Near tragedy... STUPID, loss of 75+ fry

[jbrinker]

Well, STUPID strikes again (thats me, in case you were wondering).

Last night I decided I needed to move my "original 10" ocelarius to a bigger tank. They are still in the original fish bowl (2.5gal), and are about 1/2" long now. I decided to move them to a larger, clear plastic cylinder tank, as an intermediate to a 5 gallon rectangular tank. (I had problems last time I tried to go straight to the 5 gal).

The move went fine, and all were acting normal within 30 minutes. I congratulated myself, cleaned up the old fish bowl, and thought about rearing another batch next time they lay (should be any day).

This morning at 6am my wife wakes me up, telling me that I forgot to plug in the HEATER and they were all on the bottom, or dead.

STUPID...

Well, I plugged the heater in, and added a second one (100w) set to 76 (to be safe) and took a shower. By the time I left home, they were all swimming again, and "seemed" ok. But I wont be sure until tonight.

EVEN WORSE...

When I was moving them, I must have jiggered the air line going to the rearing tank with 150+ PERFECT 1/4" clowns. It stopped bubbling, and at least 100 of then died stitting on the bottom. (WHY?) They all "group" together every night, in a pile, and without current, they all seemed to die.

I'm SOOOooo frustrated. Only good news is momma seems to lay 4-500 eggs every 11-12 days like clockwork.

Oh, and my rotifers crashed too. Fun...

 

[FB]

That sucks. I've been stupid on many occasions.

Probably to the amount of 300-400 fish at different stages and times. The worst were the 250 I killed all at saleable size.

FB

 

[jbrinker]

Just got a call from my son. ALL the remaining 1/4" ones are dead. They all looked fine (those that survived from last night) this morning.

Why does lack of circulation kill them so easily? I now realize that was my big mistake the first couple of hatches - not enough circulation.

This time I actually used "dual" bubblers (same side of bowl) to create a strong circulation, and had probably 90% survive - until today. Just about 9 hours of no circulation was enough to kill them all.

It seems as if they cannot take "dead" water at all until they are about 1/2" in size. It must have to do with O2 levels, and the efficiency of their tiny gills. I can't really think of anything else. The bowl was clean, I siphon out all the "poo" every evening.

The other 10 (the originals) are all alive and acting fine according to my son. Perhaps they were just big enough to survive the heater catastrophe. I can see how having a "fish room" with thermostat set at 75F or higher would be real good insurance. My basement is lucky to see 65F this time of year.

I can't imagine loosing 2-300 saleable size fish. God, that must have really sucked. Each time something like this happens, Im really ready to quit for a few days. Too depressing.

Well, guess I will hatch that next batch afterall....

 

[msman825]

sorry too hear about all your troubles it happens to everyone sooner are later. i always look at it as a learning degree. they most likely ran out of oxygen

 

[sandyc]

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. We have all made mistakes. You have learned from this one. I am sure you will never repeat it. Best of luck with future hatches.

 

[rkelman]

I'm sorry for your losses too jbrinker. You figure 150+ fish in what a 10g tank? The water gets depleted very fast if there isn't enough oxygen. We all seem to have problems just like yours. Hopefully we learn to be more carefull from them and move on. I'm paranoid I don't know about the others but I'm always checking 2 and 3 times on everything now.

 

[sandyc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14338608#post14338608 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rkelman
I'm sorry for your losses too jbrinker. You figure 150+ fish in what a 10g tank? The water gets depleted very fast if there isn't enough oxygen. We all seem to have problems just like yours. Hopefully we learn to be more carefull from them and move on. I'm paranoid I don't know about the others but I'm always checking 2 and 3 times on everything now.

Me too! I became very paranoid and now check things several times a day. I may make a new mistake but I won't repeat an old one.

My mistake? I lost my first 4 hatches to salinity. Now granted, I know all about salinity which is why I ever so carefully measured the density of the water for my water changes. Unfortunately, I never measured the salinity of my fry tank water. Because it is open topped a lot more had evaporated than I could believe. Over the course of 10 days the water got so dense the babies died. Unfortunately, it took me 4 hatches dieing around the age of 10 days to figure it out. That is why I said, we all make mistakes. :lol:

 

[jbrinker]

Thanks everyone for the support... I'm glad to report that the "original ten" all survived with no apparent ill effects. The water got down to the low 60's, I'm frankly surprised that they all did live.

The others must have been O2 depletion, that is all I can figure.

I actually do check several times a day, and of course this was right before bedtime. Stupid mistake. Time for a checklist when transfering fry or cleaning a tank. Salinity, check. Temp, check. Heater, check. Air, check. Ammoblock, check. etc. I was too wrapped up in other things and snapped the heater into the bracket, ran the wire to the back, and never plugged it in....

Having a real breeding system would help (less individual things to fail) but that is a ways off still.

Momma laid about 500 eggs again Saturday. Figure on hatch probably next Monday, and I will start again. Having trouble getting the rots going strong again, not sure what the problem there is. They were going very well, then one day CRASH, 99% of them were simply gone. I sieved the remainder, put them in 75% new SW with 25% old rot water, added ammo block, and started over.

I have been heating them to 74F, they seem to actually be far less stable at higher temps. At room temp (65 in my basement) they actually seem far more stable. I might go back to that.

Jeff

 

[jbrinker]

Oh, yes, I agree with the salinity issue. Must keep an eye on that - in my basement at 62-65F, all the tanks are heated (fry at 82-84F) and evaporation is definitely a big issue. In between measuring salinity, I use the "marker line on the tank" method.

Measure salinity and adjust to whatever you are using. Then mark the water level on the tank with a marker on the glass. In between water changes, just top up with plain old H2O back to the marker line every day or so. When cleaning or changing water, top up with H20 first, then clean, then replace with fresh SW.

Works to keep mine exactly where its supposed to be. I also do a big water change every week or so - about 50%, which gives an opportunity to correct any drift.

Jeff