Loaches Online Forum

got back from vacation only to saw the tank water murky.
my worst nightmare, all 9 7+ yrs old clowns (5-10") all died, along with 4 yoyos, 2 beauforti, 4 upside down cats, and 18 tiger barbs.

Spent a couple of hours emptying the tank that was filled with rancid water, the fish body & bones were already leached into the water creating a soupy mess. Normally I couldn't handle nasty stuff like this, but somehow I was so upset and emotional, that I was able to do majority of the clean-up (almost like a CSI episode) without throwing up.

Probably one fish died and the toxin released created a chain reaction killing the rest of the tank off.

I could blame power failure, broken automatic feeder, heater, (all were working fine when I got home).
All and all, I felt guilty and responsible for their demise.
I had left them on long trips several times before, and I thought I did the usual preparation before I left this time. But this time, something happened and now I don't have my kids anymore. :_(

Very sorry to hear about your loss, bigpow. Wish there was something I could say or do that would help.

Commiserations on your terrible loss Bigpow. I think I know exactly how you feel, having experienced an identical disaster a few months ago. You'll have to set up again of course. They are far to beautiful (read addictive) to give up easily.
I'm positive my crash happened through a yoyo getting stuck under a heavy rock (part of a cave I had in there for years) and dying. I was gutted but have set up with a new crew and am glad of it. I hope you do too.

Any evidence of a power failure, like clocks with their times off?

Since clowns live such a long time, they often end up dying in various tank disasters. I'm thinking of splitting mine up between several lightly stocked tanks to improve their odds of living to old age.

If the q was addressed to me Ardillakilla - no, I have clocks that zero out at the first hint of a power outage and all were fine. Looking at Bigpow's post everything looked normal there too. I will never put the caves back and have rounded up some great (light) hollow logs for them.

bob d wrote:If the q was addressed to me Ardillakilla - no, I have clocks that zero out at the first hint of a power outage and all were fine. Looking at Bigpow's post everything looked normal there too. I will never put the caves back and have rounded up some great (light) hollow logs for them.

I was addressing the original poster since he suspected a power outage among other things. It's very annoying to have to reset multiple clocks when the power goes out but it's at least useful for something.

So sorry to hear this bigpow. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control. I also hope that you start again.

Oh no! I'm so sorry.

My lord!

I would be completly devastated to!

My condolances

I still have 5 baby clowns on another tank, otherwise I'd probably stop keeping them for good.
No evidence of power failure since this was the only tank affected.
Agreed that keeping them separated in multiple tanks would be a good idea.

Thanks everyone.

This sounds heartbreaking! I am so sorry!

No words can express my sorrow...

dude!

Sorry to hear it.

Really sorry to read this, what a terrible thing to happen!!!

Val