What are your newbie mistakes?

I think we should name our newbie mistakes because we all made or still make mistakes and humble (right word?) Ourselves. I'll go first...

I had a 5 gallon tank and I bought 2 Molly's, 2 male guppies, and 5 male dg from Walmart. The guppies died a few days and within a week all the dg were died. I ended up raising three different generations from those molly, till I moved and gave them away.

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Overstocking, not testing water enough and not doing enough water changes.

 

Quite common. Overstocking, too small of a tank, not enough water changes..... pretty much same.

 

What Anders247 said, that pretty much sums it all up for me lol!

 

I was 5 so give me a break my first tank was a 5 gallon hex with 3 tiger barbs. All I remember now was crying when the fish died less than a week later.

 

Yeah, it's tough. :-\

 

3 baby goldfish in an uncycled 10 gallon years ago, then leaving them with someone who didn't know what I have looked like while I was out of town. They bought 1 of every med on the shelf at the store, figuring if some is good, more is better - right? And they proceeded to dump all the meds in at once. Not surprisingly, the fish were belly up by morning.

Otherwise, in-fish cycling or not cycling at all, overstocking, not testing, not checking compatibility, not changing water regularly enough, undersized filtration unit choice, the list of "newbie" mistakes for me could go on for ages!

 

4 Goldfish and a COMMON Pleco in an uncycled 10 gallon.

The fish survived a very long time through who knows what conditions because I didn't test my water then, but the Pleco died almost a week after.

 

A bunch of guppys 2 corys and kuhlI loach in a 10 gallon

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Years ago (enough that I was still a kid at the time) my parents kept 2 dozen neons and a common pleco in what I am guessing was maybe a 10-15 gallon column tank. Not good. The tetras and pleco lasted for awhile, then eventually it was just the pleco. She was longer than the tank was wide by the time I convinced them to turn her over to the local LPS that had indoor ponds and could take in such a sizable fish and even as a child I knew that couldn't have been comfortable for her in the column but being as young as I was, there wasn't really much I could do for her besides give her extra water changes and hope they listened to my reasoning soon. (They did eventually)

 

Using regular bulbs for plants and wondering why everything died, a betta in a ten gallon with 10 smallish barbs, an ADF in a 55 gallon predator tank (as a kid), and most recently siphoning 5+ gallons of water on the carpet from an open canister filter (because what is physics).

 

Betta in a vase with an orchid on top. next to a very small jar with another betta that kept getting tossed out of the bowl by my cat.

 

7 platies and a common pleco in a 5 gallon :/ they got moved to a 20 gallon after some research, now everyone is in a 40g, all still alive and well (and yes, the pleco is being re homed)

 

Idk my list is ssoooooooo long that I probably can't even name them ill list what I can tho.
Overstocking, keeping big fish in small tanks, not cycling water, overfeeding, underfeeding, 20 mollies and 4 platies in a uncycled 25 gallon, a betta in a bowl, goldfish in a bowl, several platies in a bowl, not cleaning filter mat, uhm not water changing, etc etc etc



This is Cacret, ending whatever is my comment with a lol xD

 

Once didn't check the bag after adding fish two days latter trying to work out where one of the small juvenile convicts was. I keep all my bags under my tank in case I ever need to bag fish was looking around because he must have jumped out of the tank found him still in the bag after 3 1/2 days he ended up turning into a very large very beautiful male who made me plenty of store credit with his offspring over the 8 years I had him

 

4 goldfish in a 5 gallon. Then wondering why they we white and lethargic which lead me here.

1 died the other 3 are now parents in a pond they had made for them

 

Link of interest above.

Ken

 

-Betta,balloon molly and guppy in a 3.4 gallon
-2 guppies in 1 litre of water
-100% water change,change of filter media and washing gravel with water right out of the tap every month.
-Feeding a goldfish crushed crackers (I didn't have fish food at that time)

Typing this out made me feel so distressed that I almost did not post this...

 

Gold fish, 5 tetras in 2.5G, not treating tap water, cycling.


Most recent. Forgetting to turn off RODI unit.