New Heater Malfunctioned And Killed My Favorite Fish

[Dawson14]

Brand new fish tank heater's thermo malfunctioned after a week of working perfectly and killed one of my favorite fish I had in a tank all by himself. I checked the tank for a week like a hawk to make sure the temp was fine and then I look this morning and he's dead. I run to check the water quality, put in a test strip and the water felt like it was 100 degrees. Like a hot tub. The heater said for 10-20 gallons on the damn label (10 gallon tank). This is BS.


Made in China of course. I got it from a very reputable local pet shop (They have always been awesome and given great advice) and the heater came in the package with the tank, filter, etc. The sign said "Best equipment to maximize the number of fish, and maximize the success". This heater was probably the cheapest thing they had.

He was a Yellow South American Blood Parrot Cichlid (at least thats what the sign said at petsmart) The bad thing is that he had a personalitly like a dog. I have never had a fish that had a personality before. He was awesome. I had him for 2 years


RIP Spike

 

[kewskills]

Sorry to here about your loss,

 

[RedeyesUK]

Aww, that sucks.

Are you going back to the shop with it? If you're lucky you might be able to get some compensation for your fish (at the very least, you should definitely get the money back for your heater). Not that it replaces your loss really, but it helps.

R.I.P.

 

[Dawson14]

Yea Im going back to the shop with it. I even have the packaging still. I doubt they will do anything but we will see.

 

[Truck]

Yea Im going back to the shop with it. I even have the packaging still. I doubt they will do anything but we will see.

you wont get compensation, i had the same problem last week. it killed a proven pair of wild caught german blue rams (£30+) i emailed the company and they said they will only replace it. its a real PITA i suggest you buy an eheim jager or a visitherm, both very reliable

 

[bagu]

sorry to hear mate

thats bad, i hope it never happens to me

 

[pammy172]

Yea Im going back to the shop with it. I even have the packaging still. I doubt they will do anything but we will see.

you wont get compensation, i had the same problem last week. it killed a proven pair of wild caught german blue rams (£30+) i emailed the company and they said they will only replace it. its a real PITA i suggest you buy an eheim jager or a visitherm, both very reliable

But the OP is in the USA and they tend to work very differently over there when it comes to consumer protection!

But as we say up here - Shy bairns get nowt - in other words you've got nothing to lose and if you don;t ask you don't get. Good luck.

 

[jourdy288]

Aww, so sorry to hear that, same thing happened to me some while ago, killing my only Corydora. In a freakish irony, however, I was supposed to get fish a couple days before, but couldn't. If I had, they would have been doomed!

 

[Dawson14]

Only picture I have of him. Going to the pet shop today after classes

 

[Netty]

Sorry to hear this has happened to yet another person. We had the same thing happen a few weeks ago with an elite heater which killed a couple of our female bettas.

We always advise people to have a thermometer but if it happens when you are away or at night it's of little use.

 

[Dawson14]

Took the POS heater back to the pet shop and told me that he could give me another one on the spot since thats all the heater company would do (Not liable for dead fish, which I already knew). I told him I was uncomfortable with getting another one since I did not trust it after what happened. He said that he would upgrade the heater for free. He gave me a Penn Plax "The Guardian" Heater no charge. Its a really nice heater. Has a list of all the safety features so thats reassuring. I wont use it for a while though. I took apart the tank and boxed everything up since I was so upset about what happened.

 

[jourdy288]

Aw, that was nice of him!

 

[OldMan47]

A new heater should never malfunction and kill fish. If it was me I would be trying to sue the bas***ds. A brand new heater should have the same reliability as anything else. It should work great right out of the box and only lose reliability with considerable age. The price of a new heater is high enough that the manufacturer can afford to test each one to make sure that it is working correctly. Just because they get away with charging much more than it costs to make does not make it alright to pass off a shoddy product and then just offer to replace the faulty product. You lost a lot more than a heater in this process.