1 can fish food + unattended 3 yr old...

Dangerdoll

Dangerdoll

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Aug 27, 2002
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Roselle Park, NJ
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Cori
ok, here's the situation. My sister's (yes the drama continues) FW tank has been fouled. Apparently, she had a friend of hers and her 3 year old son visit for the weekend up until Tuesday sometime. Long story short, one of the days during the visit, the mother asked my sister if her son could "feed" the freshies..... my sister told her no, that they had already eaten. This is a 70 gallon, and had 2 columbian sharks, 2 pictus, an albino irridescent, a pleco, and several danios..... not my favored choice in stock but also not my tank, and so it goes. Anywho..... I'm not sure how long she "didn't notice anything obviously wrong" but when she got home from work last night, she ran down to my place, freaking out, saying that all her FW fish were dead or dying. I asked what happened and she said it looked like the kid had emptied a full can of food into the tank.... UGH.... MAJOR PROBLEM!! So I ran to her tank to take a look and sure enough all floaters except for the pleco, a danio, and the irridescent (he's only 3 inches for now). Immediately, I grabbed the python to get that water and gunk out. Looking at the irridescent, his gills were bright pink and skin was pinker than normal. I told her to get him out and put him into my 55 gallon. So, I pumped about 80% of the water out (left the pleco and danio) and replaced it with clean water (with conditioner). It still has some gunk settling to the bottom of the tank so I suppose I'll do another gravel cleaning in a day or two. My question is this, the irridescent is showing no ill signs except for his coloring and gills (which I'm supposing is a burn), is there anything else I can do for him other than keeping him in my tank for a couple days until her tank is back in shape?
 
Did you test to see if there was just ammonia, or ammonia and nitrites? Salt will help with nitrites, but clean water is the best treatment for ammonia toxicity. I wouldn't use any meds unless there's an infection or identifiable problem, like ich.

And do as many water changes as you want--getting the excess food out is very important, and lots and lots of clean water will go a long way to help the fish.

One of my fears--and the reason I always hide all my fish food if I am expecting company.
 
Nah, I didn't test her water.... the alarms just went off in my head and my first instinct was to get the water and waste out as quickly as possible. I'll keep an eye on the guy as he recuperates and continue with the cleaning out of the tank....... eesh what a nightmare!
 
Quick thinking Dangerdoll! That is my second biggest fear regarding my fish tank (the first is that my son will somehow eventually figure out how to climb up onto it and tip it over!!). I keep the food on the top of the bookcase. I hope the rest of her fish pull through this OK.

~Tara
 
Thanks Tara ;)

My sister isn't used to have little ones in the house so she probably didn't even think about child-proofing things...... never even dawned on her for a second that if you tell a youngin' no, you should watch what they do for a little while after the question while the thought is still fresh in their little heads. But, like I always say, she's learned a very valuable lesson with this mishap. The pleco and danio seemed to be recovering ok in the tank, I think I'm going to keep the irridescant for a week or so in the 55..... I have my fingers crossed for these guys ;)
 
Hehe! Doll, I couldn't help but be just a "little" annoyed with your sister's friend and her kid. Really it's not your sister's responsibility to ensure that the kid behaves properly! I know exactly what woulda happened to me if I'd pulled something like that when I was a kid, oh, wait, 5 years old, German clock store :rolleyes: , never made the same mistake again! I guess I always get a little ticked when I see/hear about parents who don't dicipline their kids, or at the very least, take responsibility for their actions.

The burden of controlling the kid is her friend's, and while your sister may or may not take it up with her, it seems the classy thing would be for her friend to pay for the replacement fish that her son killed.
 
I never have to worry about my kids getting into the fish food. 1) because they know better :p and 2) I have the can in a cabinet above the fridge :D

However, before hiding the fish food there I used to keep in under the tank in the stand for easy access. But after coming home one day to find that the cat and dogs had worked together (cat got the food can from out of stand, dogs chewed it open) to have a meal, I quickly found a new spot. Flake food and algae wafers... almost $10 worth of fish food I had to go and replace. :(
 
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