[Lesley]

I just got home from a business trip to find that my furnace had failed and somehow the power supply to my 55 gal. tank had been shut off (I suspect the cats playing behind the tank).

I lost the entire tank with the exception of one yoyo loach that somehow managed to thaw out.
It was just horrible - one was a Frontosa I'd raised from a tiny fry to a beautiful large fish, and a zebra loach I've had for a dozen years.

I have a 35 gallon tank upstairs that I never bothered putting a heater in, it contains 3 blood parrots. They were upside down and hard as rocks. I removed them, and noticed that two of them had quivering fins. I quickly did a water change and swished them back and forth to get oxygen flowing through their gills. Today they seem to be completely recovered and are eating well.

 

[prov356]

Sorry for your losses, not a good day, but at least some were saved.

 

[AlphaWild]

Amazing you were able to save what you did. Sorry to hear about the losses.

 

[Lesley]

Thanks, it was just horrible.
The two parrots seem to have fully recovered. Once I get the big tank cleaned out (it's full of rocks and there are dead fish under them ) I'll move them into it.

I just took this, it seems miraculous:

.

 

[Lesley]

This is my tank just a couple of months ago:

 

[hollyfish2000]

So sorry. I've pulled dead bodies of my beloved peacocks and syndontis multipunctatus out of a tank that experienced a sudden nitrite spike. It was truly terrible. I"m completely paranoid now about my tanks and always have someone house sitting when I'm gone. (Of course, I also have dogs.) But even if I didn't, I'd probably have a neighbor come by every day or every other day or so for just the reason you experienced.

 

[Lesley]

Yes, I generally do, but this was just an overnight trip and my usual sitter was busy. Just a nasty lining up of coincidences that resulted in losing all those poor fish.
It's terrible, because I hadn't lost a fish in years - the tank seemed to have reached that nice balance where everything was healthy and got along.

 

[hollyfish2000]

I know -- my peacock/hap tank had also reached the magic, balanced point where I had all the fish I wanted and they were all colored up and getting along . . . it really does tear at your heart. Again, sorry . . .

 

[Lesley]

Thanks, very kind of you.

 

[rls07c]

I sadly enough have a very similar thing about to me, I moved my 125 gal. to a friends house out of town because I was in the process of moving and was staying somewhere I could not keep my tank. I got a call last week that most off my fish were dead, i believe it was a cat that stepped on the switch in the back and cut the power to the tank for a couple days before it was noticed... Only some of the small mbuna and loaches survived, I lost fish that I have had for over 3 plus years, it was devastating. Its like a lost a child.....

How did your Front do with the other mbuna in your tank, my buddy has some Fronts and I was thinking of getting a couple to add to my tank along with some mbuna, Obliquiden Zebra and Venustus. Any thoughts?

 

[the blur]

APC battery backup, and get rid of the cats.