The Puffer Forum

LMAO

those are HILARIOUS!!!

for some reason they are funnier when you read them with a scottish voice

It's about time I revive this old topic. With so many new members since I started this one, there must be a lot of untold stories out there.

yrs ago when i was a kid i wanted to change my bedroom round.
my mum said no
i went into the room, closed the door and decided to change the room anyway
i was moving a bookcase that had a fishbowl on top with the goldfish with the big googley eyes in it
the bowl fell, the fish fell out on to the floor
in my attempt to clear up so my mum wouldnt know
i stepped backwards and stood on one of the fish in my bare feet
i can still remember that squishing feeling under my foot ;(

my mum wasnt pleased either i may add lol

I cracked a 10g against the doorframe while carrying it back into my room after cleaning it out.

The other day, I hosed down a 29g. I was all ready to put my adult T. longicaudatus in there - big-time egg production! I set the tank down on the ground, and the bottom shattered. I could never find the offending rock...

I've spilled water many, many, many times. Usually, it goes like this:
-Leave siphon in tank draining into bucket
-Go back to computer to browse while it drains
-Hear water flowing onto floor
-Run about pulling power bars and electrical cords out of the puddle, then remembering that I still need to unplug the heater lest it explode, towel off floor
-Empty bucket, then siphon water from sink faucet into bucket
-Go back to computer while bucket fills, swearing that I won't forget this time
-Repeat

I dropped a huge honking rock in my 10 gallon and the bottom cracked.

We should call our 10g tanks 'Kennies' for obvious reasons

Some of you might have read how I killed mine (well a 75l) by pure stupidity but it's so idiotic on my part I'll repeat it here.

I was adding water to the stock vat with a hose running from the kitchen to the 'pond'. Hose got stuck under the room door so I gave it a yank. Bad move. Hose causes door to fly open wich crashes into two surfboards leaning against wall. Surfboards fall over and hit the end of the 10g which flexed and cracked from top to bottom at the side opposite the impact. Glass always goes in tension.

Must have given my poor red eyed puff a shock! She survived

Nine years ago, I got my very own first tank. I had gone to walmart and bought the tank (1.5 gallon little fancy thing with hood light and filter, small bag of blue gravel, and a fake plant) and then I picked out a wee frog and my boyfriend (he's a long gone ex now) picked out some other fish I don't remember, although I think it was a calico fancy goldie. I got home, and got the tank decorated, situated, and ready to go (yah, nobody hinted me in on declor either...) I set the bags in the water, assuming that everything would just kind of go to room temp. I tried to be 'smart' and acclimate the fish (to the kinda room temp tap water in the tank...) by pouring a little water into their bag every ten minutes or so. Eventually, I figured I better let some of the water out in the sink, so I can continue to dilute their water with the 'tank water'... I took it to the sink, meaning to just drain out the water, and my boyfriend didn't see what I was doing and snuck up to tickle my ribs... I jumped a bit and let go of the open end of the bag, and the frog and fish were released into the sink. They didn't go down, however - they were 'stuck' in the sink. My roommates (grr) had fixed bacon and eggs while we were out, and drained the grease into the sink (pet peeve) and the frog and fish were stuck in the fat slime. I tried picking them out gently, and hoped they would survive - I tried to clean it all off, but alas, they didn't make it.

Ohyouknow wrote:Nine years ago, I got my very own first tank. I had gone to walmart and bought the tank (1.5 gallon little fancy thing with hood light and filter, small bag of blue gravel, and a fake plant) and then I picked out a wee frog and my boyfriend (he's a long gone ex now) picked out some other fish I don't remember, although I think it was a calico fancy goldie. I got home, and got the tank decorated, situated, and ready to go (yah, nobody hinted me in on declor either...) I set the bags in the water, assuming that everything would just kind of go to room temp. I tried to be 'smart' and acclimate the fish (to the kinda room temp tap water in the tank...) by pouring a little water into their bag every ten minutes or so. Eventually, I figured I better let some of the water out in the sink, so I can continue to dilute their water with the 'tank water'... I took it to the sink, meaning to just drain out the water, and my boyfriend didn't see what I was doing and snuck up to tickle my ribs... I jumped a bit and let go of the open end of the bag, and the frog and fish were released into the sink. They didn't go down, however - they were 'stuck' in the sink. My roommates (grr) had fixed bacon and eggs while we were out, and drained the grease into the sink (pet peeve) and the frog and fish were stuck in the fat slime. I tried picking them out gently, and hoped they would survive - I tried to clean it all off, but alas, they didn't make it.

J-P's blunder #1:
While back when I owned a pizza shop I bought this 30 gal tank and thought "hey that would be cool to keep some live lobster in". I used my restaurant lic, and ordered 150 lbs of live lobster. That was the min order, I really only wanted one. I ordered the largest they had and ended up with 8 almost 20lb lobsters. These guys were HUGE!.

I set up the tank, filled it, put in the aquarium salt and dropped in the lobsters (all except for 2). Needless to say, I didn't know anything about current cycling techniques**, nor the difference between salts. 2 days later the tank was so cloudy white that it was opaque. I couldn't even see the lobsters never mind the back of the tank.

All the lobsters died, and I ended up freezing them. That is how I got my first 30 gal in almost 20 years (had them as a child) and the blunders continue....

** as far as I understood it, you let the water age 10 days before adding any fish. That, 20 years ago, was cycling to me. Oddly, it is still practiced even today, but not by me anymore

My blunder (speaking of spring thaw)

Last spring some of my puffers started to die after a water change, I did not know about spring thaw at the time. I checked all my parameters, everything was fine, so I thought maybe I messed up with the salt.

I checked the salt levels and they seemed fine, but I thought maybe the levels were a little lower than the last time..so I added more salt.

Around this same time I made a post here and found out that I was probably having spring thaw problems.

However, by this time..I realized that salt was not my problem and thought oh crap, i added salt..and then it occurred to me that I had probably killed all of my bacteria..

Checked my levels ..all tanks were crashing

Called every store in town for something to emergency cycle..all of the stores wanted to sell me stuff you guys said was junk.

Finally found a store that sold me what they used to cycle their tanks..

Including stress coat and cycle stuff and a few other things to save my tanks....spent $300

At that time most of my puffers I had gotten for very cheap as rescues and some were free..

So I paid probably around 20-30 dollars for all of them that had not died, spent $300 to save them

Hmmmm, let's see, I bet that my tank would look as perfect as the ones on plantedtank.net if I just moved the driftwood a tiiiiiiiiny bit to the right... Oh, dang it, I just uprooted that fern... OH NO NONONO DON'T FALL OVER *CRASH*....................





Crud.

Tonight I learned two things,
#1...There is a proper sequence to turning off a python and not flooding the bathroom
#2...I do not know what it is