The Puffer Forum

Hey i was just thinking about all of the things i did that were stupid when i started keeping fish. the first thing i did was buy a clown knife about 3 inches long, stuck him in a 10g uncycled tank and watched him all day. at night, he inevitably died. lasted maybe 12 hours. felt so bad about it. thats what i get for taking the LFS workers advice .

next i studied up on cycling than did that properly, than bought 2 DP's and 10 ghost shrimp and all of my ghost shrimp died....can anyone tell me what would have been killing them? haha. i thought they were so cool when i first got my tank going...... i had no idea that DP's half their size would take them down.

just wanted to hear some other true BEGINNER stories to make me feel a bit better about mine... sorry if this is already a thread.

I threw a senegal bichir in my twenty gallon community fish tank at the assurance of the lfs that senegal bichirs were only opportunistic predators and would not go after alive fish. After waking up the next morning and finding half my fish gone I figured it was time to start doing some research, and ended up having to rehome it. After that I started doing my homework prior to getting any fish.

I got lucky and found this site before getting into this hobby.

I didn't know about cycling a tank at all until I had had Freddy for about 8 months. Couldn't figure out why after every time I dumped all his tank water out, scrubbed everything down, including filter media, everything was cloudy. Poor little Fred went back into the tank with some betta conditioner and clean everything else = / when he got sick, I started doing research trying to save him, and found out about everything else. I was told that what I was doing, as far as his water changes go, was fine because they really didn't need water to breathe. It makes me sick every time I think about it.....

Also went through three tank upgrades for him because I had no idea that they liked more room...I was informed that the better would occupy one corner of a 10 gallon if he got put in there because they didn't like huge swimming spaces....I went thru a half gallon, gallon and finally a 5 gallon before he passed. He loved his 5 gallon-- huge bubble nests, greeting me at the front of the tank, swimming in and out of the decor....never again.

If/when I get another betta he will be either in a 10gallon by himself or a 15 gallon with some otos (if he tolerates them), tons and tons of decorations and hopefully all real plants.

goldielocke76 wrote:
If/when I get another betta he will be either in a 10gallon by himself or a 15 gallon with some otos (if he tolerates them), tons and tons of decorations and hopefully all real plants.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!! show us pics

DrKennethNoisewater wrote:

goldielocke76 wrote:
If/when I get another betta he will be either in a 10gallon by himself or a 15 gallon with some otos (if he tolerates them), tons and tons of decorations and hopefully all real plants.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!! show us pics

LoL I already "made" it happen for my 60g. I came up with an extra foot of wall space LOL. Although, I did hint to Denzil that I want a betta tank, and he asked for my Amazon wishlist. (I have birthday and Christmas coming up, also mentioned how SYN was given a new tank for her birthday). So I went and added all the stuff I would need for a new betta tank, including the betta from aquabid hahahaha. It's come down to a protein skimmer, lights, or a betta tank because the only other thing on the list (jokingly so) was the engagement ring I had picked out from Shane Co. So, we will see!!!!

My first tank was a 10 gallon when I was 10-12 (aka 20 yrs ago) i filled it with water straight from the tap luckily i had well water. The next day I came home with several bags of fish, I don't remember exactly how many but there were at least 4 angels and more than 2 dozen neons and a newt and a pleco. Somehow everything survived for two months, then I had about a 50% die off. Then the newt ran away. The rest lived for a couple years until I took the tank down. I had a 6" pleco with 2 4"angels and 10-15 neons in a 10 gallon for a couple years, accidental torture. at least I know better now.

My very first fish was a goldfish I kept in a bowl :( (I was 7 or 8) looking back on it I feel so awful for the poor little fishy.

I can remember winning goldfish at carnivals as a child. My mom would keep them in a small fishbowl for me. They never seemed to die like my mom hoped for so she would eventually flush them . Now my mom lives fishkeeping and has 4 tanks of her own!