Contaminated Tank

[johnboyo]

Hi Guys

Slight problem.

Fish tank belongs to my flatmate, he ran out of fishfood and has put some kind of oats in to see if they would eat it. Clever boy then left for a night out....So far 2 have died.

I have fished the others out into sandwich type plastic bags, which i filled with some tape water and put a little of the fluid I found in and floated the bags in the tank (so they would warm up??)

Have I done the right thing?

Cheers
John

 

[LiveLifeGoJump]

The right thing to do would be to put your mate in the tank with the oats & take the fish out for a night out .

What you have done has got to be better than leaving them in the tank to die.

If it's only till he gets back & sorts it himself the they should be of as long as they can't jump out & there's not too many in the one bag.

 

[johnboyo]

Ok thanks. I will attempt to dip him in the tank upon his return.

 

[WILDER]

Do a water change and add some black carbon to the tank, and add some new filter floss to the filter, maybe a gravel vac as well.
You can keep aload of fish in a bag it will get polluted, plus there will be no aeration in there.

Sorry you not the owner so that info might not mean anything to you, pass it on to him, just hope the fish make it.

 

[johnboyo]

Do a water change and add some black carbon to the tank, and add some new filter floss to the filter, maybe a gravel vac as well.
You can keep aload of fish in a bag it will get polluted, plus there will be no aeration in there.

Sorry you not the owner so that info might not mean anything to you, pass it on to him, just hope the fish make it.

Wilder, will they be ok in there till the morning? There are 3-4 per bag, and they are all relatively small (dont ask what species they are, as I would have to say some orange ones and some stripey ones ) I havent tied the top of the bags or anything...

John

 

[WILDER]

Well if you havent tied the tops of the bags the water will be going in from the tank.
What you do is put them in bags, then blow they up with a bicycle pump for 02, then you put a rubber band around the bag.

 

[Spinal]

Actually, to be frank... I don't think the polluted water killed your friends fish. Oats have a very interesting property, once soaked for a while, they will "expand". This is why porrige becomes so dense and "creamy" instead of having suspended oats in milk.

IMHO, your friends fish ate some of the oats, which proceeded to expand in them, thus killing them (in a similar way to swimbladder actually). Do the fish seem bloated?

Similar things happen with frogs/birds and rice. In some places, people will feed rice to pigeons as a "deterrent"...

That said, I too would recocmend a water change, a carbon pad and new floss (you want to get rid of as much of the oats as possible). Also, vaccuum the gravel...

Good luck,
Michele