HELP--overheated tank

[sunnysideup]

I was out of town, and was having my mother take care of my tank when the heater malfunctioned, causing the tank to heat up to above 100 degrees. One of my clownfish (the smaller one--male) died, and so did one of the chromis. The larger clown is still alive, but is looking awful. She is hovering near the bottom of the tank, still breathing but not swimming anywhere. She looks swollen almost? Is there anything I can do? The tank has since cooled to a normal temp. Please help me help my fish...

 

[patriots81]

you can try something like stress coat to help the fish recover from stress. I think that i read that when a tank overheats, the oxygen available to the fish decreases, or something like that. Hope everything in your tank will be fine.

 

[Coral Hind]

There really isn't much you can do for the clown but give her time, feed her well, and try not to stress her out any.

I have had heaters malfunction like that before too. I now use a seperate digital controller and plug the heater into that. Much more accurate and safer.

 

[OrionN]

Get the temp down. Change water and hope for the best. Temp of near 100 can cause a crash and cause ammonia spike. Take the fish to another tank if possible. Otherwise, water change , then water change then more water change then more water change..... You get what I mean.

 

[Coral Hind]

He has the temp back to normal so I do not see a need at this moment to relocate the fish.

The ammonia should be checked for the next few days to make sure the biological filter didn't get wiped out causing the tank to re-cycle.

 

[OrionN]

The fish should be remove if the tank is crashing due to the temp spike. This will give the fish the best chance of survival.

 

[Coral Hind]

Moving the fish will cause more stress then leaving it and performing a water change. Temps are already back to normal.

 

[syrinx]

And bacteria wont crash at 100 deg anyway- any crash would be from inhabitant death. Leave fish in display- do water changes as needed. Heat is very hard on the system for cold blooded animals. With fish,as well as reptiles- too cool is better than to hot when it comes to recovery. Yes there is oxegen dep in very warm water, and this is made worse for the fish as his metabolism is increased with temp increase.

 

[OrionN]

It is not the bacterials but the animal in the rock and sand that died which give off amonia which then kill everything else--That is a "crashed tank"
I disagree that moving an fish to a stable tank is stressfull. It is changeing water and exposure to ammonia and nitrite that is deadly to the fish. Chemistry change in changeging water is stressful , but less so than having high ammonia and high nitrite which are toxic to the animal. That is why you should do water change if there is no other option.
It is not the temperature that will kill his fish now but the toxin that are being release from the animals that got kill in the heat spike and all the animals that are dying from these toxin that may be ongoing at this time.

 

[syrinx]

Obviously the first thing we should have said was test the water! Orion- is trying to be helpful, but is misinformed about water changes- it is more stressful to move a fish to a stable tank than do a water change- both things accomplish the same thing. We don`t know if the OP has a QT tank- or even has sand of a depth to crash in his system. Generally speaking, if of all dead corals, fish and anemonies are removed a water change is appropriate advice. The fish could have been damaged by the heat, and no amount of good water would help if such is the case- but usually for brain trauma and such the water would have needed another 10 degrees or so.