WORST DAY EVER

[silkks11]

this morning I woke up my 125 sump pump had been turned off by mistake and I lost all of my fish. Green bird wrasse, foxface, heniocus, bi colored angel, purple tang, powder blue tang, naso tang, snow flake moray eel, tomato clown, blue damsel, 2 pourcupine puffers. =( What my question is is after I take all the fish out and burry them, after I do a50% water change will I be able to start adding my fish back. I miss them <img src="graemlins//dead.gif" border="0" alt="[dead]" /> <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" /> <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />

 

[cwfish]

I am very sorry to hear that. I too had one of my pumps go out over a weekend when I was out of town, and caused 3 of my fish to die due to low oxygen content.
Not to make you feel bad, but the word OVERSTOCKED is an extreme understatement for that tank. I am assuming that they perished due to lack of oxygen or water quality. I would say that you would probably be ok to get rid of the fish and add new once the water conditions were under control. The only thing that comes to mind as a potential problem is that during their struggle to breath, they were very stressed for sure and could have developed ICH. I am not sure if it can attack a fish this quickly (overnight). Maybe someone else can respond to that.
Again, I am really sorry to hear that happened. Its funny how close you can be to your fish! Good luck with the next batch.

 

[silkks11]

They had been in the same tank for 2 years, water quality and conditions were perfect, never any problems, they defintely just died b/c of suffication, but its awful, I'm so upset I'm figure I'll do a water change today run some tests and see if I can't go and get a new friend tonight

 

[pancho]

although everything went well for two years i still wouldn't over stock a tank that way never know when a power failure will occure.

 

[hartleyhare]

I dont think your tank was overstocked as others had opined you were just plain unlucky ,had a similar experience recently myself where i lost a three year old maculosus and four year old passer amongst others .
It would probably be as well to add a secondry circulatiobn source such as a power head hitting the water surface but as i too have found out we can all be wise after the event .
Dont beat yourself up too much over this keep your chin up and start adding again as soon as everything checks out.
regards Graham.H

 

[silkks11]

Thanks hartleyhare
All the specialst in my area told me my tank was fine and right at the limit but not maxed out, my fish were alive in my 90 gallon when they were tiny for a year and then they live for another 2 in my 125, so basically i had them for 3 years, it was a heartbreaker to loose them b/c I always make sure they are taken care of so perfectly, that plug now is taped into the outlet so it never comes unpluged again. I just added three very small fish, probably only 1-2 inches big, i'm going to add all the same fish I had the last 3 years, but I decided to buy them small again and watch them grow so I can get attached to these ones. Right now i have a blue damsil, maroon clown, and a green bird wrasse, all very small, but I'm going to add a moorish idol instead of a heniocus this time. wish me luck

 

[benihuma]

Did you have any powerheads in the tank to aid in circulation? I'm wondering if maybe I should have kept my emperors on my tank. Right now I'm just running 3 powerheads and a skimmer.
Ben

 

[silkks11]

See my tank is acrylic and the only power head resembling in my tank is the return from my wet/dry, but i do have a huge ehiem on my tank also, but I'm looking into having a power head in there

 

[drew_tt]

I dont know how your set up is... but if "it" shut off, and there was little to no water movement, the toxic NH3/NO2 levels would have built up quickly because of all of the fish, and many of them would be competing for the diminishind dissolved O2... if this tank was stocked properly, then they would probably not have all died...
Drew