over feeding disaster

[ctrif]

You wouldn't believe it. I was baby sitting a friends child (10 years old) over night. She woke up early, and at sometime in the morning I suspect she put a handful of fish flakes into our 65 litre fish tank (instead of a pinch) without asking or knowing how to feed fish.

I looked at the tank at about 1pm briefly and it looked fine. When I arrived back home at 11pm I immediately noticed the water was extremely cloudy! Strange because the day before I did a 20% water change and everything was fine. Closer inspection I noticed white stuff on all our plants and the tiger barbs were extremely bloated, looked like they were going to burst. I called my wife over as we tried to work out what happened. I thought it was an algae bloom or something.

Then we noticed fish flakes all over the floor. We decided to do a 20% water change and tried to suck up the layer of crap on the plants. It was a sick site as all those white flakes got stirred up in the water. We went to bed not knowing what to do....

The barbs look a little less full this morning, but the tank is extremely dirty. Going to the lfs when it opens to get the water tested.

Awaiting further instructions.

 

[canarsie11]

Water changes, Water changes, Water changes

 

[FishDan]

Yeah, just keep up with the water changes and gravel (and plant) vacs. There really is little point to rushing to the LFS to do a check of the water so soon, as it takes time for the food to be reduced to toxic ammonia. If you do a good job getting as much of the "extra" food out of the gravel and decor, you probably won't have any type of spike in your readings or any adverse effects on your aquarium. Also, keep in mind to check and rinse your mechanical filtration, as the filter probably sucked up a bunch of food that you don't want to leave rotting in the filter. Don't need to replace it (unless it's time for scheduled replacement anyhow) a good rinse in tank water (during a water change) will be fine!

\Dan

 

[Jimmy927]

Get some Cloudy water treatment and do water changes to the tank. The bootle can cost around £2.50.


James

 

[Cian McLiam]

I wouldn't bother with the cloudy water treatment, this sounds like a bacterial bloom because of all the food, the only way to deal with it is 20% daily water changes. I would strongly advise against doing more than 20% per day, cloudy water is not an emergency and unless your ammonia or nitrite are skyrocketing, 20% dialy will get you back on track in no time. Often the quick fix is the worst possible way to deal with a a situation and makes things go from bad to worse!

K

 

[Salian]

Cian McLiam is spot on. Bacterial bloom. Not to serious. Looks worse than it is.

No need to add more gunk to water with the cloudy water treatment... you know what the cause was.

Suggest starve the fish for 4-5 days. They will be fine!

Increase airation and allow fresh air to circulate under the tank lid by wedging the lid or a flap slightly open.

10% water change is fine... do not make drastic changes... the filter will cope in a few more days.

After starving fish ... you could carry out the garlic feeding as detailed in my previous posting on 'HELP what happened to my tank' - 5th posting i think.

Yours Aye

Salian

 

[FishDan]

Personally, I really doubt bacterial bloom. At least not caused by the overfeeding, not in the span of hours at any rate. My guess is that it was cloudy because there was a relatively huge amount of flake food breaking up in the tank. I do agree that there is no need to add anything to the tank, and that cleaning and water changes as needed are the way to go. I just doubt that a bacterial bloom was caused by overfeeding in such a short amount of time.

\Dan

 

[Salian]

No offence Dan but I disagree. 15 hours is pleanty of time for a bacterial bloom. The fact that it looked ok at 1300hrs (5'ish hours after incident) but was cloudy 10 hours later... particularly if the tank was operating at 26C or higher.

Good advice though.

 

[ctrif]

Thanks for your help and info everyone ...

I have done 3 water changes for the last 3 days (15% each). Everything is looking good again except for extra green algae stuck to the glass.

Might even feed them again tomorrow!

Mel