[Long] A painful and valuable lesson learned...

No matter how easy you might think you're making it for your non-fish
keeper roommate to look after your tank while you're gone, it won't work.
This is the lesson I learned tonight as I returned home after only 4 days
gone to a tank with completely green water, dead and dying fish
everywhere, ammonia through the roof and the stench of a dead tank.
Roommate claims the fish were fine that morning, perhaps they were,
perhaps not. By the time I started water changes, all but one Neolamp.
similis were dead. The similis did not survive the stress of the water
changes combined with all the other crap. Now I have lost all my F0 and F1
fish and fry (over $150 worth of livestock). I am left with just a tank of
snails and plants. Talk about discouraging.

As for causes of this, again, hard to say. There are many possible causes,
any of which an experienced fish keeper could have prevented. The filter
seized up sometime while I was gone and the roommate failed to notice the
lack of water motion. Said roommate also failed to notice the AC had
turned off and it was 90F in the room the fish were in when I came home
(which was after dark, who knows how high it was during the day or on
prior days). So, oxygen deprivation is a likely factor, especially
considering a few fry and the similis (smallest of my fish) were the only
ones still alive when I got home.

Also, ammonia poisoning probably did in any fish that survived oxygen
deprivation (assuming that it was oxygen deprivation that did in the
rest). There was of course the ammonia from the decaying fish. There was
also an excess of food on the tank floor, which suggests to me perhaps the
fish died earlier than today, since I gave her premeasured amounts of food
to feed them so she shouldn't have been able to overfeed them, unless of
course the fish were dead and not eating the food. I should have just
forgone with the feeding altogether. I would have lost the fry in the tank
due to lack of food, but perhaps without the excess food contributing to
the ammonia levels, I'd still have at least the similis.

As I said at the beginning, my roommate claims they were all fine this
morning, but I have a hard time believing the tank could have gotten to
such a state in the space of 10-12 hours. The algae bloom was so thick the
back of the tank couldn't be seen until two 50% water changes had been
performed. Then again, I have never had a tank with such a catastrophic
loss before. I'm literally sick to my stomach right now, and it's not all
from the stench of the dead fish. I blame myself for this loss because I
should have gotten one of the neighbors who also has a fish tank to watch
the tank. On the other hand, I feel my roommate has at least some of the
blame for letting the temps get so extreme (I have other furry pets who
shouldn't be that hot either) and not noticing the dead fish, but I also
feel guilty about blaming her because she's clueless about fish and I
never should have trusted the tank to her in the first place.

Gah, this is just so frustrating. I've had this tank going well with only
that one aggression incident last month (which was resolved by putting
stronger filter flow into the tank actually) and some green hair algae
"blooms" (clumps would be more apt a term). All the fish were displaying
and breeding. I had a handful of fry of various ages (some 4 months, some
1 month). The plants were growing and the green hair algae had finally
been brought under control. It's just aggrievating that all this work
could be ruined in the space of 4 days. So much so that I wonder if it's
even worth it to start over while I am living with my current set of
roommates. I am moving in the near future, so I suppose I could just leave
the plants and snails (would the snails produce enough waste to keep the
filter colonies going?) until after I move. But of course, as bad luck
would have it, the local aquarium society's big annual fish show/auction
(Findig 2003) is the weekend I'm slated to move, so my best opportunity to
restock for less than I payed for my now dead fish is shot because the
tank will be in mid-move and not ready for fish then.

Also, what does one have to do to get a tank ready for new fish after such
a loss? As I said, I've never had a whole tank of fish go belly up. One or
two deaths on occasion of course, but nothing this catastrophic. Does
there need to be any disinfecting? I'm leaning towards no since this
wasn't caused by illness. Logic tells me that water changes to bring the
ammonia and algae bloom under control should be sufficient. Of course, if
I do wait until after I move to restart the tank, I might just redo the
whole thing with new substrate and rock placement. There was several parts
of the current substrate that irked me such as the crushed coral migrating
into the similis' sand-based shell bed. I'd also plan for two shell beds
if I were to keep similis again since they do seem to get into really bad
territorial arguments (at least my 5 fought over who had control of the
shell bed) compared to say the multifasciatus. And I am babbling in my
post right now because I am upset over this, so I will stop here.

I'm truly sorry to hear of your loss.

Mark
http://www.cichliddomain.com

Hi Cichlidiot,
I have found that it is much safer to let the fish go without food for
several days rather than rely on someone unaccustomed to looking after fish.
Having said that if it was caused by your filter dying combined with the
high temps then the fish would have died with no one looking after them
also.
Either way it is not good to return home and find them as you did.

John.


"rmc" wrote in message
...
I'm truly sorry to hear of your loss.

Mark
http://www.cichliddomain.com

In rec.aquaria.freshwater.cichlids John McCormick wrote:
Hi Cichlidiot,
I have found that it is much safer to let the fish go without food for
several days rather than rely on someone unaccustomed to looking after fish.
Having said that if it was caused by your filter dying combined with the
high temps then the fish would have died with no one looking after them
also.
Either way it is not good to return home and find them as you did.

Pretty sure it was the temps and not the food. May not have even been the
filter. I found out after further investigating that she had not turned on
the AC Tuesday evening either. Nor did she open windows or turn on fans to
bring in the cool night air. So basically, it sounds like the fish tank
room was an oven (temperature wise) from Tuesday until I got home Weds
evening at 11pm. The larger cyprichromis fish had been dead long enough
for their eyes to go white and fungus to start growing. The smaller fish
that survived the temps I think were killed off by the ammonia caused from
the dead cyps and the food. Their gills were bright red, which I believe
is what happens with ammonia poisoning. How my roommate could have failed
to notice 8 floating dead fish and kept dumping in the food without
calling me is beyond me. The stench in the tank makes me pretty sure that
these fish were dead before Weds's feeding. Can't see how so much stink
could have occured in just a few hours even given the temps.

The food I vaccuumed off the gravel was not fungused, so I think it was
from Weds afternoon feeding. I'm beginning to think that most of the fish
were already dead then and the non-eaten food and/or dead fish and/or
snails is what clogged the filter and made it stop. I have had problems in
the past with the snails forming a mass on the intake grill and then
getting mulm stuck between the snails so that filter flow is reduced.
Never had it completely cut off filter flow, but then I've always noticed
when the flow is reduced.

In rec.aquaria.freshwater.cichlids Jim Brown wrote:

Do a full 100% water change, making sure to vacuum the gravel. Fill with
dechlorinated water. Changes the filter media and check as to why it
stopped. Depending on how long it is actually until the move, you might
want to try a couple hardy fish to keep the aquarium running.

I don't really go for the temporary fish to cycle a tank approach. I buy
fish for keeps usually. That's why I was wondering if the snail population
(had over 100 malaysian trumpet snails before this, probably only about 2
dozen now) would be sufficient biomass or not.

As for the upcoming auction, have you talked to friends/club members about
boarding any of your purchases until you are set up? I hate to miss any
auction because that is where the buys and special stuff show up.

Part of the problem is where to put the fish. But the bigger problem is
actually getting to the auction. It is literally the same weekend I am
slated to move. Unless my manager can bump up the move date a few days
(I'm switching to a new apartment in the complex), I may not have the time
to spend 4+ hours at the auction. If I can get the move date bumped up a
bit, then the matter would be moot. I could make sure the tank was moved
first thing Saturday morning and have it set up and ready for purchases
that evening.

Current flow is always something that needs to be adjusted. Perhaps the
fish were also moving the coral substrate into their sandy area.
Tough break. Room mates can be great or lousy. I had one once that was
told how to feed the very good guppies I was selling. I also had a single
piranha that he was instructed to feed one guppy a day from a tank of
culls/feeders. He had a stream of friends and dates over, and every visitor
got to see a guppy fed to the piranha. He got tired of catching feeders and
ran out of them after a week, so he moved the piranha into a larger tank
that I kept my sale stock in. His thought process said -no catching for
him, the piranha could eat when it wanted. Wiped out all my stock, about 50
pairs, that I had been getting $5 a pair from LFS. That was back in 1969.
Got transferred to a new city right after so I didn't have to kill him.
Room mates are more trouble than the fish. ;-)

Don't you hate when roommates do stupid **** like this? Sorry for the
language, but I have trouble seeing how a human could fail to grasp the
concept "heat bad for living things". Because it wasn't just my fish
affected by the heat. My cats were also subjected to it. They being mobile
could at least seek the coolest part of the area of the house they're
allowed in, but the fish are stuck. My cat with allergies got triggered on
another licking fest while I was gone too (he does this usually when his
skin itches, but also when stressed by things like overheating). Adding
this fish loss to the totals, so far this year my roommates have cost me
about $1,500US in pet expenses. You can see why I'm moving as soon as the
lease permits it.