Fish At 38 Deg

[dee dee]

My two small Dempseys were left in an unheated bldg.
The power went off and no one told me!!!!!
After 16 hrs it was, oh, yeah, by the way....
We ran over to get them and the water was at 38 by
the time I got them home.

They are pretty lifeless, but gasping and upright.
I started putting water from another tank into theirs and
taking a little out, right now its at 64 deg.

Should I try to bring it to their 78 deg. or leave well enough?
Should I put the filter back in? (Bow tank with bio wheel)

I am so distressed. The world is a wreck and I'm frantic about
two little fishies.

 

[demonmagus]

I think you should put temp up


and I think the filter is now lifeless, any chance of any seeded media from LFS/friend?

 

[zoekin8yg]

You do need to raise the temp, but slowly, if you do it too quickly they will get stressed. You need the filter, but its going to have died off.

 

[dee dee]

I can steal a bio-wheel from another tank for a bit.

I can't imagine them being any more stressed.

Anything else?

 

[dee dee]

It's been about 2 1/2 hrs now and the dempseys are
doing a bit of swimming. The temp is up to 70 deg. now.

I had said that they were upright but at first they were on their side and free floating.

After a little warmer water they became more upright.

I wouldn't have given a pence for their chance...

Hope by morn they will be recovered.

 

[Tolak]

The bacteria in the filter should be fine, pond filters survive over winter in deeper ponds, and Bio-Spira, one of the only bacterial additives for aquariums that seems to work needs to be kept refrigerated.

Cooler water lowers metabolism, this may lead to constipation. Don't feed them for a couple of days, feed lightly for the next week.

This is about the coldest I have ever heard of tropical fish surviving, I really would like to see how this turns out. I have heard of more than one aquarist having a heat failure in their fish house, usually a converted garage, in the dead of winter. The best survival rate if I recall correctly was about 25%.

 

[dee dee]

As you know, NW Indiana had a bad ice storm last night.
That was the cause of the power outage.

When I put my hand into the tank to remove the rocks I knew it
was going to be bad. So cold. I was working by the light from my car
headlamps and threw it all in a box to hurry home. They were without
any heat for about 16 hours I reckon.


They are now at 73 deg. after about 4 hours at home. I brought
the level down 6 inches in a 29 gal. putting water in and out of the
Dempsey tank!

They are huddled together in a corner, but reacted to me. I am leaving them be.

Thank you for the feeding advice. Sensible for anything under stress. Too much
drain on the whole organism.

BTW I joined the Green Water Aquarists and enjoy the forum very much.

I'll let you know their condition in the morning.

 

[Tolak]

I was outside in that ice storm for a little bit last night, it was nasty. There was still some power out in the city today, traffic lights out on the way to & from McCormick place to see the dog show.

Thanks for joining the GWASOC site, it's nowhere as busy as TFF, mostly an info site for local aquarists. If you get a chance check out some of the upcoming auctions, the last one went really well for buyers & sellers.

 

[dee dee]

The Dempseys are doing fine this a.m.

The tank was at 72. Turned up the heater a bit.

Although they appear none the worse, I'm sure
the experience was shocking, so will keep them
calm for a few days.

I put their rocks in the cold oven, just the pilot on.
Hoping to take the chill off them before introducing
back into tank. Right now they just have their java
moss and scattered plants that disloged during the
hurried 'evacuation'.

If anyone thinks of other suggestions for their recovery
please post.