Now Has A List Of People Not To Leave Looking After My Tank

[willowstwin]

So, before I went way, I had a happy tank full of fish - 3 male guppies, 4 neon tetras, 2 clown killifish, and a quarantined rescued (and very old) rummy nosed tetra. Also, 2 large apple snails, and well over 30 shrimp.

I leave my nephew (budding marine biologist of only 12yrs old) in charge of feeding.... *le sigh*

I come back, all the guppies are dead, 1 killi is dead, the other didn't last much longer, and the tetras didn't look happy. I've also lost quite a few of my shrimp. He said he followed the instructions on the box... ie, he's been feeding 3 times a day, and a LOT of food each time (my guppies were greedy and would eat til they looked pregnant).

I have my water levels stable after numerous large water changes and gravel vacs.

My problem is, my tetras are dull and have patches of (how I can only describe as) ghosted scales... they're happy and active and eating normally, and the patches aren't pure white, raised or fluffy looking. Their gills aren't red... So I don't know what too treat them for... The rummy nosed tetra is fine (her red nose faded, but is now right red again). I have to be careful with what I treat the tank with due to the snails and shrimp.

I've tried to get pics, but they're simply too fast.

Any suggestions? I'd like to add more fish, but obviously can't until this is sorted.

 

[Tizer]

50% water change 3 days running, starve the fish for a week (just feed some veg like crushed peas), test the water a few times for ammonia / nitrite, at end of starving week, do another water change, feed fish. pretend nothing happened.

 

[willowstwin]

Done that Tizer.. This happened a few weeks ago. The tetras colours aren't improving Could this ghosting be some form of scarring? I'm not sure what from, but it's the only thing I can think of, unless they are actually infected with a fungus or something

 

[Tizer]

dunno ;/ give then to the cat and buy some more, that'll learn em

 

[FishBlast]

Whenever my dad's in charge, I come home to either dead fish or overfed fish.
I hope he won't do the same this year... I have no one else to leave with the fish -.-

 

[Livewire88]

dunno ;/ give then to the cat and buy some more, that'll learn em

LMAO

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Oooh Tizer...thank you! I can always depend on you

 

[willowstwin]

*gulps*.... feedz em to the kittehs?

If these ones die... what do I do to ensure my tank is clean and disease free before I put some more in? Bearing in mind I'll (hopefully) still have my shrimp and snails.

 

[FishBlast]

*gulps*.... feedz em to the kittehs?

If these ones die... what do I do to ensure my tank is clean and disease free before I put some more in? Bearing in mind I'll (hopefully) still have my shrimp and snails.

large water changes and more frequent... and hide the bodies (or as Tizer said, feed them to the kittens).

 

[willowstwin]

right, literally a couple of days after I posted this, the worst looking tetra died. Since then, with no intervention other than a tri-weekly water change for a 2 weeks, the other tetras have their colour back. Only one of them seems to have a dull patch at the base of its tail. So I'm confident it was just stress from the experience.

I've bought some dwarf neon rainbows and am monitoring water stats twice a day. So far so good. I'm also keeping an eye on everyones scales and again, so far so good, infact I swear the dull patch is slowly getting brighter.

The tetras seem more active now the rainbows are in, and late in the evening, when I turn on the "night" light, they even school together for brief periods, which is really nice to see. I'll see how things go for another couple of weeks, then I may add 3 more tetras (so there are 6 of them).

So relieved everything is looking ok now

as for feeding the bodies to the kitty... the last tetra died between me leaving for work at 8am and me getting home at around 5pm, and in this time he had died and the shrimp had stripped him almost to bones

 

[ShinySideUp]

Might as well just throw the kid in next time you want dead fish -- kill two birds with one stone.

Seriously, don't leave the fish food around. Leave enough for the week (or whatever) and if they are dumb enough to throw it all in at once it probably won't do too much damage.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Depending on how long you're gone, I wouldn't worry about nobody coming in for a week. I've safely left mine (I have 5 tanks) for a week with no food, and they're just fine when I get home. No stress, no overfeeding, and in fact my tanks always look really clean when I get home! If you're worried about being gone that long without feeding them, have someone come in just once or twice while you're gone. Even if they overfeed, the fish will have a couple of days to recover.

And never, EVER use the vacation feeders. Those little gel packs can be deadly. I used one once when I first started keeping fish, and I came back after a week to find it had gone completely mouldy, and the fish never touched it.

 

[Tizer]

sounds mouldy, not deadly

 

[This Old Spouse]

You don't think that left long enough in the tank it would foul the water completely and be deadly? Perhaps not, but I'll never give it the chance again.

 

[Tizer]

i think if i was left in the water that long i'd foul it pretty bad.