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Cyrus
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Edit : This is long, Sorry.
According to AqAdvisor "Your aquarium stocking level is 386%."
I do not want to be a bad fish owner. It was never my intentions. Where I went wrong was trusting PetSmart(or Co.. cant remember) and Wal-Mart for information on how to become a "Good" fish owner.
My wife and I went to PetSmart(Co) to find a gold fish for our 3 year old daughter. Never owning fish before we had to ask a lot of questions. The very "knowledgeable" lady was a lot of help she told us that we could easily put 3 goldfish in a 1 gallon vase! We did it, thinking that goldfish are beginner fish and that a vase would be more than enough for them.
One week goes by and we still have all three of them! I was proud of this, I wasnt a bad fish hobbyist after all. I changed 1/4 of their water once that week as directed by the lady. On the eighth day our smallest fish died. We were sad but we almost expected it, hence why we started with goldfish and not angelfish or any number of other fish. I remove the poor fellow, change 1/4 of the water, wipe the vase, return to the petstore, and speak to another person who whole-heartedly assured me that the last remaining gold fish would live in the 1gallon vase and the other one must have been sick.
She managed to convince me to get this really cute 2.5 gallon "Dora the Explorer" fish tank and 2 Neon tetra. I bring them home, acclimate them how the very nice woman told me to. About 4 days pass and my Neons are alive and thriving, looking like they are having a blast, my two goldfish...dead.
This was only like my first 10 mistakes owning fish. My 11th, adding a pleco from Wal-Mart into the mix of 2 tetras in 2.5gallons of fish tank. I needed a "clean up crew". I did as the nice guy told us to do, I fed it tropical fish flakes along with my tetras. It died the next morning. I am assuming i didnt acclimate it right, I look up how to acclimate different species of fish. Sure enough, I didnt do it right on my neons or my pleco, I followed the wrong advice from 3 different people. My wife decided to go back to Wal-Mart and get her money back for the poor pleco. She came back home with a Columbian Shark Catfish, the person at the pet section of Wal-Mart told her that it was a perfect fit for a 2.5g tank with 2 neons. Up to this point we had only 2 weeks to a month of fish owning experience. We were still willing to believe what we were told.
Maybe 3 weeks have gone by and a neon turns up missing! I searched the tank for it and cant find it. Hmm... one of our fish has SHARK in its name! I find fishlore.com, research it. Look up a bunch of different websites, apparently, not one person who has sold us a fish has told us one fact of truth. Other than neon tetras are EASY fish to raise.
A few days pass and tons of researching (maybe 24 hours of solid reading) on how to properly raise my fish. I am done listening to petstores and Wal mart. My "freshwater" catfish that is friendly and can thrive in 2.5g of water is actually a "brack-ish water" fish that eats anything smaller than it and grows to 14 inches!!! I went to AqAdvisor and it told me my tank is 389% overstocked! I didnt do this on purpose, I thought I was doing everything right.
Well, now its today, and I am freaking out that I am horrible pet owner, I havent done anything right yet, I am now asking for your guys help. Please, any information will help. I am buying a 10g tank immediately, tomorrow hopefully. I want to have it be a planted aquarium but I am to scared that I am jumping so far ahead of myself. I have had cats, dogs, and horses, my entire life and none of them have died due to neglect or abuse. Now I have had 5 fish die in 2 months!
I dont know what I am asking, I just need help.
Somebody tell me Im not a bad person. Haha.
According to AqAdvisor "Your aquarium stocking level is 386%."
I do not want to be a bad fish owner. It was never my intentions. Where I went wrong was trusting PetSmart(or Co.. cant remember) and Wal-Mart for information on how to become a "Good" fish owner.
My wife and I went to PetSmart(Co) to find a gold fish for our 3 year old daughter. Never owning fish before we had to ask a lot of questions. The very "knowledgeable" lady was a lot of help she told us that we could easily put 3 goldfish in a 1 gallon vase! We did it, thinking that goldfish are beginner fish and that a vase would be more than enough for them.
One week goes by and we still have all three of them! I was proud of this, I wasnt a bad fish hobbyist after all. I changed 1/4 of their water once that week as directed by the lady. On the eighth day our smallest fish died. We were sad but we almost expected it, hence why we started with goldfish and not angelfish or any number of other fish. I remove the poor fellow, change 1/4 of the water, wipe the vase, return to the petstore, and speak to another person who whole-heartedly assured me that the last remaining gold fish would live in the 1gallon vase and the other one must have been sick.
She managed to convince me to get this really cute 2.5 gallon "Dora the Explorer" fish tank and 2 Neon tetra. I bring them home, acclimate them how the very nice woman told me to. About 4 days pass and my Neons are alive and thriving, looking like they are having a blast, my two goldfish...dead.
This was only like my first 10 mistakes owning fish. My 11th, adding a pleco from Wal-Mart into the mix of 2 tetras in 2.5gallons of fish tank. I needed a "clean up crew". I did as the nice guy told us to do, I fed it tropical fish flakes along with my tetras. It died the next morning. I am assuming i didnt acclimate it right, I look up how to acclimate different species of fish. Sure enough, I didnt do it right on my neons or my pleco, I followed the wrong advice from 3 different people. My wife decided to go back to Wal-Mart and get her money back for the poor pleco. She came back home with a Columbian Shark Catfish, the person at the pet section of Wal-Mart told her that it was a perfect fit for a 2.5g tank with 2 neons. Up to this point we had only 2 weeks to a month of fish owning experience. We were still willing to believe what we were told.
Maybe 3 weeks have gone by and a neon turns up missing! I searched the tank for it and cant find it. Hmm... one of our fish has SHARK in its name! I find fishlore.com, research it. Look up a bunch of different websites, apparently, not one person who has sold us a fish has told us one fact of truth. Other than neon tetras are EASY fish to raise.
A few days pass and tons of researching (maybe 24 hours of solid reading) on how to properly raise my fish. I am done listening to petstores and Wal mart. My "freshwater" catfish that is friendly and can thrive in 2.5g of water is actually a "brack-ish water" fish that eats anything smaller than it and grows to 14 inches!!! I went to AqAdvisor and it told me my tank is 389% overstocked! I didnt do this on purpose, I thought I was doing everything right.
Well, now its today, and I am freaking out that I am horrible pet owner, I havent done anything right yet, I am now asking for your guys help. Please, any information will help. I am buying a 10g tank immediately, tomorrow hopefully. I want to have it be a planted aquarium but I am to scared that I am jumping so far ahead of myself. I have had cats, dogs, and horses, my entire life and none of them have died due to neglect or abuse. Now I have had 5 fish die in 2 months!
I dont know what I am asking, I just need help.
Somebody tell me Im not a bad person. Haha.