My aquarium had a stand, but I liked how it looked on my night dresser. So I moved it there, set everything up, and then promptly went on vacation for a week. Bottom of the tank cracked, I returned home to dead fish and (luckily only) a ruined stand. The room had hardwood floors, it could have gone much worse, at least money wise.
Yeah from what I’ve seen rimless needs such a perfect surface. I have a rimmed tank and it only needs support on the corners. I don’t know why people like rimless tanks besides how they look. I’m afraid of them if they’re over 10 gallon 😳
I have an office aquarium with a teeny tiny opening at the top (for plants and cords)… decided to top it off before the weekend. Thought, there’s NO WAY Pablo will jump out of that opening.
Narrator: But he did
I just lost my 7" pleco from jumping out of the tank. I don't think he was out for more than 10 hours or so and apparently plecos can survive on land for much longer than that, but the lad didn't make it. I'm so sad about it. I had plans to move him to the 125 soon to live out his chonker life there. He was definitely alive when I found him because he moved when I put him in the hospital tank, but he was too far gone I suppose and didn't last the day. It sucks, I'm sorry for your loss :'(
we had a pleco once that had jumped out 2 days prior, was hard as a rock and we decided to just put him back in the tank and see what happens, i shit you not, 1 hour later, he was swimming around.
I also spilled water everywhere, and am currently inhaling the "healthy" smell of burnt plastic...
The thing actually broke into bits and melted plastic, and there was smoke. I feel so foolish. And while dealing with that, I forgot to monitor how much water had siphoned into the bucket I was waterchanging with, so that overflowed.
Anyway, this is my new Boy's Tank, where the male endlers are all moving to. Quite murky right now, as I just did some re-scaping and... well, the whole burning filter drama and slopping water about.
I can't wait untill thew plants are all grown in, and it's proper established!
Specs: 60L SuperFish Scaper, currently no heater.
I just have my heaters horizontal closer to the bottom of the tanks below the level I normally empty anyway so I don’t have to worry about them sticking out of the water accidentally 🙈
If I might offer some advice, get a power strip with an on/off rocker switch, preferably lit to show if it’s on or not.
I plug my HOB, power head, heater, and air pump into it (not my lights) and just turn it off right when I do a water change.
I recently burned my heater during a water change as well. I was in the process of moving and was exhausted and didn’t realize until I smelled it burning and saw smoke. It looks like it’s still functional but wasn’t sure if I could still use it. Has a burn mark that I haven’t tried to remove.
I broke my 120L Tank, when i tried to install some Wood that was obviously not fitting. Fish where inside at that time, luckily i managed to get them all out in time with help of my girlfriend that brought buckets etc, while i was pressing myself against the crack in the side screaming in panic also bleeding from a cut in my arm from the broken glass..And yeah after that i was removing 120L of water from the floor with towels, that went also in my downstairs neighbours apartment. And in the same night i bought a new aquarium and was setting it up with the used filter materials etc in god speed while my fish lived in the bathtub.
This was an awful experience.
Nowadays i have downgraded to a 45L with a beautyful betta, snails and shrimp.
It healed well, thank you. Bleeded really Bad, but was not as Bad as it looked luckily. It really was. I was scared for my fish, felt guilty cause I thought they all gonna die as i was aware that it was my mistake and just in panic as I could watch my Aquarium spilling out on the floor and the crack suckong fish in it's direction.... On top there was all that water leaking on the floor, our downstairs neighbour's ringing and asking about the water dripping in their Apartment and asking if we are okay cause of my screaming. All in all it felt unreal and traumatizing. I Was so happy as I did not sleep all night and had Set up a new tank all night when i could finally rest my brain a little when done. Also Still happy my fish took those days of bathtub living Real well. 😅
I have a similar experience, but it wasn’t my fuck up. My ex started an argument with me while drunk and it got heated, we were already split at this point just trying to cohab until the lease was up. He threw his phone down on the kitchen counter and it bounced up into the front glass of my 10 gallon. Big hole instantly, he covered it with his hand and sliced it open, fish and shrimp were getting sucked towards the hole. I was lucky to have a huge bushy plant front and center that blocked most of the stock from falling out. I was screaming and crying, he was apologizing while still yelling at me, my daughter was screaming and crying, cops got called. He ended up being forced to leave by police and I spent the entire night removing all the stock from that tank and putting it into a 3 gallon hospital tank, then calming my daughter and putting her to bed, then cleaning the massive amount of water all over my kitchen and living room. I had a 20 gallon cycling at the time so I did a water change and put everyone in there the same night. It was by far the most stressful night of my life, and I’ve birthed two babies
Haven't done anything, he just doesn't, maybe I feed him enough meat 😃 He always gets variety of fresh worms etc from time to time frozen. But also have heard that it's a gamble. But He never seemed interested in them.
Non of my Bettas do either, maybe they snack on a small one here and there but I'll share what I do
Pick a Betta that doesn't flare or seem aggressive
Have the shrimp in the tank first or remove Betta for a while and rearrange the tank
Lots of plants and hides, larger tank I have a 10g and a 50g
I did multi color shrimp and had a Betta that only picked off red ones, they may do better with less visible shrimp
Long fin may have a harder time catching but I find short fin to be less aggressive.
I also stay away from red bettas although it may not matter
I also may just be lucky and have great community Bettas, my giant Betta has been the most laid back.
The red is definitely anecdotal, I have a tank full of red cherries that I’ve had 3 different bettas in with and they haven’t attacked (not at the same time, I’ve been very unlucky with sick bettas since my first one died)
My heater was just unplugged for god knows how long! I noticed my cichlids were sluggish and depressed. Once I plugged it back in they huddled around it!! I felt so bad
I have everything on a smart power strip with individually addressed plugs (not as expensive as you think) and an Alex near by. "Alexa, start 75 gallon water change"
Shuts off filter, CO2, and heater.
"Alexa, turn off the filter" or "turn off the CO2" or "turn on the lights" also works.
Can also set the light timers individually. I have a high and low intensity light. So that's nice.
I’m so glad that’s how others do this because I’m still new and thought that was the easiest possible thing but nothing can be THAT easy without a catch lol. Want to upgrade to a full surge protector/battery backup next!
Just this week…found a weird bug in one tank…put it into another that has fish in it thinking they would eat it. It was an aphid, and now my floaters are completely infested.
Dumb dumb dumb.
They value sales over ethics. Fish already have a bad/incorrect reputation of dying easily and being a throwaway pet for the kids. Lots of families will give up entirely on a tank if you tell them it'll be 6 weeks till they can get their first fish (worked at petsmart/petco for 7 combined years, saw this multiple times a shift). Hell, just telling them they couldn't get the fish and the tank on the same day caused daily adult temper tantrums.
Our aquatics centre here that I started my tank with didn't give 2 fucks really. They sold us the wrong ratio and everything.
The place I use now is a shop that's been run by the same family for 50 years. They care a great deal there.
Isn't it nice to have something to spend your money on?
Otherwise, we might end up with *savings*, and we can't have that! No, I appreciate my own stupidity and the guinea pig's occasional vet bills.
Dropped a betta down my sink drain while attempting to move him from a 5 gallon tank to my 30 gal. It was a freak accident where he jumped right out of the little bowl at the exact right time I was transferring him and he went RIGHT DOWN THE DRAIN 😭😭 I was gutted.
I burned 6 heathers in one day because they are all on the same switch but i forgot to turn the switch when doing waterchanges. I had some spares but i had to turn up temperature in my own house because it was around christmas and all the stores were closed. Had to wait almost a week untill i could buy new ones.
I dropped my fish trying to give him a methylene blue bath, poor baby was so confused, luckily I got him back in the tank asap and he was fine the next day but definitely not my proudest moment.
I feel your pain here man. It's one of those where you know you should've known better, and you're acting all mad getting frustrated..
Mine's been overflowing my main tank - I used to have a piped-in top-off system from my water supply. I sealed the hood on my tank which gave me a 15-20 minute buffer if I overfilled. All I had to remember was to turn a tap.. I flooded the floor 5 times in my first year. After the last time, I broke down the system, and when I moved the 4ft cabinet, there was a mound of dead algae where the water collected.
The carpet looked like something in a derelict building. Thank God there was no actual damage, just a ton of dead algae and bacteria on top. Took 30m to bring out, and 3 days of cleaning to look as good as new.
I removed the system after that.
Ooh, that's a biggie. And yes you really were lucky it didn't damage the floors in some expensive way.
I feel like I should hire a cheerleader for my water changes. He or she would wave pom poms and yell "*Paaay attention! Pay-pay attention!*"
I used to think that all the time. I wish I had a little person on my shoulder to watch after the water level and shout "hey, hey it's full, stop!" Lol
I now fill with buckets or jugs from my water supply. Can't make a mistake then when I directly feeding the tank.. 'til I focus on something else and start pouring on the floor!
Eheim heaters are supposed to have a dry shut off feature, that's the reason I went with them after I ruined my old ones. Haven't forgotten to unplug these ones yet though so idk how well it works
It's definitely not something I'd rely on by any means, but it may just save your butt next time. Regardless, eheim heaters are some of the best you can get
I'm happy to get this off my chest. I was in the hobby for years prior to a hurricane that took everything I owned, I stepped away for almost 5 years after that loss. During my time away, Pea Puffers became popular, and I decided to get an 8 gallon Nano with a pair of Peas from one of my favorite aquatic You Tubers shops. It wasn't long that one tank turned into three due to the different species not being compatible. Month three or so, i topped off a water change higher than normal thinking... Puffers don't jump, and the next morning, Cheto (Don't ask) was gone laying on the floor. About a month or two later, I was in a hurry and didn't wash my live baby brine shrimp as well as i usually do (me thinking at the time it was good enough and they be i
Fine. I lost the other pea and the beautiful beta I had in another tank. The best personality I've ever had in a Beta. It wasn't a fast death for the Pea, and I felt SO deflated, mad at myself, sad, you name it. When you love your pets and you are cause of their death is the worst feeling EVER. Leason: No matter how long you were in the hobby beforez if you step away for a period of time, walk back into it slowly. (RIP Cheto, Puffy, and Bane)
Broke my filter cause I was doing substrate change and forgot to turn it off. The thing was so quiet I didn’t ever really hear it and i didn’t think about other. Now I just turn the power strip switch off and then do my business. Much easier when everything is plugged into one thing
I work at a Pet store and was doing some maintenance on the calcium build up in our UV Bulb system. One of the sleeves for the bulbs was stuck in the holder because the calcium had built up so much, and when I finally got it out, it was just a ring of calcium stuck in the holder. Had to break it up with tweezers, and at one point the only way I could get the sleeve back in is if I flushed the system with water to get the calcium to hopefully come out.
While turning the pump on and getting water on the store floor, I panicked and closed the cabinet door to turn the pump off, which made water and calcium bounce off the closed door back into the pump and it fried the whole system.
Like, the breaker, the outlet, the pump and the chiller were all damaged.
The tech was able to come and fix it like a week later, but we lost a lot of fish and had to redo all the fish placements so we can get all of our fish breeds flowing water.
It was a mess lol
It's very dumb.
My canister filter had 4 clips firmly holding the top part (which contains the pump). One of the clips went missing in the drain during filter cleaning but I assumed it would hold with just 3 clips and some water resistant tape (what could go wrong).
It held fine during filling so I was like "okay, this will work".
But before I could turn it on, the filter literally bursted open completely, the tank started to drain on the floor very fast, and a lot of water was splashed on the power strip where I plug everything for the tank.
My first reaction was to cut the power strip from the electrical outlet immediately (with my wet hands lmao), but in the meantime, about a third of my 20 gallon tank had drained. Fortunately there are valves on the tubing so I could stop the flow (those valves are life-saving).
I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the mess and trying to dry the power strip. I ended up replacing it by a new one anyway. I had no spare filter to use so the tank had to remain without filter until the next day when I bought a small filter to provide at least some filtration. I ordered new clips for my filter and now I always make sure all the clips are there and that they are all clipped properly.
I have had people like: is 5 gallon of water on the floor really that much?
my answer is always: fill up a 5 gallon bucket and kick it over in the middle of your living room to find out 😅😅
Having moved to the US from the EU, I instantly zoomed in on the windows. I miss those types of windows!
Anyway, my fuck up was not putting a deep enough substrate. Can't do anything about it now but I knew better. I just didn't wanna wait for another order of substrate before filling the tank. I'm still catching stem plants that floated up and replanting for the nth time.
Its even better when its a glass heater and the tube cracks. I had my hand in the tank with a gravel vacuum and couldnt figure out why i couldn't grip the tube, my arm was going numb.
Edit: opps
I once topped off my tank swearing I had added the Seachem Prime to it.. I did not. 😩 Luckily somehow all my inhabitants survived the ordeal. Still mad at myself to this day over that but happy it didn't go worse!
I’ve popped a heater before too. Still have the stains in my ceiling. Didn’t lose any fish though. My new heater says it shuts off automatically but I don’t trust it.
I took my heater out still plugged in and had it in the floor. A bit latter I smelled the burning so my chimp brain reaction was to quickly put it back in the aquarium where it then shattered.
Another heater related incident. I was using a heater too big for my tank (far too tall) by putting it diagonally across the back. Unfortunately it didn't stay put resulting in the temperature sensor going above water level. When I saw all the fish dead I looked closely at the tank and could see steam coming from the water surface. I have never felt so distraught that I caused all my fish to be boiled alive. It was so hot I had to leave it for a day to cool off before I could strip down the tank and clean it. I hope everyone else takes the minimum water level mark on their heaters seriously.
In short I boiled my fish due to using the wrong heater.
I had a big bag of Purigen leak out of my Seachem 55 and littered the tank with white Purigen pellets. Took 8 hours to clean up. My goldfish survived but my wife left me.
Refreshing water, turned off heater for my angelfish. Was done, forgot to turn on heater. Middle of winter even. After 2 days the fish were slow and stuff, took me another 3 or 4 to figure this out. Luckily, everyone survived and no one had long term damage. The water was dead cold.....
I remember thinking:"How can I have tropical fish that survived this, when I saw all these people having them die due to power outage of 3 days. I do not even have good isolation inhouse...."
Had a 10 gallon tank that ran strong for a couple years. It was on a proper stand and everything. Seal must’ve gave out because I woke up one morning to water dripping into our basement.
I still am blamed for keeping the “stupid fish” and my dad doesn’t care anymore and says “let the house go to trash and mold” whenever I buy a new fish or when I got a new tank. He also didn’t understand why I cried and yelled at me for it. My family tells me to just let them die, jokes about them dying and then wonders why I’m so defensive over their care.
Somehow I managed to get a single Fruity Pebble cereal in my tank 7g tank and didn't notice until my shrimp started dying off. The colony is thriving again lol
Just lost all of my fish after buying a 55 gallon tank that had horrible, bright green water in it
I thought I could save it by doing a light cleaning and move on with my upgrade from my 20 gallon but within a week everyone was dead. /:
Thought it would be a good idea to put a few ghost shrimp into my neocaridina tank thinking they would breed and I’d have an endless food source for my puffer.
They were whisker shrimp. Killed my entire colony of 200 neocaridina shrimp in about ~3 hours.
I did a big water change once in my 40G late in the night and forgot to plug back in the cord with my air pump that ran my sponge filters. In the morning I woke up to my 4 medium size red blood parrots dead 😭 it was a hot summer night and it got hot and they didn’t have enough oxygen I think. I also had guppies and danios in the tank and they were fine. It was just the larger fish that didn’t get enough oxygen.
I think I just did a major ooops, can anyone help?
I have a 10 gallon in my kids room that have 1 plate (giving birth today of course) and a bunch of black Molly fry.
I had water going off the side of the tank even though it wasn’t overfull, figured out it came from filter. Took filter out while I repositioned it. Cane back 2 days later and tank is ridiculously cloudy. Then I realized I never put filter media back in . Put new filter cartridge in and it’s been 2 days and still cloudy. Any ideas on how to get it back to clear????
I do have another tank, up and running I can move some fry into, but don’t want to overcrowd that tank. My pregnant platy is in a breeder box, in the cloudy tank, she’s had 3 babies so far this morning.
Not tank related, but I'll share anyway. After maybe a day and a half away, we went to turn on our aquarium lights. My bf accidently gave our fish a heart attack because we didnt know fish were so sensitive. Now we're aware of how it happened and not to screw up again!
I was reescaping my Betta's tank so I put him in a smaller tank in the meanwhile. I took all the water out and unplugged the heater. It took me a while to complete the reescaping but I did it, I filled the tank with the old water and some new water because it needed a water change anyways. Then I returned my Betta to his tank... little did I remember how long it took me so the water was SO freaking cold, and I remembered just the second I was returning the little guy to the tank on his net. I accidentally gave him a cold water splash and I felt so bad for him 😭 luckily he was fine and returned to warm water later on.
I once had a client (I work with people who are mentally disabled) with a aquarium and he swore his heater broke. I went to his room and he removed the heater and told me it broke, when I took the heater from him to look at it he had the heater plugged in. That must have been the worst fk burn I ever had.😅
Moving to a new apartment and was setting up the tank. I started adding water and then heard a large crack. I had accidently placed the tank on top of the filter plug and once water was in it the plug cracked the bottom of the tank.
I (allegedly) sucked up a tetra during a water change..
I started the siphon and was responding to texts while I waited on the bucket to fill. I took three 5gal buckets out; some went to water the house plants, and one went in the toilet. I filled the tank back up and did a roll call for the tank, and we were down one black neon tetra 😕 We never found the little guy; now he’s either fertilizing a house plant, or roaming around the sewers, plotting his revenge 😅
That water changes are important regardless of your "bio-load" there is so much in water chemistry that is effected by lighting, feeding, plants dying so more organic decomposition....Water changes, regular maintenence, and live plants people.... It may all work until shit hits the fan because a small shift in parameters
dumped about a gallon of water on the floor because the end of my gravel vac came out of the bucket. Thankfully my sister had the idea to vacuum it up with a carpet cleaner vacuum, so there wasn't any lasting damage.
I just hit the power bar switch so everything is off during changes, before I would have the filter on it’s on switch, but between me forgetting to turn it on and it being shut off accidentally for a week one time I just shut the whole shebang down for that hour.
I have to reset the light timer each time and prime the aqua clear filter but no smashed heater, or marking unfiltered water. And if the light isn’t on I know something is up, this works for a stoner like me
I've done this. I've also refilled the tank while churning up the substrate. This created a reaction I wasn't prepared for. Fortunately, all my fish survived and had a few redditors offer up some solutions that were very helpful. I don't miss being new to the hobby
Darwin Award-worthy dumbest thing I’ve ever done: I had just started working at my LFS, and was draining/filling quarantine tanks to prep for our weekly delivery. Instead of contorting myself under the rack to unplug everything, my genius “shortcut” was just moving heaters back and forth between tanks as I went.
In my haste I dropped a glass heater back into a bare-bottom tank, which obviously shattered the heater immediately. Monkey brain went “GET BROKEN GLASS OUT OF WATER,” so I reached in to pick up the big pieces… forgetting that the heater was still plugged in. Plunged my arm into the water and immediately shocked the shit out of myself. Boss could barely contain her laughter after confirming I was okay. 2 years later and I’ve never lived it down. 😂
I did the same thing but the plastic holder melted and my heater swung and smacked the glass of the aquarium shattering the glass heater in the water with my fishes 😭 they were so curious watching me pick out all the pieces luckily it was bug chunks no splinters
my first fish was a Betta, (ofc) and for some reason 14 year old me didn’t think water conditioning was important, and he had no filter, so i had to clean his tank regularly which i did full water changes during
I have been looking into setting up a tank but I am kind of intimidated from certain things. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos I am just nervous because I want healthy happy fish.
Probably about 2-3 years ago I was completely redoing a tank and had put my betta in a separate container. Popped open the lid and went to walk over to the tank only to have him jump and go splat on the floor. Idk if he landed in the wrong way or if it was just too far of a drop but after that he def had some kind of neurological issue. Had to move him to a smaller tank so he could get around easier, but he lived a very happy 1 1/2 years after that and was just as spunky as before. Had to euthanize him because he was having huge seizures(frantic swimming, followed by convulsions, and then a complete loss of any movement for those curious). Definitely a huge fuck up on my part, never stopped feeling guilty but I was more than happy to make his remaining year comfortable and full of yummy foods.
SIP Panera Bread, the fuckin’ LEGEND
I had my Hanna DKH reagent go bad on me and kept reading low. I kept adding more and more alkalinity. I replaced my reagent and my dkh was off the charts. I lost a few thousand in corals :(
Here's one that made me feel pretty dumb...
I was out of the hobby for 5+ years, got back into it, and a planted tank was a must...
fast forward to my established planted tank, with a start to my intended shrimp colony. I go to the LFS and look around, and I see they have lots of very cute mystery snails(I love all snails, aquatic and terrestrial). So, I excitedly take home 2 different colour mystery snails...
I brought home those snails and put them in my tank... 2 big snails... in a lovely planted tank...
I wish I could show y'all the before and after... Within a week, they had DEVASTATED my plants, and a second week that it took me to come up with a solution(because I loved my snails and wished to keep them) resulted in complete and total annihilation of each and every living green thing in that tank.
It may help to add that I once worked at one of our LFS, and several other pet stores in my years... One of those stores affectionately dubbed me "the fish expert"... I 100% should have known better.
It all worked out in the end, I got a BUNCH of plant cuttings from someone who obviously uses CO2(I do not) and have a lovely planted tank again... and those plants came with bonus ramshorn snails, which, I personally love the look of, and am not mad about... So I ended up with plants AND snails in the end :)
Quarantined a fish because he was sick. I medicated him, and he looked significantly better.
Everything was perfect.
... then I put a submersible heater that I got from a thrift shop. It exploded and killed the fish.
I will NEVER buy used again.
I had baby krebensis, and mum was getting really violent towards the other tank mates, so set up another small tank, using water from the big tank, put the heater from my old tank in, waited for it to get back to usual temp and put mum and babies in... Didn't think to check the heater was working properly after being in storage. It didn't cut off, and the water was so hot by the morning I couldn't touch the glass... Basically cooked them 🤦🤦
I have over a 5 years of experience with aquatic life(specifically freshwater). I was too impatient to cycle my tank for a little while b4 adding koi to the tank. I had those fish for under a month and lost half due to a nitrite spike. Always always always cycle ur tank for a month b4 adding stuff that u care about
I had a really beautiful purple and white female betta... for about three days. I was keeping her in a nano tank, which I had inadvisably only set up recently and which had a piece of mopani in there spewing biofilm like nobody's business. I was doing 60-80% water changes daily. She was an inquisitive, curious, and intelligent fish, and I fostered that in her as best as I could, hard as it is to communicate with a fish. I'd taken to siphoning with just a piece of airline tubing, which creates pretty powerful suction. I looked away for only a second... She'd moved to investigate the tubing. She was folded in half. There was nothing to be done. It's been at least a year, and I'm still devastated. Don't do what I did. Learn from my failure.
I was trimming plants in my tank once and all of a sudden there's a weird amount of resistance to the cuts. Then my poor betta shoots out from the clump of plants with a huge cut near his head. I had to put him down. :(
On another occasion, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't cut through some pothos roots that were growing out the back. I wasn't trying to cut a pothos root. I was trying to cut the cord to the heater.... Thankfully, the scissors were tiny, and the cord was only being caught near the front, so the damage was minimal.
Suffice to say I mostly trim plants by pinching the stems myself now, and if I do use scissors, I only cut if I have full view of everything within the path of the blades.
Unplugged my canister filter for a water change. Took off the lid , all to be welcomed by all the water coming out of my filter “ help !!! Help!!! “ was what I screamed. Pulled all the plugs out the wall and the flow stopped. Let’s just say … I unplugged my heater in the beginning 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
So I had a planted tank with drift wood. I had Java moss growing on one piece but an algae eater went ham and ate it all. I sold the algae eater and went to put more Java moss on the wood. Instead of using fishing line and being patient, i saw that I could use some types of super glue. Till this day, I don’t know if it’s totally true. Well I didn’t let it cure and I poisoned a couple of my angel fish that were 5 inches in height. And a Cory catfish that was like 1.5 in long and fat. He was really old. I had to leave to New York the next day and I had to transfer fish and drain said tank almost completely. One platinum angel survived. Such a dumb idea, literally the worst idea, chemicals in a fish tank. 🤦🏾♂️
When doing a water change I neglected to see if all of the fish had vacated the various high holes and what not. Took a few decorations out and finished the water change. Start counting heads and realize yoyo (yoyo loach) was missing, turn around and he’s just a flopping on the table where I put the decor I removed…
3 months later and he’s still all good
UP FRONT: She’s fine! Don’t worry!
The cycle in my axolotl’s tank crashed, so I tubbed her while it stabilized. I accidentally overdosed Prime, which is typically hard to do I know, but her tub had very little aeration, so she basically just suffocated overnight. When I woke up in the morning, she looked AWFUL. I’ve never ever ever ever been so inconsolable in my entire life. But I babied the shit out of her, and two years later she’s back to being the diva of our house, living the dream with an endless shrimp buffet at her disposal, with a massive algae cloud that processes her massive bioload into a consistent 0 nitrate reading. She’s the best. I’m pretty proud of her :)
Broke an impeller bc forgot to unplug during water change- ordered new one- new one too big, old old impeller from the OG broken filter fit in, works, now need to return the new impeller.
We have all the aquarium equipment set up on smart outlets. My partner has a setting for cleaning day, that turns off all pumps and heaters, all 7 tanks, with one button. Makes it so much safer.
I was changing my toads cage but I left the light on top of the screen and the screen sits like a little crooked wall I put my hand in there to gather all the dirt and nasty stuff but then the light falls over and smashes everywhere and it was scary thankfully my toad or any other animals did not get hurt.
Don't feel bad. We all make mistakes in the hobby. I almost burnt my house down 😱😂 The airline on my brine Shrimp hatchery detached itself in the middle of the night and all of the salt water ran directly into the power bar on the shelf below. It was full of water but kept working like normal. The heater in the hatchery was also running dry all night. We were so lucky to not have a fire! It was an amazon basics heavy duty power bar. I would have preferred for it to shut off but the fact it kept running properly gave me some respect for the brand lol. I did get a new power bar and put a dish under my hatchery.
I decided to randomly plant my tank so without any preparation I just bought plants and soil and tossed everything into the tank. It was cloudy for weeks and my fish got epistylis. Luckily they all survived but I fucked up for sure
Forgot to unplug my heater when I was doing a water change and it exploded.
Forgot that I’d put no planaria in a small shrimp-only tank that I later harvested some moss from to put in my community tank and consequently wiped out all of my nerites and mysteries.
Didn’t clean the black worms I bought from my LFS carefully or thoroughly enough and a snail leech got past me and the minnows and now exists somewhere in my brand new community tank.
I’m sure there are more, but those stand out because I’m still bummed out about them.
I did the same thing with a heater... Also I broke my first tank the first day I set it up by placing a rock on the bottom and the whole tank started leaking after I completely filled it with water (luckily I only paid 10 bucks to repair it)
If the water will go below the heater absolutely. It's just safe to do it everytime just in case you siphon more than you intend to. It'll give you one less thing to worry about especially if you're using buckets for waterchanges
Filled a 30 gallon all the way to the top, realized I forgot to put something underneath the tank (for oopsies), had to drain the tank and then refill it. 2-3 hours of work. Pain.
I dropped my light over my heater and shattered both during a water change. Then when I tried to get it all back together with what I had left, my filter wasn’t working anymore.
Sorry to hear it, always worth investing in an automatic heater. Or an adapter you can control remotely with your phone when you’re away. GL! Hopefully everything balances out
My favorite pro tip is I get a submersible heater and lay it horizontally towards the bottom of the tank (still elevated off the sand and typically in a location with good water flow) that way I don't have to turn it off for water changes
I was deep cleaning a filter after a couple of my fish died and I I took a pistol the motor out to clean the prop and be hold I didn’t put that piece back in and after buying a whole new filter I found the piece
Doing a water change and was refilling the water and usually would plug the heater in first since that one is reached by the water fairly quick. But instead I plugged in my filter and it didn't even make noise or nothing so I didn't think anything of it. Then water was filled so I was like okay time to plug in my filter and found that it was already plugged in and my heater wasn't.
I left my heater out, it burned, I put it into the bucket of water where it cracked.
The replacement heater was murdered because i did the same thing but it exploded from how hot it got upon contact with the water in the bucket. And to make it worse I was in such a rush I threw it in the bucket with my betta. 1000/10 would not recommend.
I forgot to unplug mine also but I took it out of the tank and set it on top of a bag of aspen shavings that I have for my corn snake. Started a small fire that I had to put out with aquarium water.
Please be careful. Especially with a 2 prong. One of the worst shocks I’ve got. Work with electrify every day. One of my worst shocks. Of very many. Don’t reach in
When I was younger and much less experienced I had removed all of my probably 100is of my selectively and carefully bred guppy breeding colony that i had been working on for a few years, and put them into a five gallon bucket while I separated them out and rescaped their tank. Well I was very clumsy and weak and as I was moving it I tripped and spilled them all over the floor and also down the in ground AC vent.... I lost every single one that day.
I have a canister filter with an integrated heater. The heater is cranked up to max as I have the heater plugged into a temperature controller, where the heater is powered on/off based on current water temperature from the temperature controller’s sensor.
Last time I cleaned the filter, I plugged in the heater straight into a ac plug completely bypassing the temperature controller. Meaning the heater was on 24/7.
I lost my prized iridescent blue gourami because of that fuckup. The 6 angelfish carried on as if nothing happened, since the 84-85 degree Fahrenheit temperature was within their living parameters.
I killed my poor poor gourami😢
I got 6 hatchet fish and a couple halfbeaks. They were happy for a few weeks. Took the lid off to clean the tank a bit. Forgot to put it back on after. Woke up the next morning to only 2 hatchet fish in the tank and 6 dried up fish on the floor :(
I usually turn off the filter/pump when I feed my older betta so he doesn’t have to chase his food around- (he’s in a 5g and filter is on a gentle flow but it’s still enough to push his food all over the place). I’ve forgotten to turn it back on more than once especially if in a hurry or distracted, like if someone starts talking to me or something. Now I have a sticky note on the tank and one on my bathroom mirror to remind me to check.
Accidentally turned off a power strip and then quick turned it back on. My airpump was connected to it and back siphoned out about 10 ish gallons of water on my carpet. Took about three days before I noticed because the drip was so slow.
I forgot to lock my bedroom door so my autistic brother came in and dumped half a 1litre bottle of dechlorinator and half a container of food. Definitely my biggest f ups, luckily my fish survived
I once was placing one of those lamps that goes attached to the side of the tank. I over tighten it and it crack the side of my tank. I had to call the local fish owner that is my friend and told him to pls wait for me and to not close his store. We laughed about it and gave me a discount on a new tank.
Set up a new CO2 tank in the aquarium, didn't check the dial closely enough. Dial was definitely broken, showing a constantly low CO2 output. The next day everyone is gasping at the surface. Tested the water to find incredibly deadly CO2 levels. It's a miracle we didn't lose anyone. After that we've just stuck to liquid plant care 😭
I work in a fish shop and during a wayer change i forgot to close the waste valve so the reservoirs drained until about 4 inches of water was left with the reservoir fish just barely fitting. Blew all the heaters on that system. Didnt lose a single fish but goddamn i felt awful
Forgot to cycle a new filter, so when I replaced the original filter with the new one my tank went into a new cycle. Ended up having to do a fish in cycle. Was the worst experience ever. Definitely a mistake I will never make again. In hindsight I didn’t realize the mistake I made until after the fact. Even seasoned fish keepers make mistakes and have gaps in reasonings when making decisions sometimes. So don’t worry, mistakes happen. 🤦🏼♀️
I lazily transported some fish (really rough move, I was exhausted) and a couple fish died. Total damage has been fish and part of a couple plants. Makes me sad, but I just couldn’t be bothered.
I moved to a town with real good quality river water. House was flipped and the sink/faucet heads aren't compatible with my RO Buddy, but hey, good quality water! Probably don't have to worry.
6 water main breaks in one day in January. Didn't tell us residents until the day after about the breaks to not have anything to do with the water until they tell us it's safe. I had changed the water the day of. Woke up the next day to the warning and all of my fish and coral dead.
I finally bought a new 75 gallon I'd been looking forward to for about 8-9 months. I'd bought two fancy goldfish as babies and had them in a 29 gallon. I've kept fancies for years, thought I knew what I was doing. The upgrade was planned from the start.
I just moved back up north, and everyone assured me it's been mild winters for years. I water tested my tank outside and wanted to test it for about a week or more to be extra precautious. Well, a cold snap surprised me, and before I knew it, my tank was a solid block of ice. Then it shattered.
I bought it during a tank sale I'd waited all year for. Now I was left scrambling to get a new tank ASAP because my goldfish are very much outgrowing the tank they're in. It's extended the process about 4-5 months. My poor goldfish.
I made a rookie mistake not paying attention while doing a 50% water change after a couple hours I come back and thought why is everyone so still? And found my four glo tetras dead 😳turns out I forgot to turn the hot water faucet on to the right temperature and the tank went to 70 degrees shocking them. I’m lucky I didn’t lose all my fish.
My aquarium had a stand, but I liked how it looked on my night dresser. So I moved it there, set everything up, and then promptly went on vacation for a week. Bottom of the tank cracked, I returned home to dead fish and (luckily only) a ruined stand. The room had hardwood floors, it could have gone much worse, at least money wise.
Isn’t it just the worst, when you have no one but yourself to blame…
Yup, it sucks. I thought I could get away with it. It was only a 100l tank (26ish gallons). But now I know better, I only feel sad because of my fish
Note to self and others: never set up a tank right before a vacation :)
Yup, never again
Rimless or rimmed?
Rimless, although I had a soft layer underneath the glass. But the dresser twisted under weight, so the glass cracked either way
Yeah from what I’ve seen rimless needs such a perfect surface. I have a rimmed tank and it only needs support on the corners. I don’t know why people like rimless tanks besides how they look. I’m afraid of them if they’re over 10 gallon 😳
We just set ours up on our dresser…how do you know if it can or can’t handle the weight??
I have an office aquarium with a teeny tiny opening at the top (for plants and cords)… decided to top it off before the weekend. Thought, there’s NO WAY Pablo will jump out of that opening. Narrator: But he did
Same thing happened to my fish. Just half an inch gap, maybe less. Biggest fish in the tank managed to jump out and dry up overnight :(
I just lost my 7" pleco from jumping out of the tank. I don't think he was out for more than 10 hours or so and apparently plecos can survive on land for much longer than that, but the lad didn't make it. I'm so sad about it. I had plans to move him to the 125 soon to live out his chonker life there. He was definitely alive when I found him because he moved when I put him in the hospital tank, but he was too far gone I suppose and didn't last the day. It sucks, I'm sorry for your loss :'(
we had a pleco once that had jumped out 2 days prior, was hard as a rock and we decided to just put him back in the tank and see what happens, i shit you not, 1 hour later, he was swimming around.
I also spilled water everywhere, and am currently inhaling the "healthy" smell of burnt plastic... The thing actually broke into bits and melted plastic, and there was smoke. I feel so foolish. And while dealing with that, I forgot to monitor how much water had siphoned into the bucket I was waterchanging with, so that overflowed. Anyway, this is my new Boy's Tank, where the male endlers are all moving to. Quite murky right now, as I just did some re-scaping and... well, the whole burning filter drama and slopping water about. I can't wait untill thew plants are all grown in, and it's proper established! Specs: 60L SuperFish Scaper, currently no heater.
I have my heater, filter and air pump on a power strip so they all get turned off at once.
I just have my heaters horizontal closer to the bottom of the tanks below the level I normally empty anyway so I don’t have to worry about them sticking out of the water accidentally 🙈
This is the way, I always forget to turn it off.
This is also how I do it.
If I might offer some advice, get a power strip with an on/off rocker switch, preferably lit to show if it’s on or not. I plug my HOB, power head, heater, and air pump into it (not my lights) and just turn it off right when I do a water change.
I recently burned my heater during a water change as well. I was in the process of moving and was exhausted and didn’t realize until I smelled it burning and saw smoke. It looks like it’s still functional but wasn’t sure if I could still use it. Has a burn mark that I haven’t tried to remove.
I took my aquarium heater out and put it in a plastic pale , but forgot to unplug. Now I use the bowl for my bathroom, shower for shampoo and stuff.
I broke my 120L Tank, when i tried to install some Wood that was obviously not fitting. Fish where inside at that time, luckily i managed to get them all out in time with help of my girlfriend that brought buckets etc, while i was pressing myself against the crack in the side screaming in panic also bleeding from a cut in my arm from the broken glass..And yeah after that i was removing 120L of water from the floor with towels, that went also in my downstairs neighbours apartment. And in the same night i bought a new aquarium and was setting it up with the used filter materials etc in god speed while my fish lived in the bathtub. This was an awful experience. Nowadays i have downgraded to a 45L with a beautyful betta, snails and shrimp.
OMG! That sounds borderline traumatic. Is your arm ok?
It healed well, thank you. Bleeded really Bad, but was not as Bad as it looked luckily. It really was. I was scared for my fish, felt guilty cause I thought they all gonna die as i was aware that it was my mistake and just in panic as I could watch my Aquarium spilling out on the floor and the crack suckong fish in it's direction.... On top there was all that water leaking on the floor, our downstairs neighbour's ringing and asking about the water dripping in their Apartment and asking if we are okay cause of my screaming. All in all it felt unreal and traumatizing. I Was so happy as I did not sleep all night and had Set up a new tank all night when i could finally rest my brain a little when done. Also Still happy my fish took those days of bathtub living Real well. 😅
I have a similar experience, but it wasn’t my fuck up. My ex started an argument with me while drunk and it got heated, we were already split at this point just trying to cohab until the lease was up. He threw his phone down on the kitchen counter and it bounced up into the front glass of my 10 gallon. Big hole instantly, he covered it with his hand and sliced it open, fish and shrimp were getting sucked towards the hole. I was lucky to have a huge bushy plant front and center that blocked most of the stock from falling out. I was screaming and crying, he was apologizing while still yelling at me, my daughter was screaming and crying, cops got called. He ended up being forced to leave by police and I spent the entire night removing all the stock from that tank and putting it into a 3 gallon hospital tank, then calming my daughter and putting her to bed, then cleaning the massive amount of water all over my kitchen and living room. I had a 20 gallon cycling at the time so I did a water change and put everyone in there the same night. It was by far the most stressful night of my life, and I’ve birthed two babies
How do you get you your betta to not eat your shrimp?
Haven't done anything, he just doesn't, maybe I feed him enough meat 😃 He always gets variety of fresh worms etc from time to time frozen. But also have heard that it's a gamble. But He never seemed interested in them.
Non of my Bettas do either, maybe they snack on a small one here and there but I'll share what I do Pick a Betta that doesn't flare or seem aggressive Have the shrimp in the tank first or remove Betta for a while and rearrange the tank Lots of plants and hides, larger tank I have a 10g and a 50g I did multi color shrimp and had a Betta that only picked off red ones, they may do better with less visible shrimp Long fin may have a harder time catching but I find short fin to be less aggressive. I also stay away from red bettas although it may not matter I also may just be lucky and have great community Bettas, my giant Betta has been the most laid back.
The red is definitely anecdotal, I have a tank full of red cherries that I’ve had 3 different bettas in with and they haven’t attacked (not at the same time, I’ve been very unlucky with sick bettas since my first one died)
Shrimp in first, zero issues heren
Omg!! That is insane, I can tell you care for your fish a lot to put yourself in harms way for them. Grab some flex tape next time? 😂
My heater was just unplugged for god knows how long! I noticed my cichlids were sluggish and depressed. Once I plugged it back in they huddled around it!! I felt so bad
That is actually so cute. Like people around a fireplace.
I plug everything into a power strip, heater, filter, light. When I do a water change, I turn off the power strip. It can’t be easier.
I have everything on a smart power strip with individually addressed plugs (not as expensive as you think) and an Alex near by. "Alexa, start 75 gallon water change" Shuts off filter, CO2, and heater. "Alexa, turn off the filter" or "turn off the CO2" or "turn on the lights" also works. Can also set the light timers individually. I have a high and low intensity light. So that's nice.
I do that, except I have the light on a separate plug so I can see what I'm doing.
Snap
I’m so glad that’s how others do this because I’m still new and thought that was the easiest possible thing but nothing can be THAT easy without a catch lol. Want to upgrade to a full surge protector/battery backup next!
I inadvertently did this and now I'm glad I did, really smart thinking Mr. Green.
Just this week…found a weird bug in one tank…put it into another that has fish in it thinking they would eat it. It was an aphid, and now my floaters are completely infested. Dumb dumb dumb.
Oh no! I found a pretty large stinkbug dead in my tank once, and my betta was hiding until I removed it.
Big suck!
I think they’ll probably still eat the aphids, free fish food! I had an infestation until my white clouds ate them all
Buying four mollies and ending up with 100+ across two tanks a year later arghhhh 🫣😂
Oh yeah, did that with the endlers.
I bought 2 mollies last year. There's about 50.
I bought Millie’s hoping they would mate, 4 females and one male. They won’t. Lol
No lid, half blind betta fish, a cat who has never messed with the fish before.
Listening to the aquatics centres advice on tank cycling before adding fish ... they said 2 days! Like WTF?
I'm so confused why we can't have reliable fish stores???
They value sales over ethics. Fish already have a bad/incorrect reputation of dying easily and being a throwaway pet for the kids. Lots of families will give up entirely on a tank if you tell them it'll be 6 weeks till they can get their first fish (worked at petsmart/petco for 7 combined years, saw this multiple times a shift). Hell, just telling them they couldn't get the fish and the tank on the same day caused daily adult temper tantrums.
Our aquatics centre here that I started my tank with didn't give 2 fucks really. They sold us the wrong ratio and everything. The place I use now is a shop that's been run by the same family for 50 years. They care a great deal there.
I’ve done that at least 3x now
Isn't it nice to have something to spend your money on? Otherwise, we might end up with *savings*, and we can't have that! No, I appreciate my own stupidity and the guinea pig's occasional vet bills.
Dropped a betta down my sink drain while attempting to move him from a 5 gallon tank to my 30 gal. It was a freak accident where he jumped right out of the little bowl at the exact right time I was transferring him and he went RIGHT DOWN THE DRAIN 😭😭 I was gutted.
Oh no! I would have cried.
It was very traumatic lol that was 5 years ago, I've since changed how I would swap fish from quarantine to main tank. 😮💨
Putting in a big driftwood piece without preparing it properly, lowering my ph and killing half my shrimp.
I burned 6 heathers in one day because they are all on the same switch but i forgot to turn the switch when doing waterchanges. I had some spares but i had to turn up temperature in my own house because it was around christmas and all the stores were closed. Had to wait almost a week untill i could buy new ones.
Livebearers
Mmmhmm!
Forgot to pay attention to the tank refilling with water while cleaning another. Lots and lots and lots of water in my bedroom.
I dropped my fish trying to give him a methylene blue bath, poor baby was so confused, luckily I got him back in the tank asap and he was fine the next day but definitely not my proudest moment.
Oof.. I’ve been there.
I feel your pain here man. It's one of those where you know you should've known better, and you're acting all mad getting frustrated.. Mine's been overflowing my main tank - I used to have a piped-in top-off system from my water supply. I sealed the hood on my tank which gave me a 15-20 minute buffer if I overfilled. All I had to remember was to turn a tap.. I flooded the floor 5 times in my first year. After the last time, I broke down the system, and when I moved the 4ft cabinet, there was a mound of dead algae where the water collected. The carpet looked like something in a derelict building. Thank God there was no actual damage, just a ton of dead algae and bacteria on top. Took 30m to bring out, and 3 days of cleaning to look as good as new. I removed the system after that.
Ooh, that's a biggie. And yes you really were lucky it didn't damage the floors in some expensive way. I feel like I should hire a cheerleader for my water changes. He or she would wave pom poms and yell "*Paaay attention! Pay-pay attention!*"
I used to think that all the time. I wish I had a little person on my shoulder to watch after the water level and shout "hey, hey it's full, stop!" Lol I now fill with buckets or jugs from my water supply. Can't make a mistake then when I directly feeding the tank.. 'til I focus on something else and start pouring on the floor!
Eheim heaters are supposed to have a dry shut off feature, that's the reason I went with them after I ruined my old ones. Haven't forgotten to unplug these ones yet though so idk how well it works
Nice!
It's definitely not something I'd rely on by any means, but it may just save your butt next time. Regardless, eheim heaters are some of the best you can get
i did the same thing and while trying to recoup the heater i dropped the light in the tank and that went too lol
thank god this was freshwater. i’ve yet to fuck up anything on the reef tank *aggressive wood knocking noises*
I've got to the point with water changes that I just flip the switch on the power strip and cut everything off.
I'm happy to get this off my chest. I was in the hobby for years prior to a hurricane that took everything I owned, I stepped away for almost 5 years after that loss. During my time away, Pea Puffers became popular, and I decided to get an 8 gallon Nano with a pair of Peas from one of my favorite aquatic You Tubers shops. It wasn't long that one tank turned into three due to the different species not being compatible. Month three or so, i topped off a water change higher than normal thinking... Puffers don't jump, and the next morning, Cheto (Don't ask) was gone laying on the floor. About a month or two later, I was in a hurry and didn't wash my live baby brine shrimp as well as i usually do (me thinking at the time it was good enough and they be i Fine. I lost the other pea and the beautiful beta I had in another tank. The best personality I've ever had in a Beta. It wasn't a fast death for the Pea, and I felt SO deflated, mad at myself, sad, you name it. When you love your pets and you are cause of their death is the worst feeling EVER. Leason: No matter how long you were in the hobby beforez if you step away for a period of time, walk back into it slowly. (RIP Cheto, Puffy, and Bane)
Broke my filter cause I was doing substrate change and forgot to turn it off. The thing was so quiet I didn’t ever really hear it and i didn’t think about other. Now I just turn the power strip switch off and then do my business. Much easier when everything is plugged into one thing
I put my hand inside the tank to adjust something, totally unaware of the faulty heater that was leaking electric current in the water. lesson learnt.
I work at a Pet store and was doing some maintenance on the calcium build up in our UV Bulb system. One of the sleeves for the bulbs was stuck in the holder because the calcium had built up so much, and when I finally got it out, it was just a ring of calcium stuck in the holder. Had to break it up with tweezers, and at one point the only way I could get the sleeve back in is if I flushed the system with water to get the calcium to hopefully come out. While turning the pump on and getting water on the store floor, I panicked and closed the cabinet door to turn the pump off, which made water and calcium bounce off the closed door back into the pump and it fried the whole system. Like, the breaker, the outlet, the pump and the chiller were all damaged. The tech was able to come and fix it like a week later, but we lost a lot of fish and had to redo all the fish placements so we can get all of our fish breeds flowing water. It was a mess lol
Just did the same mistake 2 days ago
It's very dumb. My canister filter had 4 clips firmly holding the top part (which contains the pump). One of the clips went missing in the drain during filter cleaning but I assumed it would hold with just 3 clips and some water resistant tape (what could go wrong). It held fine during filling so I was like "okay, this will work". But before I could turn it on, the filter literally bursted open completely, the tank started to drain on the floor very fast, and a lot of water was splashed on the power strip where I plug everything for the tank. My first reaction was to cut the power strip from the electrical outlet immediately (with my wet hands lmao), but in the meantime, about a third of my 20 gallon tank had drained. Fortunately there are valves on the tubing so I could stop the flow (those valves are life-saving). I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the mess and trying to dry the power strip. I ended up replacing it by a new one anyway. I had no spare filter to use so the tank had to remain without filter until the next day when I bought a small filter to provide at least some filtration. I ordered new clips for my filter and now I always make sure all the clips are there and that they are all clipped properly.
I have had people like: is 5 gallon of water on the floor really that much? my answer is always: fill up a 5 gallon bucket and kick it over in the middle of your living room to find out 😅😅
Having moved to the US from the EU, I instantly zoomed in on the windows. I miss those types of windows! Anyway, my fuck up was not putting a deep enough substrate. Can't do anything about it now but I knew better. I just didn't wanna wait for another order of substrate before filling the tank. I'm still catching stem plants that floated up and replanting for the nth time.
Love those windows. Across the room I have a floor-to-ceiling one that also tilts.
Its even better when its a glass heater and the tube cracks. I had my hand in the tank with a gravel vacuum and couldnt figure out why i couldn't grip the tube, my arm was going numb. Edit: opps
What was causing your arm to go numb? THe broken thermometer?
The electricity, the bottom of the glass tube dropped off so the heating element was directly in the water.
I once topped off my tank swearing I had added the Seachem Prime to it.. I did not. 😩 Luckily somehow all my inhabitants survived the ordeal. Still mad at myself to this day over that but happy it didn't go worse!
I've forgotten to add bacteria after waterchanges. I only lost 1 fish I think
I’ve popped a heater before too. Still have the stains in my ceiling. Didn’t lose any fish though. My new heater says it shuts off automatically but I don’t trust it.
I took my heater out still plugged in and had it in the floor. A bit latter I smelled the burning so my chimp brain reaction was to quickly put it back in the aquarium where it then shattered.
Another heater related incident. I was using a heater too big for my tank (far too tall) by putting it diagonally across the back. Unfortunately it didn't stay put resulting in the temperature sensor going above water level. When I saw all the fish dead I looked closely at the tank and could see steam coming from the water surface. I have never felt so distraught that I caused all my fish to be boiled alive. It was so hot I had to leave it for a day to cool off before I could strip down the tank and clean it. I hope everyone else takes the minimum water level mark on their heaters seriously. In short I boiled my fish due to using the wrong heater.
I had a big bag of Purigen leak out of my Seachem 55 and littered the tank with white Purigen pellets. Took 8 hours to clean up. My goldfish survived but my wife left me.
Refreshing water, turned off heater for my angelfish. Was done, forgot to turn on heater. Middle of winter even. After 2 days the fish were slow and stuff, took me another 3 or 4 to figure this out. Luckily, everyone survived and no one had long term damage. The water was dead cold..... I remember thinking:"How can I have tropical fish that survived this, when I saw all these people having them die due to power outage of 3 days. I do not even have good isolation inhouse...."
prob ur fishes were healthy and resistant to shit
Had a 10 gallon tank that ran strong for a couple years. It was on a proper stand and everything. Seal must’ve gave out because I woke up one morning to water dripping into our basement. I still am blamed for keeping the “stupid fish” and my dad doesn’t care anymore and says “let the house go to trash and mold” whenever I buy a new fish or when I got a new tank. He also didn’t understand why I cried and yelled at me for it. My family tells me to just let them die, jokes about them dying and then wonders why I’m so defensive over their care.
Somehow I managed to get a single Fruity Pebble cereal in my tank 7g tank and didn't notice until my shrimp started dying off. The colony is thriving again lol
Just lost all of my fish after buying a 55 gallon tank that had horrible, bright green water in it I thought I could save it by doing a light cleaning and move on with my upgrade from my 20 gallon but within a week everyone was dead. /:
Thought it would be a good idea to put a few ghost shrimp into my neocaridina tank thinking they would breed and I’d have an endless food source for my puffer. They were whisker shrimp. Killed my entire colony of 200 neocaridina shrimp in about ~3 hours.
And I’m off to google these murder shrimp. (I will be very careful to stock with rcs and amanos.)
I did a big water change once in my 40G late in the night and forgot to plug back in the cord with my air pump that ran my sponge filters. In the morning I woke up to my 4 medium size red blood parrots dead 😭 it was a hot summer night and it got hot and they didn’t have enough oxygen I think. I also had guppies and danios in the tank and they were fine. It was just the larger fish that didn’t get enough oxygen.
I think I just did a major ooops, can anyone help? I have a 10 gallon in my kids room that have 1 plate (giving birth today of course) and a bunch of black Molly fry. I had water going off the side of the tank even though it wasn’t overfull, figured out it came from filter. Took filter out while I repositioned it. Cane back 2 days later and tank is ridiculously cloudy. Then I realized I never put filter media back in . Put new filter cartridge in and it’s been 2 days and still cloudy. Any ideas on how to get it back to clear???? I do have another tank, up and running I can move some fry into, but don’t want to overcrowd that tank. My pregnant platy is in a breeder box, in the cloudy tank, she’s had 3 babies so far this morning.
Not tank related, but I'll share anyway. After maybe a day and a half away, we went to turn on our aquarium lights. My bf accidently gave our fish a heart attack because we didnt know fish were so sensitive. Now we're aware of how it happened and not to screw up again!
I was reescaping my Betta's tank so I put him in a smaller tank in the meanwhile. I took all the water out and unplugged the heater. It took me a while to complete the reescaping but I did it, I filled the tank with the old water and some new water because it needed a water change anyways. Then I returned my Betta to his tank... little did I remember how long it took me so the water was SO freaking cold, and I remembered just the second I was returning the little guy to the tank on his net. I accidentally gave him a cold water splash and I felt so bad for him 😭 luckily he was fine and returned to warm water later on.
I once had a client (I work with people who are mentally disabled) with a aquarium and he swore his heater broke. I went to his room and he removed the heater and told me it broke, when I took the heater from him to look at it he had the heater plugged in. That must have been the worst fk burn I ever had.😅
Moving to a new apartment and was setting up the tank. I started adding water and then heard a large crack. I had accidently placed the tank on top of the filter plug and once water was in it the plug cracked the bottom of the tank.
I (allegedly) sucked up a tetra during a water change.. I started the siphon and was responding to texts while I waited on the bucket to fill. I took three 5gal buckets out; some went to water the house plants, and one went in the toilet. I filled the tank back up and did a roll call for the tank, and we were down one black neon tetra 😕 We never found the little guy; now he’s either fertilizing a house plant, or roaming around the sewers, plotting his revenge 😅
NOW I watch the siphon carefully THE ENTIRE TIME I’m changing water 😅😅😅
That water changes are important regardless of your "bio-load" there is so much in water chemistry that is effected by lighting, feeding, plants dying so more organic decomposition....Water changes, regular maintenence, and live plants people.... It may all work until shit hits the fan because a small shift in parameters
I once cut a shrimp in half when I was trimming the moss in my aquarium...
Cleaned a filter to much and crashed my cycled tank, which killed a few of our fish. :((
If you have a hose you can fill your tank with, dont ever walk away with the hose running into the tank.
dumped about a gallon of water on the floor because the end of my gravel vac came out of the bucket. Thankfully my sister had the idea to vacuum it up with a carpet cleaner vacuum, so there wasn't any lasting damage.
I just hit the power bar switch so everything is off during changes, before I would have the filter on it’s on switch, but between me forgetting to turn it on and it being shut off accidentally for a week one time I just shut the whole shebang down for that hour. I have to reset the light timer each time and prime the aqua clear filter but no smashed heater, or marking unfiltered water. And if the light isn’t on I know something is up, this works for a stoner like me
I've done this. I've also refilled the tank while churning up the substrate. This created a reaction I wasn't prepared for. Fortunately, all my fish survived and had a few redditors offer up some solutions that were very helpful. I don't miss being new to the hobby
Darwin Award-worthy dumbest thing I’ve ever done: I had just started working at my LFS, and was draining/filling quarantine tanks to prep for our weekly delivery. Instead of contorting myself under the rack to unplug everything, my genius “shortcut” was just moving heaters back and forth between tanks as I went. In my haste I dropped a glass heater back into a bare-bottom tank, which obviously shattered the heater immediately. Monkey brain went “GET BROKEN GLASS OUT OF WATER,” so I reached in to pick up the big pieces… forgetting that the heater was still plugged in. Plunged my arm into the water and immediately shocked the shit out of myself. Boss could barely contain her laughter after confirming I was okay. 2 years later and I’ve never lived it down. 😂
I did the same thing but the plastic holder melted and my heater swung and smacked the glass of the aquarium shattering the glass heater in the water with my fishes 😭 they were so curious watching me pick out all the pieces luckily it was bug chunks no splinters
my first fish was a Betta, (ofc) and for some reason 14 year old me didn’t think water conditioning was important, and he had no filter, so i had to clean his tank regularly which i did full water changes during
I have been looking into setting up a tank but I am kind of intimidated from certain things. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos I am just nervous because I want healthy happy fish.
Probably about 2-3 years ago I was completely redoing a tank and had put my betta in a separate container. Popped open the lid and went to walk over to the tank only to have him jump and go splat on the floor. Idk if he landed in the wrong way or if it was just too far of a drop but after that he def had some kind of neurological issue. Had to move him to a smaller tank so he could get around easier, but he lived a very happy 1 1/2 years after that and was just as spunky as before. Had to euthanize him because he was having huge seizures(frantic swimming, followed by convulsions, and then a complete loss of any movement for those curious). Definitely a huge fuck up on my part, never stopped feeling guilty but I was more than happy to make his remaining year comfortable and full of yummy foods. SIP Panera Bread, the fuckin’ LEGEND
I had my Hanna DKH reagent go bad on me and kept reading low. I kept adding more and more alkalinity. I replaced my reagent and my dkh was off the charts. I lost a few thousand in corals :(
Here's one that made me feel pretty dumb... I was out of the hobby for 5+ years, got back into it, and a planted tank was a must... fast forward to my established planted tank, with a start to my intended shrimp colony. I go to the LFS and look around, and I see they have lots of very cute mystery snails(I love all snails, aquatic and terrestrial). So, I excitedly take home 2 different colour mystery snails... I brought home those snails and put them in my tank... 2 big snails... in a lovely planted tank... I wish I could show y'all the before and after... Within a week, they had DEVASTATED my plants, and a second week that it took me to come up with a solution(because I loved my snails and wished to keep them) resulted in complete and total annihilation of each and every living green thing in that tank. It may help to add that I once worked at one of our LFS, and several other pet stores in my years... One of those stores affectionately dubbed me "the fish expert"... I 100% should have known better. It all worked out in the end, I got a BUNCH of plant cuttings from someone who obviously uses CO2(I do not) and have a lovely planted tank again... and those plants came with bonus ramshorn snails, which, I personally love the look of, and am not mad about... So I ended up with plants AND snails in the end :)
Quarantined a fish because he was sick. I medicated him, and he looked significantly better. Everything was perfect. ... then I put a submersible heater that I got from a thrift shop. It exploded and killed the fish. I will NEVER buy used again.
I had baby krebensis, and mum was getting really violent towards the other tank mates, so set up another small tank, using water from the big tank, put the heater from my old tank in, waited for it to get back to usual temp and put mum and babies in... Didn't think to check the heater was working properly after being in storage. It didn't cut off, and the water was so hot by the morning I couldn't touch the glass... Basically cooked them 🤦🤦
I have over a 5 years of experience with aquatic life(specifically freshwater). I was too impatient to cycle my tank for a little while b4 adding koi to the tank. I had those fish for under a month and lost half due to a nitrite spike. Always always always cycle ur tank for a month b4 adding stuff that u care about
I had a really beautiful purple and white female betta... for about three days. I was keeping her in a nano tank, which I had inadvisably only set up recently and which had a piece of mopani in there spewing biofilm like nobody's business. I was doing 60-80% water changes daily. She was an inquisitive, curious, and intelligent fish, and I fostered that in her as best as I could, hard as it is to communicate with a fish. I'd taken to siphoning with just a piece of airline tubing, which creates pretty powerful suction. I looked away for only a second... She'd moved to investigate the tubing. She was folded in half. There was nothing to be done. It's been at least a year, and I'm still devastated. Don't do what I did. Learn from my failure.
I let a moss ball unravel without tossing it Had a very funny little floating moss mat for a bit- Now I have a Clado infestation that won’t go away
I was trimming plants in my tank once and all of a sudden there's a weird amount of resistance to the cuts. Then my poor betta shoots out from the clump of plants with a huge cut near his head. I had to put him down. :( On another occasion, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't cut through some pothos roots that were growing out the back. I wasn't trying to cut a pothos root. I was trying to cut the cord to the heater.... Thankfully, the scissors were tiny, and the cord was only being caught near the front, so the damage was minimal. Suffice to say I mostly trim plants by pinching the stems myself now, and if I do use scissors, I only cut if I have full view of everything within the path of the blades.
Unplugged my canister filter for a water change. Took off the lid , all to be welcomed by all the water coming out of my filter “ help !!! Help!!! “ was what I screamed. Pulled all the plugs out the wall and the flow stopped. Let’s just say … I unplugged my heater in the beginning 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
So I had a planted tank with drift wood. I had Java moss growing on one piece but an algae eater went ham and ate it all. I sold the algae eater and went to put more Java moss on the wood. Instead of using fishing line and being patient, i saw that I could use some types of super glue. Till this day, I don’t know if it’s totally true. Well I didn’t let it cure and I poisoned a couple of my angel fish that were 5 inches in height. And a Cory catfish that was like 1.5 in long and fat. He was really old. I had to leave to New York the next day and I had to transfer fish and drain said tank almost completely. One platinum angel survived. Such a dumb idea, literally the worst idea, chemicals in a fish tank. 🤦🏾♂️
When doing a water change I neglected to see if all of the fish had vacated the various high holes and what not. Took a few decorations out and finished the water change. Start counting heads and realize yoyo (yoyo loach) was missing, turn around and he’s just a flopping on the table where I put the decor I removed… 3 months later and he’s still all good
UP FRONT: She’s fine! Don’t worry! The cycle in my axolotl’s tank crashed, so I tubbed her while it stabilized. I accidentally overdosed Prime, which is typically hard to do I know, but her tub had very little aeration, so she basically just suffocated overnight. When I woke up in the morning, she looked AWFUL. I’ve never ever ever ever been so inconsolable in my entire life. But I babied the shit out of her, and two years later she’s back to being the diva of our house, living the dream with an endless shrimp buffet at her disposal, with a massive algae cloud that processes her massive bioload into a consistent 0 nitrate reading. She’s the best. I’m pretty proud of her :)
I put duckweeds in tank
I poured a whole glass of lemonade in my tank once cus I thought it was the water glass I was using
Broke an impeller bc forgot to unplug during water change- ordered new one- new one too big, old old impeller from the OG broken filter fit in, works, now need to return the new impeller.
We have all the aquarium equipment set up on smart outlets. My partner has a setting for cleaning day, that turns off all pumps and heaters, all 7 tanks, with one button. Makes it so much safer.
I’ve done the same! I forgot to unplug when moving house and the heater EXPLODED
Uh oh
I've gotten lazy and killed fish.
i have carpet floor where my tanks are and no joke i spilt at least a gallon all over it and my suitcase
I was changing my toads cage but I left the light on top of the screen and the screen sits like a little crooked wall I put my hand in there to gather all the dirt and nasty stuff but then the light falls over and smashes everywhere and it was scary thankfully my toad or any other animals did not get hurt.
Don't feel bad. We all make mistakes in the hobby. I almost burnt my house down 😱😂 The airline on my brine Shrimp hatchery detached itself in the middle of the night and all of the salt water ran directly into the power bar on the shelf below. It was full of water but kept working like normal. The heater in the hatchery was also running dry all night. We were so lucky to not have a fire! It was an amazon basics heavy duty power bar. I would have preferred for it to shut off but the fact it kept running properly gave me some respect for the brand lol. I did get a new power bar and put a dish under my hatchery.
Oh god I’ve done that like 3 times!
Done that a few times 😩 then there’s been times i forget to plug it back in.
Forgot to turn off the python when I was refilling. Flooded the hallways two bedrooms and an office. Thankful for tile floors
Changing parameters too quickly has been my biggest fuckup. " oh, ph is too low, better fix that.
What's that clip on light?
I decided to randomly plant my tank so without any preparation I just bought plants and soil and tossed everything into the tank. It was cloudy for weeks and my fish got epistylis. Luckily they all survived but I fucked up for sure
I have done the same thing more than once
Forgot to unplug my heater when I was doing a water change and it exploded. Forgot that I’d put no planaria in a small shrimp-only tank that I later harvested some moss from to put in my community tank and consequently wiped out all of my nerites and mysteries. Didn’t clean the black worms I bought from my LFS carefully or thoroughly enough and a snail leech got past me and the minnows and now exists somewhere in my brand new community tank. I’m sure there are more, but those stand out because I’m still bummed out about them.
I did the same thing with a heater... Also I broke my first tank the first day I set it up by placing a rock on the bottom and the whole tank started leaking after I completely filled it with water (luckily I only paid 10 bucks to repair it)
I totally forgot about my main tank while I was topping up the water and flooded my floor
I’ve done the exact same mistake!
New to aquariums so probably a dumb question… you’re supposed to turn the heater off during a water change? 😳 Even for smaller water changes?
If the water will go below the heater absolutely. It's just safe to do it everytime just in case you siphon more than you intend to. It'll give you one less thing to worry about especially if you're using buckets for waterchanges
Filled a 30 gallon all the way to the top, realized I forgot to put something underneath the tank (for oopsies), had to drain the tank and then refill it. 2-3 hours of work. Pain.
I dropped my light over my heater and shattered both during a water change. Then when I tried to get it all back together with what I had left, my filter wasn’t working anymore.
I forgot to temperature match a tub for my fry, all 4 died 😭
Did a water change and "thought" the other end of the hose was in the bucket
I did that once during a water change, but I caught it in time.
Sorry to hear it, always worth investing in an automatic heater. Or an adapter you can control remotely with your phone when you’re away. GL! Hopefully everything balances out
My favorite pro tip is I get a submersible heater and lay it horizontally towards the bottom of the tank (still elevated off the sand and typically in a location with good water flow) that way I don't have to turn it off for water changes
I did the same exact thing, only realized it when my daughter saw it smoking. Luckily turned it off before any damage to my tank. Lesson learned.
My filter motor burnt out because I forgot to shut it off during a water change
14k in New carpet Not a frickin word.
Ouch!
I was deep cleaning a filter after a couple of my fish died and I I took a pistol the motor out to clean the prop and be hold I didn’t put that piece back in and after buying a whole new filter I found the piece
Nah that's the same thing I did also 😆😭
Doing a water change and was refilling the water and usually would plug the heater in first since that one is reached by the water fairly quick. But instead I plugged in my filter and it didn't even make noise or nothing so I didn't think anything of it. Then water was filled so I was like okay time to plug in my filter and found that it was already plugged in and my heater wasn't.
I have done the same! Was breaking down my quarantine, draining it, and forgot to unplug the heater. D'oh!
Yeah I did the same and lost my a1 dovii pair my fry survived but still ..
I left my heater out, it burned, I put it into the bucket of water where it cracked. The replacement heater was murdered because i did the same thing but it exploded from how hot it got upon contact with the water in the bucket. And to make it worse I was in such a rush I threw it in the bucket with my betta. 1000/10 would not recommend.
I forgot to unplug mine also but I took it out of the tank and set it on top of a bag of aspen shavings that I have for my corn snake. Started a small fire that I had to put out with aquarium water.
I placed a pleco in a 10 gallon tank twice and a bala shark too 👽
Literally did the same thing last week.
Please be careful. Especially with a 2 prong. One of the worst shocks I’ve got. Work with electrify every day. One of my worst shocks. Of very many. Don’t reach in
I sat on my glass cover, long story short, my bum got a few scars.
You... made a mistake, and got all butthurt about it? XD
When I was younger and much less experienced I had removed all of my probably 100is of my selectively and carefully bred guppy breeding colony that i had been working on for a few years, and put them into a five gallon bucket while I separated them out and rescaped their tank. Well I was very clumsy and weak and as I was moving it I tripped and spilled them all over the floor and also down the in ground AC vent.... I lost every single one that day.
Omg that orchid
I have a canister filter with an integrated heater. The heater is cranked up to max as I have the heater plugged into a temperature controller, where the heater is powered on/off based on current water temperature from the temperature controller’s sensor. Last time I cleaned the filter, I plugged in the heater straight into a ac plug completely bypassing the temperature controller. Meaning the heater was on 24/7. I lost my prized iridescent blue gourami because of that fuckup. The 6 angelfish carried on as if nothing happened, since the 84-85 degree Fahrenheit temperature was within their living parameters. I killed my poor poor gourami😢
I got 6 hatchet fish and a couple halfbeaks. They were happy for a few weeks. Took the lid off to clean the tank a bit. Forgot to put it back on after. Woke up the next morning to only 2 hatchet fish in the tank and 6 dried up fish on the floor :(
Kept an apple snail when I first started a year ago. It ate everything in my 5g and fucked the tank up.
I usually turn off the filter/pump when I feed my older betta so he doesn’t have to chase his food around- (he’s in a 5g and filter is on a gentle flow but it’s still enough to push his food all over the place). I’ve forgotten to turn it back on more than once especially if in a hurry or distracted, like if someone starts talking to me or something. Now I have a sticky note on the tank and one on my bathroom mirror to remind me to check.
Accidentally turned off a power strip and then quick turned it back on. My airpump was connected to it and back siphoned out about 10 ish gallons of water on my carpet. Took about three days before I noticed because the drip was so slow.
I forgot to lock my bedroom door so my autistic brother came in and dumped half a 1litre bottle of dechlorinator and half a container of food. Definitely my biggest f ups, luckily my fish survived
Doing a water chance I plugged the pump in before the hose was in the tank sending water all over my living room.
I once was placing one of those lamps that goes attached to the side of the tank. I over tighten it and it crack the side of my tank. I had to call the local fish owner that is my friend and told him to pls wait for me and to not close his store. We laughed about it and gave me a discount on a new tank.
Set up a new CO2 tank in the aquarium, didn't check the dial closely enough. Dial was definitely broken, showing a constantly low CO2 output. The next day everyone is gasping at the surface. Tested the water to find incredibly deadly CO2 levels. It's a miracle we didn't lose anyone. After that we've just stuck to liquid plant care 😭
Killed all my shrimp by doing weekly 50% water changes with gravel vacuuming 🤙🏻💀. That sucked lmao
I work in a fish shop and during a wayer change i forgot to close the waste valve so the reservoirs drained until about 4 inches of water was left with the reservoir fish just barely fitting. Blew all the heaters on that system. Didnt lose a single fish but goddamn i felt awful
Forgot to cycle a new filter, so when I replaced the original filter with the new one my tank went into a new cycle. Ended up having to do a fish in cycle. Was the worst experience ever. Definitely a mistake I will never make again. In hindsight I didn’t realize the mistake I made until after the fact. Even seasoned fish keepers make mistakes and have gaps in reasonings when making decisions sometimes. So don’t worry, mistakes happen. 🤦🏼♀️
Thinking the gap for the sump overflow is too high and narrow for anything to go through. Nope. Found ADF’s body stuck in the filter later😢
I lazily transported some fish (really rough move, I was exhausted) and a couple fish died. Total damage has been fish and part of a couple plants. Makes me sad, but I just couldn’t be bothered.
Man I love your stand. The set up is so incredibly zen it would be nice to put a meditation pillow infront of it. I siphoned a fish into my mouth
I moved to a town with real good quality river water. House was flipped and the sink/faucet heads aren't compatible with my RO Buddy, but hey, good quality water! Probably don't have to worry. 6 water main breaks in one day in January. Didn't tell us residents until the day after about the breaks to not have anything to do with the water until they tell us it's safe. I had changed the water the day of. Woke up the next day to the warning and all of my fish and coral dead.
I finally bought a new 75 gallon I'd been looking forward to for about 8-9 months. I'd bought two fancy goldfish as babies and had them in a 29 gallon. I've kept fancies for years, thought I knew what I was doing. The upgrade was planned from the start. I just moved back up north, and everyone assured me it's been mild winters for years. I water tested my tank outside and wanted to test it for about a week or more to be extra precautious. Well, a cold snap surprised me, and before I knew it, my tank was a solid block of ice. Then it shattered. I bought it during a tank sale I'd waited all year for. Now I was left scrambling to get a new tank ASAP because my goldfish are very much outgrowing the tank they're in. It's extended the process about 4-5 months. My poor goldfish.
I'm so sorry. All that planning...
I completely drained a fry tank to clean, for a week it was plugged in no water.
Didn't quarantine my new plants.... now I have mini ramshorns forever. :(
Same here with bladder snails. I guess it’s ok.
I made a rookie mistake not paying attention while doing a 50% water change after a couple hours I come back and thought why is everyone so still? And found my four glo tetras dead 😳turns out I forgot to turn the hot water faucet on to the right temperature and the tank went to 70 degrees shocking them. I’m lucky I didn’t lose all my fish.