I did something stupid today...

[Blue Ridge Reef]

I was moving a bag of about 40 tetras from my home aquarium to a newly cycled MARS unit. I put the fish in a two gallon bag, but instead of tying the top of the bag, just doubled it over and wrapped a rubber band around it. I decided to do a PWC on my planted display tank while I was floating the bag. I let out some bag water and refreshed it with tank water, and quickly banded it back up. When I looked over, the bag had collapsed over the rim. I didn't wrap the rubber band well, and all the air had escaped from the top. This all occurred in a span of about 20 minutes, and over half the fish had died.

Interestingly, neons, rasbora hets and bleeding hearts had all suffocated, most of the h&t lites and serpaes were fine. Not looking for sympathy here, just a word of caution to others to be sure that you fasten the tops of your fish bags really well while acclimating.

[fshfanatic]

I am sorry to hear this..

[newshound]

don't be too hard on yourself. It is really easy to screw up.
I just hope the tetras are easy to replace.
I had a mature Kubotia loach (polka dot) in a bag for a new tank and my cat pulled the bag out of the tank and ate the fish! I was pissed!
Then years later the same thing happened when I got a new group of modesta loaches. Just back from a 8 hour drive and float the bags with one fish in each bag in the tank. Do my thing and release the fish not realizing that one of the bags was missing. I found the bag two days later in another room...empty of course.
I have a bad cat!

[cah925]

Originally Posted by newshound

I have a bad cat!

Bad cat? No...I say instinct. Cats are wild creatures that we domesticated. They still have that oringinal instinct. It's fun to watch them hunt their prey. My cat used to bring home their food still alive to show me. He was proud of what he caught and wanted to show me. I'll give it to you that the cat picking out a bag and having dinner is a little different, but the cat was still "hunting".

[Blue Ridge Reef]

Originally Posted by newshound

don't be too hard on yourself. It is really easy to screw up.
I just hope the tetras are easy to replace.

I'm not overly hard on myself, the frustrating thing is knowing damn well that I'd tied that band sloppily, and not keeping an eye on it. The fish have/had been in my personal tanks for several months, so I kind of "knew" them. But they are really easy to replace, FWIW. I had another bag with congos and such that would've been more painful, but it's just "knowing" I had an iffy bag I left unattended and fish died that shouldn't have that bothers me.

[MiSo]

my overly stupid thing i've done is not check the needle valve after refilling my co2 tank..... well, you can guess how that went.

RIP-

[Blue Ridge Reef]

Ohh. That can only go two ways, I'm guessing that "way" wasn't a closed valve...

[MiSo]

timer turned the co2 on and by 5 hours later when i looked at the tank, i saw everyone belly up.