Things You Wish You Never Bought
 

I thought I would start a post about this.

I bought a bright pink tube worm (I think it must be a tube anemone) from a LFS where I was told that it should do just fine in my tank. It is about the size of a coco worm, but has long, neon pink skinny tentacles coming out of the top of it. It sure is pretty.

It does just fine, all right - just fine at killing everything it comes into contact with. I have lost many coral frags to this bad boy and it moves around the tank on its own so it is hard to keep control of. We affectionately refer to him as the "Whip of Death".

I decided not to try to sell him because after all why would I want to pass him on to another person who is even less knowledgeable than myself in the saltwater hobby?

He has stayed in the same place now for a few months and is not touching any of the corals so hopefully that trend continues.

Now I know I am not the only one who has made one of these impulse buys. What stories do you have about things you wish you never would have introduced to your aquarium?

ok..we started talking about this thing in the other thread. I bought a tube anemone in October...the wife thought it was just so pretty and amazing...which it is.....but after it killed its third fish......in 4 days...it had to go....so I started up my 20 gal nano and bought some live rock....put sand in the bottom.....he now resides in this little tank...which Im sure he has no clue of his surroundings......if you want him to stay in one place....cut a piece of pvc about 10 inches long and stuff his tube in it....he will stay put....he hasnt moved plus it anchors him down.....the tank is called death tank .....i have 3 chocolate chips stars in there with him....and urchin....a conch....tons of bristleworms....a crab that came out of the rock.....I had a sea hare.....he ate it.....anyways...they look incredible with the main lights off......oh...also when my 6 line wrasse went carpet surfing.....the body was eaten by the tube worm...normally he gets a big fat shrimp....about once a week......buy a cheap shrimp ring....lol

A reef tank. :razz:

btw...they dont need any special lighting or anything...so start a little tank and enjoy him....oh..here is a picture of mine in the big tank ....after the slaughter...

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...beanemone1.jpg

My first and second marine setup and probably gone to regret buying my third setup. I say that because when I buy my forth set up I definetly will be thinking I should have just gone this big the first time and not wasted so much money on the first three setups.:lol:

yeah....but I think its a natural progression to start small and make sure you like it.....

Yes that must be his brother in the picture. Mine looks exactly the same. However, mine is a lot friendlier - it has not eaten a fish or an invert as far as I am aware. Or maybe the fish are too smart as I have never seen one of them go near him.

I do not feed him anything special. He is in a spot where NLS pellets drop into him and he gobbles them right up. I am hoping they do not live too long. Thanks for the pcv idea - if he starts moving again I am going to anchor him down.

My worst buy tank-wise was my 150 gallon freshwater tank - that blew up on me twice in eleven months. That was the main tank and the replacement tank as well. Silicone let go on both - got rid of all my freshwater as a result.

Actually I was not too fond of the big tank thing. You miss a lot of what goes on and you can only buy livestock that gets along. If you have several small tanks you can get whatever catches your eye! Also, moving those big ones is a big pain you know where!

Death kept catching the fish at night.......Im sure they would swim and forget that death was in there ...just around the next rock.....

I bought a purple tube anemone about 6 months ago. When i first got it I dug a depression in the sand and placed him into it and covered it over with sand I then placed a rock on either side of it to make a "cave" so he cannot move around the tank. When fully extended his tentacles can reach about a 6-7 inch radius. I did understand that it could sting and kill corals and possibly kill fish but so far I have lost nothing.. I turn off my water flow when feeding the fish and target the anemone with food, he readily takes flake food, arcti pods, brine shrimp etc and is amazing to watch when feeding. So far I am happy with my purchase because he is a beautiful addition to my tank.

For me it was a file fish not knowing they eat sps, before that it was a purple dotty before that a coral beauty after all those a striped rabbit fish that went apeshiets on my zoas and donuts sigh.

Live and learn..... If the whip of death reigned havoc on your reef why not get rid of it sometimes it's better to remove 1 thing than letting it stay to kill off many things IMO.

sometimes i think I do too much research before I buy anything...

I would say though that I'd never by compact fluorescents again and wish I'd just gone with MH from the word go.

I do alot of research before I buy things too...except this one time...I took the LFS opinion and well....wish I hadnt. Now I research the living things too....as well as equipment, supplements, food etc..

haha...
I'm sure that like me, a lot of the members here enjoy the research as much as the application.

It took me a while to catch on that it was the tube anemone killing the corals. By the time I did and moved him away from the corals - the damage had already been done. As stated now he is in his happy spot and leaving everything alone.

Lets just say he is on his last chance. He is so very pretty and I have become attached to him. After all he is only doing what nature intended. My stupid - not his.

I wish I never bought damsels. :twised:

I wish I'd never fallen in love with clams and SPS.

Ya...I should have just keep looking at everyone elses. Saves a lot....lol

Scott

If the last chance is blown....I can always put him in the other corner of my death tank.....

I bought a brown powder tang for my 65g tank when I first started in the hobby and before I knew about canreef. Needless to say the tang did not fair well AT ALL in a 65g. He beat up all the other fish, was stressed out and ended up dying from velvet a couple of weeks after I got him. Biggest mistake/regret so far.

I shall definitely keep that in mind. I would not mind selling him to somebody who knows what he is capable of. One more piece of coral and I shall be sending you an email.

He sure adds a lot of bright colour and movement to my tank, though. I really have to get some pictures up one of these days.

I have also bought a couple of fish I should not have because I did not know they would starve in my tank. Mandarin and boxfish - RIP - I did not do research.

A word to the wise is to do the research before - no matter how much you think you cannot possibly live without "one of those neat things..."

Things
 

When we first set up our tank,the older fellow at Riverfront sold us an AIPTASIA for $6.00. Way to get taken advantage of. This is also a great way to build up your business.That tube anemone needs sand,we had ours barried under about 8 inches.We feed ours shrimp,krill etc,every 3 or 4 days. The one we had was purple with a lime green center,it was beautiful,got to big for our 125 gallon tank.

lol sorry i couldnt help but laugh a little. That is seriously horrible thou... I would have been sooo ****ed.

wow...how big do they get?

A particular hard-to-keep starfish...without researching it first. Eventually it starved to death and literally disintegrated in my tank :( I hate that my ignorance caused this death.

LOL, I regret buying my 65gallon. I don't like how it has the brace down the center and that it is only 3 feet long. I should've gone with the 90 or 150 gallon.

I second that, unfortunately I did the same thing :sad:

regret
 

I regret buying an elegance knowing that it will die. After it died, I thought I could keep another one alive so I bought another one. After it died, I thought I could keep another one alive so I bought another one. After it died, I thought I could keep another one alive so I bought another one. blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Smart people learn from mistakes. I was dumb but I'm a little smarter now because I won't be buying a 5th elegance coral.

A Maxi-jet 1200. The power cord was sliced open right where it goes into the power head and I didn't pop that cover off to look. The morning after I put it in my tank everything except my chromis was dead. I assume that it leached a lot of copper into my tank.

I am also deeply regretful of the fish I have had die because of my own ignorance and lack of research. After starting this post I direct fed the Whip of Death a cube of krill mixed with saltwater and he loved it. How big DO they get?

Man, that aiptasia story is awful. I so feel for you being sold a pest.

"When we first set up our tank,the older fellow at Riverfront sold us an AIPTASIA for $6.00."

HA! HA! HA! He through mine in for free! :lol: I thought it looked cool and he said it was an easy to take care for anemone. :sad:

A lfs did the same thing to my brother who resides in Victoria when he first started in the hobby. He bought a coral and when he got home he called me to ask about its care and when he told me about the "extra" he had to pay for i could not believe it at first.

Yeah Cross' damsels



They start out as this....

http://www.akvaryum.us/tuzluresim/Ne...don_crossi.jpg


and turn into this :sad: and they are bigger than my yellow tang


http://www.wetwebmedia.com/DamselPIX...rlsoniAQAd.jpg

I have 2 and they hate each other I cannot catch then and them seam to refuse to kill each other.....or at least carpet surf

I can see why you would not want the cross damsels. Have you tried feeding in a net?

I have been feeding in a net this week and then leaving the net hanging out of the aquarium so that the fish can get used to it. Day one nobody would go near the net, but by day two all fish were willing to enter the net to feed. You might want to try it out.

somebody's MH DIY canopy and skimmer when i was going to turn my 55 gallon into a reef tank. never used them. might at one point use the skimmer, but the lights and canopy are just gathering dust. STUPID waste of money.

I do my homework on all big purchases ($100.00 +) but a few times when I was about to make a purchase I was either talked out of it for something "better" or changed my mind to save money. Each time I have kicked myself for wasting money so now I hold by the law of research.
Kevin