Disaster Strikes!

[digitalphrage]

Knocking on wood and hoping I don't jinx myself by saying this, but I haven't had too many awful disasters.

A couple years ago I came home and noticed that one of the 10 gallon tanks was (slowly) leaking. About 1/4 of the water was missing and the hutch and surrounding carpet were soaked. In order to get better access to the tank so I could net the fish before siphoning out the water, I had to remove the top part of the hutch, something I had done dozens of times without issue. However, since my hands were wet, the top slipped a bit and cracked the tank causing the water to flood out in a torrent. Fortunately I was able to muster the strength to lift the 1/2 filled tank and rush it into the bathroom to set it in my bathtub.

While I wouldn't call it a disaster, this week has brought its own challenges. I had a pair of killifish I was looking forward to breeding. However, after feeding them Sunday night, I apparently forgot to close the lid on the tank. Monday morning I discovered the body of the male lying on the floor. I was pretty down about that because I hate losing fish and because I was really looking forward to breeding them.

Then yesterday I came home and the female had somehow managed to make her way past the tank divider into the partition in which I keep my cherry shrimp. And of course, there were no shrimp to be found. This "disaster" actually turned out okay, though, since it appears that all the shrimp were just hiding REALLY well and before going to bed I had accounted for them all. For awhile though, I was convinced she had gobbled at least some of them up.

 

[hope4peace]

Amanda
Toatal bill for repairs to the house was around 10 grand lo. Cost 800 bucks to have the tree removed alone. Insurance did not cover the aquarium at all. I semi repaired the tank converting to FW and moved it to the GH. It is now serving as a terraium as it was too expensive to repair properly. Might also mention that the insurance co dropped us . Feel fortunate that the house was still livable during repairs unlike so many others!!!! gary

Sorry to hear. That is good about the house though. It could always be worse.

 

[garyfla]

Hi
Have been keeping fish since 1953 so have visited all the disaster s listed on the post lol. That was by far the most devastating and expensive
m,ostly because it was SW . had it been FW there would have been many alternatives .
Most recent was the failure of my auto shutoff didn't work and the city water ran all night. Remarkably it didn't kill all the fish but sure thinned them out. In 08 had a heater failure on my main pond on the coldest night ever recorded lol. Wiped out the entire stock of tropical fish.
One of the most mysterious was a complete wipeout in a 125 even the plants died. Couldn't figure out what happened until my daughter confessed to adding dish soap to help me clean it lol Mystery solved!!! lol gary

 

[ConnerFish]

Well ya I guess dish soap would do it!

 

[Agassizi]

bump for more stories

 

[LiL GinGeR]

Worse thing that hasn't happened to my family concerning fish tanks is when the filter stopped working whilst we were out. It was one of the hottest days of the year so there was hardly any oxygen in the tank. Two denisoni barbs died and so did the green phantom pleco that cost £50
Another was about 8 years ago where we had a tank of goldfish and we didn't know anything about fish. we won another at a fair which turned out to have ich. Killed all the other fish until it was the only one left. It then lived for another 7 years in q pond we built. It died last year when my mum trimmed a water lily that we keep on bricks so it can reach the surface. Well...the water was murky so when my mum put the brick in it...squashed it
That the worst thing that have happened SO FAR

 

[Lijah]

Those aquarium thermometers are filled with alcohol, its relatively safe in an aquarium. Only lab or professional grade equipment will still use mercury.

heh, still get tonnes of merc in the UK. Any garden centre here has them. Slowly fading out, but still very much here.

 

[Fishfriend1]

Well, this happened a very long time ago, but here goes...

30gal tank. Tall. crappy filter, but it had clear water. 6 goldfish, all of them at least 4in long, with the largest being a big white one almost 8in long. 1+1 = 2, and the tank crashed one day when I stupidly added another goldfish. Yep, I was actually that dumb once upon a time. Hard to believe, I know, but it's the truth. Then, of course, I showed up here and learned all this cool new fishkeeping info. One of the goldfish survived, and I somehow managed to end up with 5 more (again, before I came here) all of which have been safely rehomed. 30gal is now a tropical community

 

[OrionGirl]

i know this is a little off topic, but does keeping your tanks in the garage work well for you? where i live (vancouver canada) it gets pretty chilly, and ive always wanted to keep them in there, just was afraid the cold would overwork my heater or something like that.

Umm...bad plan, unless you have a heated garage. Last winter, in PA, we had tanks in an apartment that was minimally insulated and poorly heated, lost most of one tank when it got cold a couple nights and the heater failed (broke, didn't know that until we were able to break the tank down--not a good surprise).

 

[Agassizi]

Umm...bad plan, unless you have a heated garage. Last winter, in PA, we had tanks in an apartment that was minimally insulated and poorly heated, lost most of one tank when it got cold a couple nights and the heater failed (broke, didn't know that until we were able to break the tank down--not a good surprise).

dang that really sucks! but thanks! i just decided to keep em inside