Just Accidentally Killed My Favourite Fish :(

Have to get this off of my chest, I feel completely awful about it.

Had setup a new aquarium to kick off a little Guppy breeding project recently and had planned to move my favourite male guppy from my main display tank to a new 25g with a trio of females in. The male was nothing special, just a plain red guppy named 'Bloaty' because of his feeding habits! It didn't matter to me, he was always active in the tank, constantly chasing the others and displaying to them. I always looked forward to seeing him and hand feeding him in the morning.

I went to net the poor guy out and was chasing him around the tank. I had him cornered, moved the net in to get him, hoping to trap him against the side of the glass and the net when disaster stuck. His head got caught between the metal part of the net and tank . It didn't feel like a particularly large amount of force but he suddenly started juddering violently. I immediately withdrew the net to let him be in the hope I'd just stunned and perhaps scared him but sadly that was it. He swam uncoordinated and upside down for a couple of minutes then faded away.

I feel like such a complete idiot. What was supposed to be a good thing has just turned into tragedy. I know to some they're just cheap fish, but I suppose to a lot of us here we take great care in keeping these beautiful and interesting animals alive and well. It completely sucks to have killed a fish off in such a careless way.

Chris.

 

I'm sorry for your loss x

 

Oh I am so sorry! I killed my farlowella while vacuuming, I know how it feels!

 

Oh no so sorry to hear!
I love my gups and certainly don't consider them expendable.
Please though keep in mind you were trying to do the right thing and accidents happen... don't be too hard on yourself...

 

Jeez man, that sounds scary. It's okay though, we all make mistakes and I'm sure he didn't suffer too badly. He probably has a hundred females now in fishy heaven lol.
I don't know if this would work for guppies but I do it with my betta. Get a container of some sort and put it in the water about halfway on its side, toss a little food in it and if they are curious enough they'll swim in and begin eating. Then you just tilt the container up and BAM you just caught yourself some fish.

 

Thanks for the kind words all. I will certainly try the container method for catching the fish. I'm sure they'll all fall for it because they're more than happy to swim right up to my hand to feed. Still cannot believe I killed the poor fish. Feel really torn up about it because he was always such a lively little fella and if I hadn't messed with him he'd still be up to his little fishy antics. The tank feels that much emptier without him chasing the other Guppies around .

All I can do is learn from it and make sure I never make that same mistake twice. I'm sorry Bloaty

 

I'm sorry for your loss Swim in peace Bloaty.

It was an accident, please don't be too hard on yourself. It sounds like he had a great life and was well cared for.

 

Well, I used Gala's trick to catch Bloaty's brother and sent him up to the new tank! He probably resents me for that after all of the time he spent chasing him but it's the best I could do. I'll never use a net again to capture fish! Funny thing with the container to catch the Guppy was trying to get all of the other fish that had bundled in there out, pretty sure I had three Guppies and a Neon in there hehe.

 

Oh my, I am sorry for your loss. Accidents happen and it WAS an accident... Don't be too hard on yourself!

 

Aww, I'm so sorry for your loss. I totally understand-- I love my fish like other people love their dogs or cats.

And like everyone else has said, it was just an unfortunate accident. It happens to the best of us, even a caring owner like yourself. RIP Bloaty. May he swim on and get bloated on fish flakes up in fishy heaven.

 

So sorry that happened

I also prefer to use the glass method or just hang the net in the tank and then get the fish accustomed to the net while feeding them in/over the net.

This is how I introduce my cats to their carriers and dogs to other unpleasant things. I think it is only fair to the fish, besides, I would never be able to catch them otherwise without stripping the tank of their plants, etc.

 

So sorry for your loss...
It was an accident, so don't blame it too hard on yourself...

Swim in Peace Bloaty

 

Thanks again all! I've started using the glass method to catch fish and it's much easier than chasing them around with a net. Still a bit sad that poor old Bloaty is gone of course but there is nothing I can do. For a Guppy he was a quick swimmer, the others are much more sedate than he used to be so the aquarium is less chaotic with him gone. I hope that the offspring from his brother and trio of ladies will give us another Bloaty soon. He wasn't anything to look at, but he always made up for it with his lively antics. A lovable scamp. Bless him!

 

I'm sorry. I managed to kill my favorite cory by somehow not noticing that I wasn't feeding him enough. It sucks.

 

I once ordered some corys online, when they I arrived I went to open the bag they were in by cutting it open with scissors. I wasn't paying close enough attention and cut one of the corys right in half on accident. We all make those kind of mistakes every once in a while.

 

So I've been trying to think of the most awful way I've done something like this, then I remembered... I had a lot of plant debris in the intake of my AC110 (Goldie's eat the plants), so I popped off the intake while it was running to clean it out.... during that time a zebra Danio got sucked into the filter and met the impeller...didn't end well for the Danio...