An Awful Thing Happened To My Pearl Gourami!

[Lazerus]

Hi all,

I thought I'd share with you something that happened in my tank this week. Its something to be aware of if anybody is using this particular product!

I was away since Tuesday and I arrived back, and immediately when to check my tanks. But to my dismay, my beautiful Male Gourami was missing! He's quite big, so its a hard thing to lose him.

Anyway, after a bit of searching in the obvious places, I finally caught sight of him...he was totally wedged up the small Co² tube from a Tetraplant Co2 optimat kit.

I initially thought he was dead, and I don't know how long he was in there, but thankfully, I noticed his mouth moving.... luckily there was a gradually diminishing bubble of air right at the top, keeping him alive. If I hadn't arrived back when I did, he would have been dead for sure after his air ran out.

It was a bit of a job trying to release him, but he finally became free and he's ok now....he has a few scales dislodged on his body where he must have been struggling, but otherwise, he seems over the worst of his ordeal.

I have taken the tube out of the tank now.

I guess I'm going to have to put a homemade net or something over the bottom of this tube if I'm to use it again. I'll have to think about it.

Anyway, its something to be aware of. I'm going to email the company also to highlight this product flaw.

 

[Ozzy Ozborne]

Blimy ............

Just a question,I am a newcomer to the hobby and would like to know more about why and how you dose with C02?
I thought that if you have an air stone or make sure your filter outlet pipe created a ripple on the surface it would be ok?
It may sound like a crazy question but I dont know much about this.

Thanks

 

[OldMan47]

CO2 is used by people who do plants Ozzy. The natural CO2 concentration in a tank's water is quite low and if you are pushing plants for rapid growth, it is not enough to keep up with the other nutrients. For that reason people try to dissolve CO2 into the water to speed their plants growth. There is really no need to do that unless you are running a tank with very bright lighting and supplemental fertilizers.