Tragedy at Darter Central

Just a word of warning... you can't trust anything...

Arrived home to a tank full of listless, gasping darters. Within two hours, all sixteen of them had perished, despite a transfer to a small holding tank. Found out that one of my young assistants had decided to help out by cleaning the algae off of the inside glass that afternoon, using a new sponge. Had a look at another of the sponges, still in it's sealed package. They were moist, not dried. And this was a 75 gallon tank, so it's not like the tank was tiny. The only survivors were four crawfish and one hardy little creek chub.

All I can figure is that whatever liquid that was on those sponges must have had a foul preservative on it, perhaps formaldehyde. Three guesses as to the country of origin of those sponges... same one that's putting lead paint on children's toys.

So the tank is drained, tank, filters and substrate will get a thorough scrubbing and a refill with fresh creek/spring water. And then I start all over. Glad I didn't take that collection trip to the Cumberland area this weekend like I planned to, would have lost all of them as well.

One freaking sponge is all it took. Arrrgh!

Yup, for a fact there is something noxious in those household sponges. This is why I only use single-edged razor blades for cleanup duty.

My LFS sells brushes made for this purpose. I use this one:
http://op5.triadinet...p...0121&line=9

I never use any sponge in my tanks that wasn't sold for that purpose. It's not worth the risk. I do have a plastic paint scraper that I like to use as a scraper.

I don't pay too much attention to the origin of sponges I use, and have even used car wash size sponges as sponge filters. I just make certain to always wash sponges in dishwashing liquid and rinse thoroughly before using. I've never had a problem. Sorry to hear about the darters...

Just a word of warning... you can't trust anything...

Arrived home to a tank full of listless, gasping darters. Within two hours, all sixteen of them had perished, despite a transfer to a small holding tank. Found out that one of my young assistants had decided to help out by cleaning the algae off of the inside glass that afternoon, using a new sponge. Had a look at another of the sponges, still in it's sealed package. They were moist, not dried. And this was a 75 gallon tank, so it's not like the tank was tiny. The only survivors were four crawfish and one hardy little creek chub.

All I can figure is that whatever liquid that was on those sponges must have had a foul preservative on it, perhaps formaldehyde. Three guesses as to the country of origin of those sponges... same one that's putting lead paint on children's toys.

So the tank is drained, tank, filters and substrate will get a thorough scrubbing and a refill with fresh creek/spring water. And then I start all over. Glad I didn't take that collection trip to the Cumberland area this weekend like I planned to, would have lost all of them as well.

One freaking sponge is all it took. Arrrgh!

I understand how you feel, last night I was cleaning my tank in which I kept a nice male Longfin darter I was hoping to breed soon with the smaller (hoping to be a female). I moved the rock he'd been camping under just to check for eggs and it slipped out of my hand and pinned him to another rock. He was still breathing but had that stiff " ouch I think I broke something" look and within minutes stiffened and would breathe no more. I've been babying these two fish and manually feeding live blackworms and such for months

Yup, for a fact there is something noxious in those household sponges. This is why I only use single-edged razor blades for cleanup duty.

i use a 4" razorblade that you can get a lowes or home depot, its made to fit a large scrapper, its about 4" long and 3/4" blade to back, i also have a standard tank scrubber but it doesnt work near as well as the razor blade method.

matthew

I used to use a plastic credit card to scrap the algae off (best purpose for them IMHO.)

One day I said "phoew" and stopped scrapping altogether. The algae went away. Don't know why, but I haven't had any algae on either tanks in almost a year, and one of the tanks is next to a window!

I understand how you feel, last night I was cleaning my tank in which I kept a nice male Longfin darter I was hoping to breed soon with the smaller (hoping to be a female). I moved the rock he'd been camping under just to check for eggs and it slipped out of my hand and pinned him to another rock. He was still breathing but had that stiff " ouch I think I broke something" look and within minutes stiffened and would breathe no more. I've been babying these two fish and manually feeding live blackworms and such for months

Mike and JohnO, I too feel your pain. About 1+ month ago I was turning a 10 gal tank short-ways on one of my shelves so I could fit more on the shelf. I had drained it half-ways. A corner of the tank caught an air hose so I moved one of my hands to free it.....wrong hand to move I freed it al right, it went crashing to the floor along with the dozen SRBD fry Mikez sent me and a dozen zebra danio fry. It happened sooooo fast and I was lucky not to loose toes when the tank smashed on the ground. I tried picking up the fish I could see, but because I have short stubby fingers I end up crushing a couple. You guys are gonna love this next part. With time running out for the ones, some quick goat-thinking and I ended up sucking the fish off the floor and spitting them into anther tank. I saved 3 SRBD and 2 danios (thought they were dace).

Quick poll: How many have had dace in there mouth before?

Edited by scottefontay, 26 June 2008 - 06:47 AM.

Mike and JohnO, I too feel your pain. About 1+ month ago I was turning a 10 gal tank short-ways on one of my shelves so I could fit more on the shelf. I had drained it half-ways. A corner of the tank caught an air hose so I moved one of my hands to free it.....wrong hand to move I freed it al right, it went crashing to the floor along with the dozen SRBD fry Mikez sent me and a dozen zebra danio fry. It happened sooooo fast and I was lucky not to loose toes when the tank smashed on the ground. I tried picking up the fish I could see, but because I have short stubby fingers I end up crushing a couple. You guys are gonna love this next part. With time running out for the ones, some quick goat-thinking and I ended up sucking the fish off the floor and spitting them into anther tank. I saved 3 SRBD and 2 danios (thought they were dace).

Quick poll: How many have had dace in there mouth before?

You're lucky you didn't have glass in the mouth!

I used to use a plastic credit card to scrap the algae off (best purpose for them IMHO.)

One day I said "phoew" and stopped scrapping altogether. The algae went away. Don't know why, but I haven't had any algae on either tanks in almost a year, and one of the tanks is next to a window!

Sounds like green dust algae, there's really nothing much you can do except let it live out it's life cycle (about 3 weeks).

Well, one minor miracle came out of this mess. Drained the tank completely, oh it hurt to remove all those dead bodies. Left it sitting for a couple of days, scrubbed everything, thoroughly rinsed all of the sand (why is it that no matter how much you rinse, you still get clouds of dirt?), was getting ready to refill with creek water when I remembered that I hadn't cleaned out the canister filter. Opened the drain valve on the supply tube into a bucket, and not only did a lot of smelly water come out, so did two crawfish, still very much alive. They had been in that stagnant nasty water in the feed tube for almost a week.

They're now enjoying the run of a newly restored 75 gallon tank. I've found them to be effective algae removers, as well as accomplished escape artists.

Tragedy here, too.
I left my darters in the care of my dad while on vacation. I come back, and every single one of them is dead.

That happened to me, too. I also learned the hard way to never wash wood that is going to go into the aquarium with soap. The wood absorbs it in, so even when you think all the soap is gone, it slowly leeches out and poisons your fish.

Edited by Okiimiru, 12 July 2010 - 06:38 PM.

One of the best algae cleaning devices I have ever found is a small handful of polyester filter floss that is made for box filters (or pillow stuffing). It is cheap and it does a very good job, you also don't end up with those big ribbons of algae from a razorblade or scraper. You also don't need to worry about cutting into the silicone and can clean the silicone as well with it. It will not scratch the glass and is easy on the hands. It even works well on dried algae with just a little water.

To pick up tiny fish off the floor, lay a WET net on them, then pinch the netting just beyond the head and tail so it folds up with the fish inside. No finger pressure on the fish that way; just the soft net material.

>> scottefontay wrote: I tried picking up the fish I could see, but because I have short stubby fingers I end up crushing a couple. You guys are gonna love this next part. With time running out for the ones, some quick goat-thinking and I ended up sucking the fish off the floor and spitting them into anther tank.

Edited by gerald, 14 July 2010 - 09:39 AM.