Great title, great article. If I can keep my hands dry even one day while keeping fish then there is something wrong. Here is my little story of a situation I put myself in that is very similar to the one you've posted:
I went through a short period where I wasn't doing very good maintenance on my big tanks. I had already been keeping fish for a while and had some really steady mature tanks going. In the end, the tanks could have been taken care of so much better and I ended up losing 2 angels, 1 zebra plec, 3 cories, and 1 severum due to related issues. I'm still mad at myself for losing all those fish on account of my neglect. This had happened because I had taken in 2 tanks full of donated fish that people couldn't keep. This happened within the span of about 3-4 months. I was originally excited at first to get these free fish. Eventually, I just found it to be a lot of work for fish I wasn't that interested in (the common pleco).
I had a friend who was moving and couldn't find someone to take care of their fish and he couldn't take it with him. I took his fish in to care for them because there was literally no other option. I was really excited about getting to keep their angelfish, smaller zebra pleco, and a few other tiny fish. One was a full grown common pleco and all these fish were in a 90G tank. I felt really bad for the plec and I bought a 150G tank just for him. I didn't have more space at the time so I couldn't go bigger.
I loved them all, but I couldn't keep a planted tank with that giant pleco and the bio load was too insane. My vacuum couldn't suck up their plec's poop because it was too large. It was very hard to keep the pleco in the setup I had.
The second tank full of fish I took in was from a 75G tank with severum cichlids and guess what...another big sailfin common pleco (this one was about 9-11")
Eventually, this led to me slacking off because it was really hard to maintain that 150G with the giant plecs in there. At one point, I felt very similar to how you described the guy in the article feeling. Like the tank would just take care of itself and I forgot about it. This didn't last too long because I ended up moving and that was a blessing. I ended up rehoming the majority of the fish I didn't want to keep, especially the giant 2 foot pleco.
Once I moved, I stocked that 150G with fish I've always wanted to keep but never had--discus.
I've never been happier with my fish or my tanks. I don't have any rare fish, but it's just the fact that I love looking at them that pushes me to take care of them. After getting fish I really cared about, I've found myself truly motivated to keeping the best quality tank possible. Especially with the challenge of keeping discus, I'm on top of everything that happens now.
The advice you gave at the end of the article is the true key to keeping good fish. Spend time with them and get yours hands wet! Just by doing that the emotional connection you have with your fish will grow and you wont even be able to consider not caring for them properly. I had to learn the hard way but I'm thankful for the experience because of what I know now.
