So we all have our little pet peeves about the hobby. I'm not talkin' about poor care of fish at shops and irresponsible pet owners who treat their fish like objects. We all despise that crap. I'm talkin' about the stupid little s*** that bugs ya but the next guy laughs at.

I'll start. I've made it well known I prefer naturalistic environments for my fish. I even have a few biotope tanks with fish and plants native only to a certain area within a region (my Essequibo River biotope tanks) rather than only fish from a certain continent or broad geographical area. So naturally, I prefer natural colored gravel. Probly my biggest pet peeve is dumpin' new gravel into a tank and seein' the flash of a half dozen hot pink, neon purple, flourescent yellow or sky blue pieces as that 25 pounds of beautiful, natural substrate falls to the tank bottom. Man, I'm tellin' ya, it might be one piece of hot pink gravel and I WILL see it fall into the tank! Pickin' out those annoying bits of color is like findin' a needle in a haystack, but it just drives me nuts knowin' they're in there if I don't.

So that's my stupid aquarium pet peeve. Anybody else?

WYite

I stopped buying gravel at fish stores for that very reason. I don't have the need like you do for all natural environments, (what's the natural environment for FH or parrots anyhow?) but if I have a specific theme in mind everything has to match and not have wrong colors in it damn it.

Wyite, If you want natural color gravel again go check a lowes or home depot for this: http://www.quikrete.com/ProductLines/GravelAllPurpose.asp

I use that for any tanks that I do a natural theme on or are planted. As for my art project tanks I've switched to getting fancier stones or pebble kinda stuff at either the local Michael's or AC Moore.

Another peeve I have is the fake plants available at fish stores. Why do they have to look so very cheap and fake and be so stupid expensive. It takes a little bit of extra work to make sure to not pick up one with metal in it, but I've picked up fake plants at Ikea like http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00140326/ and Target that look way better than anything I've seen at the local Petsmart.

I might be guilty with my current tank! Black sand and plastic plants I even had a coral skeleton in it for a short time. Yikes, Im shamed!
Actually no Im not shamed about my tank. I totally agree with you Wyite on what I would call a "kids tank". Colored sand and a Little Mermaid castle.
It kills me not to have live plants but I was going a cretin look with the black sand. In my defense of the coral, it helped balance my water chem with my cichlids.
My pet Peeve: people who tap on my tank. It sits at eye level on one side and stresses out my fish big time not to mention you can see the finger prints from both sides.

My pet peve would be water spots on my glass. I can't stand water spots on the outside of my glass. The other one would be....well lets face it I have too many to list a little of the perfectionist in me a little the OCD, idk.

Really not sure which is my primary pet peeve LOL got a few. When it comes to my family & friends and them wanting me see there tanks I don't say anything just smile and say it looks nice!! But since a couple groups of fish I've raised here are moving to my brothers now that he wants to try his hand at spawning mouth brooders just so happens I'm changing a tank to sand so he'll be getting all the gravel LOL plus a few other things

Another of my pet peeves is walking in a lfs and not finding one fish(s) that give me the "WOW" factor or may have to research that a bit. But do have to take into consideration that I'm a picky witch and most of the fish on my wish list aren't the easiest to find nor are they going to be found in the shops where I go around here.