zonked tiger barbs

[millym]

)
hi there
just like to share our nasty experience with our barbs a couple of weeks ago. one of our danios was looking fungally so we trotted off to by some meds for him to hopefully cure the ailment! my partner(now known as dr d) in crime acidentally overdosed the tank & we noticed this as 5 mins after adding the med our barbs(3 green 3 tiger) stopped moving completely. argh! did a quick big water change & they still looked sound asleep. no other fish in our tank were affected ( red eye tetras,neons,corys, pakistani loach,algae eater ,zebras)

anyway to cut a long & traumatic tale short-er, the barbs were completely zonked for 3 days.we did some more water changes and on day 4 they started to move a little but then needed to snooze again after minimum effort and were like they were in slow motion!!!! day 5 and thankfully they were back to their old lively, mischeivious selves and seem to have suffered no long lasting ill effects. that was a couple of weeks ago now & theyre just fine thank god!
i looked the meds ingredients(2-phenoxyethanol) up on the web & apparently it is used to anaesthetise fish sometimes but is unlicenced for that purpose. ooops! felt v guilty & very stupid about doing this to the poor things & also quite surprised none of the other fish were also put to sleep. also wish id know about this excellent site at the time!!!!
needless to say dr d is banned from giving any drugs to anything,anytime,anywhere in this house ever again.
ps: the danio died & yep we are new to having finned friends in the house.

 

[lordmoose]

If I were you I'd check your tank parameters. Doing that many water changes in such a short space of time could send the nitrites sky high.

 

[millym]

thanks
we have been keeping a close eye on all the levels since this & theyve been fine.

 

[YngUrbanCMH]

I'm glad their ok now! Did the infection go away on the sick fish? There are days that my tiger barbs terorize the tank, and I'd love to knock 'em out for a few days (hope this doesn't offend anyone... mean it in good fun )

 

[smb]

WOW! That is one heck of an experience...for you and just reading it.

I would have tossed the barbs the next morning if they still looked dead but I guess that would have been a HUGE mistake. I'm glad you have more smarts than I. May I ask what made you think they weren't dead and might recover, even 4 days into this?

I'm glad you did though.

 

[Xenity7]

Hey LordMoose, why would doing water changes increase nitrites, they are supposed to remove them...

By the way, what " Execellent Site" did you find... Sounds interesting

 

[Mogo]

MillyM,

When you treated your tank did you make sure to treat the total water volume and not the tank volume? It's a common mistake, as people think, it's a 30 gallon so I'll treat for thirty gallons. Have to keep in mind the displacement from rocks, gravel, plants and such. Phenoxyethanol has a fine line between medicinal properties, anesthesia and over dose (resulting in death).

 

[millym]

thanks everyone!

sorry i know my tale was rather long & winding!

the barbs didnt look dead as they were parked in their normal sleeping/rest positions( noses tilted down a little) - fins still moving & every now & again would swim an inch or so - very slowly!!!

thanks for tip on actual water amount not tank size, never thought about those rocks & things.....not that we'll be using phenoxyethanol again though


xenity7 - this is the excellent site i wished we'd known about during our trauma!