Loaches Online Forum

strange things happened last night.
My plants were pearling like crazy. Sure it was sunny during the day but that was two hours before. Then I notice my Kubs in the corner with fins semi clamped and rapid breathing. The neons schooling. My albino pleco was very inactive and the hatchets close to the bottom of the tank. The only fish active were the zebras.
Thinking WTF I reach in to get some of the bubbles off the java moss and the tank water is like a hot bath!
95!!!!!! it reads.
My heater was stuck on and cooking the tank. the bubbles being the hot water losing the o2 as the temp increased.
I swing into action and in two hours I bring the tank down to 92.
the changes taking place included--
kubs become active
the SAE starts laying on a log with rapid gill movement
hatchets back at top of tank

At 88--
the dario is back being the boss of the tank
neons becoming semi active (a weak one dies)
pleco starts eating again
zebras flashing
SAE still hasn't moved.

This morning I found the SAE dead but everything else looks good
Of course I am not out of the water yet
I have 10 different types of plants and although most are hearty, I suspect my crypts will start majorly melting...they always seem to be in a semi state of melting anyway with the abuse from the loaches.
I lowered the tank H20 level early on so the HOB filter would help increase the o2 levels.
Now will the high temp effect the biological cultures in my filters?
All this after my boss told me about how his young kid cooked his fish once.

Bummer newshound!

SAE's are vey intolerant of oxygen depletion. During the East Coast blackout the other year, the only thing we lost was an SAE in the Clown tank.

You are lucky you caught this when you did.

Martin.

When I was a kid, the heater stuck in my first fish tank and the only survivor was a red tailed shark. I have not trusted heaters since.

bummer. i've never had this happen to me but quite the opposite, my heater broke, lost my siamese fighters and a few neons.

Location..Location!

Heaters seem to be getting worse and worse. In the last year, I have had 5 fairly new ones die on me (two of them within a week of buying them). Only one stuck on high, and I discovered it quickly.

Good to hear you discovered it and had minimal losses.