Richard Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hey guys,Im at melbourne at the moment and this morning i had a call freom my mother saying 10 fish had died! They had died because i had to take out their airstone and return it to this guy that wanted it back. Well i forgot to return it but just put the pipe in the tank.Overnight someone must have tripped over it and made it fall but this is what died overngiht.1 colony of e.blues (all over 8cm)Half the Hongi colony (breeding/02 frontosa (11cm)1 Femasle calvus (ready to breed)What has hurt me the most is the female calvus which i had only purchused last week.I have never had a problem with air before maybe cause the tan kwas over crouded?Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hi Richard, Sorry to hear about your fish. I hope the rest pull through for you. : merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Not a nice experience to get one of those phone calls ..... been there myselfI find it strange that an airline falling out the tank would have a result like thatunless the tank was overstocked, overfed or underfiltered to have that happen overnight : L2H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted December 17, 2003 Author Share Posted December 17, 2003 PS: Anyone with the following fish i listed dead and selling them please PM me.I will be starting over once i get back to Sydney (22nd Dec)cheersRichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huyey Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hey Richard,Sorry to hear about the death of your fish. Its sad when you have properly set up the tank and everything is going good and then one day, you loose some fish. :o You can rely on surface water movement from your filter so that next time your air pump decides to die on you out of the blue or some other freak accident, your filter can provide some air for your fish.Huy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 I'm with Link. What filtration do you have? What size tank is it? How many other fish are in the tank?My fish have been with no air (which means no filtration for me too) for 9 hrs during a blackout in winter (no heaters either) and I lost 2 fish. It seems unusual for you to lose so many if they still had filters and heaters etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted December 17, 2003 Author Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hey guys,The filter is a Via Aqua 300 which pumps 850lph. Tank was about 3.8ft, close 4ftWhat was in the tank was the following fishHuy: Before i left to Syfney i did a water change which made the spray bar go under the water. Therefore no oxygen13 e.yellows, 5cm mark5 e.blues 8cm+5 L. Hongi 7cm+6 Frontosa 10cm + ?( amazed the 15cm guy is allive)3 BN 5cm+2 Calvus 9cm+What im thinking its overcrowed tank spacecheersRichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Definitely overcrowded in my opinion.Did you find the bigger fish died first? That's often a sign of low oxygen i think, as they need more oxygen than the smaller ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huyey Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Richard, your tank is definitely overcrowded. In my opinion, I think you should keep the fish you already have and not buy anymore. However, if you do decide to get some more fish as replacements, get some more filtration or a bigger tank.Cheers,Huy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted December 17, 2003 Author Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hey guys,The frontosa, calvus and 13 e.yellwos were supposed to go into the 6x2x2 that i have set up and ready but i just wanted to make sure it was safe so i put in 1 e.blue in there and i was gonig to put those fish in once i get back next week.what amazed me was that all 13 e.yellows survived..cheersRichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gutty Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Thats a real bummer Richard. A start on replacing your e.blues CThomson addI have a male of his, very nice specimen IMO.Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phenomena Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Richard,:88: :o Not the calvus!!! No...........!!!Feel sorry mate. The tank is overcrowded, but it doesn't matter if you have enough filtration and O2 and your fish don't get bullied. The filtration you have isn't enough. But I don't think this is the cause of death. Anyway, don't go with te LPH thing that the filter tells you especially with cannister. If you have very efficient media like effisubtrate, you have a vast amount of bacteria. Regardless, they do use lots of O2.I think your fish died cause lack of O2. You mentioned that the spray bar is submerge and no air pump running. There you go. I had the same problem before. I know what it's like. But hey, you learn from it. Cheers,DD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 G'day RichardI am so sorry for your loss! But now you have to act and learn from your stuff up. Move the spray bar out of the water. While you are away just get your mum to drop the water level.When you get back, cut the pipe/hosing to ensure that it is above the water line, always. (Just use a hacksaw on the plastic or sharp knife on the hosing). This way it can never happen again!Personally I try to have a backup system in my overstocked tanks. Eg, a filter that actively moves surface water around and/or a few airstones. You will never regret this type of backup practice.Oh and when you get more airstones, buy about 3 times more than you need. They are useful for all sorts of things, such as icecream filters and fry tumblers. My preference is for the plastic type, the only problem is that they sometimes clog with sand after about a year of operation and need to be cleaned out (easily done). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nissky Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 Wows i think thats really heavily overcrowded, and underfiltered for that many fish! Im assuming this is a 4ft standard not 4x2x2.If it was lack of oxygen you there should be some indicators, like fish gasping for air at surface of water, or breathing heavily... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishie4me Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 hey nissky, does breathng heavily mean they are breathing at a really fast rate? cos my fish are current building up their breathing rate and is gbreathing faster as time pasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 Hi Fishaddiction, Your problem could be gill flukes. This will also cause fish to respire at a faster rate.merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reesy1 Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 Sorry about your loss mate that is really bad. :o :o I agree with the rest of the people in this thread. I have read that alot of oxygen exchange in the tanks is through surface movement , i use couple of power heads close to the surface but not breaking it. It has the added advantage of extra filtration. Good luck with your new fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finnas Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 In my tanks i don't use airstones because the air pump is too noisy. It's supposedly a myth that airstones dissolve lots of oxygen, instead their function is to disturb the water surface so that gases can be exchanged. That's why i only use a few powerheads to disturb the water's surface, it's alot quieter! fishaddiction: i don't want to give any wrong advice, but i think that means that there's not enough oxygen. one morning after a 3 day blackout i woke up to see all my fish breathing deeply and quickly. The next few days the heavy breathing developed into gulping, and then one by one (largest to smallest) my fish dropped to the bottom and died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 There ARE a number of different reasons for heavy or fast breathing, but at this time of year with unusually high temps heavy breathing is usually caused by a lack of oxygen.The hotter your fish get, the more oxygen they will need. If your tank is overstocked or your filter is not big enough for the conditions, they will gasp.Give your fish more oxygen (most simply by aggitating the surface with an air stone or filter outlet) and reduce the temp slowly. If they still breath heavily, look for other possibilities.Like i said, there's other possible causes, but with the high temps i'd try this first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donbennie Posted December 19, 2003 Share Posted December 19, 2003 fast breathing could be also due to the fact that they are DYING, cos once i forgot to de-cholorinate the water change and alot of fish dyed while breathing very heavily, gulpingrichard - dude im very sorry to hear that, i, myself have lost that amount of fish overnight, its very painful, esp when your not there anyway i will talk to u when u get back, maybe i could arrange something for u lets wait and see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nels87_o_O Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Hope all goes well when you get back. I lost fish because of oxygen myself, forgot to turn the airpump back on after water change! HAHA It's best to have a filter that splashes the water, though air stones are prettier, you can't go wrong with 4+ airstones in a tank! : : Nels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Richard -My advice is to slow down . You always seem to be buying something new.. inevitably when you do this (I know cause I have done it myself) conditions are not ideal and fish are housed with fish they probably shouldnt be housed with etc.Pick 1 or 2 species... and stick to them for 6 months before moving on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MollyMan Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 In Agreement with what Yew just stated... another thing, which probably hasnt been adhered to is a strict Quarantine program... when you get new fish keep them seperate for 2-4 weeks, until you know there health is 100% and to allow yourself time to ensure there is adequate room for them...This may seem unusual to some, but for those in the hobby for a while will understand, I always keep 2-3 2ft tanks up and running with say a few guppies/mollies/bn's and snails in each, (to ensure adequate bio activity) so at least if I have a crisis in one of the big tanks, I can easily adjust the water paremeters and move fish around... whilst this has not happenned or has been needed in several years, best to err on the safe side...Sadly, overstocking in general is almost as good as a death sentence, unless it is only a temp measure, or ultra high performance filtration and very regular partial water changes occur, even then disease can still be inhibited by so many fish in such small confines...Richard, I feel for your loss, and it is not the first time something like this has happenned, but by bringing the topic up hopefully someone else can be saved from such a tragedy...MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Hello guys,Ok just an update.My fish are all donig well now after i got my mum to put the airstone back in :lol: but....last night the filter stuffed up and had to put the 2217 in, so now im 1 filter short cheersRichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lungy Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Hey fishaddiction It sure does mate , either that or a serious amonia spike :o ..Do at least half water change , and gravel clean .. check yer air ...Good luck ..Andy... Ps. immediately too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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