[jeffturneraz]

I've had the same black neon tetras and 1 Otto in a 10 gallon for almost 2 years.

My timer was off. Supposed to turn off at 6p. I guess my timer was off from maybe electric outtage, idk. Apparently it has been turning off at 5:40p.

Yesterday, at 5:45p, no bubbles. I thought the guys at my refill spot screwed up again. I should still have a month and a half of gas left. So I cranked the dial, a few bubbles came out then nothing.

Obviously now, it was supposed to be off. I had cranked the dial to high heaven. Came home from work and all were dead.

2 years of making trips to store for Blood Worms late at night. Feeding, watching...one baby survived, was born in the tank. And I just killed them like that.

I feel so bad and my wife thinks they're just fish. Had to vent somewhere. Thanks guys. I thought only newer hobbiest gassed their fish, but it can happen so easily. Smh.

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[thedood]

Damn. Sorry to hear that. I can understand how you feel and my wife is the same way. It is different when you are the one nurturing and babying along for optimal health. The fish are almost like children to a serious hobbyist.

 

[SwampGremlin]

Yeah.. That stinks I've been doing this for a little over a year and I'm worried about it all the time.i could imagine how guilty you feel. But don't let it stop you from what you love to do. Just find the solution.

 

[jeffturneraz]

Thanks, that really means a lot, just if even 1 person knows how it feels. I've lost some here and there to "natural causes" but not a whole tank kill off from my fault. Okay, I'll stop wallowing I appreciate the listen.

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[Lancz]

I bought a pair of Pseudomugil gertrudae Aru II that were not cheap. I hand picked eggs out of a mop daily for a week or two then raised the eggs in a tray of fungus treated water I changed regularly. This was floated in a heated aquarium iirc. I hatched them and probably had 15-20 or so I would guess. I was so excited, the fry were doing great growing into little fishes. I had some cherry shrimp in the tank and was going to take them out for some reason. I initially had them in there to eat any leftover food. I cut one of those mini plastic coke bottles to make a trap, put some food in it and put it in the bottom of the tank. I go back to check it later and all of the fry are in it mostly dead... with a couple shrimp. I think maybe one or two may have made it but I never got back into it again. I was so disgusted with what I did. I had the originals for a few more years but never tried to raise fry again. Someday when the kids are a little older maybe I'll try again. I feel for you.

 

[jeffturneraz]

Wow that's a tough one as well. Thanks for chiming in. Helps to know others have been there.

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[RWaters]

Sorry for your loss. We've all been there (or will be). I was cleaning a tank many years ago and didn't realize my son's most favorite mickey mouse platy had jumped while I was working on the tank. I only found out after I stepped on it.

 

[jeffturneraz]

Oh my goodness. Yikes.

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[MoreyFan]

You can keep an otto in a 10 gallon? I always wanted one. What is the smallest type?


Sucks about your fish. I use CO2 in a nano but use a bell type diffusior. Any excess just bubbles out. They are not popular because the size has to be huge compared to the size of your aquarium to get enough CO2 in the water.

 

[jeffturneraz]

You can keep an otto in a 10 gallon? I always wanted one. What is the smallest type?


Sucks about your fish. I use CO2 in a nano but use a bell type diffusior. Any excess just bubbles out. They are not popular because the size has to be huge compared to the size of your aquarium to get enough CO2 in the water.

I have...for almost 2 years. 1 Otto, 4 tetras, it was 3 but the miracle baby that lived made it 4. I had no sponges on intakes...I did nothing, he just came out of nowhere.

I'm okay with my regular diffuser setup, it was human error.

It all seems so obvious now. I was not thinking, I slipped once after...I've actually saved them more than a few times over that time. During power outages, rushing to store for batteries for air pump for their media, all the way down to feeding them.

You know, we clean the tanks, we trim the plants, go fill our co2...but I think the most important thing we do is feed the fish, the most simple thing.

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[PlantedRich]

I also feel for you. I nearly killed my whole tank last week but I was here and caught it just in time. It doesn't get much better but over time you do begin to realize that it will happen and you just work with what you have. The hurt never stops but we can all try to do better and be glad it was not one of the kids. I read last week about the great grandfather who "forgot" to secure his gun when the kids came by.
Sometimes the best we can do is wonder where our brains were at the time?

 

[thegirlundertherainbow]

I'm sorry. Helps to be able to talk to people that don't see them as "just fish".
I may be TOO much of a bleeding heart.. but my fiance equates fish lives to idk.. plants or something. (which I don't even like killing plants)..

Edit to add..
Been out of the hobby for almost a decade, but here's the most stupid thing I've done.
Put a BIG piece of driftwood in a 10g.. horizontally.. waiting on it to "Sink"..
got up one morning and went to the kitchen for something.. and heard a LOUD filter noise.. was half awake.. and look to see this.
I had fry in it floating in a net. As far as I know I didn't lose any, but I cried.
My fiance looked at me like I was stupid for crying.

 

[jeffturneraz]

Thanks, this may be messed up but they are still in there. I couldn't flush them right away. I got home from work and saw this within 30 secs.

My wife had made food, she was off work today. So I swallowed my sadness and ate.

I will go in tomorrow and remove and flush them. It's sad when a fish dies but when a whole tank gets wiped out its...idk seems worse.

Can't stop imagining how long they gasped. I've seen them do it, but only when I get a tank refill, when I'm dialing it back in and I'm there. Even the Otto would stay on the wall but go near the top.

Idk, treat your fish right guys. I def love my fish more than my plants. Part of the hobby of keeping living fish alive.

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[RWaters]

I will go in tomorrow and remove and flush them. Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

No, no, no. Don't flush them. Bag 'em and toss 'em but please don't flush them into the local water.

 

[Ccatanthony]

Sucks when it happens, when I did CO2 the same thing happened to me with fish I had for years. Think it was end of tank dump in my case because of a shoddy regulator. On the plus side it's an excuse to start new!

 

[RyRob]

+1 on not flushing!
I'm sorry to hear about your situation man. Times like this I just try to step back learn as much as possible about what went wrong and how to fix it in the future. A few years ago when I first got back into the hobby from childhood, my kids and wife and I went got a tank and some fish, was clueless to cycyling then, ended up getting an L066 king tiger pleco (both the store and us didn't know what it was) for $4.99 because the manager oversaw our bad service we were getting and said we could get any pleco at that price so my wife got that one. We also got a male kribensis, a red tail shark, and a bala shark...I know. Needless to say all but the kribensis (which I'm looking at now 2 years later) and the L066 survived. About 8 months in, I noticed the pleco was dead and my krib was picking at him. I just felt heartbroken. After learning about what he was, I started catering to him because he was special. They are awesome, small 4"-6" plecos that my dumb*@$ got a for a steal. My krib is a total tank though, no signs of literally anything wrong the entire time I've had the tank setup ~2 years. I'm about to do a total redo of the tank (26 bowfront) to high tech so hopefully I didnt just jynx myself. I hope you can the tank back up and running well again soon

 

[overgrown]

Really sorry to hear about your loss. Just wanted to add my bit to the thread. Mine is a bit on the lighter side, but I figured I'd share.

My DIY CO2 system sucks, and I can't get it to be a constant stream. I turned it on yesterday quick before I left the house, and ran it at about the same bubble count as I do usual. The thing I didn't account for was that I removed a sponge filter and went from an aquaclear 70 to aquaclear 30 (20 gallon long) and thus lost a huge amount of surface agitation.

I came home about 8 hours later to this:

All of my fish (14 neon tetras, 8 celestial pearl danios, and a dwarf gourami) were all gasping for air at the surface. All the otos were on their backs laying in the substrate or on plants. I picked one up to realize he was still barely alive.

I rushed to put in 5 airstones running off of 3 separate pumps to immediately get as much O2 into the water and diffuse out the excess CO2. I put all the immobile but still living otos into a net and ran an air stone directly under them.

I'm happy to report that I had no deaths, but it scared the hell out of me. You really do learn from these experiences and you get better and make less mistakes over time.


Maybe it's time for a full tear down and start from scratch.

 

[rick dale]

Get a pH controller and an electric solenoid , if you really care that much about your fish. And it sounds like you do. Running co2 without it , is a disaster waiting to happen. And as you found out it will. If you can't afford it , then you probably shouldn't be running co2. But I do feel for you. Hang in there.

 

[PlantedRich]

Thinking about my near miss, I have to agree with Dale!
I had a controller and decided it was not something that I wanted as I moved away from CO2. My mistake was in turning the CO2 back on without thinking about having removed part of the safety items.
But for learning from death, it doesn't get easy but it does get to a point where fish death is not a top priority. Once you have dealt with human death on several levels, you are more able to look past the fish.
It will get better but it will take time.

 

[touch of sky]

I am terribly sorry for your loss. I can understand how terrible you feel. I would have felt the same way. You can now get digital timers that have battery backup. So, if the power goes out, the battery back up takes over and maintains the correct time. It might be worth it for your peace of mind.