Infested aquarium

shista

shista

Member
ok so i went to an oversea trip to greece over the whole summer.. beofre i left i had a few fish in my aquarium i sold as many as i could but i was left with a few cleaner crew and a few damsels.. now after 3 months the tank water is down to half the tank.. AND 1 DAMSEL IS STILL ALIVE.. i want to empty as much water as i can and add fresh water.. what should i do about the damsel? i only have little plastic extra tanks.
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
I am a little confused about the title of the thread. As far as the damsel question are you looking for an ethical or practical answer?
 
mantisman51

mantisman51

Active Member
+1 The best thing to do, IMO, is start adding ro water to the tank to lower the sg slowly-over a couple days. The fish would acclimate to the lowering sg, as would any surviving inverts. After getting to the optimal sg, I keep mine at 1.024-others prefer 1.025-1.026, then perform a water change.
 
shista

shista

Member
I was thinking about taking the live rock out and washing it a lil with the same aquarium water... would this be a good idea because i know it will really cloud up the water... ane ideas or tips on how to restart this tank?
 
mantisman51

mantisman51

Active Member
Raise the sg and start doing water changes. There may or may not be die-off on the LR, but cross that bridge when/if it comes your way. I had a 55g with 3 tangs, a lined puffer, LR and a cleanup crew(yeah WAAAYY overstocked). The tangs all died from ******(ich). I got bummed out and never could find the puffer, so I figured it died and was somewhere in the LR. For 3 months I did nothing to the tank-no feeding, water changes, nothing-I just left the filter running. I had lost about 1/3 of the water to evaporation. So, I started to pull the LR out to tear the tank down. Under the LR was my lined puffer, very much alive. So, I put the LR back in and tested the sg-1.035. So I started adding RO water and raised the sg over a day. I had no die-off, no chemical spikes and all the LR and inverts survived. I then did a series of water changes over the next week. 10% at a day for 5 days and then went back to normal maintenance.
 
crypt keeper

crypt keeper

Active Member
who cares who was feeding it. I wonder how the hell that damsel is still alive. They are the roach of the ocean. I would acclimate him with fresh made water in a bucket. Get an air stone. Do the drip method. Take your time. This fish deserves to live after what its been through. Drip the new water from a source into the bucket with the tank water. Then tear down your tank and start over. maybe take the guy back to the store
 
d-man

d-man

Member
do to health problems I have had to come back to my tank 3 times with at least 50% of the water gone and it was so green you could not see a thing, I lost my clam and that's about it.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I am sure that during this time there was a proliferation of algae and microorganisms of some sort, and the damsel basically went for its natural diet.
Though with other dead fish and animals it likely ate that too.
When you think about it this is not a great deal different than a high tidepool with the advantage of not being overly hot. It was a long slow acclimation to a higher specific gravity...I am not really surprised it is alive, personally, simply based on the salinity question.
I have to wonder, why did you not have someone come in to at least put water in, if nothing else? I think this this was a rather questionable thing to do to animals, personally. :( I assume you expected all of them to die because you are suprised one is alive? If so, I think in the future it would be more humane to kill animals quickly than in this way.
Personally, I don't recommend setting up the tank again unless you are really settled and expect no more long trips.
sorry to sound harsh but I'm scratching my head a bit on this one.
or I would be if I had the smiley for it.
 
markw

markw

Member
Originally Posted by ophiura
http:///forum/post/3125310
I think in the future it would be more humane to kill animals quickly than in this way.
Personally, I don't recommend setting up the tank again unless you are really settled and expect no more long trips.
+1
Mark
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3124292
Who was feeding the damsels while you were gone?

There is food in a reef that you don't even know about...that is why you don't have to feed them so much, they have stuff to eat off the rocks. Not like a freshwater tank where the only food source is what you add.
This actually happened to me...no fish, I gave them all way. When I got my divorce. The X left the tank unattended...didn't add any RO water at all...the pumps were running, the canister filter was still going. The rock was in the tank and so were inverts I couldn't find to give away. The heaters were unplugged. 2 Months later I returned to the house after kicking my X out...The water was over 50% evaporated...I restarted the tank simply by adding RO water.
That is when to my amazement, I discovered the inverts, including a brittle star I thought dead before I left. Everything was fine, no cycle or anything.
 
julie853

julie853

Member
Well said Ophiura.
It sure does sound like you left town knowing you had left a couple of fish in there to die.

Why not take them down to your local petstore?
 
bigjakec

bigjakec

Member
Originally Posted by julie853
http:///forum/post/3126087
Well said Ophiura.
It sure does sound like you left town knowing you had left a couple of fish in there to die.

Why not take them down to your local petstore?

I completely disagree, You have no idea what his situation was in leaving in the manner he did, his post doesn't say. As a matter if fact he did say he got rid of what he could. If something urgent came up that caused me to leave with little or no notice what else is there to do. With the desire to get the tank up and running I really don't think he had purpously left the "animals" to die. It sounded more like a " holy crap something survived". Lets face it after a lengthly leave of absents wouldn't you think your fish would be dead as well?
I'm sorry to sound harsh, but how dare you two in critisizing a fellow fish keeper.
Congrats on your survivor, and good luck with getting your tank up and running again. My post didn't have a relivence to the question but comments like these two just anger me.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Originally Posted by BigJakeC
http:///forum/post/3127111
I completely disagree, You have no idea what his situation was in leaving in the manner he did, his post doesn't say. As a matter if fact he did say he got rid of what he could. If something urgent came up that caused me to leave with little or no notice what else is there to do. With the desire to get the tank up and running I really don't think he had purpously left the "animals" to die. It sounded more like a " holy crap something survived". Lets face it after a lengthly leave of absents wouldn't you think your fish would be dead as well?
I'm sorry to sound harsh, but how dare you two in critisizing a fellow fish keeper.
Congrats on your survivor, and good luck with getting your tank up and running again. My post didn't have a relivence to the question but comments like these two just anger me.
If I had to leave a fish behind in a tank which I knew was going to end up in deplorable conditions in my absence, I would put them down instead before I left.
You must understand that comments like yours and the disregard for suffering angers me. I respect the life of everything I bring into this house. I would never leave anything to suffer in my care (or in my absence).
 
markw

markw

Member
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3127324
If I had to leave a fish behind in a tank which I knew was going to end up in deplorable conditions in my absence, I would put them down instead before I left.
You must understand that comments like yours and the disregard for suffering angers me. I respect the life of everything I bring into this house. I would never leave anything to suffer in my care (or in my absence).
Well said, my friend. As soon as you bring something into your care, it is your responsibility. It is a helpless creature that depends completely on you. It depends on you to decide whether it dies or not. It is your responsibility to take care of it or at least give it to someone who can. I find it hard to believe that anyone would have to get up and leave without 45 minutes (at most) to run a fish to the LFS. Most stores wil take the fish if you dont want paid for it.
I understand that it is a shock coming home to see something alive, but there shouldnt have been a situation where you would have been surprised to see it alive. It should have been alive either way, in someones care.
OP- I do wish you the best of luck for the tank and I cant wait to hear what comes of it.
Mark
 
bigjakec

bigjakec

Member
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3127324
You must understand that comments like yours and the disregard for suffering angers me. I respect the life of everything I bring into this house. I would never leave anything to suffer in my care (or in my absence).
If you would have read my commit I beleave you would have noticed that I was pointing out that we do not have the whole story and the situation that caused this leave of absence. I do not have or have ever had a "disregard for suffering". While I will agree that the end result was unfortunate. Maybe Shista had more pressing matters at hand. I can tell you if I had a family member get ill/accident and I had to leave for an extended period of time and had to take a last minute flight my thoughts are not going to fully be on "what shall I do with my fish". I can be honest and say probably not. Would you delay leaving to see a sick or injured family member because you could not find a humane way to deal with a damsel fish?
Now this may or may not be the case in this situation we don't know. I just dont' think it's quite fair to critisize anyone when you don't know the full story.
 
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