youre experience has a novice fish keeper

[angelcakes]

im doing this thread to point out how i started in fishkeeping and im not embarresed to say i was a complete novice when i received my first tank........i was a mess i knew nothing about cycling,what fish to have,plants were a disaster waiting to happen!!! and still are!,overstocked tank,bad water(got the tank for christmas so i could'nt reaserch beforehand),but has the years went by i learnt from all these mistakes and i feel like im acheving something good,i'd not found this forum until january this year and there is so much knowledge and helpfulness from everybody that i wish i'd found this forum years ago when i first started,so things could have been done properly,so thanks to everybody that has helped me and im still learning,and now its me thats giving advice wow:19:

Q....what was youre first experiences with the aquarium? :19:

[siymdapolio]

I am a beginner ANGELCAKES :D
Luckily i read tons, but i am still having the novice problems... My tank is three weeks old and still cycling with fish. So i am starting out the tradtional way but all teh fish are happy and non seem to be stressed. MY first mistake so far is overfeeding and devoloped hairy algae on my plants and it was stuck like glue so i had to discard all my plants and bought elodea nice and easy to grow :hmm3grin2orange:

Next i will try fishless cycling but my fish now all seem happy!

[angelcakes]

my biggest mistake is so embarresing but it is funny,before all the fish was brought , i thought gravel,so i got a big bag of gravel and just put it in the tank,filled it with water and the water was so dirty............? what had i not done cleaned the gravel:hmm3grin2orange:

[siymdapolio]

I forgot to mention that!!! I filled my tank up with the unrinsed gravel and it was so freakin cloudy!! I was almost panicky and dissapointed. I called the LFS and the owner recognized me and said you bought our local gravel right??? Yup!!! i replied eager for some advice.

Reply was "Do you think i cleaned 250 kilos of that stuff! Hell no! Just vaccuum it for the first 3 or 4 days"

Great guy

I did it do i forgot about that :18:

[angelcakes]

im glad its not just me :laugh1blue:

[siymdapolio]

Its ok we will keep eachothers spirits up!
specially since its our own little thread lol
:thumb:

[angelcakes]

:19: :19: i started my tank with koi carp,great fish,there now in the pond fat and contented!!:19:

[siymdapolio]

Awesome, i wish i had a pond or something in that matter. Would be interesting to do such a thing. how big is your pond?

[angelcakes]

good question,my husband normally deals with the pond i grow the fish,but it is a large pond and has seven ocupunts,6 koi and a large subumbkin,which is lovely,when the weather warms up here will take some pics,:19:

[siymdapolio]

Sounds nice looking forward to it. I love england in the summer!

when i am around i allways to go to guilfest for a day :D
have freinds form there and i stop by when going home to norway !

[angelcakes]

the english summer is always nice,but it still rains at times lol

[siymdapolio]

yea thats true i have been there when it rains in the summer, Norway has worse summers compared to england though but it all depends on how good the summers are you know

[angelcakes]

if its a hot summer here expect some great thunderstorms:hmm3grin2orange: whats norways summer like?

[siymdapolio]

They are nice and mild 75-85 tops! I love nice and warm during the day and cool at night. It rains sometimes in the summer. Sometimes it can be a good summer all summer long or it can be a crappy one were sun breaks out in certain spots in norway.

[smaug]

My wife and I got our first tank from a friend at her work.It came with a bala shark.The tank is 20 gals and the shark was the only fish in it for the first few days,one morning we found the poor shark dead with its head stuck in the filter inlet.Here is where my mistakes come.We went to petco bought a shark,2 black moor goldfish,a koi,a shubunkin,and a crayfish.The next day we found the shub dead half eaten,the day after my daughter screamed the crayfish caught nemo [the koi she named] it died as well.A few days later it caught a moor then the moor died,my wife took the crayfish to school.In this period I bought another moor and 2 -3 others I dont recall.Then all my fish but the shark died from a combo of being uncycled and a case of ick.All in a period of 2weeks.I still have the bala he is 7-8" now.He is in a 58 gal planted tank.

[angelcakes]

the bala shark mmmmmmmmmmm!! sounds nasty i bet you learn't from that!!

[siymdapolio]

Sounds ruff but i am glad you made it ok.
Sounds like he is doing good though.

[smaug]

Yup hes fine and he is a planted tank wrecker.He was actually my biggest mistake,I didnt know they get so big,thank God I didnt listen to petco and buy 5 of them! He is open for adoption if anyone wants to drive within 30 miles of me Ill meet them.

[siymdapolio]

I know i hate that when petco and stores do that. I am here for a fish not 5 of them dont you understand!

[angelcakes]

i does my head in when lfs sell id sharks they get so big,not the best community fish going because of there flightyness and growing heres a pic of one caught by fisherman and a cute looking one in the tank

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[Adrian]

I can't really remember how old I was, but I had goldfish when I first started all this. I know I was young, as my mom run a bath for me, and I thought it would be cool to take a bath with my fish.

So my poor goldfish took a bath with me. I had a ball. However, the goldfish didn't. Needless to say, that was one bath that I will never forget. Feel sorry for the fish I had.

[cocoa_pleco]

first experience was bettas and goldfish 17 years ago, in bowls, then i progressed to smaller tanks around 8 years ago, then larger tanks 5 years ago, and i got my first nanoreef then, and it snowballed from there

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

First experience was just over 20 years ago. 10gal, 7 Goldfish: 5 Comets and 2 Fancys. Yikes!

[Blue Ram]

My biggest mistake is probably not doing my water changes. Then after about 4 months i learned that water changes are a must!

[Billythefish]

I once ternd off my bubble wall and went to work wen i got home that night my tank was close to empty the water went out of the flxy tube down to the pump and all over the floor. Was a good thing i didnt go for a beer after work!

[angelcakes]

it is a good job,you would of had no fish left,:thumb:

[Billythefish]

it is a good job,you would of had no fish left,:thumb:
Hay buddy i no i had about 4'' of water left i was so lucky!

[angelcakes]

4" ouch.....

[sailor]

My first tank was a disaster waiting to happen and it did. 38 gal uncycled tank, no water changes just top ups, under filtered with a mix of africans nobody had any buisness putting together. 100% failure.

[jbeining75]

Two Oscars and a 30 gallon was how I got my start. I had little betta bowls but I was young. Boo me!!! (Pounding my head off the wall now)