I am the worst fish mom on the planet… 😭

[Karen B.]

I am raising little Clown killifish fry.

6 of them are about a month (ish), and 20 were 2-3 weeks old.

While moving my littlest baby container to do my WC/cleaning, I put them on the table but the container fell on the floor with all the fry… 😭 I am torn between crying and being utterly mad at myself. I managed to rescue 11, I hope the shock won’t kill them. I feel so bad.

S.I.P. little one.

Herés a picture of two survivors. They were so hard to find on my old wooden plank floor with ridges in between each planks. 

[Guppysnail]

That must have been so hard to have happen. Sending your little one good vibes that they recover from this.  I have had guppy kids jump out of nets when they were not the entire way in onto the carpet floor. I know how frightening it is.  They recovered seeming no worse for wear so I hope yours do as well.  

[PineSong]

Literally the thing I am scared of every time I move fry, because I have had them flip out of the net or further into it and I've had fits trying to find them. They are so darn tiny! You did a good job to save as many as you did, you must have a calm head in a crisis.

[Jawjagrrl]

My heart goes out to you. My kitchen floor emulates late 17th century techniques right down to square nails - and this means lot of little gaps that would be a disaster as I move around shrimp and nano fish. Hope your rescues come through ok!

[Odd Duck]

I had the biggest pea puffer I have ever seen yeet himself out of the tank during a cleaning and I didn’t notice or find him until 3 days later and far too late, despite the fact that I ALWAYS double check and I still missed him.  🤦🏻‍♀️ He had a history of previous yeets so I was paranoid.  Still a fail.

The point is that even with trying our hardest, things happen.  It’s how you respond and recover that makes our often fallible human selves so resilient and able to learn from problems and mishaps and still overcome obstacles.

[Karen B.]

On 3/10/2022 at 5:47 AM, Guppysnail said:

That must have been so hard to have happen. Sending your little one good vibes that they recover from this.  I have had guppy kids jump out of nets when they were not the entire way in onto the carpet floor. I know how frightening it is.  They recovered seeming no worse for wear so I hope yours do as well.  

@Guppysnail

@PineSong

@Jawjagrrl

Thank you so much for your kind word. I feel so bad. They didn’t deserve this and I sure did not mean it to happen - I dedicate so much time for them. I hope it doesn’t appear as neglect on my part. 

[Odd Duck]

On 3/10/2022 at 6:10 PM, Karen B. said:

@Guppysnail

@PineSong

@Jawjagrrl

Thank you so much for your kind word. I feel so bad. They didn’t deserve this and I sure did not mean it to happen - I dedicate so much time for them. I hope it doesn’t appear as neglect on my part. 

If I had a buck for every fish or shrimp that flipped itself out of a net in transit between tanks or after unbagging, I swear!  Or every fish I’ve lost, sometimes through pure stupidity let alone accidents like yours.  It happens.  It was an accident, not on purpose.

What would you say to someone else if this happened to them?  You would offer comfort and sympathy, but you would never blame them for an accident.  Don’t blame yourself!  Be kind to you, too, not just others.  If you were a bad fish mom you wouldn’t feel bad.  Clearly you care and will be even more careful in future.  But accidents just happen sometimes.  You have to forgive yourself for things that just aren’t always preventable.

[Torrey]

On 3/10/2022 at 5:10 PM, Karen B. said:

@Guppysnail

@PineSong

@Jawjagrrl

Thank you so much for your kind word. I feel so bad. They didn’t deserve this and I sure did not mean it to happen - I dedicate so much time for them. I hope it doesn’t appear as neglect on my part. 

I don't think there is a fishkeeper anywhere (except a brand new one, who simply hasn't had it happen yet) that doesn't have at least one story like this, whether it's Dean's story of when he gave up fishkeeping and thought his tank was empty only to decide to clean it out (I don't remember how much later... many, many months) only to discover there had been viable fry that survived, to my moving day and the tank side blew out dumping almost 100 gallons of water and multiple fish, to Cory's store story.

I cleaned plants with cyanobacteria out of my tank last week, then had a really bad flare and didn't double check the next day for any stowaways. Last night, I finally had spoons to clean out the containers of plants that need to be burnt or frozen before being tossed, and found a half dozen fry had escaped my first check of the plants. Luckily, there was a half inch of water in the bottom of the plants, and the fry were all still alive along with the snails I didn't get out before my flare ( I knew about the snails, they were bigger than fry).

Of course you didn't mean for this to happen. 

And, we are human. Mistakes happen. We either let them eat at our confidence, or we use them as growth opportunities. Welcome to Nerm growth, sometimes it gets pretty gritty.

I still haven't figured out how the fry stuck to the plants. Snails? I get that, and expected it, hence the water I put in the bottom as I was fairly confident I had missed a few. FISH???)

[LilOne]

Don't feel bad.  accidents happen.  I boiled my 1st batch of fish and burned the heater up in the process.  I bought a 10/20 gallon heater for my 10 gallon tank and didn't read the instructions 1st (stupid mistake) thought I had to turn it on and turned it up instead and was too hot for the tank.  heater still semi worked (I guess) I turned it down water seemed ok.  got another batch and the heater stopped working and they died over night :(.  Now I have a brand new heater with a digital thermometer built in 😅

[PineSong]

Yes, unfortunately mistakes and mishaps are part of the gig when it comes to tiny pets and also water chemistry. We're all doing our best to provide good care but also mere mortals. We cannot be perfect and we cannot prevent every accident. The same heart that wants the best for each fry will bring much comfort and assistance to other beings: other fish, other critters, other people. The net result is more good in the world ❤️