itZme
Fish Fanatic
Well, I am new here and pretty much new to the fishkeeping thing. I read up a bunch before buying a tank larger than our starter 5gal. The info. I absorbed may have just saved a bunch of lives.
There is a great big ice storm that just hit our area Wednesday and the buildup of ice was really crazy. I was laying in bed listening to big tree branches snap off and crash to the ground. Then Thursday morning about 4am our electricity went out! I figured it would come back on soon so I went back to sleep (everything is sooo peaceful without any humming or buzzing devices anywhere in earshot.)
My kids woke me at about 7am yelling that they couldn't see to get to the bathroom so I grabbed an oil lamp that we have for emergencies and lit it for them. As I was going through the living room I saw my new 20 gal. hex and thought "UhOh"
it's been 3 hours without a filter, heat or air for these poor little fish. I have a very small power inverter (to run my laptop while in the car) so I plugged it in and ran a cord to the tank and it managed to run the power filter and the heater. I let it run for about an hour. It was getting cold in the house without electricity to fire the furnace so I told the kids to get ready and we would go to my dad's place to stay warm since they had power. I wrapped a heavy blanket around the tank and we headed out. I assumed it would be a half-day adventure. We had to stay there last night since the power was still out at our place (and for roughly 120,000 other people in the area)
I made a trip back to the house today to check on things and the interior of my house was 43 degrees F ! I grabbed my net and headed to the tank hoping that it wouldn't be a disaster. All the fish looked alive but just laying there not moving. I checked the temp with a digital thermometer and it read 59 degrees! I hadn't fully stocked the tank yet but I had 6 zebra danios, 2 very small plecos, 4 neons and 2 apple snails. I took them out and bagged them in ziploc baggies half filled with the frigid water and then carried them over to the 5 gal tank. There the water temp was a tropical 62 deg. F. I took all of the occupants of the small tank and bagged them up also. Then did a 50% change with nice warm water to bring the tank back to 77F. I took out half of the water and floated all of the bags. I hoped they could take almost 20 degree temp change without going belly up.
Everyone started getting really perky after about 15 mins. I then took the 5gal tank with me to the other house with power and then topped it off and added all of the fish from both tanks to the little 5 gal!
They are very crowded but alive. Now there are 9 zebra danios, 2 serpae tetras, 3 plecos, 1 cory, 2 bumblebee gobies, 3 apple snails and 4 neons in there! ( I feel like I should be singing "...and a partridge in a pear tree" )
Well if it wasn't for the info I got here (like wrapping a blanket around the tank) I think they would've all perished. I am hoping they will get the power up at our place soon. It has been almost 3 days now. I am typing this on my laptop using my cellphone as the modem to connect. You don't realize how much we take for granted until you live without it for a few days. We live in "Amish country" in Ohio and it was funny as I passed a horse & buggy today and told my kids... " That guy must be laughing at all of us running around like crazy because of a power outage. They never even use electricity in their homes."
Well... sorry for the novel. I just thought I would thank all of you and also inform you that my entire group of fish survived 60 degree temps, including our 3 male bettas!
Cross your fingers for us to get electric back soon.
itZme
There is a great big ice storm that just hit our area Wednesday and the buildup of ice was really crazy. I was laying in bed listening to big tree branches snap off and crash to the ground. Then Thursday morning about 4am our electricity went out! I figured it would come back on soon so I went back to sleep (everything is sooo peaceful without any humming or buzzing devices anywhere in earshot.)
My kids woke me at about 7am yelling that they couldn't see to get to the bathroom so I grabbed an oil lamp that we have for emergencies and lit it for them. As I was going through the living room I saw my new 20 gal. hex and thought "UhOh"
it's been 3 hours without a filter, heat or air for these poor little fish. I have a very small power inverter (to run my laptop while in the car) so I plugged it in and ran a cord to the tank and it managed to run the power filter and the heater. I let it run for about an hour. It was getting cold in the house without electricity to fire the furnace so I told the kids to get ready and we would go to my dad's place to stay warm since they had power. I wrapped a heavy blanket around the tank and we headed out. I assumed it would be a half-day adventure. We had to stay there last night since the power was still out at our place (and for roughly 120,000 other people in the area)I made a trip back to the house today to check on things and the interior of my house was 43 degrees F ! I grabbed my net and headed to the tank hoping that it wouldn't be a disaster. All the fish looked alive but just laying there not moving. I checked the temp with a digital thermometer and it read 59 degrees! I hadn't fully stocked the tank yet but I had 6 zebra danios, 2 very small plecos, 4 neons and 2 apple snails. I took them out and bagged them in ziploc baggies half filled with the frigid water and then carried them over to the 5 gal tank. There the water temp was a tropical 62 deg. F. I took all of the occupants of the small tank and bagged them up also. Then did a 50% change with nice warm water to bring the tank back to 77F. I took out half of the water and floated all of the bags. I hoped they could take almost 20 degree temp change without going belly up.
Everyone started getting really perky after about 15 mins. I then took the 5gal tank with me to the other house with power and then topped it off and added all of the fish from both tanks to the little 5 gal!
They are very crowded but alive. Now there are 9 zebra danios, 2 serpae tetras, 3 plecos, 1 cory, 2 bumblebee gobies, 3 apple snails and 4 neons in there! ( I feel like I should be singing "...and a partridge in a pear tree" )
Well if it wasn't for the info I got here (like wrapping a blanket around the tank) I think they would've all perished. I am hoping they will get the power up at our place soon. It has been almost 3 days now. I am typing this on my laptop using my cellphone as the modem to connect. You don't realize how much we take for granted until you live without it for a few days. We live in "Amish country" in Ohio and it was funny as I passed a horse & buggy today and told my kids... " That guy must be laughing at all of us running around like crazy because of a power outage. They never even use electricity in their homes."
Well... sorry for the novel. I just thought I would thank all of you and also inform you that my entire group of fish survived 60 degree temps, including our 3 male bettas!
Cross your fingers for us to get electric back soon.
itZme
Lol, I know how hard it is to go without power for ages, ours was out for 3 days early in December when the guys digging our pool hit the cable. 
I almost died.
