Aquarists can say they’ve never made a mistake in their fishkeeping experiences, but in reality, of course all of us have made mistakes during our time in this hobby. If only we knew then what we know now. As with so many things in life, it‘s whether we learn from our mistakes that will determine how successful we will be. Granted, the mistakes we all make can be frustrating, as is evident in the statistics and studies showing that a large percentage of hobbyists quit soon after beginning — some even within a month.
If you are a newcomer to this wonderful hobby, try not to be discouraged — and most of all, do not give up. I promise that no matter how frustrating or difficult fishkeeping may seem at the moment, if you learn from your mistakes, you will truly find this hobby rewarding.
On the other hand, there‘s another philosophy we can apply here: Learn from the mistakes of others. With this in mind, I’ve created a list of 10 of the more common mistakes made in the hobby (in no particular order). Learn from this list and avoid these mistakes before you even come close to making them. We’ll cover the first five this month and the last five in the next issue.
Want to read the full story? Pick up the August 2009 issue of Aquarium Fish International, or subscribe to get 12 months of articles just like this.