Yet another great way I've found to kill discus

[Keith Perkins]

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]

Sorry to hear Keith.

[BobDaniel]

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]

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]

What dose the meth blue accomplish?

[DiscusDrew]

Extra oxygen in the water, prophylactic against future bacterial or fungal problems.

[nc0gnet0]

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]

Keith, this really sucks. Very sorry to hear this.

[Keith Perkins]

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]

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]

Really sorry, that stinks :-(

[bronzie8]

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]

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]

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]

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.