My Daughter Fed The Fish

[pixelpefekt]

It wasn't pretty. I left the food container out and she thought she'd treat them to a late night snack. The whole tank was a thick soup of fish food and the gravel was completely hidden by a thick layer too.

3 x 75% water changes later it 'looks' clean but this morning there are traces of ammonia in the water so another 75% change. Fingers crossed that I've escaped this one with no losses...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Oh dear!

sure you know the drill, plenty of testing and water changes. don't be alarmed if you see cloudy water, it'll be a bacterial bloom because of the ammonia, it won't harm the fish, just try to keep ammonia and nitrite under control.

 

[Pleccy]

This is quite common in the fishkeeping hobby, however keep up with the water changes.

 

[Corleone]

I accidentally dumped a small can of pellets in my tank a long time ago. From my experience, if you make it through the first 24 hours, you're probably in good shape. Repeated large water changes and thorough gravel cleaning will get the vast majority out pretty quickly, and you'll be left fighting with the last little bits, which can be tough to get squared away, but at least your water stats shouldn't get too far out of whack with most of it out of the way.

Hasn't been mentioned yet, but stop feeding them for a couple days, and then keep them to every other day until you're sure everything's settled. They probably got quite enough to last them a while

 

[pixelpefekt]

You're right about the water looking a little cloudy! I wasn't sure what was causing that but I'm happy to know that I shouldn't worry too much about it.

Good call on the fasting of the fish. I wasn't going to feed them today but I guess they would be happy not eating tomorrow too.

Whilst speaking of eating... last night was the first time I've seen them NOT eat. I guess they pigged out on food for however long it took for me to find them. When I asked my daughter (3yr old) if she had fed the fish, her face lit up and she was so proud of herself. She said 'I gave the a big drop' - that she had.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

while don't get me wrong it's no good for the fish, these things happen and the thought of your 3 yr old being so proud of herself for doing it had me in stitches.

 

[minxfishy]

Maybe its time to show her how much to feed the fish, so in future she doesnt overdose. My little boy now has his own tank (well any excuse ) and he is solely responsible for feeding his fish, so I showed him how much to put in, he gets the food down, opens the tub and puts a pinch in, it makes him very proud that he can do it himself and he is looking after them properly. Now all thats required is to get him to do the water change If only............

 

[pixelpefekt]

If only it were that simple. I generally let the kids take turn to feed the fish. I hold the tub and let them take a pinch and in it goes. I think on this occasion, she was giving them a wee treat

 

[BecciMac1987]

Kids hey...I caught my 2 year old with the net 'fishing' the other day. Couldnt tell her off as I was giggling too much!

 

[aaronnorth]

Andy (supercoley1) had his kid pour some washing up liquid into the tank

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...75&start=75

 

[simonas]

nightmare!!

my daughter did it this year but I didn't see it till quite late on in the day and I lost some of the fish, bnut again you seem to have done right thing by changing some water and hopefully you caught it in time. kids eh!!

 

[tyyrlym]

I let my two year old feed the fish, but I put the right amount into a little tupperware cup and let him dump that in. I learned real fast not to let him near the tub.

 

[pixelpefekt]

So far so good (touch wood). got home tonight and the water looks fairly cloudy but the water tests were good. I did a 30% water change anyway - better safe than sorry!

I also cleaned out the filter which was pretty much full of food sludge so I feel better about the situation now.

One thing I've noticed though is that my Amano shrimp seem to be in hidding... hope it's not a sign that they are not well. Time will tell I guess.

How long do you think the water will stay cloudy?

 

[Corleone]

It'll probably stay cloudy for a while - the bloom is fueled by any leftover food. Cleaning out the filter gunk probably deprived them of a good deal of it. After it's gone, they'll probably take a few days to die off. Water changes might not seem to remove the bacteria, since the ones in the bloom breed very quickly. You could do a 90% water change and they'd be back to full in a couple hours. You are hopefully removing some of their food hopefully. Certainly not hurting anything by doing the extra work.