Fishkeeping confessions?

I sing to my fish.

Every day when I walk into the fish room to see them and feed them I sing and they come out.

Even the three-day-old baby betta fry are being serenaded.
 

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I started in January this year with a betta in a heated 1 gallon bowl I thought I was doing pretty good because my cousin had two bettas in a container a little bit larger than your hand and my moms friend kept one on her desk in a small betta cube now I have a 3.5 heated filtered one plant and snail roommate
 

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I didnt fishless cycle my tank
I was stupid and added in all my fish at once. Thankfully, after the ammonia spike it stabillized after a few days. My next tank will have plenty of time to cycle.
 
A few years ago I had a mantis shrimp. Took me 9 months to find out where he lived in the tank. Saw him looking at me one day from his rock so the rock came out and into a bucket. I persuaded him to jump into the bucket by squirting cold freshwater into his rock - out he popped, great! Picked him up and put him in a container. Realised about half an hour later that I'd put him in the cold freshwater and felt TERRIBLE. Quickly moved him to warm saltwater and he eventually revived. Still feel guilty about it to this day lol.

More recently (last weekend) a zoa coral fell inside a piece of live rock. Rock comes out, eventually get the zoa out, rock goes back in. Look in the bucket and there's a peppermint shrimp flopping around. He went straight back into the tank but haven't seen him since, hoping he's gonna turn up soon coz I don't want that on my hands!!

I'm seeing a theme here...
 
When I was six, my parents decided to get me a fish tank. No research was done, by either me or my parents, prior to Petco. We took the advice of the staff to heart. According to them, three fantailed goldfish were perfect for a filtered ten gallon. We couldn't get just one, as they needed company. So we came home with three. Later we got a pleco, known to us simply as a "sucker fish". He disappeared shortly after. Accompanied by feedings every two weeks and tank cleanings semi-yearly, the fish were very undercared for. When one died, (here's the worst part) we put a sticky note over the place where he rested (so we didn't have to see him) and waited for the other goldfish to completely cannibalize him. It didn't take long. The tank was never even fully cycled!
After the goldfish died, we introduced a black telescope goldfish to the tank; no quarantine. He carried a disease, and all the remaining fish died. RIP Pancake, Bubbles, and Tiger.

My parents, who were in charge of this tank, still give me a hard time for the weekly water changes of my filtered, heated, and planted ten gallon. My mom still tries to convince me that I'm slowly killing my fish by feeding him more than once a week. Go figure.

I also had a comet goldfish name Exercise when I was three. He lived in an unfiltered and unheated gallon tank. I don't remember any water changes.

Here's the funny thing; the fantails and comet goldfish ended up living quite a few years.

Oh, and one more thing; has anyone ever felt bad for Dorothy, the goldfish from Sesame Street?
 

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When I was six, my parents decided to get me a fish tank. No research was done, by either me or my parents, prior to Petco. We took the advice of the staff to heart. According to them, three fantailed goldfish were perfect for a filtered ten gallon. We couldn't get just one, as they needed company. So we came home with three. Later we got a pleco, known to us simply as a "sucker fish". He disappeared shortly after. Accompanied by feedings every two weeks and tank cleanings semi-yearly, the fish were very undercared for. When one died, (here's the worst part) we put a sticky note over the place where he rested (so we didn't have to see him) and waited for the other goldfish to completely cannibalize him. It didn't take long. The tank was never even fully cycled!
After the goldfish died, we introduced a black telescope goldfish to the tank; no quarantine. He carried a disease, and all the remaining fish died. RIP Pancake, Bubbles, and Tiger.

My parents, who were in charge of this tank, still give me a hard time for the weekly water changes of my filtered, heated, and planted ten gallon. My mom still tries to convince me that I'm slowly killing my fish by feeding him more than once a week. Go figure.

I also had a comet goldfish name Exercise when I was three. He lived in an unfiltered and unheated gallon tank. I don't remember any water changes.

Here's the funny thing; the fantails and comet goldfish ended up living quite a few years.

Oh, and one more thing; has anyone ever felt bad for Dorothy, the goldfish from Sesame Street?
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Awwwwww.
Goldfish can take a lot of abuse. Doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to abuse them. You were just a kid.

Yes.
 
Awwwwww.
Goldfish can take a lot of abuse. Doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to abuse them. You were just a kid.

Yes.
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Yeah. I feel really bad about it now, but even if I had taken more initiative, I doubt my parents would have taken my advice over that of the pet store staff. I still wish those fish could have had a better life, though.
 
Yikes, i’m bringing this thread back up.

When I first started this hobby, I was giving a 20 tall(that I still have) with 3 common goldfish, they were around 5-6 inches and the lady that owned them had them for 15 years. I kept them thinking it was sick asf having some big fish in my tank. I had them for around 6 months until they died from not doing enough water changes, I did them like once a month. Now I have a small community tank.

A betta got sucked up with my gravel vac and it ended up dying right after.

A cory got sucked up my gravel vac, but he is still alive and healthy.

I wanted another tank while re-cycling my 20 gal so I got a 5 gal and threw a betta in there without cycling.

I used to clean the entire filter media with tap water for the goldfish tank.

When I first started using aquarium plants, I did no research and ended up buying a ruffled amazon sword, I didn’t plant them into the substrate, instead I treated it like and anubias and stuffed it into a castle decoration.
 
All these posts and nobody has yet admitted to tasting their fishes food?

Me either, I'm not saying it did happen or didn't happen.
 
All these posts and nobody has yet admitted to tasting their fishes food?

Me either, I'm not saying it did happen or didn't happen.
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LOL

I’ve don’t even like the smell of the food I feed, can’t imagine tasting it
 

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LOL

I’ve don’t even like the smell of the food I feed, can’t imagine tasting it
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Eh, there's not much in the way of seafood that I haven't eaten, from shad roe to squid, eel, etc... probably not much difference. Probably not. Might be. Nobody is talking.
 
All these posts and nobody has yet admitted to tasting their fishes food?

Me either, I'm not saying it did happen or didn't happen.
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I literally made a thread about tasting fish food
 
My fathers friend is a fish distributor so I went to pick up some fish from him and he let me use the net and I went to get cardinal tetras and I dropped two on the floor and couldn’t pick them up in time and they died . So I slid them underneath the tank where they were never seen again. I feel so bad.

Also I tried to taste some fish food, it’s not that bad.

And one more thing I forgot, I went to refill my quarantine tank because I hadn’t used it in a long time, and I filled it way too much and water went behind my desk and all over it, the water dripping down the walls almost went in an outlet

And I had 3 cardinals and a clown pleco in a 5 gallon for a while until I realized it was too small. So I got a 20 gallon to move them to, they were healthy and colorful in the 5g. I felt so bad about hen being cramped so I moved them 2 days into my cycle, no one did well but the clown pleco, one cardinal died, the other two lived on, I got a bigger school once the tank cycled and then ich cane over my tank and killed a lot, I still have the clown pleco and one cardinal from the first bunch. I recognize him/her because s/he is older than the others and larger.
 
Have you got any recommendations?

Um, asking for a friend!
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Flake is a safe bet, any flake food which smells good usually tastes good as well!

Um.. answering from a friend
 
Flake is a safe bet, any flake food which smells good usually tastes good as well!

Um.. answering from a friend
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You kids keep an eye on Mary765 she knows how this works!
 
I have never tasted fish food but our 2 cats and 2 dogs have all begged me for some, so I let each of them taste it.

I love Seafood, but when I eat it it's NEVER going to be marked, "not for human consumption."
 
I have never tasted fish food but our 2 cats and 2 dogs have all begged me for some, so I let each of them taste it.

I love Seafood, but when I eat it it's NEVER going to be marked, "not for human consumption."
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I don't know what fish food you're buying but none of mine is labelled that way
 

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A few years back I didn’t clean my betta tank for a month or feed him for a few weeks. He still ended up living for 6 years. Poor guy.
 
If it wasn’t for Fishlore, I would never have discovered the amazing brussel sprout.
 
Peas, and spinnach? That’s a pretty normal occurrence for me, I eat vegetables every day
I haven’t eaten my fish food, afraid it’ll upset my stomach.
 

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All these posts and nobody has yet admitted to tasting their fishes food?

Me either, I'm not saying it did happen or didn't happen.
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My two year old daughter tried some
I freaked out. She enjoyed it!
 
I've made PetSmart replace dead Ghost Shrimp and Neon Tetras that I bought from them.

I kept aquariums on furniture rated for far less weight, and I have neighbors who live below me.

I surrendered guppies to a fish store because they were being aggressive and I didn't want to buy more to solve it.

I intentionally didn't wash, bleach dip, or even rinse a set of new plants once, specifically because I wanted snails to hitch hike into my tank. And it worked.

Every YouTube channel I'm subscribed to is about pets, and at least 80% of them are fish keepers.

I've not eaten and instead bought fish supplies, before.
 
when I was younger I had a ten gallon, uncycled, dirty fish tank with 6 goldfish, a common pleco, snails, and various schooling fish and then released my last goldfish into my neighborhood pond after everyone else had died yikes I won't make that mistake again
 
I've made plenty of mistakes along the way (haven't we all), but more recently had a swordtail that somehow managed to get lodged in a small hole in a fake driftwood ornament -no amount of gentle wriggling or pushing could get her out, I thought no way could I get her out alive (or even in one piece) after trying for ages, so I grabbed her tail and just pulled as hard as I could, miraculously she came out in one piece and relatively unscathed, a little torn up fin wise and some grazes along her body but she was actually ok and lived a fairly long time after that. Not so much a mistake, rather I just didn't know what else to do! So this one was the fishes mistake lol, how she thought she could fit through the hole I have no idea!
 
I've made plenty of mistakes along the way (haven't we all), but more recently had a swordtail that somehow managed to get lodged in a small hole in a fake driftwood ornament -no amount of gentle wriggling or pushing could get her out, I thought no way could I get her out alive (or even in one piece) after trying for ages, so I grabbed her tail and just pulled as hard as I could, miraculously she came out in one piece and relatively unscathed, a little torn up fin wise and some grazes along her body but she was actually ok and lived a fairly long time after that. Not so much a mistake, rather I just didn't know what else to do! So this one was the fishes mistake lol, how she thought she could fit through the hole I have no idea!
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I've had the same thing happen, but with a comet goldfish and a tiny pagoda from petsmart. We thought, "there's no way he can fit in there so what's the worry?" Fit in there he certainly did. Too well.Woke up hearing mother dearest screaming about a fish being stuck and it was my job to fix it. I suppose he saw something good inside and dove right in getting only his head stuck. He came out with only minor scrapes thank goodness. Needless to say, the pagoda did not return.... only to end up having a gourami doing the same thing in a different tank 2 months later. smh
 
I've had the same thing happen, but with a comet goldfish and a tiny pagoda from petsmart. We thought, "there's no way he can fit in there so what's the worry?" Fit in there he certainly did. Too well.Woke up hearing mother dearest screaming about a fish being stuck and it was my job to fix it. I suppose he saw something good inside and dove right in getting only his head stuck. He came out with only minor scrapes thank goodness. Needless to say, the pagoda did not return.... only to end up having a gourami doing the same thing in a different tank 2 months later. smh
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lol The funny thing is, that same fake driftwood has been in my tank for many years, with the same types and sizes of fish -no one was ever stupid enough to attempt it before (or since) then! She didn't just get her head stuck, but actually had her pectoral fins all the way through on the other side, so was stuck right in the middle of her body, and her belly was too fat to go through lol. Here's a photo of the hole, I don't think a guppy would even try and swim through it! It looks bigger in the close up picture, but I assure you, it's tiny! hole.JPG
 
I've made plenty of mistakes along the way (haven't we all), but more recently had a swordtail that somehow managed to get lodged in a small hole in a fake driftwood ornament -no amount of gentle wriggling or pushing could get her out, I thought no way could I get her out alive (or even in one piece) after trying for ages, so I grabbed her tail and just pulled as hard as I could, miraculously she came out in one piece and relatively unscathed, a little torn up fin wise and some grazes along her body but she was actually ok and lived a fairly long time after that. Not so much a mistake, rather I just didn't know what else to do! So this one was the fishes mistake lol, how she thought she could fit through the hole I have no idea!
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I have another "Me too" with this: One of my kuhlI loaches got wedged between the aquarium glass and a plastic cave. The gap where it got stuck was wider above and below the spot where the loach got stuck, so it was like the loach intentionally squeezed into the tightest part of the gap, and got stuck. It was trying to wiggle free but was stuck and I had to move the cave to release it. It was bruised after the ordeal, but lived, and I still have that loach today.
 
A few weeks ago one of my neon tetras went missing and even after cleaning my tank and decor I still haven’t found it.
 
A few weeks ago one of my neon tetras went missing and even after cleaning my tank and decor I still haven’t found it.
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I've had fish go missing too, usually fry that are big enough to go in my bigger tanks, about the same size as a neon, that have managed to jump out through the tiniest gap in the corner of the lid (only to find them days/weeks later all dried up). I now put sticky tape over the corner gaps when putting them in there.

I did have one larger fish (a female swordtail I think) that mysteriously vanished though, looked everywhere I thought it could be (checked everywhere in the tank, ornaments, plants, around the tank stand and surrounding area -I still never knew what happened to it, until finally moving house and found it pretty much mummified in the tiny gap BEHIND the tank set up lol.
 

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I had my male swordtail jump out of a tiny gap just to find him 5 weeks later all dried up.. lol. I also purposefully kept neon tetras at 78 degrees while knowing they're not supposed to be that warm, but I liked the aesthetic of the tetras with my angelfish (another mistake) but don't worry the tetras are now in a separate tank that I keep at 75 degrees.
 
When I was a child, I kept 2 Cories and some Guppies in a 2.5 Gallon. Luckily I didn’t have that tank for long, Petsmart just so happened to have a dollar per gallon sale so I snagged the 29 Gallon I still have today.

My care was still really bad for many years, I’d only do water changes every couple months and I’d constantly get new fish from the pet store and be confused as to why they would always die.

Up until a few weeks ago, I had about 100 Guppy/Endlers in my tank. They were about 50 generations inbred. Every few months I would take a bunch to the store, but they would always repopulate. I ended up getting rid of all of them, I was just so tired of them. Well, I tried to. One fry managed to evade me, and one adult had apparently been living in my filter for several weeks. They’re still around. I’m waiting to see if the fry turns out to be a male or female.
 
I have pronounced poor little Ruby the crippled girl betta deceased on at least two and possibly three occasions and yet she has turned up perfectly well a week later after hiding out in the tank somewhere.

She is a very strange fish.
 
I have pronounced poor little Ruby the crippled girl betta deceased on at least two and possibly three occasions and yet she has turned up perfectly well a week later after hiding out in the tank somewhere.

She is a very strange fish.
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haha I have a really old male betta that I was sure only had a day or 2 left (he got really thin along his spine and can barely swim/sits around on the gravel or plants and only swims to the top to get food).. But months later he's still going and still eating fine. There's definitely been quite a few times I've seen him laying there or not moving at all and gone to net/reach in to remove the dead body, only to find him suddenly 'come back to life' to evade capture lol.
 
I'm 63 years old and I react the same way when people check to see if I'm dead.

 
...Wha....How....why...
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Uhh, I'll start by saying I was really tired. I dissolved the kanaplex in about 20ml of water, and this was enough to treat a 60 gallon, so 12 scoops, and I wanted to drip it inot the tank to monitor the reaction of everyone. Sooo, I put some airline tubing into the container, entirely forgot the control valve but for some reason I thought I had, so I sucked on the airline tubing and got it all in my mouth and accidentally swallowed some :yuck:
 
Uhh, I'll start by saying I was really tired. I dissolved the kanaplex in about 20ml of water, and this was enough to treat a 60 gallon, so 12 scoops, and I wanted to drip it inot the tank to monitor the reaction of everyone. Sooo, I put some airline tubing into the container, entirely forgot the control valve but for some reason I thought I had, so I sucked on the airline tubing and got it all in my mouth and accidentally swallowed some :yuck:
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I thought you were gonna say you chugged a whole bottle or something.
 

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