Cooked my picky eaters!!!!!

[Eddie]

Hey all,

I wasn't gonna post this one either but just thought I'd share my unfortunate experience with one of my QTs. I had a group of discus, 3 stunted fish and 3 picky eaters. Anyways, I live in Japan and I have to use an up-step transformer to get 110 since they use 100 here. I only use the up-step to power my main CT lights, heaters and filters. My 10 gallon QT is close the CT and I have another outlet strip side by side the outlet strip that is plugged into the transformer. Well, I had the 6 discus in my 30g and they had been doing really well. I had a 125 Watt heater that I had to turn on full blast to keep the tank at 86. One of the checkerboards started to come of his food and then the next day, all of them did. I decided to medicate the crew with another round of metro/prazi, so I moved them to the 10 for the second time. I dosed the tank and moved the 125 watt heater to the 10 to keep the tank at 92 degrees. Not thinking I plugged the heater into the transformer outlet strip. I turned the heater way down thinking that 125 would be a little over kill but assuming that I plugged it into the regular outlet strip, wasn't worried about it. I had done it before without any issues. I didn't even think twice to double check the heater, keeping the tank at 92. That was the worst mistake I made, to not check the temp again after the tank settled. I went to sleep and I woke up with the tank temperature at 115 degrees, and 3 dead discus. The 3 others were in an awful state, pretty much cooked and swollen. I unplugged the heater, fished out the dead fish and started to slowly bring the temp down adding cups of cold water a little at a time. The water in the 10 was so hot I could not put my hand in the tank! Once the water reached about 88 degrees, the fish started to recover, all but one that stayed laying on its side for about 3 hours. Finally they were all swimming correctly but they were awful looking. They swelled up like balloons. I have since moved them to the 30g and the swelling has been improving by the day. Its been 4 days since the incident and it still sucks making that mistake. I will never leave a newly installed heater running without ensuring the temperature hits a temperature and stays. My 3 survivors are coming around but I am sure there is some permanent damage. I'll post picture of the 3 when I get around to it. After a few more days, they will probably look like discus again and not puffer fish but we will see. A simple mistake led to a complete disaster. Not something you want to wake up to around Christmas. I feel so bad for the 3 that I lost.

Just a story of a simple mistake that I will never make again. :(

Eddie

[Roxanne]

....was so hot I could not put my hand in the tank!
Eddie



Oh Eddie, not you too!...so sorry to hear this happened to you. What a crappy week for a few of us!! It is amazing some survived isn't it? I wonder, do you treat them like a burns patient? Lower temps now or something? What will you do now, observe them or anything else you got planned? It's a good thing we have hospital tanks so if we make a mistake, we don't lose the lot huh? Thanks for sharing such a painful experience with us. I know how much your fish mean to you, hugs for you mate from all of us.


Roxanne

[Eddie]

What will you do now, observe them or anything else you got planned?

Well Rox, I searched high and low and everyone who has had a runaway heater ends up losing all their fish. I didn't come across any instance where some lived. 115 degrees, thats HOT! I don't know how they made it. I'm just watching them, keeping the tank at 86. They aren't eating alot still so feeding sparingly and 50% WCs daily. They should be okay but I am sure they will be sterile or something. There has to be some permanent damage.


I know how much your fish mean to you, hugs for you mate from all of us.

Thanks Rox

Eddie

[Roxanne]

Is there temperature alarms do you know Eddie? Cos I'm gonna get me one of them (or 5) if I can find em..

[Eddie]

Is there temperature alarms do you know Eddie? Cos I'm gonna get me one of them (or 5) if I can find em

Yes there temperature alarms but I am not going to get one. It was all human error. I plugged the heater into the up-step so it was getting full voltage. Even at the lowest setting a 125watt heater will bring water to a boil in a 10 gallon. Not doing that again, ever. :mad:

I lost 1 very nice checkerboard and that kills me. The other 2 were already stunted but I wanted to keep them anyways.

Eddie

[DiscusDude85]

O man, Im sorry to hear that!. Atleast they didnt all die. Ive had heaters stick on all day!, I came home from work once to find my water at 103. I just added one more air pump and let the water gradually come down on its own. Figured if they were still living then the temps couldnt be too bad and i didnt want to shock them with a sudden rush of cold. Thought this might do more harm than good. Good luck with the survivors glad it wasnt a total loss.


jpe

[Eddie]

O man, Im sorry to hear that!. Atleast they didnt all die. Ive had heaters stick on all day!, I came home from work once to find my water at 103. I just added one more air pump and let the water gradually come down on its own. Figured if they were still living then the temps couldnt be too bad and i didnt want to shock them with a sudden rush of cold. Thought this might do more harm than good. Good luck with the survivors glad it wasnt a total loss.


Thanks, the little guys are coming around. Out of the survivors, 2 were already stunted and still got 1 checkerboard that I need to to pump up and grow out. Hopefully I didn't do any permanent damage.

Eddie

[TankWatcher]

Eddie, I feel your pain. I think we both had our discus tragedies around the same day. So sorry for your loss.

Is that 110C or 110F? I'm thinking it must have been F, or none would have survived.

Rox, yes there are temperature alarms. Not very expensive. I think Marina make them. I have some on my tanks, because occasionally I have forgotten to turn the heater back on after maintenance. Not a problem in summer, but the tank can get quite cold in the middle of winter.

If you like, I can give you a link for them.

[Eddie]

Eddie, I feel your pain. I think we both had our discus tragedies around the same day. So sorry for your loss.


Thanks Robyn, sorry for your too.


Is that 110C or 110F? I'm thinking it must have been F, or none would have survived.

It was 115 F, and it was hot! I mean, the cooked discus looked really cooked. :(

Eddie

[Hattawi]

I'm sorry for your loss Eddie. I did not know that Japan uses 100 volts.

115 F roughly equals 45 degrees celesius. 115 C is above the boiling point for water.

I had a heater that got stuck and was contineously heating. I did not have a thermometer at the time, but I can say that the water temperature was above 37C (100 F), I switched it off and had to leave for work. When I came back, the water was at 26 (80F) and no fish was damaged at all. I bought another heater and a thermomter. I decided not to trust any heater from that point and keep checking on water temperature.

[mikel]

Sorry to hear your loss. It's always a good idea to be too worried than to regret later. As discus keeperes we stick our hands in our tanks too often not to develop a good sense of what good temp at around 86F feels like. So it's always a good idea to check the themometer often, and also to feel the glass pane often as you walk by. I do it constantly as I am a control freak. mike

[Eddie]

I do it constantly as I am a control freak. mike

LOL, me too. I just took it for granted and figured since I had it set before that it was just gonna be the same. Giving it that extra 10 volts definitely kicked that heater into OD.

Eddie

[aquadiva]

Eddie! I am so sorry to hear this about your Discus :cry: I hope the three remaining survivors will be okay. I too am a freak about checking my thermometers daily. A friend of mine years ago had his heater "stick" on and lost his whole tank of Discus! It was tragic. I also recall years ago, I bought a couple of nice Discus from a fish store 4 hours out of town. The salesperson packed them in a box and added a "warm" water bag to the box to keep the temp up. I got home, unpacked the Discus and they were dead!! She apparently was new to fish and packed a HOT water bag next to them and baked them. It was just awful! I felt guilty too that I didn't check them half way home but I didn't feel the need to, thought they were well packed and good to go! So, things happen and we just learn from it. In any case I am really sorry for your loss and I do hope the remaining three will bounce back and be okay. :fish: A little tip I remember too is if your tank water is hot like that ever again, put some ice cubes in a plastic bag and float them in the tank to gradually lower the temp.

Anna :sun:

[Eddie]

In any case I am really sorry for your loss and I do hope the remaining three will bounce back and be okay. A little tip I remember too is if your tank water is hot like that ever again, put some ice cubes in a plastic bag and float them in the tank to gradually lower the temp.

Thanks Anna and I'll remember the ice cube thing. I hope to not make that mistake again.


Eddie

[Eddie]

The survivors :o

[vera]

Hi Eddie
sorry to hear abt yr lost,those survivers are gorgeous-i hope they will be ok and give u many pleasant times to come:wave:

[Eddie]

Hi Eddie
sorry to hear abt yr lost,those survivers are gorgeous-i hope they will be ok and give u many pleasant times to come

Thanks Vera, they are from my stunted group (picky eaters) but I had finally got them on beef heart before the accident. They are back to eating beef heart and when they're appetite picks up, I'll hit'em hard with food and BIG WCs. The ring leopard has really nice color but poor body shape. I am just glad they survived. Hardy little guys...or gals. :o

Eddie

[Roxanne]

Actually Eddie, I expected them to look worse than that. ..Can you describe what it has done to their "skin" if anything? Are their scales still intact? And I notice their eyes don't look burnt or blistered from the pics, is that right? I know how hot you said the water was to put your hand into, maybe you got to the tank JUST in the nick of time, cos we all know it doesn't take long for fish to "cook" right? !

Rox

[FLGirl1977]

Glad to hear the survivors are doing fine. :) They actually look pretty good... I thought they might look worse. I know it was hard to do, but thanks for posting this. It is a reminder to all of us how mistakes can/do happen and to keep a look out for details. Good luck with your guys/gals! :o

[TankWatcher]

Hi Eddie, your survivors look pretty sweet speciments.

I had imagined poor little fish swimming around with blisters, you know how a human would look if we were burnt. Good to hear they are back to eating normally.

[DLock3d]

Hey Eddie,

Sorry for your loss, that can't be fun. I don't look forward to making screw ups in the future myself. :( The survivors look great, best of luck.

[mikel]

Actually Eddie, your survivors deserve a million dollars as they look quite good for guys having gone through a baking process. You never know...that heat may have killed off anything in their guts that was living off them, and anything else that may have made them picky eaters. Remember that heat is one of the many weapons we have against baddies.... Maybe they will be voracious eaters from now on, and you will end up with nice sized discus from these survivors. Stranger things have happened! and I wouldnt be too surprised if that actually happens. Keep us posted on their progress! mike

[Eddie]

Hey all, thanks.

The fish look a million times better than the first 2 days. I mean, they did not look like discus. The upper portions of their bodies were so swollen and their eyes were swollen out too. After the third day, the swelling started to go down. It is hard to tell unless you look at the fish straight on. The fish are eating and alive so that reassures me.

Thanks again
Eddie

[mikel]

They are immortalized on your avatar....nice. mike

[Eddie]

Thanks Mike :)

Happy New Year

[rfeiller]

many of us have doe the same thing. i got in the habbit of buying two heaters for each tank. each heater just enough to handle a little more then half of the water volumn. i'm sure by now you've thought of this.

two good heaters are expensive, but nothing like the money invested in each fish.

sorry about your growth experience

rich

[Eddie]

two good heaters are expensive, but nothing like the money invested in each fish.
sorry about your growth experience

Thanks Rich, I do have 2 heaters on each tank but split the 2 heaters to heat the 10G QT. It was a bad mistake on my part on plugging the heater in and going to bed. If it had been done early in the day, I definitely would have caught it as I feed my large tank every 2 hours and the QT is near by. :(

Happy New Year Rich!
Eddie

[rfeiller]

happy new year to you too Eddie, and to all those reading this forum.
Rich

[MSD]

They look like friends for life now.

[aquadiva]

The survivors :o

Eddie, Your survivors look great! I'll bet they turn out to be great Discus. They are beautiful!

Anna :sun:

[Eddie]

Update, the Red Turq was one on the slow growers that I ended up literally boiling back in December. The fish was almost dead and recovered. It is still stunted but has a nice pattern and nice color. Be a nice fish to use for breeding purposes but will never be a large fish. If you look back at the pictures of the 3 fish, the turq is the one in the center of both pictures. Its post #15 ;)

http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss289/extremeist/Red%20Turq/IMG_3747.jpg
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss289/extremeist/Red%20Turq/IMG_3768.jpg
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss289/extremeist/Red%20Turq/IMG_3781.jpg
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss289/extremeist/Red%20Turq/IMG_3782.jpg
http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss289/extremeist/Red%20Turq/IMG_3783.jpg

[seanyuki]

hey Eddie,

The red turk has very nice pattern and the eyes seems alright not big at all.


Cheers
Francis:)

[Eddie]

hey Eddie,

The red turk has very nice pattern and the eyes seems alright not big at all.


Cheers
Francis:)

Thanks Francis, I tried hard to get him/her to bounce back. Thanks for the comments my friend.

Eddie

[TankWatcher]

Doesn't look stunted to me Eddie. Stunted means big / out of proportion to body sized eyes. Those eyes look pretty much as they should be, to me.

Beautiful looking fish.

[Eddie]

Doesn't look stunted to me Eddie. Stunted means big / out of proportion to body sized eyes. Those eyes look pretty much as they should be, to me.

Beautiful looking fish.

Thanks Robyn, really appreciate it. You know I am probably the most critical person when it comes to my fish. Maybe the fish isn't stunted but I doubt it will get much larger. Its doing really well at the moment. ;)

Take care,

Eddie

[Scribbles]

I'm glad that you were able to save him/her. Looks like a nice fish with good color and pattern. I agree with Francis and Robyn that the eyes don't look out of proportion. Nice save!

Chris

[poconogal]

Nice fish and it doesn't look at all stunted. If it doesn't grow too much bigger, then maybe it is just a runt. One thing is for sure, that Discus is a survivor!

[calihawker]

Great success story Eddie! Nice fish.;)

[MostlyDiscus]

I agree Eddie, breeder is ok due to the fact you know the history. I would breed that fish. Your fish look great too. Your water is clean clean clean.

Ed

[Roxanne]

Wow Eddie, he looks fantastic...not to be pessimistic, I have to say I didn't think he would make it through, but you nursed him back from the brink Eddie...So glad you at least saved one....he is VERY cute and VERY pretty...can I have him? :D

Roxanne

[Disgirl]

What beautiful and lucky fish Eddie! I once "cooked" a whole tank of beautiful tetras. It took me a long time to get over that. You did well with these survivors.
Barbara :)

[Wahter]

Eddie-

The survivors look good.

Can't you buy a heater locally that's made for the lower voltage? Just curious.

From what I've read, Japan is split where the Eastern side of the country uses 50Hz and the Western side uses 60Hz. I'm going to stay quiet and not make any comments about how Japanese like odd things... :) Whoops! :)


Walter

[SriAngel]

I want to be a fish in Eddies tank, all i get to do all day is eat shrimp and lobster..what a life it would be!

[Eddie]

LOL, Thanks everyone. The RT is a fighter. Bounced back from death, literally and now making his way to the top of the food chain. He/she fights any fish and eats like he won't ever eat again.

Thanks for the comments and hope all is well,

Eddie

[thebigone]

They look very nice Eddie! Looks like under your care they did great. Very nice color on them. Best of luck with them going forward.

[Yassmeena]

Hi Eddie,

Sorry to hear about your incident. It's an amazing story - much respect to those 3 survivors! It looks like you did a good job nursing them back to health because they look fantastic now, as do all your discus!

Yasmin

[Eddie]

Hi Eddie,

Sorry to hear about your incident. It's an amazing story - much respect to those 3 survivors! It looks like you did a good job nursing them back to health because they look fantastic now, as do all your discus!

Yasmin

Thanks alot Yas, really appreciate it.

Take care and hope all is well,

Eddie

[Cooldadddyfunk286]

yeah Eddie, that red turk really looks great now. reminds me of my red tiger turk. was very small and stunted when i bought it from LFS. and maybe some newb. mistakes. but its commin around now, starting to round out and get bigger. aggressive eater aswell :D ...thanks for sharing Eddie, great red turk!

[Eddie]

yeah Eddie, that red turk really looks great now. reminds me of my red tiger turk. was very small and stunted when i bought it from LFS. and maybe some newb. mistakes. but its commin around now, starting to round out and get bigger. aggressive eater aswell :D ...thanks for sharing Eddie, great red turk!

Thanks Jason, here is another photo. ;)

http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss289/extremeist/Red%20Turq/IMG_3804.jpg

[discussmith]

Hey Eddie for future reference; Maybe you already know this, but you can run your 120v heaters at 100v and it won't hurt them. They just won't run as hot. (less watts) It wouldn't have made much difference in the 10 gal. as they still would over heat that small volume of water. You can do this with any resistive type load like heating elements or incandescent lights, not pump motors or lighting ballasts.

[Eddie]

Hey Eddie for future reference; Maybe you already know this, but you can run your 120v heaters at 100v and it won't hurt them. They just won't run as hot. (less watts) It wouldn't have made much difference in the 10 gal. as they still would over heat that small volume of water. You can do this with any resistive type load like heating elements or incandescent lights, not pump motors or lighting ballasts.

Right, I use them on all my tanks but I had the temp set while using the 100V outlet. When I moved the heater this tank, I plugged it into a step-up transformer that provided 115V. I didn't think it was gonna matter much but the heater went up into the 100s. :(

Won't be doing that again......

Thanks for the tip though,

Eddie

[silent_thunder]

Thats a REAL bummer....

D

[Eddie]

Thats a REAL bummer....

D

Yeah D, it sucked to see them all laying down, half of them dead and the other half barely breathing. The Turq made it along with the oblong leaopard LOL and the Red fish. The Turq as you can see is the only one that has grown out well compared to the others. ;)

Eddie

[Chad Hughes]

Eddie,

If you want to cook your discus, just use the micorwave! LOL! :p

Sory to hear of your troubles brother! I can remember my first year being stationed in Japan. I was in Yokosuka and jet lagged like crazy. I got to my room, set my AMERICAN digital clock to wake up at whatever time and woke up like 3 hours late! The 60Hz frequency screws up a clock! LOL! Lesson learned!

Take it easy man!

[Eddie]

Eddie,

If you want to cook your discus, just use the micorwave! LOL! :p

Sory to hear of your troubles brother! I can remember my first year being stationed in Japan. I was in Yokosuka and jet lagged like crazy. I got to my room, set my AMERICAN digital clock to wake up at whatever time and woke up like 3 hours late! The 60Hz frequency screws up a clock! LOL! Lesson learned!

Take it easy man!

Yeah Chad, had that happen too. More often lately, LOL.

Take care,

Eddie

[hope]

Eddie, this is one of those threads that I am so glad I read! I might not have thought about this but now I know. Great lesson for us beginners. Great to see the fish doing fabulous and thanks for the lesson.:angel:

[Eddie]

Eddie, this is one of those threads that I am so glad I read! I might not have thought about this but now I know. Great lesson for us beginners. Great to see the fish doing fabulous and thanks for the lesson.:angel:

No problem Diane, thanks for taking the time to read it.

All the best with your fishes,

Eddie

[Totoro]

sorry to hear about this T___T
but its good your 3 survivors are doing alright!!
they don't look that sick now~

[Eddie]

sorry to hear about this T___T
but its good your 3 survivors are doing alright!!
they don't look that sick now~

Nope, not at all. ;)

Eddie