Share your horrors during your fish keeping experience!

Hey Fishlore,
Just curious: What are your horror stories during your fish keeping experience? Bored and stuck in quarantine so

I'll start: I had some albino corydoras shipped to me, and they were triple bagged. It was a pain opening the bags, and while I was opening the last one a cory jumped and almost fell into the sink hole. It's still alive and healthy, if you are wondering

I'm sure others will have more horrifying stories, I want to hear them all!

 

One time, while doing my regular water change and my lid was off, my betta decided to yeet right out of the tank. Of course, it couldn't be over the front or sides, it just had to be over the back. He fell in between the two-inch crevice between my stand and the wall, all the way onto the carpeted floor.

If you don't know, a full 10 gallon tank on a hard wooden desk is probably somewhere around 150 - 200 pounds. The only way I could access him was by lifting up the desk and pulling it forward. It felt like forever, but it was probably only a couple minutes, and I did manage to lift the desk with tank on it and pull it all forward - miraculously, without any water spilling! I scooped him up and put him back in the tank. He was fine, minus the carpet fuzz, and lived another year after that.

To make this more eventful - he was a double-tail betta I had rescued with nearly completely melted fins. The store gave him to me for free because "You really want that dead betta? Okay... Fine?" He made an amazing recovery, and despite some obvious genetic defects (fish equivalent of scoliosis, among other things), he lived through near-death twice and ended up dying of old age, of all things!

His name was Osiris, "Egyptian lord of the underworld and judge of the dead," fittingly. Here's a photo of his fin melt recovery.

 

I haven't had fish for too long but once, I got two guppies from petsmart. After acclimating them, I used a kitchen strainer(I didn't have a net at the time, and using my hands just didn't work. Please don't judge me lol don't worry i've gotten a net now) to scoop them out. Well, one of the guppies, which was an endler, decided to jump out of the strainer through the gap of my hand. It fell on the counter thingy that the tank was/is on. I panicked and literally just stood there. I didn't know what to do since I was afraid I would hurt it in some way. And the worst thing was that the fish was stuck in the towel that I was using and I had to unravel the towel a little to find it. But I pushed the fish into my hand slowly and dropped him into the tank. After that I dosed a little bit of stress coat lol. Another one was when I was a little kid I was changing the water for my goldfish and I straight up used tap water. It was definetely chlorinated, but the next day the fish survived(we never uesd de-chlorinator, we just let the water sit out and we waited for the chlorine to dissipate. of course I never realized that chlorine wasn't good, but now I understand). So yeah I've had some weird experiences but these 2 kinda stick out.

 

my first exp with fish was in 2000 I got a tank for x mass and the store guy gave me the fish same day big mistake on his part and mine the fish got pop eye and fin rot and died first two days

 

One time, while doing my regular water change and my lid was off, my betta decided to yeet right out of the tank. Of course, it couldn't be over the front or sides, it just had to be over the back. He fell in between the two-inch crevice between my stand and the wall, all the way onto the carpeted floor.

If you don't know, a full 10 gallon tank on a hard wooden desk is probably somewhere around 150 - 200 pounds. The only way I could access him was by lifting up the desk and pulling it forward. It felt like forever, but it was probably only a couple minutes, and I did manage to lift the desk with tank on it and pull it all forward - miraculously, without any water spilling! I scooped him up and put him back in the tank. He was fine, minus the carpet fuzz, and lived another year after that.

To make this more eventful - he was a double-tail betta I had rescued with nearly completely melted fins. The store gave him to me for free because "You really want that dead betta? Okay... Fine?" He made an amazing recovery, and despite some obvious genetic defects (fish equivalent of scoliosis, among other things), he lived through near-death twice and ended up dying of old age, of all things!

His name was Osiris, "Egyptian lord of the underworld and judge of the dead," fittingly. Here's a photo of his fin melt recovery.

Wow he looks amazing! Can't believe the store just gave up on the betta

I haven't had fish for too long but once, I got two guppies from petsmart. After acclimating them, I used a kitchen strainer(I didn't have a net at the time, and using my hands just didn't work. Please don't judge me lol don't worry i've gotten a net now) to scoop them out. Well, one of the guppies, which was an endler, decided to jump out of the strainer through the gap of my hand. It fell on the counter thingy that the tank was/is on. I panicked and literally just stood there. I didn't know what to do since I was afraid I would hurt it in some way. And the worst thing was that the fish was stuck in the towel that I was using and I had to unravel the towel a little to find it. But I pushed the fish into my hand slowly and dropped him into the tank. After that I dosed a little bit of stress coat lol. Another one was when I was a little kid I was changing the water for my goldfish and I straight up used tap water. It was definetely chlorinated, but the next day the fish survived(we never uesd de-chlorinator, we just let the water sit out and we waited for the chlorine to dissipate. of course I never realized that chlorine wasn't good, but now I understand). So yeah I've had some weird experiences but these 2 kinda stick out.

I've made many mistakes too, especially during the "first years". Luckily they were hardy fish, but I feel bad now.

my first exp with fish was in 2000 I got a tank for x mass and the store guy gave me the fish same day big mistake on his part and mine the fish got pop eye and fin rot and died first two days

That must have been a terrible experience! The lengths some pet stores go to sell their fish.

 

I've made many mistakes too, especially during the "first years". Luckily they were hardy fish, but I feel bad now.

Yeah. Definitely, but these mistakes have one benefit though. They do give us more experience and teach us things. Sometimes, they prove the internet isn't always correct. I know this is slighty off topic but having kept goldfish as a child(it is still alive right now) I don't believe in the fact(in my opinion myth) that a goldfish's organs keep growing even if it is stunted. First of all, people are like my fancy goldfish or my shubunkin goldfish is 8 inches. That's how big there supposed to be, or else they are stunted! Um, no? Fancies can grow up to 14 inches, although I believe that they might be able to grow even larger. Who knows how big shubunkins and just other goldfish in general might get? That means that most if not all goldfish are stunted, yet people still believe in the organ thing. My goldfish is fine and doesn't have trouble doing things that fish normally do, even though it is stunted. I don't know what kind it is, but its only about 4-5 inches and its not fancy, even tho I kept it in a bowl it still grew(I did water changes every other day). Assuming its organs have reached bursting point, I can't tell. I mean, he or she swims normally; goldie swims like a "full sized goldfish". Not to mention the fact that the oldest goldfishes in the world are ALL stunted. Of course, I do not recommend stunting your fish. The only problem I have with stunting in goldfish is that this often suggests that the goldfish lived in a bad environment. So basically you can learn much from your mistakes too, even if your fish suffered . Okay yeah I'm sorry if I got off topic. For my tropical tank, I did as much research as possible and I'm happy to say to I think its going pretty well!

 

That must have been a terrible experience! The lengths some pet stores go to sell their fish.

I agree they try and push there fish sales alot

 

I agree they try and push there fish sales alot

I have received so much bad information from stores like PetCo
Luckily some stores know what they are talking about, but most don't and make profit off of the beginners in the hobby.

 

gold fish can grow to 38 cm even bigger the oldest gold fish I know of lived for 45 years

That must have been a terrible experience! The lengths some pet stores go to sell their fish.

ahh true

 

First time my brother took care of the fish for a weekend. I told him to feed this 10 gallon tank "a pinch of flake food." He proceeded to feed them the biggest pinch of food humanly possible, which turned the tank from fine to murky-brown and rancid in 3 days. Cue me coming home, flipping out, tearing down the whole tank after scooping the fish into a bucket, and rinsing out the whole tank outside with a hose. It was THAT nasty.

Surprisingly, nothing died, or seemed any worse for wear aside from swollen bellies.

 

My horror story I pretty embarrassing. I was dosing API algae fix to help with an algae problem but I misread the directions. The directions said dose once every three days but I read it as dose three times a day! once two of my harlequin Rasboras died I realized my mistake and did a massive water change to dilute the algae fix. Luckily nothing else died! That just goes to show you, ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK THE DIRECTIONS!!

 

My horror story I pretty embarrassing. I was dosing API algae fix to help with an algae problem but I misread the directions. The directions said dose once every three days but I read it as dose three times a day! once two of my harlequin Rasboras died I realized my mistake and did a massive water change to dilute the algae fix. Luckily nothing else died! That just goes to show you, ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK THE DIRECTIONS!!

Oh no! 3 times a day You must have been confused when your fish died.

 

You bet I was!

 

First time my brother took care of the fish for a weekend. I told him to feed this 10 gallon tank "a pinch of flake food." He proceeded to feed them the biggest pinch of food humanly possible, which turned the tank from fine to murky-brown and rancid in 3 days. Cue me coming home, flipping out, tearing down the whole tank after scooping the fish into a bucket, and rinsing out the whole tank outside with a hose. It was THAT nasty.

Surprisingly, nothing died, or seemed any worse for wear aside from swollen bellies.

Back when I was a beginner, I used to overfeed (Learned since then, of course). The smell must have been horrible too!

 

hmm.... when my fish bred. with the catfish I had to shuffle things across a lot of tanks, and the babys never made it anyway.

 

I have received so much bad information from stores like PetCo
Luckily some stores know what they are talking about, but most don't and make profit off of the beginners in the hobby.

Yeah, my dad asked an employee and she told us to run the filter for a week and we could add fish to the tank. Thank goodness I did my research and realized that was NOT the case. Its sad because when you do your research AFTER you get the animal, your pet may have been suffering for some time and it wastes lots of money too .

 

Yeah, my dad asked an employee and she told us to run the filter for a week and we could add fish to the tank. Thank goodness I did my research and realized that was NOT the case. Its sad because when you do your research AFTER you get the animal, your pet may have been suffering for some time and it wastes lots of money too .

Pet stores try to make profit off of beginners (Not saying all do, MOST do). I would agree that cycling your tank is important and saves you stress and money in the long run. Plus, your fish would probably survive too

 

Pet stores try to make profit off of beginners (Not saying all do, MOST do). I would agree that cycling your tank is important and saves you stress and money in the long run. Plus, your fish would probably survive too

Yeah. I learned the importance of research when I got my hamster from petsmart. They gave me a cage taht was really small, like smaller than a ten gallon tank, but hamsters need minimum of 450. Because of this, my hamster was probably stressed for some time and I also wasted a really big amount of money.... it took a lot to convince my parents for a larger cage

 

Yeah. I learned the importance of research when I got my hamster from petsmart. They gave me a cage taht was really small, like smaller than a ten gallon tank, but hamsters need minimum of 450. Because of this, my hamster was probably stressed for some time and I also wasted a really big amount of money.... it took a lot to convince my parents for a larger cage

Never had hamsters before, but makes sense they need a 450 gallon. They need a lot of space, lol

 

Never had hamsters before, but makes sense they need a 450 gallon. They need a lot of space, lol

Oh sorry, I meant 450 sq inches of space lol. Basically, a 40 gallon tank. Although a hamster would definitely appreciate a 450 gallon lol they run a lot, when they put food in their wheel you can hear the how fast they run. Sometimes when I was going downstairs to get water I could hear the seeds rattle around while my hamster was running.

 

LOL just proves how little I know about hamsters. They would enjoy the big space though, almost all pets would.

 

LOL just proves how little I know about hamsters. They would enjoy the big space though, almost all pets would.

Yeah, they can run many miles though so they definitely need more than the 160 sq inches I was giving them in the beginning.

 

First time my brother took care of the fish for a weekend. I told him to feed this 10 gallon tank "a pinch of flake food." He proceeded to feed them the biggest pinch of food humanly possible, which turned the tank from fine to murky-brown and rancid in 3 days. Cue me coming home, flipping out, tearing down the whole tank after scooping the fish into a bucket, and rinsing out the whole tank outside with a hose. It was THAT nasty.

Surprisingly, nothing died, or seemed any worse for wear aside from swollen bellies.

This is exactly why I don't let anyone else feed my fish, and if I do, I make them measure it. "One pinch" can mean absolutely anything from a single flake to whatever heap of flakes can fit between two fingers!

 

The instructions are confusing, there is no certain amount. "Feed once/twice as much food as your fish can eat in a few minutes" Personally, I think that is the reason why beginners tend to overfeed and have problems with parameters. Through experience, though, is how you learn.

 

The instructions are confusing, there is no certain amount. "Feed once/twice as much food as your fish can eat in a few minutes" Personally, I think that is the reason why beginners tend to overfeed and have problems with parameters. Through experience, though, is how you learn.

With fish that make it obvious when fed versus over-fed (like bettas, gouramis, guppies, etc) I feed them in small increments at each feeding until I start to see their bellies get a bit rounder. Then I know they're good for the day. Any fish that graze on whatever they can find in the tank (like platies, otos, etc), I never worry about them or intentionally feed them, they'll pick up whatever food gets dropped during feeding time of the others - assuming they're in a community tank - and spend the rest of the day grazing on algae. They are never, ever thin in my tanks, so long as there is sufficient stuff to grab throughout the day. Any fish that does not graze and is not easy to visualize how full they are (like tetras or rasboras), I get a feel for how much food I can feed without any of it going to waste at the bottom of the tank.

 

With fish that make it obvious when fed versus over-fed (like bettas, gouramis, guppies, etc) I feed them in small increments at each feeding until I start to see their bellies get a bit rounder. Then I know they're good for the day. Any fish that graze on whatever they can find in the tank (like platies, otos, etc), I never worry about them or intentionally feed them, they'll pick up whatever food gets dropped during feeding time of the others - assuming they're in a community tank - and spend the rest of the day grazing on algae. They are never, ever thin in my tanks, so long as there is sufficient stuff to grab throughout the day. Any fish that does not graze and is not easy to visualize how full they are (like tetras or rasboras), I get a feel for how much food I can feed without any of it going to waste at the bottom of the tank.

That is what I do with my community tank as well. My fish love to eat, and they will eat WAY past how much they can take.

 

Just thought I'd throw this out there. If I go on vacation I get on of those pill containers that have a little place for each day of the week. Then I just put the right amount of fish food for each day.

 

Worst ever nightmare, ALGAE

 

One time I was staying the weekend at my friends house. She got into fishkeeping because of me and I was helping her do a water change. Well her WCM were being bullies so during the water change we decided we would take them out and rearrange the tank. She scooped one up with a net and tried to get it in the separate container but freaked out when she felt the fish squirm in the net so the fish fell on the floor. I then had to pick up the little fishy because she was in shock and return him to his tank. My poor friend felt horrible, but we’ve all done this lol. The fish lived after that and is doing fine.

 

One time I was staying the weekend at my friends house. She got into fishkeeping because of me and I was helping her do a water change. Well her WCM were being bullies so during the water change we decided we would take them out and rearrange the tank. She scooped one up with a net and tried to get it in the separate container but freaked out when she felt the fish squirm in the net so the fish fell on the floor. I then had to pick up the little fishy because she was in shock and return him to his tank. My poor friend felt horrible, but we’ve all done this lol. The fish lived after that and is doing fine.

Lol once I yelled for my dad to help me scoop up a fish that had fallen on the table cuz i was shocked and scared

 

My first tank was a 20 gallon with goldfish and many moons ago. I set it up on a sturdy bookcase. One night while watching TV I hear this crack, and look over to see the bookcase buckling and the tank crashing to the floor, but like in slow-motion. I froze for a few seconds, couldn't believe it was happening. Sadly there were no survivors and it was a real mess to clean up, but I learned how much water weighs.

 

The first time I saw detritus worms. My hands were in the tank, and I saw this little thing wiggling towards me. I was all like 'SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!' and I cut it in half with my aquascaping scissors. I then did research and realized they are harmless LOL.

 

The first time I saw detritus worms. My hands were in the tank, and I saw this little thing wiggling towards me. I was all like 'SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!' and I cut it in half with my aquascaping scissors. I then did research and realized they are harmless LOL.

Haha I'm so scared of bugs(i know, pathetic right? If a fly comes near me I will literally wave my hands around for 5 minutes), I saw a planaria once and freaked out. I threw it in the trash can. Also, my dad found a bug on the kitchen floor that was really gross(imo) and was the size of an earthworm, he thought it came from my aquarium lol.

 

Hey Fishlore,
Just curious: What are your horror stories during your fish keeping experience? Bored and stuck in quarantine so

I'll start: I had some albino corydoras shipped to me, and they were triple bagged. It was a pain opening the bags, and while I was opening the last one a cory jumped and almost fell into the sink hole. It's still alive and healthy, if you are wondering

I'm sure others will have more horrifying stories, I want to hear them all!

Mine would be that once my corys got stuck in the bag when I was trying to put them in the tank after acclimating them, they sort of just stuck to the bag when I was trying to dump them in a bucket so they can be easier to catch, I didn't want to pluck them out because that might hurt them and they might sting me.

 

Horrors! Well I am in my first year of fish keeping, oh my the horrors.
I killed 7 fish, within a month after getting them. Massive algae, plants dead and tanks tore down.
Forgot to treat two plants, massive detritus worm infestation and hydra that just still to this day wont die. Even after panacur c treatments.
The worst one is being responsible for my sweet betta's fins being tore to shreds and now he is sick .

Hopefully year number two will be more stable then year number one of fish keeping

 

I just had a horrible thing happen. I bought seven gold laser cories a couple months ago. They are my babies.
Just recently, I have a snail problem in the tank from one of the plants I put in, most likely.

I set up a “snail trap” consisting of a 5ml vial for an API water test kit and fish food inside.

I woke up the next day, saw the “trap”, not with snails inside, but one of the cories fit himself into the vial to get the fish food and suffocated...

Ugh

 

I know this thread is a little dead but I wanted to add another horror story.. not good. I was doing a gravel vacuum a few weeks ago and I did not notice one of my baby corydoras sucked inside the tube... I only found out when I went to do another gravel vac and saw the baby cory had fallen outside of the tube. Still always scared about that event.