Tragedy...

[Gibbo]

Came back from work today to find all 3 of our Dwarf Amazonian Puffers dead in their tank... It was an Ammonia spike caused by frozen courgette placed in for bristlenoses this morning. Once upon a time I used to put courgette in raw for the plecs, it didn't contaminate the water that way. I thought it would be fine to do so this morning with the frozen stuff but it obviously broke down too quick and caused pollution very quickly... the filtration is very good (it has to be with puffers) but obviously this put a very sudden load on the system.
The poor little buggers had only just gotten over a nasty case of whitespot (which they are very susceptable to) and were the most settled and relaxed we have seen them since we got them about 3 months ago... they no longer 'paced' the tank but explored it with almost feline curiosity, approaching the front when it was feeding time. I'm an experienced fishkeeper but it just goes to show that even I can make a mistake, a very costly one. They were really growing on me.... sob...

 

[slt]

ahhhh gibbo i'm sorry to hear that, its always sad when you lose fish,

 

[wetwetwet]

Gutted for you Gibbo

Could a piece of courgette really do that much damage that quickly? - just curious

Were all the other fish ok?

 

[cryosi]

sorry to hear gibbo,

 

[Gibbo]

Yeah, other fish ( 1 male hoplo, 2 bristlenose cats) seem OK... Did 50% water change, will do another tomorrow. Added some Sera Ammovec to settle Ammonia, I acted quickly but Puffers are extremely intolerent of poor water conditions and must've died quickly. The tank and filtration system have been running for about 5 months, it cycled within a couple of weeks of setting up back in the summer, the puffers had been in there for 4-5 weeks, moved from another tank. It must've been the courgette, it was the only change in routine that has taken place. The plecs had been given the odd bit of young leaf spinach before... I'm basically putting this down to experience and going back to raw courgette in the future as opposed to frozen! If we are to try these Puffers again then It'll be a tank to themselves.

 

[wetwetwet]

Did you get a high ammonia reading?

 

[Gibbo]

Yep, and nitrite, synonymous with decomposing matter... it wasn't through the roof... 0.5 mg/l on each, but it was enough... any ammonia and nitrite is too much... in all my years I've never had this happen before

 

[wetwetwet]

Hmmm....I guess all I was wondering was wether the high reading could have come from the dead puffers???

 

[Gibbo]

Mmm.. they had their frozen bloodworm this morning as usual, a small piece that is always eaten pretty quick!! Hoplo has some with them, he seems fine. They were bloated though when we found them.. that points to decomposition and gas production if i'm not wrong? Any thoughts WWW?

 

[gadazobe]

Sorry to hear about your fish Gibbo It does seem strange tho, I've left veggies in the water for 2 days before now and never had something like this happen (knocks quickly on wood) although I've never used frozen veggies before. Could the frozen veggies have some sort of additive - maybe something to enhance their colour, or some sort of preservative?

 

[semper fi]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

i always blanche any veggie before feeding. never heard of this type of veggie though. what is it exactly?

maggie

 

[gadazobe]

Across the pond we call zuchinnis "courgettes"

 

[wetwetwet]

I don't have any other ideas, its just as gaz says I wouldn't have thought the courgette would have done that much damage in that short a time - maybe the freezing does increase the rate at which it will decompose when dropped into the tank especially if prior to freezing it was more boiled than blanched??? was it a big piece? or had it fallen apart/decomposed or been eaten by the cats by the time you got back from work yesterday?

 

[semper fi]

ah.... now i got you. try blanching them first. the frozen and dried fruits and veggies have higher concentrations of sugar. maybe the frozen has a higher concentration of something that increases the ammonia?

maggie

 

[Gibbo]

God only knows. The courgette was bought fresh and then washed, chopped and frozen. No blanching. It was a fairly large bit though, about 3" by 1". It has only been recently that I've used it frozen... I used to do the same as Gadazobe, leave it to soften up in the aquaria from fresh but I wondered wether it was too tough for the guys to 'get going' on it. I should really have stuck to what I know....