Wish Me Luck

[Athena]

Well, this isn't good... discovered last night that the heater thermostat in one of my tanks has gone kaput! Came home and noticed that the fish in that tank seemed to be acting peculiar, huddling on the gravel, not swimming about as they normally would have been, except they did swim up for food.

Anyway, checked the temp and could see it had dropped just below the green "safe" marker. Did a check on the thermostat by turning it up to high setting but it didn't come on and to be honest it looks discoloured inside, like when a bulb blows. I've never had this happen to me before...I guess there's a first time for everything, as they say!

The worrying thing is, there's nowhere near where I work where I can buy a new one...and by the time I reach home of an evening (gone 8pm) obviously my LFS is closed...I thought about ordering online but even then it won't reach me quickly enough, so the earliest I can buy another will be Saturday morning! Oh hell!

Can't even take time off work as we're short-staffed this week - typical!

I do have a smaller tank with just one inhabitant - my rainbow shark, Billy - and I have been pondering over the idea of taking the heater from his tank and putting it into the community tank until Saturday. The other two tanks I have contain my cichlids and I wouldn't dare leave them without heat. Also, I can't rehome the community fish into any of the other tanks due to incompatibility issues.

I'd feel really guilty about doing this to Billy but I'm thinking what's best - do I try to save a small community of fish/frogs/apple snail and put Billy at risk or just take my chances and leave things as they are?

My house isn't the warmest of homes, having oak flooring and high ceilings etc, so at night time the temp gets quite cold at the moment.

The fish in this tank are serpae tetras, silver-tip tetras, harlequins, black sailfin molly, sterbai corys, Ottos, African dwarf frogs and a golden apple snail. The tetras have already begun to slightly lose their normal colouring.

I know that this is a major stress factor so I'm preparing myself for possible problems ahead - I have plenty of various meds on hand just in case.

Ah well, it's a lesson hard learnt...always have a SPARE thermostat at home!

Anyone have any ideas? What would you do in this situation (apart from sit and cry LOL).

A worried Athena...

 

[fluttermoth]

what kind of chiclids do you have? could they either go in together, or Billy go in with them short term?

If not, your best bet is to fill pop bottles with as water as hot as you can get it and stand those in the tank. Re-fill them morning and evening. Also get some blankets or a spare duvet and cover the tank up with those.

Best of luck...

 

[Athena]

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

I could do the hot-water-in-a-bottle thing you suggested but it would probably only warm the water slightly for half an hour and as I leave home before 7am and not home till 8pm I don't think it will do much good. I can certainly do this regularly throughout the evening once I'm home, though. I just hope the fluctuating of temps won't make things worse for them.

No, I can't mix my two lots of cichlids together - they are all the same species (short bodied pink convicts) but extremely territorial and they would not tolerate the extra convicts being dumped on them and, besides that, those two tanks have been running so perfectly for the last few years with no sickness or deaths that I really don't want to upset the apple cart LOL

I shall try the idea of insulating the tank, like you suggested. Maybe if I put the bottles of hot water in first, then insulate with something (duvet sounds good) that might help.

Thanks again for the input!

Regards, Athena

 

[fluttermoth]

I see your problem with the convicts then; I was just being hopeful!

You'll be surprised how well the hot water bottle thing works though, epecially if you insulate the tank too. Get as many bottles as you can in there and it will make a difference; might just be enough to keep your fish going until saturday...

Fingers crossed for you and your fish.

 

[BigIan]

now i know this may sound silly but how about heating the room?

 

[Craig89]

i would have suggested the hot water bottles too, try wrapping tin foil around the tank, Sounds daft but its a good insulator.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, silver foil is great; in fact I have all my tanks lagged back and sides with black bin bags with a layer of foil and polystyrene sheet to help with my electricity bills

 

[Jenste]

I was going to suggest tinfoil or/and wrapping towels around the tank.

sounds cruel, but I would try putting the working heater in the community tank, and do the alternative methods to billy's tank...


in that scenario....the worst possible case is that you have one death, Billy. in the scenario you are in not, you risk multiple deaths.


I am so sorry...this is a really rotten situation. is there anyone, a friend/family member who can pick the heater up for you?

 

[Craig89]

its a real shame you dont live closer as i have a few spares.

 

[Athena]

Thanks for all your replies on this... I've gone with Jenste's advice of putting the heater in the community tank and then putting the bottles of hot water in Billy's tank and wrapping it. As his tank water was already at the proper temp level, I didn't add the hot bottles straight away as I didin't want him overheating LOL.

The poor fish in my community tank have obviously suffered a bit of stress due to this fiasco - the sailfin molly in particular I'm worried about as her tail fin edges look a bit raggedy, like the start of fin rot - arrrgh - but I have begun dosing with melafix so hopefully I've caught it in the earliest stages.

Just goes to show how quickly some fish react to stress!

Of course, I blame myself entirely for all of this! (I should have had a spare thermostat...and I should have just gone ahead and switched the thermostat from Billy's tank to theirs, rather than pondering and worrying over it for a day) Well, I've learnt from this mistake.

I guess it's something that can happen to anyone at any time, so I hope those reading this will be better prepared than I was.

Thanks again - regards, Athena

 

[Twinklecaz]

Athena.......*evil voice in ear about to speak*. A few weeks ago when I had Honey harassment issues, I may have said I had to go to the doctors urgently so I could get to LFS before it shut and buy 2 more females.

Just an idea

 

[Athena]

LOL oh you naughty girl

Just my bad luck that there are no trains during the day from here to where I live (they only run during the rush hour period from around 4pm -7pm - So even catching the first train still wouldn't have got me home in time for the LFS).

...not that I would do such a thing cos I'm a lil angel LOL

Athena