electrocuted my fish any chance of survival?

lorindaleigh

lorindaleigh

AC Members
Jan 24, 2009
484
0
0
42
I was doing a 50% water change tonight. My Nitrate was at 200 PPM!! I'm in my last stage of cycling. When I was vacuuming my gravel for some reason my pleco got spooked and "charged" at me. He scared me and I reacted before I could stop myself. Pull my hand up and knocked the whole hood into the water. The light cover came off. I reached into the water to pull it out and felt a shock :shocked: so I know that they felt it. :eek3::( This are swimming around ok. I added stress coat and some melafix (to keep them calm) and turned off all the lights. Do you think that they will be ok? I will be so upset if I killed them after alll of this work and money spent. I broke the hindge on my hood :( So now I need a whole new hood.
 
You got a shock because there was a path through you from the water to earth. The fish probably didn't, because there wasn't.

To electrocute fish you need to be quite crafty about it and put an electrode at either end of a body of water so that there's a voltage potential difference across the fish themselves.

It's why birds can perch on overhead powerlines whereas if you get a kite caught in them with a wet string you're toast.

I've dropped the lighting ballasts in my tank more times than I can remember. Doesn't bother the fish. Anyway, if it was going to harm them it would happen then, not later.
 
Electrocuted? Your fish would already be dead by this time. Normally, I don't think they feel shocked at all. I had been through this a few times and the fish are still swimming like nothing happened.
 
I remember the bit in Jurassic Park where they're climbing the electric fence when it's turned on, and get shocked. Why? Unless they were also in contact with the earth, they would not even be aware it was live.
 
Have done that a few times myself, lorin. If it ever happens again, try to avoid the first reaction to grab it..get it unplugged first.
 
KarlTh said:
You got a shock because there was a path through you from the water to earth. The fish probably didn't, because there wasn't.

To electrocute fish you need to be quite crafty about it and put an electrode at either end of a body of water so that there's a voltage potential difference across the fish themselves.

It's why birds can perch on overhead powerlines whereas if you get a kite caught in them with a wet string you're toast.

I've dropped the lighting ballasts in my tank more times than I can remember. Doesn't bother the fish. Anyway, if it was going to harm them it would happen then, not later.
Click to expand...

OMG I didn;t think of that. I feel like an idoit. I actually know better. I've been up for 22 hours straight and have had way to much coffee. My brain shut off a few hours ago. I was thinking that the stress would kill them from having it drop on them.*going to go hide because I feel like a moron*
 
Dude sorry for that to happen to you. My pleco also likes dash away with lighting speed...but I have a open canopy installed with screwed on lights, so nothing happens, I hope you get a nice price for your new hood.
 
KarlTh said:
I remember the bit in Jurassic Park where they're climbing the electric fence when it's turned on, and get shocked. Why? Unless they were also in contact with the earth, they would not even be aware it was live.
Click to expand...

Because he was contacting two parts of the wire, making a circuit. If a bird were to touch 2 power lines then it would also be a goner. Don't necessarily have to touch the ground, just need to create a pathway through which the current can flow. Touching another wire or touching the ground closes the circuit, creating that pathway
 
That's right, small birds can sit on wires, but there are often cases of larger birds getting electrocuted because they complete the circuit by touching two different wires.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom