Sad Day

[Alex1110]

My tank is 200L, and had the following fish 12 hours ago...

6 Rosy Barbs
6 Odessa Barbs
1 Blue Gourami
1 Yellow Gourami
1 RTBS
1 Krib
1 Angel
2 Cories
1 Bristlenose

This morning i have discovered I own a faulty heater. I am from Australia, so we are coming into winter. I have only had my tank since mid-spring so I havnt had a cold period with my tank yet.

Anyway, the water was getting far too cold for the fish (22C), they were mostly hanging around the heater. So, I turned it up to about 26C (from 24, see, the water temp was below the heater set point!) last night. This morning I find five of my rosy barbs, one odessa and my krib dead. The water was 32C, and all the alive fish were swimming at the top breathing from the surface.

I immediatley turned the heater off, removed the 7 dead fish and changed 25L of water. Thats how it stands now. I didnt want to change too much water and change the water temp too quickly. I have had to go to work now, and wont be home for 11-12 hours.

What should I do when I get home? I cant think of anything I could do 12 hours after the find but im pretty new to this.

The only fish that seemed to like the high temperatures was my Bue Gourami, I have never seen it looks so good! The cories were pretty active too.

Its a bit of a shame, coz the rosies were my first fish. I thought they were the most hardly in my tank.

 

[celaeno]

rosy barbs are hardy, but still prefer lower temperatures.

 

[piratedninja]

one thing u can do is increase the temperature during the day while you can monitor it and then turn the heater completely off at night

i do this everyday to avoid such a problem, especially since i have a really cheap heater that i dont really trust even if its not faulty

 

[Paradise_2]

I had a lucky escape because i had turned my heater off during a water change and once had done i forgot to put it back on, this was three days ago and this morning i realised it was off when i went to insert a plant back into the substrate when my hand nearly froze luckily the fish were still alive yay

 

[kewskills]

Sorry to hear about your loss count your blessings though some have survived.

 

[fishlette]

My tank is 200L, and had the following fish 12 hours ago...

6 Rosy Barbs
6 Odessa Barbs
1 Blue Gourami
1 Yellow Gourami
1 RTBS
1 Krib
1 Angel
2 Cories
1 Bristlenose

This morning i have discovered I own a faulty heater. I am from Australia, so we are coming into winter. I have only had my tank since mid-spring so I havnt had a cold period with my tank yet.

Anyway, the water was getting far too cold for the fish (22C), they were mostly hanging around the heater. So, I turned it up to about 26C (from 24, see, the water temp was below the heater set point!) last night. This morning I find five of my rosy barbs, one odessa and my krib dead. The water was 32C, and all the alive fish were swimming at the top breathing from the surface.

I immediatley turned the heater off, removed the 7 dead fish and changed 25L of water. Thats how it stands now. I didnt want to change too much water and change the water temp too quickly. I have had to go to work now, and wont be home for 11-12 hours.

What should I do when I get home? I cant think of anything I could do 12 hours after the find but im pretty new to this.

The only fish that seemed to like the high temperatures was my Bue Gourami, I have never seen it looks so good! The cories were pretty active too.

Its a bit of a shame, coz the rosies were my first fish. I thought they were the most hardly in my tank.

this happened to me a few weeks ago. seeing as you are from australia, you didnt by any chance have and aqua one heater did you? this is what i had. i lost a whole lot more fish though as it was in my 4ft tank

there isnt much you can do exceot keep the water very clean and still somewhat warm even around 27ish so as to avoid a big drop in temp allowing white spot to creep in and attack youre already stressed fishies. it can appear even a week or so later so keep youre eyes peeled. im sure there are other things that could come as a result of this as well. the fish will be extremely stressed and vulnerable to disease

 

[Miss Wiggle]

argh what a nightmare

unfortunately it's all too easy for this sort of thing to go wrong.

when you get another heater on the tank warm it up very carefully, set it on it's lowest setting and leave it an hr to stabilise at that temp, then turn it up a tiny bit and leave it another hr and so on until you get to the correct temp, might take a day or two of careful adjustement but that's the best way to make sure it doesn't shock the fish

 

[Alex1110]

Fishlette - I think my heater was a 'Heato'. Stressed fish? 13 and a half hours after the find i have never seen my tank so bright and active! (considering ive lost 7 fish) The only fish suffering is the poor little rosy thats left over. He is a gorgeous one, but he is obviously very lonely. Thats what is so surprising about this. But thanks for the advice and i will look carefully for the next week or so.

Piratedninja - Thats what i will be doing when i can, but unfortunatly im at work for 10 hours a day.

Miss Wiggle - Thanks for the advice, im hoping the fish store will give me a new heater for my faulty one.

 

[chibi]

That happened to me once. It went from 24 C to about 35 C overnight!! I bumped my heater while cleaning and it stayed on all night. I only lost like 2 fish, but all my fish were swimming so slowly and looked horrible I felt sooo bad... anyway, I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Stang]

Yeah my heater is looking a little dodge too, I was thinking of getting an Aqua One, but they have poor quality written all over them.. I think maybe a Fluval or something would be the way to go?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've foudn teh visitherms to be quite reliable, not sure if they are available in Oz though

 

[Alex1110]

I have heard visi-therm and jager to be good. you can get jager from http/www.boroniaaquarium.com.au

I think i might follow up on that link.

 

[vinylman]

Go for Visitherms if they're available. I've had one for three years that survived being switched on above the water level during a water change. Five year guarantee, too.

 

[jimi priest]

im so sorry for your lose that is something i have always been paranoid of i have one of those nice tetra heaters that manages my temperature for me and i still have 2 or three thermometers depending on my tank to make sure its doing ok ( i check them before bed and after i get up and after i get home from work

 

[pastabake]

Bad luck, good to hear that some survived though, and as the posters above have said take care to look out for desease caused by stress.

I have a couple Jewel ones, a new Rena (the black plastic one) and a visitherm. The one thing that they all have in common is that their thermostats are rubbish. You cannot trust the settings, you have to calibrate them yourself using a real 'thermometer' (not an LCD stick on) and use a permanent marker to grade the dial.