What is the worst thing you've done to your tank inhabitants?

[pakora]

A recent post by vetteman regarding hacking away through a jungle of pallys made me think of this.

If you would be so daring, please share with everyone the worst thing you have done to your tank. This could be to the actual tank (playing football indoors catching the ball and go flying into the tank sending XXamount of gallons throughout your house) or something to an inhabitant (fish,etc.)

Here is my worst.

It was my first saltwater tank so I was extremely fascinated with my little new world of life. I had no corals but I had some emerald crabs and a goby. I was always feeling around in the tank. I saw an emerald crab on a rock and I tried to pull it off and relocate it so I could see it run around in the open. The little bugger decided he didnt want to come off the rock so he grabbed on. Me not realizing he was so delicate decided to try and pull him off. I grabbed his carapace and pulled and pulled a little harder, and then a little harder and then all of a sudden *POP*. Half of his carapace opens up and all this white crab matter is exposed to the tank water. I felt horrible. I was like fine you can stay there on the rock and I let him be. It looked so painful but the crab continued about its business, even though half of its guts were now on the outside. Later on it died and I gave it the royal flush. After that I never bothered any of my livestock. I still cant believe how delicate they are and how strong they are to hold onto that rock no matter what. RIP pal! :cry:

 

[vetteman]

I take **** Photo's of them....... ps:

 

[Neon Reef]

I'll play..i'm not proud but i must admit that when i had my first saltwater tank, i overstocked it horribly..it was a 12 gallon nano cube and lfs after lfs would never guide me in the right direction and they would just sell me fish after fish..this was a very long time ago and i was a dumb kid so at one point the fish in the TWELVE GALLON tank were a Purple tang, a blue tang, a lemonpeel angel, a flame angel, a coral beauty, a heniochus and a clown fish..i didn't understand why they all kept fighting and/or dying..i gave up, sold everything and didn't come back into the hobby until 4 years later when I researched the hobby more. sad but true

 

[Elan]

I'll play..i'm not proud but i must admit that when i had my first saltwater tank, i overstocked it horribly..it was a 12 gallon nano cube and lfs after lfs would never guide me in the right direction and they would just sell me fish after fish..this was a very long time ago and i was a dumb kid so at one point the fish in the TWELVE GALLON tank were a Purple tang, a blue tang, a lemonpeel angel, a flame angel, a coral beauty, a heniochus and a clown fish..i didn't understand why they all kept fighting and/or dying..i gave up, sold everything and didn't come back into the hobby until 4 years later when I researched the hobby more. sad but true

:cry:

 

[roshi719]

I had a humbug damsel that my buddy caught out of his 120. We put him in a 5 gal bucket and set it in the bathroom with plans to dump him down the toilet. Well two bachelors in one house should say it all, but we found him still alive in the bucket a month later. Half the water had evaporated out but he was just fine. Lives to this day in my sump. I figure he already did his time in solitary, but he is too mean to put with any other fish.

 

[pakora]

lol hardy little punks live up to their reputation!

I had a humbug damsel that my buddy caught out of his 120. We put him in a 5 gal bucket and set it in the bathroom with plans to dump him down the toilet. Well two bachelors in one house should say it all, but we found him still alive in the bucket a month later. Half the water had evaporated out but he was just fine. Lives to this day in my sump. I figure he already did his time in solitary, but he is too mean to put with any other fish.

 

[vetteman]

lol hardy little punks live up to their reputation!

and they WILL bite the hand that feeds them

 

[Paul_N]

About, 15 years ago I caught a hitchhiker mantis shrimp in my tank. It had killed a couple fish. It took me about 3 nights of sitting up till 3am with a flashlight. I put him in a bucket of tap water and watched him wiggle until I squashed him with a piece of rock...:sad: I had no idea, every lfs was like "ooo mantis, get it out, kill it, kill it!"

Trouble is now I want one to set up a small tank for....:squigglemouth:

 

[badfish]

ok i'll play i have 2 the first,i had a large fish only tank and decided to put in a larger return pump about 2000 gph. you know i forgot to put a hose clamp on the outlet. so as i stood there and watched happy about all the flow i had now....boom it blew the line off and water was going everywhere.when i opened the doors on the stand it was like a fire hose was in there.i reached to kill the power under the stand and got the crap shocked outta me.i think i made up new cuss words that night:cry:

next i had this clarki clown who loved to put his face in the corner of the tank and fan his tail as fast as he could.of course this threw sand all over my corals and after he killed a few colonies.i had enough and tore the whole tank apart to catch him and flushed him:choler:i would have fried and ate him if he was bigger:bigsmile:

 

[pakora]

lol! You went through some crap man! Is that fish where you got your name from!?

BTW: SNOOCH TO THE NOOCH!

ok i'll play i have 2 the first,i had a large fish only tank and decided to put in a larger return pump about 2000 gph. you know i forgot to put a hose clamp on the outlet. so as i stood there and watched happy about all the flow i had now....boom it blew the line off and water was going everywhere.when i opened the doors on the stand it was like a fire hose was in there.i reached to kill the power under the stand and got the crap shocked outta me.i think i made up new cuss words that night:cry:

next i had this clarki clown who loved to put his face in the corner of the tank and fan his tail as fast as he could.of course this threw sand all over my corals and after he killed a few colonies.i had enough and tore the whole tank apart to catch him and flushed him:choler:i would have fried and ate him if he was bigger:bigsmile:

 

[pakora]

lol did the mantis scream? I bet you told it "In the ocean, nobody can hear you scream" :ah:

About, 15 years ago I caught a hitchhiker mantis shrimp in my tank. It had killed a couple fish. It took me about 3 nights of sitting up till 3am with a flashlight. I put him in a bucket of tap water and watched him wiggle until I squashed him with a piece of rock...:sad: I had no idea, every lfs was like "ooo mantis, get it out, kill it, kill it!"

Trouble is now I want one to set up a small tank for....:squigglemouth:

 

[holdyourlight]

Worst thing I ever did was find out how long an emerald crab can live with out water (on accident).
While I don't know exactly how long it could have lived for I know it DID live for 24 hours no H2o.

 

[badfish]

lol! You went through some crap man! Is that fish where you got your name from!?

BTW: SNOOCH TO THE NOOCH!

no, but i should have got my name from him.i can think of a few names for him though LOL!!!!!

snooch to the nooch back at cha bro

 

[MrPicasso]

This isn't tank related but related to saltwater. I was fishing out on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel Pier one night going for sharks and rays and I snagged a Mantis Shrimp. This was before I was in the hobby and had no clue what these things were. My thoughts were so confused about this little creature but I figured it has a little lobster tail so maybe it would be good bait. So I pulled it off the hook, Laid it on the deck and cut him into pieces... LIVE. Surprisingly it did work and I caught a few fish off of it, but once I found out what they were I felt pretty bad about it.

 

[pakora]

lol just wondering, would you feel bad about doing that if it was a lobster for real? :xd:

This isn't tank related but related to saltwater. I was fishing out on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel Pier one night going for sharks and rays and I snagged a Mantis Shrimp. This was before I was in the hobby and had no clue what these things were. My thoughts were so confused about this little creature but I figured it has a little lobster tail so maybe it would be good bait. So I pulled it off the hook, Laid it on the deck and cut him into pieces... LIVE. Surprisingly it did work and I caught a few fish off of it, but once I found out what they were I felt pretty bad about it.

 

[EliteReefs]

worst thing that happened to me was i was moving a show size 10+" sailfin from one tank to another. put the lid up and got him in a huge net. rested the net on the side of the tank with the net hanging in the water still for a second while i opened the lid for the other tank. I grabbed the net and started to pull it out over to the new tank. Just as i did the lid came SLAMMING down right on the fish and bent him in two. I did not know what to do because he was clearly still alive. I put him in the water and sadly he could only swim in a small circle because like I said he was bent in half almost. I decided there was nothing i could do at this point so I took it outside really quick and shot it with a pellet gun in the head. i needed something FAST and at the time it was the fastest and cleanest way i could think of


had that fish for 8 years and i was not happy. still have not seen one in person that big since

 

[MrPicasso]

lol just wondering, would you feel bad about doing that if it was a lobster for real? :xd:

If I would have had snagged a lobster It would have been in the cooler.:haha:

 

[Psychographic]

Does putting a guppy in a Bong count?

 

[pakora]

ouch! at least you didnt do like alot of people and act like nothing happened, then later walk by and gasp and say "OH MY who would have done such a horrid thing!? what happened to that fish!? oh:"

worst thing that happened to me was i was moving a show size 10+" sailfin from one tank to another. put the lid up and got him in a huge net. rested the net on the side of the tank with the net hanging in the water still for a second while i opened the lid for the other tank. I grabbed the net and started to pull it out over to the new tank. Just as i did the lid came SLAMMING down right on the fish and bent him in two. I did not know what to do because he was clearly still alive. I put him in the water and sadly he could only swim in a small circle because like I said he was bent in half almost. I decided there was nothing i could do at this point so I took it outside really quick and shot it with a pellet gun in the head. i needed something FAST and at the time it was the fastest and cleanest way i could think of


had that fish for 8 years and i was not happy. still have not seen one in person that big since

 

[pakora]

mmm mm good! :angel:

If I would have had snagged a lobster It would have been in the cooler.:haha: