Transparency: Do you log — and share — your fish deaths and new additions?

[TankU]

Note: This is for my roommate's tank, which I assist with.

I created a Google Sheets file to journal accurate inventories in my roommate's 45-gallon tank, which I help maintain.

Each time there is a change, I copy the most recent tab, rename it to the current date, and revise it.

I add rows when new fish are introduced; with the common and scientific names, and quantities that auto-total at the bottom.

I also delete deceased fish. For example. today we were searching for his third peppered cory, and when we found it dead, I made another revision.

Do you keep and openly share your mortality statistics? Why or why not?

I encourage this practice, especially for users who often offer advice to others.

 

[MattW]

Do you keep and openly share your mortality statistics? Why or why not?

I haven't kept any documents or files on this matter with any of my Tanks. If I need info, I refer to tank journal posts.
I may have to start one with my smallest tank, however. Had quite a few deaths in the last couple of days...

 

[GaryE]

I don't log info on my tanks. It could be useful to spot patterns, but fish mortality isn't a concern for me. I keep good records on my killifish in terms of what species, locations and genetic lines to minimize inbreeding and avoid hybrids, but otherwise, I don't lose many fish if they haven't just arrived.

I don't track individual fish, but species.

I restarted a lot of my fish species 3 years and a bit ago after I moved a fair distance, so my fish aren't old yet. My one year and out killies have turned over, and the two year lifespan killies are gone now, but the tetras, Corys, Cichlids etc are doing fine. I have about 250 fish though, spread over 50 tanks. I lose about 2 a month, though in 5 years as they age, that'll speed up.

If you start with good fish and stay on a regular, methodical water change and tank maintenance regime, a lot of species will outlive their wild versions in tanks, with no predators. It is good to keep an eye out for patterns though. If you suddenly start to lose species, you have to be able to figure out why, quickly.

 

[anewbie]

So your room-mate has a 200 gallon aquarium for that common pleco ?

The only spread-sheet i keep is in my head which is sort of accurate but not always. Also i get so many little ones joining the parents and my tank are so heavily planted i can never tell who is present and who has left the house.

 

[TankU]

I haven't kept any documents or files on this matter with any of my Tanks. If I need info, I refer to tank journal posts.
I may have to start one with my smallest tank, however. Had quite a few deaths in the last couple of days...

TankU

 

[gwand]

I have 7 active tanks at the moment. I keep a log on each tank. I make daily entries on each tank. I also keep a separate file on births and deaths.

 

[Colin_T]

We kept detailed records in the shop and quarantine facility. Any fish that died was entered into the diary along with the tank they were in, any symptoms the fish showed were recorded, what the tank has been treated with, time, date, etc. The bodies were also frozen and when quarantine officers came to do their final inspection, they took the bodies from the quarantine tanks. The bodies from the shop tanks went in the bin at the end of each month.

At home I used to keep records but didn't lose many fish and after years of having a fish room diary I stopped recording deaths. I also had a better memory back then and could remember which fish had died and what symptoms they had.

When I was treating fish, I kept a diary that had information on what I was using at the time. Many years ago you didn't go to a pet shop and buy medications, you went to a chemist and bought ingredients, took them home and made your own concoctions. Some of these worked and some wiped out the entire tank because you didn't measure the ingredients accurately. There was also a stage (20 years) when I was keeping rainbowfish and there was virtually nothing known about their care and keeping in captivity, let alone diseases. I experimented on my rainbowfish when they were sick. They are sensitive to chemicals and salt was one of the best (and safest) treatments for them. However, a clean tank and not overstocking did wonders in reducing the number of health issues they got or any fish got.
Overcrowding and lack of water changes is a big killer in aquariums.

 

[Essjay]

I just have a notebook with a page for each species, noting when and where they were bought and when any of that species died.

 

[GaryE]

I think I might try to change my ways.... I used to keep a journal of changes, projects, failures and successes, but keeping it petered out. I don't think I'd ever focus on individual fish - like @Newbie, the tanks are planted and I intentionally and unintentionally breed a lot of fish. I used to rely on my memory, but notes might help = good subject for a thread.

 

[Lcc86]

I've only got the one fish and 4 ADF's in another tank, somehow I'm able to tell the four of them apart so I don't keep records of the inhabitants.

One thing I do keep a record of is when I did my last water change and what the pH, gH and kH are. This is probably overkill but I killed a tank last year by inadvertently causing a pH spike so this gives me peace of mind.

 

[Magnum Man]

I'm capable of spread sheets, and if it were a business, or I was intentionally breeding with the thought of selling offspring, I definitely would, but my tanks are a hobby, a place to clear my mind... and I'm a really busy guy... I started keeping a list of fish, with scientific names, and links to pictures, just for Tank of the Month contests, but I no longer enter those, and found the spread sheets difficult to maintain, with the amount of tanks, and as heavily as they are stocked... some other hobbys started suffering because of time spent on record keeping... I also have fish, that I don't see for weeks, but are still there, as well as fish I didn't see for weeks, that quit showing up, only to see them again, months later... and of coarse fish that must have died, as they are never seen again... if you don't find a body, when do you delete a fish from the list???

I find I get more enjoyment from the hobby doing less... your results may vary

 

[Essjay]

One thing I do keep a record of is when I did my last water change

I do that as well, but I use a piece of paper attached to the fridge with magnets.

 

[gwand]

I have 7 active tanks at the moment. I keep a log on each tank. I make daily entries on each tank. I also keep a separate file on births and deaths.

I find keeping a detailed log a relaxing activity. I write in my fish room every evening. This is partly habit. When I ran my neuroendocrine laboratory at university we kept extremely detailed logs of each experiment. Logging is an integral aspect of a researcher’s life.

 

[Innesfan]

I tend to keep notes for species I've never kept before. But once they've been here for a while and I sense that I understand them sufficiently, I stop. I also will keep notes for the occasional breeding projects.

 

[emeraldking]

I've got a spreadsheet in my head...
Also when I'm linebreeding, it's all in my head...
When I still used to breed birds as well. I've kept a journal.