What is your worst fish keeping experience?

Just thought of another one trying to get my 330gal into the house. Let me preface this with if you've never lifted a tank over 200gal we are talking thick glass and supper heavy 6guys caring and a 7th subbing in to help.

Tried front stairs can't fit through doorway, tried through the back stairs get around to near veranda not wide enough to get tank through, ok pull small piece of fence down at front go up other side of house then pull another piece of fence down at back, carefully go over and around pond, up over veranda banisters, through back glass sliding door all the way through house to front room onto stand which is on a floor I just spent a week reinforcing. All in all it took 7 guys from 9am to about 1pm to get it into the house.

 

I bought a bottle of what I thought was BB additive in a local pet store and didn't know it had turned rancid already before using it. I had been treating a minor outbreak of some disease that had been introduced via a new fish from the same LPS because I had no option for a quarantine for them at the time (and then learned the importance of it the hard way). Because I was fairly sure the mess I had just used probably partially killed off my cycle, if not fully killed it, I dumped the entire bottle of BB treatment in the tank to help "jumpstart" cycling since I had fish in there with no where else to go that was already established because at the time that was my only tank.

By the next morning - less than 8 hours later - I woke to find that it had turned the entire tank into a 55 gallon container of brown, murky, nasty smelling sewage - worse than any bacterial or algae bloom I have ever seen (and I have seen some pretty bad ones in the years of helping friends with their tanks!). It looked so bad that even the muddy water in the creeks and marsh area near us that floods every winter looked better than what was in my tank and it smelled like sewage! The conditions prior were essentially uncycled but clean water, and the fish I had were showing no signs of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate poisoning or even of just general stress since treating the introduced illness, then overnight it turned into a cesspool so bad my fish turned on each other in a "survival of the fittest" situation and my formerly peaceful goldfish turned into mean, nasty, aggressive fighting machines intent on taking each other out in order to preserve their place as a survivor. I eventually had to separate them all in a series of buckets and a 10 gallon tank I hastily burrowed from a family member as I scrambled to fix things.

It didn't go back to normal overnight. It took weeks, maybe even months on FishLore almost daily, countless water changes, a complete replacement of the filter (it choked on all the sludge that was previously water!) more water changes, a complete removal of the substrate, copious amounts of Bio/Chem absorber pads, activated charcoal and Purigen to suck up all the crud they could from the water, and then still more water changes after that to get it all out. This was a multi-week process before everything was stable and in ideal ranges again. By the time I got things back to a good range, while I had not lost a single fish to nitrite/nitrate/ammonia toxicity, I did lose quite a few to other, more indirect causes stemming from the havoc wreaked by the rancid product and the damage was done.

Of the three oldest, the most aggressive one was a little orange guy that tried to pick on everyone, eventually went after the wrong fish (a very moody and VERY muscular pleco!) and got swatted away with the pleco's tail for his attempt, but even a small swat from the pleco was enough for a goldfish to be injured by it. He had a messed up jaw after that to the point my husband began referring to him as Stalone. Still able to eat but at a slower pace, he became uber-protective over food (like a dog that bites anyone who tries to touch his bowl) and attacked viciously whenever he saw anyone else eating - even after having been fed adequately prior to feeding the others - so he had to be separated from all others. Eventually he had to go back to the LPS for rehoming because every time I tried to reintroduce him after getting things better in the tank, he still went berserk and started to attack everyone else in there.

The other two of the three oldest had the borrowed tank to themselves (yes, I know they were pushing it for space but they were still relatively small then) and ended up turning on each other. Before I knew it, one had maimed the other in a way that in the end even after trying all we could to help him he had to be euthanized.

The newest one back then (and the one who had introduced disease in the first place) was a blue oranda baby that was peaceful when the larger three were present but turned against the others in the absence of the three "patriarchs" that usually kept everyone in line. He eventually had to be rehomed as well, along with the last of the original three because after witnessing the brutality of his formerly gentle goldfish, my son was scared the fish would come out and attack to him that way. He was too terrified of them to even enter the room and as the tank was in his bedroom, it was not an option to simply avoid that room and wait for him to relax so eventually those two had to head back to the pet store as well.

Another baby goldfish developed swim bladder issues that would recur every couple weeks for the remainder of his life - only about six months beyond the initial crisis and was eventually euthanized as well. We were left in the end with only 1 or two of the same goldfish we had prior and the pleco.

I had had the fish since they were tiny babies of only an inch or two long, and at that point were not too much bigger since they were still only 6-8 months old at the most. The whole ordeal was so traumatic all the way around that I debated turning in the remaining goldfish to the LPS as well and converting it to a tropical tank because I felt that I was beyond done with the goldfish after seeing their level of aggression myself and don't blame my son for being afraid of the "bully fishies" for that reason. He still won't look at a black moor, calico moor or a blue oranda without getting either sad or scared depending on his mood.

 

While doing a 50% water change on my 20 gallon I managed to knock the end of the vacuum hose out of the dirty water container. I essentially poured 10 gallons of poopy fish water on to my hardwood floors. My apartment is above a garage and there was so much water it was leaking through the flooring on to everything I was storing in the garage. Not to mention that my bed is in the living room not 3 feet away from where the tank was, I don't have a bed frame just box springs and mattress on the floor. ..the box springs were wet almost up to the mattress, had to cut it open to get the water out and put rice satchels inside. That was a super fun week of cleanup. I'm a lot more careful now needless to say.

 

For me it was when I was carrying an empty 20 gallon tank to the house.
I was walking along, just managing not to drop it (I know, I should have asked for help!) when suddenly, from nowhere, came this branch that was lying on the ground across the path! I saw it a little too late..
Yeeaaahh. I tripped and dropped the tank smack on the front panel of glass.
It all kind of went slow motion for a few seconds as I saw that tank hit the ground.

Luckily, I had a spare 10 gallon and at the time the only fish I had were 4 Rosy Red Minnows.

 

I think the worst that's happened to me was when I was... was... well, I found a dead fish in the net bucket at Walmart. That's it.

 

I think the worst that's happened to me was when I was... was... well, I found a dead fish in the net bucket at Walmart. That's it.

Really? I've had many things far worse than that happen since I started the hobby.

 

Really? I've had many things far worse than that happen since I started the hobby.

Lol I think I'm pretty lucky with tank, worst water spill was last night when the siphon hose came out of the Tank, a little water came out but not much

 

Lol I think I'm pretty lucky with tank, worst water spill was last night when the siphon hose came out of the Tank, a little water came out but not much

Most likely! I think I tend to break everything I touch.. ;D

 

I don't know if it was when I was getting the tank off the floor and used too much fresh tapwater... The minnows died, the goldfish hung on but the white ones lost scales and the longer tails got a bit shredded.

... Or if it was the scum problem I've been having lately with the empty tank. Hopefully now that I've "contaminated" it with old gravel, I'm not going to start having problems again.

 

The most memorable bad experience I've ever had was waaaay back, when I was just starting to get a bit of MTS. I had won a 29 gallon tank at a local fish club, and someone gave me a 3" Oscar because they realized he was going to outgrow their 10 gallon. I knew he'd eventually outgrow the 29, but I was just tickled to have an Oscar. Another friend was shutting down a tank, and gave me a 3" Leporinus fasciatus. There was a photo in one of Axelrod's books of a tank with big Oscars and big Leporinus in it, so I assumed that the two species were compatible.

The Oscar was already in the tank, and I was floating the bag with the Leporinus. I was so excited that I would have them together, like the picture. As I poured the Leporinus into the tank there was a half second of disorientation, and the Oscar grabbed him by the head and had him half swallowed, with the tail end sticking out like a cigar. My jaw dropped, my eyes went big, and I was in shock. Just then, I heard my Dad laughing like a hyena; he'd been sitting in his easy chair and saw the whole thing. He told me later that the look on my face was just tooo much.

The good thing that came of this was that I had entertained my Dad tremendously, and learned that shape is as important as size when putting two fish together.

 

Just then, I heard my Dad laughing like a hyena; he'd been sitting in his easy chair and saw the whole thing. He told me later that the look on my face was just tooo much.

I'm sorry about your predicament, but I just laughed like a hyena after reading those lines.

My worst experience was when I found my sailfin pleco dead and buried under a rock. I still have no clue how it got there, but the way it felt when he suddenly vanished and didn't turn up for an entire day and when I found him, that was terrible.

 

I was 13 or 14 years old, and I had not idea what I was doing. I had a 10 gallon tank with a pleco (I really had no idea) and a few neon tetras. I let the tank get ridiculously nasty, so I wanted to clean it up. I didn't think gravel vac-ing would do it so I planned to hose it out in the back yard... I took the fish out, but left 8 gallons and all the décor in the tank. I lifted the tank and headed toward the stairs (I was on the second floor) On the first step, I lost control of the tank and it went crashing down the stairs. 8 gallons of nasty stinky water, disgusting gravel, algae covered fake plants, and broken glass waterfalled down the stairs

That was one of two times in my life that my mom cussed at me. The worst part was that all our family photo albums were stored in the cupboard under the stairs. They didn't survive... And the house stank of nasty water for a month...

 

My worst experience wasn't even my problem or my fish tank! I walked into a friend's living room while he was at work and discovered a thick river of water snaking its way across the concrete floor (if you're wondering why a living room would have a bare concrete floor ask the builders who turned a 1-car garage into a living space and put a nail right through the hot water pipe while putting up the drywall which eventually rusted through and caused a flood which required the carpet to be ripped out...anyway, back to the story) I walked into this garage--living room to see a small river headed for the wall. Not just any wall, but the wall that divided his living room from the neighbours' because this was a side-by-side duplex. I looked back at the fish tanks (many) to see one of the 20 gallons about half empty. I didn't know anything about aquariums at that point but I ran through all my options: I could try to scoop out the remaining water and save whatever was living in the tank (possibly babies, I was afraid I'd kill them), I could try to lift the tank into a plastic bin where it could leak in peace (probably too heavy), or I could alert the owner of the tank. It was a slow leak so I opted for the latter. Rather than call and be put on hold, I first put down all the towels in the place to prevent any more water from reaching the wall, then jumped in the car and drove to his workplace and told his boss that I needed to talk to his employee because it was "sort of" an emergency. Then I took him back to his living room to deal with his problem. Everybody was saved, no walls were harmed, and he only had to take an hour off work. Gave me a scare though.

May I friend you? I need people thinking like you in my life.

We've almost had similar disaster. We were going out of town, the bags were packed, and in the last minute for no reason at all I decided to stay at home. An hour later I walked into the bedroom that daughter uses whenever she is in the country, and one of three tanks there was quarter empty. My first reaction was to refill it, but I noticed that the side panel was cracked.

The day my wife's waters broke with our first daughter went to ring hospital but had no power came out to the living to find my 75gal 3/4 empty had to make a choice of fish or child birth (my wife quickly changed my mind), ended up scooping them into a large cooler with a lid stuck my filter pipes into it and that's where they lived until I got a new tank about 3 weeks later

Not only I've heard your story before, I had nightmares it happened to me. I am not kidding. LOL.

 

I was 13 or 14 years old, and I had not idea what I was doing. I had a 10 gallon tank with a pleco (I really had no idea) and a few neon tetras. I let the tank get ridiculously nasty, so I wanted to clean it up. I didn't think gravel vac-ing would do it so I planned to hose it out in the back yard... I took the fish out, but left 8 gallons and all the décor in the tank. I lifted the tank and headed toward the stairs (I was on the second floor) On the first step, I lost control of the tank and it went crashing down the stairs. 8 gallons of nasty stinky water, disgusting gravel, algae covered fake plants, and broken glass waterfalled down the stairs

That was one of two times in my life that my mom cussed at me. The worst part was that all our family photo albums were stored in the cupboard under the stairs. They didn't survive... And the house stank of nasty water for a month...

Are you going to share with us what was the reason for the "second time"?

 

Heres a rather recent one. So I was out for a bit with my friends for a few hours and it was the one day I viewed my tanks very low. So when I finally got home it was about 5 o clock. I decided to stay downstairs for another 4 hours. The one day I didn't go up to look at things earlier. So when I finally got upstairs it's 9 o clock at night and I find out I own a leaking tank. It was so bad there was only an inch of water, if that, left in the tank. Do I had 15 gallons of smelly water that made my floor smell. So this happened a week or two ago and my floors are still nasty smelling and warped.


Animals are my life. If there weren't animals I wouldn't exist.

 

Are you going to share with us what was the reason for the "second time"?

The second time was for bad grades during my first semester of college.

 

Mine was a bad judgement call on my part. Years ago I was cleaning snails out of my aquarium. My daughter, 3 at the time picked up a few and was playing with them. Didnt think much about it.

Later that night my daughter and I are watching the fish in the tank enjoying a box of raisens. She put put a raisen in my mouth and when I bit down it when CRUNCH! Not a big fan of escargot. We still laugh about it today.

 

My worst experience happened only last week, since I just got fish.

But anyways, what happened was that I had a tank that was nicely set up, and I just needed a few more things (specifically a heater since it's winter) so I had them ordered with two day delivery. My grandmother took me to Petco (I returned to get a really pretty guy who they stuffed in the back) and I bought two Bettas. I was shopping late, and by the time I returned, my box was supposed to be there so I could get the heater set up, and put them in their tank. Well, it wasn't. I was very upset since I just had to watch my two new bettas sit sadly in their little cups. My dad called FedEx and asked them what happened. They said that they accidentally left my box in their facility and didn't realize until it was too late. Okay, a stupid mistake, and they assured my dad that my box would arrive the next day.

The next day came around. By 3pm I still had no box, and two sad bettas in sad cups. I called my dad, he checked, and apparently they 'accidentally' left my box instead of delivering it again. My dad called them and was livid, as was I. He eventually just convinced FedEx to leave my box with the front desk at their facility so my dad could go and pick it up.

So yes, my 'two day' delivery was definitely not two days, and my bettas had to wait in their sad little cups much longer than they should have. But boy were they happy once they got into their 29 gallon tank

 

I hope you didn't put two male bettas in the same tank together...

It's a split tank. There's another thread on it

 

My worst experience was yesterday. I had a beautiful CT Betta and he disappeared yesterday. I took his tank down and was preparing to use it as a QT tank. I took an ornament out of his tank and about 10 minutes later decided to look in it again. I found him stuck in a crack inside of it barely alive sadly, he died last night I decide to check my other tank decorations today. I have a little volcano and it has crevices on the inside. I thought I saw a dried up leaf in it. I got a flashlight to check and it wasn't a leaf, it was another Betta, this time dried up and crispy. I though my cat ate him
Let this be a lesson to check decorations very closely and to buy ones without places fish can get stuck.

 

Thanks for the warning Flowingfins. I'm so sorry for your losses

 

Thanks aquaphobia. I'm mad at myself for not looking closer.

 

I'm new to fishkeeping, so I'm sure there will be more....

I was super bummed when I had an explosion of pest snails in my new tank, after I painstakingly washed my new plants. I decided I would start smashing them. I then thought about it a bit too deeply, and realized snails are gross, and smashed snails was even more gross (gagging as I type)... I started throwing up and ran to my nearest trash can. I was really retching into that thing, and my husband rushed to my side, laughing. Turns out, with the retching, I had peed myself.

 

Moral of the story: Kill snails and you'll wet yourself

 

I'm new to fishkeeping, so I'm sure there will be more....

I was super bummed when I had an explosion of pest snails in my new tank, after I painstakingly washed my new plants. I decided I would start smashing them. I then thought about it a bit too deeply, and realized snails are gross, and smashed snails was even more gross (gagging as I type)... I started throwing up and ran to my nearest trash can. I was really retching into that thing, and my husband rushed to my side, laughing. Turns out, with the retching, I had peed myself.

That's really funny. When I hit the worst part of my morning sickness I was working as a teller. I had just gotten to work and was counting my drawer and a coworker nuked some McDonald's egg sandwich things in the microwave. That smell hit me and I barely made it to the trashcan. I puked so hard that I peed my pants (and not just a trickle, full on). I had to wait an hour for my boyfriend to bring me fresh clothes because there can't ever just be one person there. It was awful.

With fish keeping though, it's between having the hose pop out of my return pump in my sump twice and spraying water everywhere, and before I realized I was dealing with Camallanus worms and losing 95% of my stock over the course of a few weeks in one tank.

My biggest fear is dropping a tank. I shudder to think about it. Haha

 

My worst experience was when I was going to buy a 150 gallon fish tank and equipment. I drove an hour away with a truck that cost me money and hired friends to help me move it, only for the seller to STOP responding to me when I got there and wasted my time and money.

 

My worst experience was when I was going to buy a 150 gallon fish tank and equipment. I drove an hour away with a truck that cost me money and hired friends to help me move it, only for the seller to STOP responding to me when I got there and wasted my time and money.

That sounds terrible, it was a paranoid fear of mine the entire hour it took to get my 90 gallon.

Sent from my LGL34C using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

It was when I was about 6 and got my 1st tank for my birthday. It was probably a 2 gallon or so, and my mom put about 6 gold fish in it (yeah she really didn't care enough to see what she was supposed to do) anyway she put the fish in a coffee cup and scrubbed the tank with some dish detergent while I went to get in the shower. She dumped water in from the tap and dumped the fish back in. Long story short short my cousin comes screaming down the hall "all your fish are dead! Aunt Lisa killed them!" I loved those fish with all my 6 yr old heart. 15 years later I can laugh about it with my mom but it still kinda stings.

Sent from my LGL34C using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

 

Hey!

So I've just upgraded my fish tank to a used rio 180, finally finish setting it up, all sorts of plants and pieces of driftwood in there!

Had the filter from my old 20 gallon in there alongside my danios and my bristlenose to cycle the new filter for a week.

So...

Heard about a lfs about 30 mins away from me which apparently had the dwarf gouramis in! It's also in a garden centre so I went along on Sunday with my mum and dad and partner.

Bought 5 fancy male guppies and 2 dwarf gourami ( one for each tank once I used the filter to recycle the old tank back)
And as the lady in the shop bagged up the guppies the bag was leaking on the till, so off she went to double bag them! Then the gourami bag split too, and off she goes to double bag those too.

She pops them in a carrier bag and off we go 5 mins into our journey and yep both double bagged bags are leaking! I'm yelling at my dad to drive faster my boyfriends laughing his head off and my mums getting upset cos she doesn't want to name a dead fish.

I'm collecting all this leaky water in a carrier bag and struggling to get the elastic bands open seeing as they do them up so tight finally get them open ready to tip the fish into a carrier bag about 10 mins before we arrive home they've Both leaked to much to leave the fish in the bags and I'm tipping them into a carrier bag together trying not to loose any fish as were going 50mph down bumpy country back roads!!

Next thing we're at mine I jump out leaving my boyfriend to get all the stuff out my dads car I've grabbed a bucket tipped these fish out into it. They're all looking a bit depressed and the water is freezing about 21 degrees so I fill it up with tank water ( no chance of proper acclimation here unfortunately ) and grab an old heater I've only used once before and sucker it to ththe bottom of the bucket.

Start to add my mobanI wood into the tank and re arrange some plants when yep, you've guessed it. I smell burning. My heater is spitting and smoking and so I've grabbed this plug yanked the heater out and burnt myself and as you can imagine I'm not in the best mood right now. Chuck this fish heater over my backyard

So rather than my fish freeze I've started using dexhlorinated warm tap water and after 30 mins I've put them into my tank.

They've all perked up and exploring and I'm realising I can't find my baby bristlenose. After half hour I've found him inside my filter tubing

To sum up -

Fish almost suffocated
Almost boiled them alive
Bristlenose almost became impeller food

AGH!

So I suppose an important lesson from me, always take a spare bucket or container when collecting fish!!

Anybody else ever have a disaster??

 

Omg. I've never heard of a story as tragic and hilarious. My fishkeeping tales are all boring fortunately

 

Omg. I've never heard of a story as tragic and hilarious. My fishkeeping tales are all boring fortunately

I had really had enough after all that turned the lights all out and went to bed. Didn't even get to enjoy them till yesterday

This my tank this morning!

 

You know when you get more new fish and add them to that tank, these originals are gonna go up to the newbies and be all "so how did you find the catastrophic journey to get here?" and the new fish will be like "huh? It was a lovely smooth journey", then your original fish will be all mad at you...

I'm weird, sorry

Looks like they've a great home to go to so hopefully they forgive you soon, lol

 

These things happens when you get new fish about 3 weeks ago I got a pearl gourami acclimated him and every thing was perfect for 2 days and then found his body wrapped in my pogostemon drowned unfortunately it wasn't the end of the bad news after several hours my fishes started to die one by one and I found out that pearl gourami had disease it killed almost 50% of my fishes

 

Didn't QT tiger barbs, one survived, and they infected my entire tank with mouth rot .

 

Well I guess we signed up to this when we decided to be fishy slaves Unfortunately I didn't get to quarantine these! But I have had every single fish from there before and never had a problem! Once my old tank filter is out and back in the 20 gallon I'll have a quarantine tank x

 

I'm pretty sure most folks have experienced a huge disaster or two while keeping fish. Anyone care to share their stories?

Mine was probably when I let my brother take care of my 10 gallon for a weekend. He massively overfed during this time, so much so that when I returned, the tank's water was murky, brown, and stank like a clogged toilet. I sort of panicked, looking back on it... I took all my fish out and kept them in a bucket with an airstone while I proceeded to empty the tank's entire contents, remove the filter, and soaked everything in mild bleach after rinsing it down.

Shockingly, despite the filthy conditions before, my fish's swollen guts from overfeeding, and basically wiping out all the beneficial bacteria in the tank, I got lucky and didn't lose a single fish. It still didn't make the whole thing any less panic-inducing.

 

when I kept guppies in a small plastic "tank" I decided to do 100% water change and put the guppies and a fry in a small cup with a airstone...and well the bubbles overflowed and pushed all the fish out of the cup XD

 

My automatic feeder snapped open while I was positioning it for the first time on my 10 gallon - when it was half full of fish food. While it probably wasn't as bad as many of the other fishkeeper's experiences, I had to leave for a vacation less than an hour afterwards and there was food everywhere. Thankfully I managed to get the worst of it out, only had a smallish nitrate spike, and my fish were fine.
Also, one time one of my bettas somehow jumped out from the cup I had caught him in for a waterchange before I could cover it and he flopped around on my desk for probably 30 seconds before I could scoop him up again. He was alright, but it was pretty traumatic for me lol.

 

I had an oscar that would slam against the tank to get your attention. Wasnt bad till he went threw the side of the tank. Basically the 75 gallon tank exploded.

 

Oh, can I throw a rule out? No “beginner mistakes” like a betta in a 1 gallon. we’ve all done beginner mistakes, I want to hear genuine accidents and not just ignorance.

Here’s my disaster, I got a “new” 100w heater for my 20 gallon cause the 50 watt coulden’t keep it at 80 degrees. TOTALLY not paying attention, I accidentally raised the temp 5 degrees in about 15 minutes.

And I’ve almost overflowed 2 of my tanks with the python slash almost flooded my living room.

 

at Pet Smart I had just bought a betta and was walking out the door, and I then proceeded to accidentally drop the cup with the betta in it. Thankfully an employee saw it and got a cup of water for the betta. I still have that betta 1 year later too