My Aquatic Catastrophe
Tuesday night while cleaning one of my aquarium filters I inadvertently bumped the needle valve that controls the CO2 bubble rate.
Within an hour and a half of the CO2 turning on Wednesday morning nearly every fish in my 75 gallon aquarium had died.
The only survivors are a pair of blue gouramis and two corydoras catfish.
I should have checked the bubble rate as a matter of standard procedure, but did not realize that an imperceptible bump could change the needle valve so dramatically.
I’ll be restocking the aquarium, though part of me did want to just give up on the hobby. If nothing else this gives me the opportunity to keep different species of fish than I had previously. I’ve had cardinals, neons, glowlights, and harlequin raspboras as my schooling fish. I’m considering perhaps black neons or cherry barbs to take their place, though I’m not sure at this point.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:24 PM
I’m sorry to hear this.
I had a similar experience many years ago. My parents built a house with a well, which for the first few years drew water of surprisingly good quality. I had greater luck than ever for the first two years there. Then the walls of the well started deteriorating quickly, causing massive sediment build up (beyond normal shale filtering) with high levels of various dangerous (to fish) minerals. Suddenly, after a single water change to my freshwater 55, all my fish (large, beautiful angels) started dying…I lost three within 5 days, and the last one held on just over a week.
I never attempted to keep Angelfish again.
From then on I took up the arduous task of filling 10-5gal water jugs at a time at my sister’s house for regular water changes to my aquariums. Sorry to ramble on…been there.