Stella Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 I can't believe the awful run I have had recently. Since the start of January, ie just over a month and a half ago: Caught torrentfish, they got ich, started treating with salt, one died, Realised it wasn't ich and was not affected by salt, treated with malachite and formalin which worked. One inanga died bizarely and uncomfortably, no idea why. Inanga got ich. Mudfish got ich. Torrentfish got ich. (It spread before I realised one tank had it) A snail I wanted got sucked out of its shell by a powerhead. Another snail I particularly wanted got tipped down the drain accidentally. One bluegill bully randomly died, no apparent reason. One kokopu looked suspiciously like it had columnaris. Quickly removed it, salted it, salted tank (169 teaspoons of salt... :roll: ). Now it looks like it was merely a little injured and bloodshot..... Oh well, at least it wasn't columnaris, that could have killed the lot in a couple of days. This is the worst bit by far: Late last night a 540lt/hr pump started making a horribly rattling noise. Started investigating and discovered a bluegill bully stuck in the inlet! Turned it off, removed bully expecting to find a mutilated corpse - the fish zoomed off! It looked bruised around the head but was amazingly alive. (BTW the pump had a makeshift grill over the tube inlet, the pump was designed to be in-line, the fish must have pushed past it) Went to bed, felt awful, got up to check the fish again. It looked dead. Opened the jar of ethanol to preserve it in, turned on tank light, put hand in tank and the fish was not there......! It must have still been alive! Haven't seen both remaining bluegills this morning yet... it may still be alive or dead under a rock somewhere..... I feel so awful. I had had such a perfect run, nothing had gone wrong for well over a year. What awful thing have I done to the fish world to suddenly be beaten by this much bad karma??? OMG THE BLUGILL LIVES!!!!! I just saw both at once. I can certainly see a bit of bruising still, but it is ALIVE and not as badly beaten as I expected!!! Well that is a relief. Still feel like a bad fishkeeper though. Am nearly late for work and it will be another horrible day at work due to staff member being sick and I got hardly any sleep.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 Aww, you're not a bad fishkeeper! It's just a year of good luck catching up with you. I had something similar happen around the time I hit 1 year back in the hobby. Walked into the fish room and found an entire aquarium (hundreds of fish and red ramshorn snails) all dead. I was nearly in tears as I spent the next few hours fishing out bodies. Turned out the new CO2 system had gone haywire and emptied an entire 3.5kg cylinder into the aquarium overnight dropping the pH to some crazy low number that none of my pH test kits could register. These things happen, keep your chin up hun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 Sounds to me like you've expaned your 'operations' over the last year.. more fish and more tanks means more problems too.. but hey it sounds like you're dealing with them very well! Hang in there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 Welcome to the wonderful but somtimes frustrating world of fish keeping. I am sure we could all put our stories of frustrating fish times on the net. I don't think i will ever forget the day I increased the temp in one of my tanks. It had seperate heater and thermostat, and when I adjusted the thermostat it decided it was going to stick. I of course ended up spending the rest of the day out and about, and on return home had a lovely tank full of poached fish. Hope your bully gets better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 Thanks guys Am feeling better now - my fish is still alive! Looks fine just bruised. THe coolest part (literally) is that my new air conditioner is working fabulously. My tanks are 18 degrees! All by themselves! (so is my computer chair...) This rocks I did increase things fairly dramatically over the last year, from one tank to.... five now. Mostly so I have experience with all the species for my book. Hopefully I am now done with catching up on a year's worth of dramas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 All the best for the future Stella Don't worry I'm sure every fishkeeper can relate, we all have times like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navarre Posted February 22, 2008 Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 Now Now Stella, Welcome to my world. See these ( Holds up Fingers and Waggles) These should have been Penis's. You know Why? Because every thing ( and I mean EVERY thing) I touch ... ...I F**k. Like I said...welcome to my world......its nice to have Company and as much as I like having you here...lets hope your not here for long. Navarre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 I just found one of my banded kokopu down the back of the tank, mostly dried. I am now seriously sobbing. I realised I had only seen five in the last two days, did a massive hunt, including the entire lounge. I can't believe this!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 I can't believe it, in barely over a month. How many thins can go wrong? Almost none of them are related! This happened because I took one of the lids off, it was awkward having the lid on with the new light and fan arrangement. THe lids haven't been perfect for ages and the fish had been fine. I know they are good climbers. They have got out on me before. But that was when I first got them. You expect it then. Stupid, I should have been careful. It is throughout my book, it is throughout every post of mine here when people ask about native fish: they must have good lids, they are good jumpers and climbers. This poor fish died by drying out wedged halfway down the back of the tank because I didn't have a lid on properly. Still crying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 22, 2008 Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 As Eddie used to say---"perishable goods". I am sure most of us have learned most of what we know the hard way---I know I have. You'll never get to heaven now but you will learn a lot and it is likely to stick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted February 22, 2008 Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 Hands up if you've ever found a desiccated fish behind a tank.....waves hand in the air.....I'm sure it's happened to most of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 and last night a mudfish was found dead... No idea why again. It could have been dead for 24 hours (it was stiff and rubbery). It had patches of a thick mucus-like goo over its body. I was able to wipe this off fairly easily with a paper towel (um... so I could preserve the fish....). Bearing in mind that mudfish have skin not scales (like loaches?), could this have been the start of decay or could it have been a fungal/bacterial thing before death? Well, it could have been that anyway, we can never rule that out, but I have no idea if this is a normal feature of a scaleless fish starting to decay. (Thanks for all your support guys! You do rock. Shame about not getting into heaven but I think that was pretty definite already! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 Gee Stella, sorry about all the trouble you're having. Hopefully it will all sort itself out real soon. DO NOT BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF, I've read many posts by you and you are a very caring fish keeper! Caper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Just came across this post and I'm really intriqued by the mucus on the dead mudfish. I'm assuming this is a mudfish like on the DOC website - http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/page.aspx?id=33220 - and if so, the mucus like goo could have been a protective/preservative coating to keep it moist during the dry season. Did you happen to pop it back in the water to see if it was still alive? I've found BNs out of water for many hours and came right when put back under water, even one that looked pretty dessicated. Took a few days for his eyes to come back out but he made it! Sorry for your losses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted March 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Nah, it was truly dessicated. Poor wee thing. And the one that dried was a kokopu, not a mudfish. They can last a long time out of water and still survive, but not in the crispy-fried condition.... The mudfish had the goo. I suspect it was the first stage of decomposition. Maybe a combination of ante and post mortem things. I think with the skin they start to decompose a bit differently to scaled fish. Still annoyed about them. The latest round of worries are the redfins. I didn't kill off the ich completely and now they have a really serious sprinkling. They didn't have it originally, a different species in that tank had it. I am worried it may verge on being dangerous for them. The mudfish still haven't properly got their appetite back. And the inanga are being *weird*. I am amazed about your BN, so dehydrated its EYES were sunken??? WOW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 I wasn't meaning the kokopu. only talking about the mudfish as I reckoned they'd have some kind of survival mechanism and wondered if the goo had anything to do with it. Did some further reading and they really do need vegitation to keep them moist. BNs can completely close off their gills it would seem. It makes sense when you notice that they stay in logs when removed from water, so a male might spend quite some time in an emersed cave waiting for the water level to come back up before finally trying to make it back into the water. I had a male GBA survive a massive tank die-off by jumping through a hole in the lid and staying there until I found him in the morning. Sole survivor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoshark Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 Well, in the space of a month I lost 700 bucks worth of marine fish & shrimp I know how you feel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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