Regular Member akk0415 Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 Last night our electricity went out for 45 minutes. My fish looked horrible within minutes and took all night to recover after it came back on. I guess I need a battery powered pump. Is it normal for them to go downhill so fast? I kept stirring the water every 5 minutes but it did no good from what I could tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Fishmerised Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 I don't know why they look bad so quickly. I have accidently left my filter off for 9 hours without any problems. Before I turned it back on I dosed the tank with Prime in case of a nitrIte spike in the filter but all was well. The fish didn't seem to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Fantail Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 Yeah, my fish don't feel anything if the filter is off, but i don't know about the airpump, never tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member lillypetal Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 when we had a powercut my fish went a bit slower, and were like "whats going on??" but thats it, they were fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member smack536 Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 mine get very upset when the bubbles go off. other then giving me dirty looks, they seem just fine. strange they went downhill SO fast....i know they slow down, but i dint know it happened that fast...strange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member akk0415 Posted July 22, 2005 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 Actually, I am treating her for gill flukes. Maybe that had a lot to do with it. I was shocked at how quickly it happened. I kept thinking that people do keep them in bowls without an air pump and they live for a long time but she looked horrible. She was iterally sitting with her fins clamped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member orandas*r*my*heart Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 My that is really quick...maybe because of her gill flukes her little body is already stressed and that was just the icing on the cake...other than that I'm at a loss. Poor little thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member fishrpets Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 Mine have always been ok during power outages, but I understand when you say "I kept thinking that people do keep them in bowls without an air pump and they live for a long time but she looked horrible" because before I had an extra tank for quarentine and hospital, I used a bowl once and the fish was very much in distress very quickly and looking like it couldn't breathe. I had to get a rubbermaid emptied and ready fast, added an airstone in and he perked right up. I honestly don't know after that how people are even able to keep them in bowls!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member erick31 Posted July 22, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 22, 2005 Maybe because of the temp. I imagine that in Texas is pretty hot right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Fishmerised Posted July 23, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 23, 2005 Maybe because of the temp. I imagine that in Texas is pretty hot right now. 366146[/snapback] Good point. Without circulation and airation the oxygen levels would be very low in hot weather. Combine that with dysfunctional gills due to the flukes and that could very well explain it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jsrtist Posted July 23, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 23, 2005 Definitely invest in a battery powered airpump. I have them for my 3 main tanks and they are only about $12 each at vvvv. There are different brands but I bought the ones by PennPlax. They run on D batteries which I keep around in the case of the power outage. This time of year in Central California, there are a lot of outages because everyone is running the AC at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Fishmerised Posted July 23, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 23, 2005 Jeepers, this thread must have jinxed me or it's just a weird coincidence. Around lunchtime I realised that one filter had been off since last night, about 16hrs. I nuked the filter with Prime and turned it back on, all is fine. I just went to turn the tank lights on, it's late afternoon and found another tank filter had been left off - about 20hrs !!!! The water appeared a bit cloudy, once again nuked the filter with Prime before restarting the filter - the fish are fine. edit: I turn the filter off before feeding so the flakes don't get sucked into the filter. I usually turn the filter back on after half an hour to an hour. I was very tired last night and forgot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member akk0415 Posted July 25, 2005 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 25, 2005 That's the plan. Battery powered pumps. It was HOT in our house. The tank already sits at 80 degrees and there is no fighting it. I use a 20 gallon pump for a 10 gallon tank for that reason. I was just in awe of her nearly instantaneous decline. I do think gill flukes are the explanation. I honestly hadn't thought of the temps influence on oxygenation. Very good point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest labrat99 Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 Hi Akk, If she's already sick and you are treating her that could indeed be it. On the other hand... There might not have really been a problem. I've seen this behavior before - when the electricity is cut off and they suddenly have no lights, air bubbles, moving water, or noise from all of that, they'll just stop and sit on the bottom. Maybe the the sudden change in environment confuses them? Take care. Labrat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Graham Posted July 26, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 26, 2005 Ditto everyone! Yeah, heat, no O2, and gill flukes would make anyone feel pretty rotten, pretty fast! Good luck with treatment - if only the power company would do their part... :crp We lose power a lot here so I am going to invest in some battery powered back up air pumps - they have some that automatically switch on as soon as there is no electrical current - Fishmerized! (JK) (I am glad everyone was fine)! Like so: http://www.aquariumguys.com/silentairpump.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.