Catastrophe! Or was it a Fishtastrophe? As many of you know, I am a fishoholic in addition to being a dogoholic. I have that addiction somewhat under control and currently have about 20 tanks of fish - less than half of what I had 4 or 5 years ago. My tanks include a lovely planted 20 gallon that contains a breeding colony of Limias. Several days ago I found the bright orange male Bristlenose catfish who also lives there dead on the bottom, and the next day I noticed that the plants were looking rather yellowish. Today I found 6 dead Limias, and the rest of the colony looking sluggish. Oops, whats happening here? Its a closed colony and I never add new fish to the tank, so it wasnt infectious, and Im pretty good about doing my water changes. Most of my fish live a long long time. When I put my hand in to remove the dead fish I discovered the water was HOT. Beyond warm, hot. Ive heard stories about malfunctioning aquarium heaters but had never had it happen to me - until now. It was tempting to net out the fish and move them to cooler water, but the temperature change would have killed them for sure, yet I couldnt leave them to boil. So I removed 2 gallons of water at a time and replaced it with room temperature aged water, doing it a number of times to bring the temperature down, but not too fast. The water is still warm, but with the offending heater removed the tank will continue to cool off. Hopefully I still have some fish alive tomorrow, and the huge Anubia plant will recover. Sorry, my fishy friends.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:04:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015