boxman
Fishaholic
Well, after a great holiday touring the UK in my new car the wife and I got back last night, unpacked, grabbed a beer and decided to check out the tank.
I'd had two problems before I left, first was a suspected case of ich on my male ram and second was an injury on one of my BGKs. I'd done a water change two weeks before I was due to go away and so I thought I'd do a water change the day I went (before I knew I had an ich outbreak).
Ok, so I couldn't do a water change so I started treating the tank. I needed to clean the tank somehow so I decided to go to my LFS and get an electric gravel cleaner. "Great" I thought, "I can hopefully get rid of some of the ich spores and clean the tank without removing the medication".
WRONG!! The cleaner didn't have the filter with it so all I would have been doing was pumping dirty water around the tank.
Anyway, to cut a long story short - my mum (who was feeding the fish) found my female ram (whom I suspected to be a mummy shortly) and my injured BGK dead.
I did a 50% water change today and I also tested the water before the change - the only problem I noticed was nitrate up from 0 to 25. (There had been ALOT of plant and algae growth which would explain the sudden jump).
Apart from a pale gold nugget and a slightly strange darker finned gourami the other fish seem to be nice and healthy. I've stopped the ich treatment as my mum continued it whilst I was away so now I'm lowering the temperature but unfortunately the damage has been done - but not in the way I'd feared through the ich.
Basically, what I've learned is
1) Do a water change a couple of days before you go away on holiday - it'll give you a chance to do it right and get any items you need before you go.
2) Check anything you buy from your LFS - make sure all the pieces are there and that it works!
3) Put injured fish in a quarantine tank if you can.
4) Never go away on holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that was kind of a slap in the face after such a relaxing time away - that'll teach me!
I'd had two problems before I left, first was a suspected case of ich on my male ram and second was an injury on one of my BGKs. I'd done a water change two weeks before I was due to go away and so I thought I'd do a water change the day I went (before I knew I had an ich outbreak).
Ok, so I couldn't do a water change so I started treating the tank. I needed to clean the tank somehow so I decided to go to my LFS and get an electric gravel cleaner. "Great" I thought, "I can hopefully get rid of some of the ich spores and clean the tank without removing the medication".
WRONG!! The cleaner didn't have the filter with it so all I would have been doing was pumping dirty water around the tank.
Anyway, to cut a long story short - my mum (who was feeding the fish) found my female ram (whom I suspected to be a mummy shortly) and my injured BGK dead.
I did a 50% water change today and I also tested the water before the change - the only problem I noticed was nitrate up from 0 to 25. (There had been ALOT of plant and algae growth which would explain the sudden jump).
Apart from a pale gold nugget and a slightly strange darker finned gourami the other fish seem to be nice and healthy. I've stopped the ich treatment as my mum continued it whilst I was away so now I'm lowering the temperature but unfortunately the damage has been done - but not in the way I'd feared through the ich.
Basically, what I've learned is
1) Do a water change a couple of days before you go away on holiday - it'll give you a chance to do it right and get any items you need before you go.
2) Check anything you buy from your LFS - make sure all the pieces are there and that it works!
3) Put injured fish in a quarantine tank if you can.
4) Never go away on holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that was kind of a slap in the face after such a relaxing time away - that'll teach me!
Hopefully things will return to normal soon, and may your next holiday be better
