes. This will prevented for having it exposed to air and burning it.

Also, VERY important. DO NOT PUT HEATER IN WATER AND TURN ON RIGHT AWAY! That's how I fried my 250W heater . I put it in a bucket with cold water right after getting it out of my tank. DEAD! The heater needs to come to the same temperature with the water (give it 30 mns) before you plug it in.

Leave and learn

 

Ohg heres mine..When trying to kill a disease don't take everything out of the tank including plants and decoration and then clean the gravel extensively...It kills the cycle when you do that which in return kills almost all your fish..yeah good times good times

 

OK, I have one that I just missed making, but might bear mentioning... If you have inverts, especially expensive Amano and/or flower shrimp, do NOT medicate or fertalize your tank with out checking the ingrediants first... almost ALL heavy metals are fatal to inverts, including those in many commercial fertalizers. And anything, ANYTHING copper could cost you all your inverts, as well as several species of plants.

 

I might add a note of caution with copper and bottom dwelling fish too. They are very exposed to stagnating copper pockets from their burrowing habits.

OK, I have one that I just missed making, but might bear mentioning... If you have inverts, especially expensive Amano and/or flower shrimp, do NOT medicate or fertalize your tank with out checking the ingrediants first... almost ALL heavy metals are fatal to inverts, including those in many commercial fertalizers. And anything, ANYTHING copper could cost you all your inverts, as well as several species of plants.

 

Thanks for all the great advice, makes me appreciate all the hard work, I'm new at this but trying to do it right!

 

If you plan to use a "High tech" cycling method such as Tetra SafeStart or BIO-Spira, be sure to have a back up plan. This might be a piece of filter media from an established and healthy tank or some gravel from a good friend's healthy tank.

I recently setup my 30 gallon tank and tried to cycle it with Tetra SafeStart, but it didn't take. Since you aren't supposed to test water parameters or change the water for 7 days, I lost a lot of fish due to the bacteria not seeding correctly.

This may be too similar to the suggestion of reading about cycling, but, I thought I'd at least try to do my part in memory of my lost Cory's and Brochis'.

 

I'm really glad I read this; I have not vacuumed under the decorations in my tank yet (but it's only a few months old). I'd planned on cleaning tomorrow, so I'm glad I got to this first!

 

Isn't this a great thread?

Usually we don't like to bump up older threads, but this is a good one that newer members can benefit from.

 

sticky worthy perhaps

 

Sorry Mike19, I missed your post. This is already stickied in the beginner section of the forum.

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...t-freshwater-beginner-important-topics.14296/

 

Even though I'm very new here I have a tip. Learned first hand very recently... When you install the heater wait for about 20 minutes or so before turning it on.

 

test the ph in the water from the tap before setting up tanks it will let you know what types of fish you can safely keep. It is fairly easy to raise ph but can be difficult to lower it.

 

Probably most important tip for beginners! ALWAYS USE DE-CHLORINATOR!

 

This is a great thread, isn't it?

 

This is a great thread, isn't it?

Well said... and this thread is fairly old. Amazing it was still alive before you guys stickied it.

 

It was stickied back in 2007
It's great that others are still adding to it!

 

Oh NO!!!!!

haha my 2 sucking catfish must be spys as well they often disappear all day sometimes for days at a time, just when I start looking for their dead bodies they start swimming around like what I was here all along??!!

 

lol My male bristlenose has started doing that