Sonny Disposition
Active Member
I've never had a heater mishap, other than dropping or breaking them, which I've done fairly often. When I buy a new heater, I buy an unbreakable one, to counter the idiot factor.
worst mistakes
- Thread starter UNCLERUCKUS
- Start date
Lively
Members
LOL! I had one break in the tank and didn't know it. Couldn't understand why I kept getting zapped each time I messed with the tank. Found out about a month later when I did a big water change. If I have a glass one, I don't hide it anymore
Prince
The ONE who is The ONE
I just killed three fish by accident trying to kill the BBA outbreak in my tank using hydrgen peroxide. Luckily it was only two Pristella Tetras and a Harlequin Rasbora, which are easily replacable. I managed to save my two Badis Badis after I transferred them to my breeding set up. They are not so easy to replace locally. I didn't think the extra O2 would kill the fish. Two water changes later I think things are getting back to normal.
Andrew
Members
Not to be crass but using a 2nd hand heater makes about as much sense as buying condoms at the Dollar Store.
So where do you buy yours?
dogofwar
CCA Members
Heaters or condoms?
Andrew
Members
Well, I know where you buy your heaters...
danger_chicken
Swim Fishy Swim!
Last year I broke down my 220 to do some work on it. It was empty for about 3 weeks. During that time I had a small pump in the w/d turning water over the media; however, I unplugged the FX5 and left it full. When I went to clean it before restarting it the smell almost made me puke. I scrubbed and soaked everything on the inside of the canister but couldn't get the smell out. It made the tank stink for a month, which made the room stink and it was too cold out to leave the doors or windows open. I had to change the water every other day to keep the smell down.
dogofwar
CCA Members
DiscusnAfricans
Past President
When I was a kid I had a community set up with small to medium sized fish. One day I caught a baby catfish in a nearby lake and thought he would make a nice addition to my tank. Lets just say within a few months, the catfish got bigger, fish population shrunk until I had a "species-only" tank. I gave the catfish to a friend who had a koi pond, but mysteriously his smaller koi started disappearing after a while. Eventually the fish was returned to the lake he was caught from, only much bigger, with a taste for small fish.
Sonny Disposition
Active Member
I did the same thing with a small bullhead I caught in the park lake. My only catfish experience was with cories. I watched the baby bullhead leisurely swim toward the green swordtail male I had in the same tank. The swordtail didn't pay any attention to him. Then the bullhead opened his mouth and inhaled and that was the last thing the swordtail ever saw.
The perception of catfish as lumbering scavengers is a myth. The reason they have barbels is not so much to find carrion it's so they can feel their way around in the dark--when they pick off sleeping fish!
Also made the same mistake in my adult life, with a green sunfish in a minnow tank. I didn't know just how wide they could open their mouths until I saw him yawn one day. Then I realized what happened to the minnow.
The perception of catfish as lumbering scavengers is a myth. The reason they have barbels is not so much to find carrion it's so they can feel their way around in the dark--when they pick off sleeping fish!
Also made the same mistake in my adult life, with a green sunfish in a minnow tank. I didn't know just how wide they could open their mouths until I saw him yawn one day. Then I realized what happened to the minnow.
UNCLERUCKUS
"THE ALL POWERFUL Q !!
longstocking
Members
Worst... was killing a pair of fish no one can get in the states...
Hurting the hobby makes ya really feel like crap !!
I've broken heaters.... killed an entire tank.... all of that...
Hurting the hobby makes ya really feel like crap !!
I've broken heaters.... killed an entire tank.... all of that...
Yesterday night/morning at about 4:30 AM I was up on a ladder getting an item I had just sold on my eBay store. I got a little light headed and fell off of the ladder. My head went right into the front of our 40 breeder with over 100 small angelfish, 40 small albino Corydoras, 6 clown loaches, 2 large common plecos, and about 20 small Ramshorn snails. The front cracked up top and started spraying water all over the carpet. Then I watch with my own eyes as the crack spiderwebbed and got bigger and bigger and bigger until all 40 gallons of water were on the floor and all the fish were flapping around, my filters were running dry, and I couldnt really move. My fiance woke up and we used about 50 towels which did very little to get the whole mess up. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off to move all of the fish to our other 40 breeder which is unbelievably crowded and now has a gazillion and a half decorations in it (the plecos hide inside them and you can't tell if they are all out or not so I just put the decorations into the tank). The aftermath really blows. I have been meaning to buy a dehumidifier for months and today was a great day to do so. So $100 lost on the tank, $300 on an industrial grade dehumidifier, a few million brain cells, 10+ glass cuts all over my hands, and possibly fish casualities from stress/shock...and my floor is still soaked and smells like fishies. That was a pretty big blooper and made me feel like the biggest idiot around.
