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View Full Version : Yet another great way I've found to kill discus



Keith Perkins
09-02-2012, 03:30 PM
Last night I did WCs as usually and I believe all was fine at lights out. This morning when I went down to turn tank lights on I discovered numerous dead juvies in one of the two growout tanks. I'm currently experimenting with filtered aged tap in one of the growouts and remineralized RO in the other just to see for myself if there's any appreciable difference and all the dead fish were in the tank with tap.

First thought before the eyes even focused very well on the dark tank was did I not dechlorinate last nights water? That thought quickly evaporated when I realized most of the rest of the fish were at the surface and I glanced over and saw I had no air coming from the sponge filter. Completely out of the blue 1/2 of the two outlet air pump suddenly just quit working without any warning.

I immediately did a large WC and removed all dead fish, added tons of air, then left the tank dark as I headed to church late. Added MB when I got back home after removing a few more dead fish. Thanks for the MB advice Rick.

Guess the next step is looking for a good central pump and dumping all the individual ones.

Just venting.

Eddie
09-02-2012, 03:51 PM
Sorry to hear Keith.

BobDaniel
09-02-2012, 04:02 PM
That really is a tough break. Since I run a Whisper air pump with two outlets (1 unused) I will link them both to the main airline via a "T". At least your loss will possibly prevent others like me from a similar failure.

I wish there were some way we could collectively determine a reliability rating for different models of air pump.

DiscusDrew
09-02-2012, 04:09 PM
That's why I just got rid of freaking 11 different little pumps and put I'm my Alita. Great pump, more than enough air and thus far zero stupid problems like that. Sorry for your loss Keith

Bill63SG
09-02-2012, 05:02 PM
What dose the meth blue accomplish?

DiscusDrew
09-02-2012, 05:11 PM
Extra oxygen in the water, prophylactic against future bacterial or fungal problems.

nc0gnet0
09-02-2012, 05:28 PM
The properties of the drug as an oxygen transporter (it converts methemoglobin to the normal oxygen carrying component of fish blood, hemoglobin) allow it to be used in the treatment of known cyanide and nitrite poisoning of aquarium fishes. It has been suggested that newly arrived marine fish placed in Methylene Blue can have their survival rate increased as Methylene Blue aids in the reversal of nitrite and/or cyanide poisoning.

Long story short, it reverses nitrite poisoning(brown blood disease) and aids in oxygen transport making it easier for fish with damaged gills to breath.

Second Hand Pat
09-02-2012, 07:39 PM
Keith, this really sucks. Very sorry to hear this.

Keith Perkins
09-02-2012, 08:28 PM
Thanks all for the kind words, and Rick again for the MB suggestion. Honestly I've pretty much been staying out of the fishcave other than to do a quick feeding and pull two more victims from the tank. Many of the remaining ones were looking for food when I pulled the last two, but not really knowing what I should do in that respect I'm thinking I'll wait to offer them food until tomorrow morning. Heading down shortly to do the nightly WCs, we'll see what I find then.

Keith Perkins
09-03-2012, 10:58 AM
Found one more victim last night, but I'm thinking that may be the last. This morning I had less than a half a dozen that showed signs of the ordeal and the rest looked pretty good. I gave them a small offering of flake at tanks lights on this morning, but they weren't enthused. A little later reconstituted FDCBWs were offered, and though they eventually appeared to have eaten them all again they didn't attack them like they usually do. Just came back up after feeding the rest of the tanks heart. I didn't plan to give them any of it but ended up with a small bit stuck on my finger half way through the feedings and decided to give it to them. Some of the fish did attack that, so gave them a second bit of it off another chunk at the end of the feedings. Again it was attacked. Guess it just took a little of daddy's home cooking.

In the end, lost about 15 fish from the tank or nearly 40%.

JenTN
09-03-2012, 11:10 AM
Really sorry, that stinks :-(

bronzie8
09-03-2012, 02:14 PM
Sorry to hear Keith, I know exactly how you feel. I had 1 dual air pump going to 2 tanks, it fell during the night and disconnected. You can guess the outcome...8 dead 6" discus. Thanks for the MB mention too. It sounds like the little guys are going to be just fine with some TLC and home cooking ;)

Kathy

shoveltrash
09-03-2012, 04:15 PM
Keith I'm so sorry to hear this :(.


I wish there were some way we could collectively determine a reliability rating for different models of air pump.+1!

Keith Perkins
09-03-2012, 04:23 PM
Thanks - Jen, Kathy, Trish. I'm debating options to prevent it from happening again, I'd have really been PO'd if it had been one of my spawning pairs it happened to. I hate HOBs, they're noisy and a PITA but they would provide cheap insurance, especially since I have a bunch of them piled in a paper bag somewhere. A Jehmco linear pump might be the way I end up going, but as Rick pointed out my problem would have been a lot worse if I had that and it had failed. Decisions, decisions.

discuspaul
09-03-2012, 04:51 PM
Real sorry to hear about your losses, Keith - not only disappointing, but also really depresses one's spirits.
There will be better days ahead.

And yes, HOB's can be a PITA, but they are great insurance. I wouldn't be without them - my AC's are practically noiseless, with the tops off, kept fairly clean with pre-filtering, and water level kept fairly high to eliminate any splashing noises.

Kingdom Come Discus
09-03-2012, 09:10 PM
Very Sorry Keith. I don't think you will have a problem with the Linear Pump. In central systems many will use two water pumps. Often the power consumption of the two pumps is less than one pump rated to do the work of the two and when one pump fails of course you are running on one leg,but still running. I guess this could be done with air pumps too?

Keith Perkins
09-03-2012, 09:30 PM
Given what you lost Kraig, I have NOTHING to complain about. I really wish I had purchased a few of those Wattley's before your incident. I'm just sooooo slow about adding any stock most of the time. I lose out a lot of times, but it does keep my wife happier. That's especially true now that I have to divide my RTs to not run out of tank space.

Paul - it's really tough on the spirits when there aren't any good spirits in the house either. :) I lost one more, but given I had 4 or 5 that were dark I guess I shouldn't be too surprised or complain too much. Rick's PM to me about using MB said to just follow the package instructions. Of course they say to put the carbon back into your filtration in 3 to 5 days, so they're assuming no WCs up until then, lol. Guess I should have pushed Rick for better instructions. I redosed with MB after tonight's WC and I'll probably call it good at that.

The remaining fish are charging the glass at the top of the tank looking for food, so I'm not worried about the majority of them at this point. Just waiting to see what happens with the last few darker ones.

xxbenjamminxx
09-03-2012, 11:21 PM
Sorry to hear this Keith. Hope they make it for you.

Keith Perkins
09-12-2012, 10:41 PM
In case anyone wondered, here's what ended up happening. I treated with MB for a few days and the 4 or 5 fish that were dark improved slightly. After stopping the MB they got worse and I debated just culling them. For whatever reason I decided to start up the MB again instead and continued treating with it up through Monday. Last night after the daily WC for the first time they remained looking good without the MB so I discontinued it. Tonight's WC brought the same results, so they've all looked good without MB for over 24 hours now and I'm pretty sure all is going to be well from here on out.

Rummy
09-15-2012, 08:15 AM
In case anyone wondered, here's what ended up happening. I treated with MB for a few days and the 4 or 5 fish that were dark improved slightly. After stopping the MB they got worse and I debated just culling them. For whatever reason I decided to start up the MB again instead and continued treating with it up through Monday. Last night after the daily WC for the first time they remained looking good without the MB so I discontinued it. Tonight's WC brought the same results, so they've all looked good without MB for over 24 hours now and I'm pretty sure all is going to be well from here on out.

I am happy for you that they seem to be making it through this terrible event.
I think a lot of us can use this as a learning experience. Your situation has sparked a question about the sick fish. I am curious how this might affect their growth and general health in the future. I have no idea what your plan is for this batch; but, if you keep them, would it be possible if you could keep us updated on their development as compared to the rest of the group?
Thanks