Looking back to the past, things we did then, before knowledge

[bluebluecow]

Hi all

Just thought it would be interesting to look back at things you did before, the research and testing that most do now.

Part of the reason for this thread, is that although this forum, is full of wonderfull people who help, I do find a lot of newbies posts are answered, with "have you tested" "you cant have that" "You cant do that" or "Your fish will all be stressed and unhappy".

So look back at your own past as few of us are perfect and although helping try to remeber the thins that you did that where wrong but did work, not saying that we should do everything wrong now but remeber its not a perfect world.

preach over, here are mine

In my past I have

Kept a goldfish in a small round plastic tank, no filtration, (it lasted 6yrs before being moved to outside pool and then the heron ate it :scry: )

Had a hexagonal tank, prob about 40L? that I had 1 goldfish, 1shubinkin, 1 comet and a golden orf, all where good sized fish, I could only just catch them in a jug.When it came to water change time, I would run a bath or water and put them straight in then empty whole tank, wash gravel and stones in hot water then fill with cold water out of tap and dump fish back in.

Had a male siamese with 4 females, no fighting ect

Kept a mono and a scat in freshwater, both brackish fish and they where both a good size and healthy when they went to the lfs, in fact lfs said it was one ofthe bigest and healthest monos they had seen for a long time. I got £35 For my fish that I took back, which where common plec, scat, mono, leaf fish and featherfin

So what have been your past mistakes

Liz

[MCHRKiller]

I have written the book for things you shouldnt do, couldnt do and wont do again...but you know I have lost very few fish due to fault at my hand. Strange things work...and I have learned that if I want to push that proverbial envelope as far as fish keeping goes I must compensate for whatever rule I want to bend.

The most important thing I ave learnt is DONT LISTEN TO YOUR LFS PERSON, lol strange how I am a manager of a LFS now. But back when I started out and like most wasnt serious into the hobby just had some fish. I was sold a wonder bottle of crap for anything and everything. No matter what I thought was wrong with my tank, the LFS had an expensive miracle cure to fix it. Being in my early teens I believed them and paid the $6-22 cost for whatever it was. What was really wrong with my tank was very simple now that I look back. I had a 10gallon packed with livebearers, only an air driven sponge filter, my tank was in direct sun light, I was overfeeding on cheap food, and my colored gravel's paint was coming off, and all of the fish they were selling me were sick to begin with. Thats why my tank was coated in algae, had cloudy water, and fish that werent infected with this or that were now infected. The idea of a QT tank was just beyond me at that time muchless proper filtration and waterchanges were "bad" for fish. :14:

[jaysee]

Part of the reason for this thread, is that although this forum, is full of wonderfull people who help, I do find a lot of newbies posts are answered, with "have you tested" "you cant have that" "You cant do that" or "Your fish will all be stressed and unhappy".

Liz

I can understand what you mean. It's a hobby that we all can enjoy in our own way, and there seem to be an aweful lot of "can't"s for a hobby. With that being said, there's a reason why people respond with those answers - they are most likely the reasons there are problems in the tank. When fish (or ANY animal) are kept in a state of perpetual stress, they have a tendancy to get sick and die.

[Ashley]

Hey, I'm still a newb, but I remeber probably 10 years ago I had a 10 gallon tank (I remember thinking this tank was so big!). I had it stocked with two kissing gourami, a bunch of mixed tetras, gold fish, angel fish, and probably some other things. I had never heard the term cycle, so the water was only 24 hours old before adding all these fish. I remeber big als didn't even question all the fish I bought at once they just bagged em, and I paid. Needless to say all the fish got ick and dies shortly after buying them. So I emptied the tank and said forget this hobby! So now I am back in the hobby, and thankfully with a lot more knowledge thanks to everyone here!!

[Lady Hobbs]

I was a clean freak and still tend to go that way. I was constantly cleaning my tank and my filters. I still clean my filters "a lot" but now do them one at a time and don't vac my gravel at the same time. It didn't take me long to switch to filter floss as a cheaper filter media with all my constant cleaning.

[Jaster]

10 years ago I was nothing more then a goldfish killer... I was probably on their 10 most wated list I killed so many... Fish would hide when I walked in to the store... I don't think I did anything right with my old tank back then until I got frustrated and just wanted to just get rid of it all. So I left the tank alone and stopped cleaning everything everyday. I didn't want to just out right kill the last gold fish but I figured at the time everything else had died in days so he will too... 2 months later the tank was spotless fish was happy. Boy did that confuse me. not long after that the fish did die and that was the last of the tanks until this year. After a lot of reading and learning now I know what went wrong then. lol

[Fraoch]

My Dad's one of those old-school fish keepers (he's had them for over 30 years) and does things contrary to what most here would recommend. However his fish live a lot longer than mine, I wish I had his luck.

He thinks I'm crazy doing what I do, but I like to measure - he "goes with the flow".

There are some good things he's stumbled upon by experience:

1. Lots of filtration. He has an undergravel filter (ugh) as well as a HOB filter. He tells me "you can never have enough filtration, always go bigger."

2. Aeration - an air stone plus one attached to his UG filter powerhead.

3. Hardy fish. He has goldfish and thinks I'm crazy with my tropical setup. "Tropical fish are a lot of work!"

4. No overfeeding. He is very careful about this.

Then there are some things a beginner shouldn't do, but he gets away with due to his experience and sheer luck:

1. Too few water changes. I believe he only does water changes once a month, and probably less than 25%.

2. Undercleaning the gravel, especially considering his UG filter. The discarded water is BLACK with debris.

3. No testing at all. "Just look at your fish, they'll tell you when something's wrong."

4. No concern with cycling. He puts fish outdoors in a pond in the summer, indoors in the winter. I don't believe he does anything special when he puts them indoors. When I asked him about cycling, he had no idea.:ssuprised:

5. Overstocking. I'm not sure what size his tank is. It's big, 80 gallons or so, but the goldfish are so big and there are so many of them it's got to be overstocked.

But still, the results speak for themselves - his fish are more than 6 years old and going strong, very large for goldfish with extremely large, flowing fins.

[Owlbehere]

I was your typical newb. Over stocking tanks, mixing cold water fish with warm water, stripping the tank down for every cleaning (gravel and all)... And cycle... that was greek to me.

I am now paranoid about over stocking (if you know about 95% of my posts are "is this too much"), I don't mix gold fish with tropicals, I don't strip my tank... and every tank is fish-less cycled. :) And with the help of the AC I'm learning more everyday!

[smaug]

We used to keep betas in little vases with a "beta" plant in it.I have kept betas in the little 1 pint "tanks",My first 3 black moors all died horrible deaths being kept in a warm tank with tiger barbs.I had a bala shark in a 20 gal for years,he is actually still alive in a members 75 gal tank right now!My daughters first fish of her own was an angelfish in a 3 gallon critter keeper tank kept in a room that hit 90 deg during the day.Guess how long the angel lived!?

[Red]

Can'ts are a great part of this hobby. We need them, or we would still be with goldfish can be in bowls, and dont worry, fish will grow to there tank size and nothing is a matter about that.
Somebody who says you can't has made the mistakes or seen other people make them. if ask for advice, why not listen? Thats why we are here.

[smaug]

My Dad's one of those old-school fish keepers (he's had them for over 30 years) and does things contrary to what most here would recommend. However his fish live a lot longer than mine, I wish I had his luck.

He thinks I'm crazy doing what I do, but I like to measure - he "goes with the flow".

There are some good things he's stumbled upon by experience:

1. Lots of filtration. He has an undergravel filter (ugh) as well as a HOB filter. He tells me "you can never have enough filtration, always go bigger."

2. Aeration - an air stone plus one attached to his UG filter powerhead.

3. Hardy fish. He has goldfish and thinks I'm crazy with my tropical setup. "Tropical fish are a lot of work!"

4. No overfeeding. He is very careful about this.

Then there are some things a beginner shouldn't do, but he gets away with due to his experience and sheer luck:

1. Too few water changes. I believe he only does water changes once a month, and probably less than 25%.

2. Undercleaning the gravel, especially considering his UG filter. The discarded water is BLACK with debris.

3. No testing at all. "Just look at your fish, they'll tell you when something's wrong."

4. No concern with cycling. He puts fish outdoors in a pond in the summer, indoors in the winter. I don't believe he does anything special when he puts them indoors. When I asked him about cycling, he had no idea.:ssuprised:

5. Overstocking. I'm not sure what size his tank is. It's big, 80 gallons or so, but the goldfish are so big and there are so many of them it's got to be overstocked.

But still, the results speak for themselves - his fish are more than 6 years old and going strong, very large for goldfish with extremely large, flowing fins.
Experiance like this is exactly what I like to hear.Things do not have to be perfect to have very good results.I have also found goldfish to be exceptionally forgiving of so called mistakes.What I put my koi and comets through during the pond rebuild is a classic example of this.Thanks for the story,tell your dad you think he is doing a great job.

[Red]

Experiance like this is exactly what I like to hear.Things do not have to be perfect to have very good results.I have also found goldfish to be exceptionally forgiving of so called mistakes.What I put my koi and comets through during the pond rebuild is a classic example of this.Thanks for the story,tell your dad you think he is doing a great job.

I agree that goldfish are great for starters if they have a big enough tank, they survive through most things!

[smaug]

I agree that goldfish are great for starters if they have a big enough tank, they survive through most things!
That and I have often thought they were so underrated,They have almost everything trait that is prized in tropicals,long beautiful fins,irredecent scales,sharp distinct markings and many have stunning color patterns.When I had my 58 full of my pond fish in the basement I spent alot of time down in the basement watching them,more so then the time I spent with my planted tank.

[Red]

I agree, have two goldies in a 45 and they are like oscars!
jeez we get so off topic in threads smaug!

[smaug]

I agree, have two goldies in a 45 and they are like oscars!
jeez we get so off topic in threads smaug!
Just call me side show!

[Fraoch]

I have kept betas in the little 1 pint "tanks"

I was at a fish store I've never been to yesterday and saw the smallest betta "tank" I have ever seen...

It must have been left over from Valentine's Day, it was a glass stylized heart shape, probably smaller than a pint. It had to be only about 4" across and long and 5" deep but it was in a "V" shape so most of the bottom was inaccessible. A typical glass of water in a restaurant is many times the size of this.

The bettas were at the end of the aisle and after a size comparison it was obvious the betta would not be able to turn around - he wouldn't be able to even orient himself horizontally because most were longer than the "tank". He would have to sit in it on a diagonal until he died, which would most surely be very shortly. How cruel!

Oh this thing was also very expensive, $24.99. You can easily get a 10-gallon tank for that.