A Warning To All Fishkeepers!

[rodandalisonthompson]

As you can see from my signature I have five tanks. In my living room I have two tanks one marine and one tropical.

Yesterday I lost a Royal Gramma (Marine) and a Dwarf Neon Blue Rainbow. Today I lost a Long Nose Butterfly (Marine) and a Shark Catfish. What confused me was the fact that the water parameters were all fine and the losses were happening at the same time in two different tanks (although in the same room).

Took various water samples to my LFS - confirmed water was fine and ran through what could have happened.

Needless to say we found the answer.
On Tuesday morning my wife put in an AIRWICK FRESHMATIC ROOM SPRAY - sprays a scent of lavender into the room every 9/18/36 minutes. I read the aerosol and it states nothing about toxicity near fish tanks so I phoned the company. They accept that air freshner products ARE TOXIC to fish and that there should be a warning on the canisters. Further advice has stated that automatic air freshners are particularly bad as they are constantly spraying the room whether it needs to be or not and toxicity can build up very quickly in the room.

I know this may be obvious to some of you but for the rest of you.....DO NOT USE AIR FRESHNERS, HAIRSPRAYS AND OTHER AEROSOL BASED PRODUCTS IN THE SAME ROOM AS A FISH TANK. IT IS HIGHLY TOXIC!

Moderator - can we have this information as a sticky topic somewhere?

 

[cane76]

sorry about the fish

 

[stang1]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Really sorry to hear about your fish. Tbh I have often wondered if airfresheners are really that good for humans either.

 

[newtotropical]

Sorry to hear that! Wont the compenate you? I know its not the point but as Tescos keep telling us...Every little helps.....

 

[ncjharris]

Yes, thats a shame.
A lot of aerosol products are generally accpeted as bad for fish, and some do state not to use near aquaria.
This also applies to deodarant and furniture polish and other airbourne fumes, such as cigarette smoke and paint fumes (if decorating a room). These all transfer from the air to the water quite efficently and become more concentrated in there.
The best advice is to keep the tank covered and the room ventilated if you are doing something like that in there.

 

[VampirePlec]

i ohnestly think they should atleast offer to give you some money for your lose, as it is mostly their fault as they did not state on the packaging that it is toxic to aquarium fish. i am sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Rhiannon]

Thankgod you have told us, I was going to be buying on of those next week.

How sad for you.

 

[Dutchie]

Damn, sorry to hear about the loss.........

Does this include those little Incent Stick you burn??
We area always burning them but always keep out fish tank covered............same with the new one once it arrives.

Please advise..........

 

[gsta13]

Sorry to hear that! Wont the compenate you? I know its not the point but as Tescos keep telling us...Every little helps.....

They would probly give you some more plugins
Srry to hear mate
Greg

 

[aquila]

Sorry for your loss

I agree you should be compensated in some way as they didn't put a warning on the label, most other household sprays and things say they're 'toxic to aquatic life' somewhere on the back. I don't use anything like that anyway, they give me headaches and give me horrible dry sneezes, I think they're toxic to humans too!

 

[Danh]

Sorry for you loss mate.
Looks to me like im not going to be able to do half the stuff i do no in my room then. I cant help being a tenager.

Dan.

 

[lilfishie]

sorry to hear that, now it makes me glad mine is in a different room

 

[puddle_inc]

what if i were to have all my tanks in a garage. occasiopnally it smells if something dies or water gets dirty so i spray around the garage. i don't spray close to the tanks though. i havent lost anything or had any problems. should i stop using air freshner at all or what? cause sometimes if like a piece of apple i gave my snails goes bad, it can really stink.

 

[Gatorbait]

I know this may be obvious to some of you but for the rest of you.....

It's sure not obvious to me. I always knew about aerosols and not to spray near the tank but I never gave an air freshener a second thought.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss but thank you very much for posting this info for the rest of us to learn from.