Help, filter stopped working

[downunder newbie]

I got home late last night and checked on the tank and all the fish were down the bottom gasping or being lethargic, i checked and the filter had stopped working (we must have had a black out earlier, that usually makes them stop)

I immediatly did a 50% water change and restarted the filter, but one of my blackwidow tetras is swimming at a 45degree angle, the others seemed to perk up noticably with the water change, i've put the sick one in the hospital tank in case he dies, so i dont get him polluting the main tank. Is there anything I should put in the tank to help ward off any disease that could have taken hold whilst the filter wasnt working? Should I continue doing water changes for the time being?

 

[karrihug]

how stable was your tank to begin with? and do you have any idea how long it was off? as long as the tank was established and it was not off for more than 12 hours or so i would just do a test of paramaters and they should be fine. we lost power for 30 hours this summer during a hurricane and i didn't lose anyone.

hth karri

 

[swampcat]

how stable was your tank to begin with? and do you have any idea how long it was off? as long as the tank was established and it was not off for more than 12 hours or so i would just do a test of paramaters and they should be fine. we lost power for 30 hours this summer during a hurricane and i didn't lose anyone.

hth karri

I agree tank must have been in bad shape to begin with, loss of filtration should not cause problems in a short amount of time. Fish will live with just an airstone if water parameters are good.

My 55 gallon broke, fish lived in 30 gallon garbage can for a week with an airstone and a heater while I fought with co. for a new tank.

 

[clutterydrawer]

i dunno, he/she didnt say how long the tank had been unattended. If the filter usually provides lots of surface agitation and it suddenly stoppped altogether, there could easily have been an oxygen deficiency.

i agree, check your parameters and do extra water changes if yo uneed to, good luck.