Jim Sinclair
Fish Fanatic
Last night I came into the room and discovered that both filters in my largest tank had malfunctioned at the same time. (The cause in both cases turned out to be leaf detritus from the leafy greens my fish love but are messy with.) Water was brown, fish were at the top of the tank gasping for air, and one fish was floating at the top giving every impression of being dead.
I scooped it out into a small container and looked at it closely. I saw that its gills were still moving and fins were twitching weakly.
I quickly rushed to set up the plastic storage tote I use as a hospital tank, with clean dechlorinated water and dissolved salt at one tablespoon to five gallons. I put the ailing fish into that, using a net for the transfer rather than pour in any of the toxic brown water from the polluted tank.
Then I set about doing an emergency water change and unclogging the filters in the aquarium. In the process I netted a couple of other fish that were definitely alive but at the top gasping particularly desperately, and added them to the hospital tank as well. Before long all the fish in the hospital tank were swimming around calmly, staying below the water line, and I could no longer tell which one was the first fish I had put in there when it had appeared to be nearly dead.
Then another disaster as I continued siphoning out and dumping yucky water from the aquarium: The gravel vac, which I had carefully placed upright and firmly on the floor of the tank to avoid sucking up any fish, slid across the tank floor and a fish got sucked up into it! ACK!
I clapped a finger over the other end to stop the suction and pulled the bell end up out of the water to break the vacuum. The fish dropped out and back into the murky water. I couldn't see if it was moving or not in that brief instant when it fell, and I couldn't see it again in all the murk afterward.
I repositioned the gravel vac, held it firmly in place, and resumed pumping out murky water.
I caught sight of a limp fish floating up toward the top of the tank. I stopped the vacuum and scooped out the fish. I couldn't tell, and still don't know, whether or not it was the same fish that got caught in the gravel vac. If it was the same fish, I had no way of knowing if it was in the condition it was in because it had been injured by the gravel vac, or if it had been caught in the gravel vac because it was already in that condition from the bad water.
But from all I could see, the fish was dead. When placed in the same small container of water I had used to examine the first floating fish, this one had no movement at all of gills or mouth or eyes.
Still, I don't give up easily. I did not add this fish to the hospital tank, because I really believed it was dead. I didn't want a dead fish to pollute the water in the hospital tank for the fish that were recovering from having already been in polluted water.
I left it in the small container, set aside to examine more carefully later, as there was still an emergency situation with multiple fish gasping for air in the murky tank.
I figured if there was any chance it was still alive, it would need clean water. So I carefully poured out most of the water I had scooped out with it, and used a baster to gently pour in some clean water. Unlike the first fish which had shown weak movement of gills and fins, this one continued to show no movement of gills at all, and the body only moved through the action of water movement as I poured.
I pumped out and dumped almost half the water from the tank. At the point when I was ready to dump the final bucketful of dirty water before beginning to refill with clean water, I checked on that fish one last time. I fully expected the result of that examination to be that I would dump the dead fish along with the last bucketful of water.
Its gills were moving!
Weakly, laboriously, more like spastic twitching than normal fish respiration, but definitely moving. It wasn't dead yet after all!
I added this fish to the hospital tank, where it floated on its side at the top while I began adding clean water to the big tank.
I peeked into the hospital tank from time to time. The fish floated on its side at the top for a while. It sank to the bottom and lay on its side on the floor for a while. By the time I had added enough clean water that the fish in the big tank were all swimming normally again and nobody was at the top gasping for air, that last fish to be added to the hospital tank was trying to swim a bit. It was swimming upside down, or on its side, or head down, unable to maintain a proper position in the water, but it was definitely trying.
By the time I got both filters unclogged and restarted in the big tank, all the fish in the hospital tank were swimming normally. I could no longer tell either which was the original fish that I had thought was dead until I saw the weak gill movements, nor which was the last fish to be added which I had been *sure* was dead because it had no gill movement at all when first removed from the big tank. All were swimming around just fine.
I left them in the hospital tank for the night, with a gentle sponge filter borrowed from my special-needs tank (which has two sponge filters and no HOB filter). This morning they're all alive and well.
I plan to do another water change in the big tank this afternoon. Then if all goes well, the fish in the hospital tank can go home.
I scooped it out into a small container and looked at it closely. I saw that its gills were still moving and fins were twitching weakly.
I quickly rushed to set up the plastic storage tote I use as a hospital tank, with clean dechlorinated water and dissolved salt at one tablespoon to five gallons. I put the ailing fish into that, using a net for the transfer rather than pour in any of the toxic brown water from the polluted tank.
Then I set about doing an emergency water change and unclogging the filters in the aquarium. In the process I netted a couple of other fish that were definitely alive but at the top gasping particularly desperately, and added them to the hospital tank as well. Before long all the fish in the hospital tank were swimming around calmly, staying below the water line, and I could no longer tell which one was the first fish I had put in there when it had appeared to be nearly dead.
Then another disaster as I continued siphoning out and dumping yucky water from the aquarium: The gravel vac, which I had carefully placed upright and firmly on the floor of the tank to avoid sucking up any fish, slid across the tank floor and a fish got sucked up into it! ACK!
I clapped a finger over the other end to stop the suction and pulled the bell end up out of the water to break the vacuum. The fish dropped out and back into the murky water. I couldn't see if it was moving or not in that brief instant when it fell, and I couldn't see it again in all the murk afterward.
I repositioned the gravel vac, held it firmly in place, and resumed pumping out murky water.
I caught sight of a limp fish floating up toward the top of the tank. I stopped the vacuum and scooped out the fish. I couldn't tell, and still don't know, whether or not it was the same fish that got caught in the gravel vac. If it was the same fish, I had no way of knowing if it was in the condition it was in because it had been injured by the gravel vac, or if it had been caught in the gravel vac because it was already in that condition from the bad water.
But from all I could see, the fish was dead. When placed in the same small container of water I had used to examine the first floating fish, this one had no movement at all of gills or mouth or eyes.
Still, I don't give up easily. I did not add this fish to the hospital tank, because I really believed it was dead. I didn't want a dead fish to pollute the water in the hospital tank for the fish that were recovering from having already been in polluted water.
I left it in the small container, set aside to examine more carefully later, as there was still an emergency situation with multiple fish gasping for air in the murky tank.
I figured if there was any chance it was still alive, it would need clean water. So I carefully poured out most of the water I had scooped out with it, and used a baster to gently pour in some clean water. Unlike the first fish which had shown weak movement of gills and fins, this one continued to show no movement of gills at all, and the body only moved through the action of water movement as I poured.
I pumped out and dumped almost half the water from the tank. At the point when I was ready to dump the final bucketful of dirty water before beginning to refill with clean water, I checked on that fish one last time. I fully expected the result of that examination to be that I would dump the dead fish along with the last bucketful of water.
Its gills were moving!
Weakly, laboriously, more like spastic twitching than normal fish respiration, but definitely moving. It wasn't dead yet after all!
I added this fish to the hospital tank, where it floated on its side at the top while I began adding clean water to the big tank.
I peeked into the hospital tank from time to time. The fish floated on its side at the top for a while. It sank to the bottom and lay on its side on the floor for a while. By the time I had added enough clean water that the fish in the big tank were all swimming normally again and nobody was at the top gasping for air, that last fish to be added to the hospital tank was trying to swim a bit. It was swimming upside down, or on its side, or head down, unable to maintain a proper position in the water, but it was definitely trying.
By the time I got both filters unclogged and restarted in the big tank, all the fish in the hospital tank were swimming normally. I could no longer tell either which was the original fish that I had thought was dead until I saw the weak gill movements, nor which was the last fish to be added which I had been *sure* was dead because it had no gill movement at all when first removed from the big tank. All were swimming around just fine.
I left them in the hospital tank for the night, with a gentle sponge filter borrowed from my special-needs tank (which has two sponge filters and no HOB filter). This morning they're all alive and well.
I plan to do another water change in the big tank this afternoon. Then if all goes well, the fish in the hospital tank can go home.
