Lessons Learned

[KukaaKatchou]

I was going through the archived posts on The Planted Tank forum, and they have a thread called the Lessons Learned thread ... lessons often learned the hard way from what I read. With all the experience with bettas on this forum, would anyone be willing to share some of the mistakes they have made (even the embarrassing ones!) so that others can avoid the same pitfalls?

[Lion Mom]

My biggest mistake EVER I believe was not doing weekly (or more) partial water changes when I had my first betta, Bob (a dark blue veil tail). He was in a 6 gal. Eclipse & I thought that's what the filter was for. In the 1 1/2 years I had him, I did about three (I think) full water changes where I dumped everything out and rinsed it in hot water - killing all the good bacteria, of course!!!

Considering he was a pet shop betta who was most likely already 6 months to a year old when I got him, I can't BELIEVE he lived with me for 1 1/2 years - he must have been one TOUGH bugger!!!

Oh yeah - and I only fed him on Mon., Wed. & Fri. per the pet shop instructions. :(

[KukaaKatchou]

ohoh I've been rinsing my gravel in hot water. What do you recommend?

[Lion Mom]

If it's a non-filtered, non-cycled tank that is fine.

If it is a filtered, cycled tank you only want to do PARTIAL water changes with a gravel vacuum.

[xswornxoffxjello]

Don't change water in dim light, and never let yourself be distracted. You and your fish both will regret it.

[Jupiter]

Never wash a tank with soap! Yep, learned that the hard way...

[Capricorn]

Pay attention if you have to start the gravel vac/siphon by sucking on the hose instead of auto-starting it..

[purplemuffin]

Letting my grandparents ever by me fish as a child? They knew less than me, and I was 5! They bought a 10 gallon, immediately tossed about 25 goldfish and..well, I thought they were minnows at the time, but they could be something else? I think they were minnows! By the next day(my birthday party where they were going to give me the fish) all but three had died! So I had three tiny fish in what I thought was a huge tank! Two of them lived for a couple months, but I managed to have one live for four years! Surprising considering we had no filter and I have no memory of any water changes at all, unless my parents did them while I was at school which I doubt!

So sort of a lesson learned through someone else's mistake? Either way, when I learned that goldfish DO live longer than 'a couple weeks' and instead live years..Well, golly. That's the reason I joined this forum, I didn't want any surprise mistakes by listening to the people around me! O_O Honest, up until this year, I thought goldfish had the shortest lifespans of all the fish, and the goldfish that get giant were a different species!

[Miss Jinkx]

Never clean your daughters fish tank out with a brand new kitchen sponge which contains toxic chemicals. (Honestly I had no idea).....

:(

RIP Hazle...

[metalbetta]

I bought Winston (my first... the little jerk who started it) before I even learned about this site.
Just because that cute little quart tank is only like 2 dollars at wal-mart, it's so not worth it. Winston grew fast. Lesson learned. lol