Fishkeeping confessions?

[Ouse]

I used to keep my 10g (my first tank) almost always halfway filled, because I never topped off the water or did a water change.

On my first tank I never changed the water either. I added water straight from the tap into the built in filter to top up...

 

[tapwater]

At least now we know as much as 50% weekly is safe. What does the source even mean by ”partial?” Wasn’t your fault!

I remember the source saying 25% was the maximum you should be changing your water every week!
I'm just glad I know more now than I did before haha

 

[YellowGuppy]

I don't own a test kit.

I have NO IDEA what my nitrate levels are. Never have. But my fish don't die, my plants are healthy, and I carry out water changes regularly, so I don't care. But it feels like a dirty little secret!

 

[tapwater]

I don't own a test kit.

I have NO IDEA what my nitrate levels are. Never have. But my fish don't die, my plants are healthy, and I carry out water changes regularly, so I don't care. But it feels like a dirty little secret!

Oh wow! I feel like some people are able to just notice when things are out of whack in their tank. Are you one of those people?

 

[YellowGuppy]

Oh wow! I feel like some people are able to just notice when things are out of whack in their tank. Are you one of those people?

Nope. (And honestly, I silently question those who make such claims—I'm pretty sure nobody has some specially attuned "This room smells like my tank has 0.5PPM ammonia—break out the test tubes to confirm!" super powers.)

If I have too many guppies, I sell some.
If I have too many plants, I sell some.
If I don't have enough shrimp or snails, I overfeed for a while.
Otherwise, just keep feeding them all and continue with weekly water changes and automated lighting, and the system just works. I think sometimes we tinker too much with our tanks after we've already created stable little systems.

 

[Ouse]

For a long time I never used a test kit. It wasn’t until January where I begun using one.

 

[YellowGuppy]

For a long time I never used a test kit. It wasn’t until January where I begun using one.

And has it changed how you do things? Were your eyes opened to the secrets of the universe?

 

[Ouse]

And has it changed how you do things? Were your eyes opened to the secrets of the universe?

It really helped me cycle my 5 and 15 gallon aquariums and I can monitor spikes.

 

[bettasXD]

I had 2 bettas in a 0.5g tank and both died. When I was younger. I really hope that I had given them a better life. That tank did not have a filter or any hiding spots. This was the tank, water change is to just take a cup of water and dump it into the tank. Extra water will flow into the compartment at the back and I empty it when it’s full.

 

[BunnieWarren]

When I was a teenager, I had a goldfish that I kept in a bowl because I didn't know about the nitrogen cycle or filters. I named him Mr. Mustache after the Nirvana song, because he literally had a little black line over his upper lip.

I had that poor thing for about 6 years, and lived in three different places. All my friends and family knew him by name and he got super excited every time someone walked in the room. He was like a puppy.

I went about 2 weeks without changing the water because I was swamped with work, and one day I noticed he was dead and had red gills. I cried for days and I still feel guilt to this day for it.

Since then I've made the vow that I will always test water parameters and do changes whenever necessary so that that never happens again.

 

[HupGupp]

When I was a teenager, I had a goldfish that I kept in a bowl because I didn't know about the nitrogen cycle or filters. I named him Mr. Mustache after the Nirvana song, because he literally had a little black line over his upper lip.

I had that poor thing for about 6 years, and lived in three different places. All my friends and family knew him by name and he got super excited every time someone walked in the room. He was like a puppy.

I went about 2 weeks without changing the water because I was swamped with work, and one day I noticed he was dead and had red gills. I cried for days and I still feel guilt to this day for it.

Since then I've made the vow that I will always test water parameters and do changes whenever necessary so that that never happens again.

6 years is a pretty good run! How often do fishbowls need to be changed?

 

[BunnieWarren]

6 years is a pretty good run! How often do fishbowls need to be changed?

I couldn't tell you personally because I didn't know anything about aquariums back then. I usually did about 50% once or twice a week.

 

[Fishyfishyfishman]

I had a betta in a 1 gallon until a few days ago when I couldn’t take it and put him in my 10g with endlers. No aggression. I finally named him turtle. He is a little slow. Adjusting I hope

 

[ForBettaorForWorse]

I had 2 bettas in a 0.5g tank and both died. When I was younger. I really hope that I had given them a better life. That tank did not have a filter or any hiding spots. This was the tank, water change is to just take a cup of water and dump it into the tank. Extra water will flow into the compartment at the back and I empty it when it’s full.

Only two? I had like seven before learning that it was horrible decision

I had a betta in a 1 gallon until a few days ago when I couldn’t take it and put him in my 10g with endlers. No aggression. I finally named him turtle. He is a little slow. Adjusting I hope

Turtle is such a perfect name He's one of my favorite WOF characters, just below Whiteout

 

[Fishyfishyfishman]

Yeah he is kinda green as well as blue so it fits. Whiteout is cool. Really weird. Qibli is my favorite. Then Sundew

 

[V1K]

I only did water changes once every week (usually just 25%, and I always conditioned the water) and would siphon all the gravel during the water change. I thought that was enough to keep the water clean since I read (without much context, and I didn't look into it further) that "too many water changes can stress out your fish, so you should only do a partial water change once a week." That water quality must've been so bad and I'm realizing probably the cause of that betta's fin rot. : (

Still infinitely better than those people who take out the fish and just WASH EVERYTHING in the tank. At least you must have had some nitrogen cycle going in your gravel.

I don't own a test kit.

I have NO IDEA what my nitrate levels are. Never have. But my fish don't die, my plants are healthy, and I carry out water changes regularly, so I don't care. But it feels like a dirty little secret!

Honestly, I think tests are only a necessity while cycling. Once that's done, the chances that you'll need it are quite low, because the tank starts looking filthy way before the nitrates reach critical, while the ammonia and nitrites simply don't appear unless you do something very, very wrong. I have tested my water a few times when my fish get sick etc, but it never showed anything wrong with it. And as far as I see in my local aquarium groups, this is an extremely popular opinion. Many even go as far as saying tests are useless even for the beginners, but there I disagree - while cycling it is a very handy tool to have.

The biggest fail I had in this hobby was actually before I really was in it, and not entirely my fault. I worked as a lab assistant in my university's zoology department. It had several tanks - a big Paku fish tank, a planted guppy tank, and an abomination of a tank where 3 axolotls were living in, idk, 10 gallons if I'm being optimistic. Anyway, I was told to feed the tanks and to wash the filters once a week. I had no idea about the nitrogen cycle, or that it's something I should look it up. So being thorough at my work, I always washed the filters with hot water. It may not be a coincidence that a Paku died half a year into my care. Also looking back that tank was seriously underfiltered, because it only had a measly internal filter, and that Paku was huge. I also have never seen anyone doing any water changes, didn't even know that was a necessity, I wonder if I just missed it, because it should have looked filthier than it did... Axolotls also died, but that was because they chewed each others legs off. Guppies did pretty well, I guess the plants and the gravel took care of the nitrogen cycle. I'm still puzzled how a zoology department of all places could have been so bad at fishkeeping and didn't bother to explain it the basics.

 

[BigManAquatics]

So, having 4 aquariums, i went to the LFS today. Been kinda looking for some Von Rio tetras...well, they actually had some today, so i bought them...all of them!! Was only 9 and my reasoning was "need 6 for a nice little school but that will leave the other 3 all alone..."

I am also horrible in the fact if i go to a store, see a schooling fish i already have and the store only has 1 or 2 left, they often come home with me...

 

[KeepKeepingAquatics]

My confession is I feel like a fish out of water... An outsider in the hobby. Do I love the hobby? Absolutely, however I feel... Judged. I guess it should be so as we need to take care of our animals the best way we can (I try hard and I'm always working on improving. I'm luckily not being judged for how I care for my fish). I consistently get impostor syndrome in this hobby, which is not good when I'm trying to make this hobby my side career. I plan on going to an aquashella soon (of course not this year), and I know it will get really bad when I'm there. At the LFS (the expensive one) I felt beyond stupid, constantly felt looked at and laughed at (let me explain I am a young woman (however I look quite a few years younger than I am and will probably be mistaken for a child at aquashella) and the entirety of the staff that I recall seeing are young men. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I heard someone point out to another employee about how I kept looking at stuff, but was indecisive and wasn't buying anything (I did buy 115$ worth of stuff I just didn't want to carry the heavy stuff I knew I was getting till I figured out the plants and rocks for my work in progress aquascape and I will admit I was being picky about those) Luckily did a couple freindly staff members I had short conversations with. Anyway that was slightly off topic, I just feel really stupid and that I'll never know everything I need to in this hobby and that I'll never be equal to the people I see out there. Who am I to be a Hobbyist when I've only kept beginner fish in my tanks? That's my negative rant for the night, don't worry about me though I won't be quitting the hobby or calling myself a Hobbyist because I can't shut up about fish, or looking at fish, or researching fish, or owning fish, and more fish, and you get the drill. Things that keeps me thinking "I am an aquarist" is sitting at night with my lights off and my tank lights on, looking at my two tanks for a bit just to enjoy them before turning them off, and being involved in the chat of fishtube Livestreams haha.

 

[SouthAmericanCichlids]

I have had similar feeling at different points in my journey, but I have come to realize that I don't have to know all the things to be a fan. I would like to, but I shouldn't feel bad for not. I Can enjoy it all for myself, I am satisfied with my angels and tetras in my community tank. I enjoy that, and I tried breeding some tetras, because I wanted to. And sometimes I do see a sense of superiority in some hobbyists, but you do you. Forget those guys in the fish store, sometimes I go into fish stores to look, and that's fine. And at aquashella (I went to the Chicago one) everyone was very nice and didn't care how much or little I knew.

Just love fish because YOU love them, continue sitting there by the tank instead of going to bed and spending probably too much time researching fish, haha.

 

[fish_lover]

Had fish for a while as a kid, and I don't think we ever did water changes. We added more water when it started looking low, my father changed the filters, but removing water from the tank? Nope.

 

[F1sh]

i have a confession, one that i am particularly remorseful of now, it literally haunts me every single day whenever I look at my fish... back when I was extremely young( 4 or 5 years old) I got two bettas for my birthday, which we put in 0.1 gallon bowls(more of a cup than a bowl), not cycled, no filter, no heater. back then I thought that bettas were like dogs, you could take them out of the water and play with them for a while... so I picked my favourite one, and I would take him out of the water for a couple seconds and then i'd put him back in the bowl... and i'd do this everyday... until the betta inevitably died... when I look back at it, I was effectively, torturing the betta, I can only imagine what the little guy had to go through. my second betta died a few months later after I basically starved it to death after i didn't feed it for almost two months... looking back now i feel horrible because i essentially murdered two innocent fish lives...

 

[Cue]

i have a confession, one that i am particularly remorseful of now, it literally haunts me every single day whenever I look at my fish... back when I was extremely young( 4 or 5 years old) I got two bettas for my birthday, which we put in 0.1 gallon bowls(more of a cup than a bowl), not cycled, no filter, no heater. back then I thought that bettas were like dogs, you could take them out of the water and play with them for a while... so I picked my favourite one, and I would take him out of the water for a couple seconds and then i'd put him back in the bowl... and i'd do this everyday... until the betta inevitably died... when I look back at it, I was effectively, torturing the betta, I can only imagine what the little guy had to go through. my second betta died a few months later after I basically starved it to death after i didn't feed it for almost two months... looking back now i feel horrible because i essentially murdered two innocent fish lives...

I’m not going to say you didn’t do anything wrong, that would be a lie, but you aren’t at fault here. whatever adult gave your those bettas and whoever saw you treat them like that and allowed it is at fault here. No responsibility of a life should be put on a child that young. Ever.

Give your fish your best now. All you can do is now.

 

[F1sh]

Give your fish your best now. All you can do is now.

i will try my best

 

[Neeno2022]

When I was younger my mom surprised us with a 20-gallon tank. We actually cycled and had the right parameters. Lady at the local PetSmart told us the 1 in of fish per gallon rule too. We got 2 mickey mouse platys, one red and the other yellow for me and my sister.

I horribly overfed my fish and he ended up getting a really bloated stomach and maybe SBD. They lived for a while and one day on a trip to Walmart we saw they had those fiddler crabs and plecos, so we got 2 crabs and a pleco.

Everything went downhill from there. Tank was unheated, crabs kept escaping, eventually I got home one evening to one of the crabs munching on a dead platy.
When we needed to top off the tank, we used water straight from the tap. I remember in the 4 years we had the tank we only changed the water once and replaced it with straight tap water.

Eventually all but the 2 crabs and the pleco was left and then it was just the pleco. We never fed the pleco because we thought they only ate algae, so he eventually died as well. Don't even get me started on the goldfish I won at a contest...

Now that I'm older I've started into fish keeping again and I am going to take advantage of the wealth of information I have now. Also, I've learned to never give children pet fish without supervising, it doesn't end well.

 

[Noroomforshoe]

A few years ago was using a cheap digital thermometer to monitor the temp and make sure that the tank stayed near 78 degrees, I had been using that thing for most of a year. One day I was trying to explain to my husband how you can never trust your finger to monitor the temp of the water, because even 78-degree water feels cold to us humans, and on and on,,,. And he was like "That water is not cold" And I was like "that's because your a freak honey" And then he went a got a meat thermometer, and it turned out my tank water was at 91 degrees! My fish were all ok by some miracle, and now I use the Ink Bird to measure the tempurature.

 

[ProudPapa]

. . . And then he went a got a meat thermometer, and it turned out my tank water was at 91 degrees! My fish were all ok by some miracle, and now I use the Ink Bird to measure the tempurature.

At least you didn't have to worry about ich.

 

[Neeno2022]

A few years ago was using a cheap digital thermometer to monitor the temp and make sure that the tank stayed near 78 degrees, I had been using that thing for most of a year. One day I was trying to explain to my husband how you can never trust your finger to monitor the temp of the water, because even 78-degree water feels cold to us humans, and on and on,,,. And he was like "That water is not cold" And I was like "that's because your a freak honey" And then he went a got a meat thermometer, and it turned out my tank water was at 91 degrees! My fish were all ok by some miracle, and now I use the Ink Bird to measure the tempurature.

Recently got my first tank heater and it came with an adjustable dial. I didnt know how to adjust it because of a bacterial bloom was blocking my view from the heater. Long story short I attempted to feel the water and wait till the tank heated to a "good" temperature. I didn't trust the thermometer i had either until I took it out and it measured the temperature of the house accurately. Poor betta was between cold and hot for about 24 hours until the bloom went away and I could see the number I set it to.

 

[FitSoldier]

I used a heater meant for up to a 20 gallon tank to heat my 90 gallon for a few months....surprisingly it was only off by about 2 degrees Celsius. Other heater meant for the 90 was broken/half working (thanks to my fish) so I ran both of them at the same time.

(P.S. I now have a working heater LOL! New one is fully encased in armor meant for larger vandalizing fish....)