Dumb things I have done this week.

We need this topic, and...I'll probably be a weekly contributor. Here goes, whilst cleaning my goldfish tank I noticed that every time I went to stick my hand in the tank, it stung...like bee stings on my fingers. I thought I had small cuts and maybe some salt had entered the cuts so I washed my hands off and then repeated with the same effect...so I tried my left hand thinking it would be cut free when it stung again! I have to admit it took me a lot longer than it should of to figure out I was actually shocking myself. So I unplugged everything and noticed that the light which had been burnt out, was actually due to water seeping up into the light fixture from an airstone!
Moving on, I had set up some 10 gallons for my guppies. They had been up and running for about a week so I decided to add my newly acquired metallic green cobra guppies. Brad asked if I had cycled the tank..it had been a week...it's fine right? Next day, all dead guppies. So now I'm cycling the tanks.
Next up....got behind on my goldfish water change routine. Decided to do a 100% water change like I Had done in the past with no problems. This time PROBLEM...lost two goldfish by the next day. The others were able to cope with the change. So now I'm back to 50% water changes so no more drastic ph swings or whatever happened. I have two weeks off again, if I can keep from electrocuting myself or killing fish then it will all be just fine.

I have stray voltage in my system as well, most likely from the pond pumps. I just make sure that I'm wearing shoes when I stick my hands in the water. Since I dont have hoods, filters or heaters in my tanks to touch and ground myself, that keeps me safe.

When I was in the Navy we used to have a saying. DC hurts, AC kills. We used to say that because when you get hit by DC current you know it and it can cause serious burning injuries, but when you get hit by AC current you sometimes don't realize it and it can kill you.

The reason that AC is so much more dangerous is that it can interfere with the electrical impulses of your heart and cause fribullation at extremely low current values. Basically it causes your heart to flutter due to the muscles firing out of sequence. During this fluttering it isn't pumping blood to your brain and you die. For DC to do this it needs much higher current, and noticable sensation is felt before fribullation occurs. The problem with DC though is that it can cause your muscles to clamp down making it impossible for you to let go of the object that is electrocuting you, which is why if an object is at all in question as to its electrical integrity it should only be touched with the back of your hand if at all, that way if your hand uncontolably closes you can pull it away. If you have a pacemaker then any current could be lethal.

David, I would strongly recommend you determine where the stray voltage in your tanks is coming from and remove the source. One mistake and it could kill you. I hope I am not coming across too strongly, but I would hate to see something terrible happen because I was too cowardly to say something.

The entire room in on a ground fault and short fault breaker so (hopefully) i'm covered in the worse case scenario. That being said, your advice is well-taken. All I have to do is ground a wire and stick in in the sump. I tested it with a volt meter.

Thanks.

Sorry about your deaths, Jinkin. I always feel so bad when any of mine die. But I'm glad you figured out your electricity problem.

So if there is current running through your water, will it not harm the fish?

Haven't had any deaths or done much stupid this week with my aquarium... except for spending a bunch of money at Kens fish website that I shouldn't be spending right now. But I should be good for supplies for a while.

LAST week however, I lost about 7 fish - a lovely new marble angel with some orange on the top of his head, about 5 poor cory cats (also new), and 1 glowlight tetra. Had been doing some fairly frequent substantial water changes recently. All I can think of is maybe I had my ph going up and down, along with having pretty high ph normally (8.2). And the new fish I added last week came from bag water that tested at 6.4. I tried a lengthy acclimation... but I think it was just too much difference. I've let things be for now, and haven't lost any more. My ex had been telling me, "STOP DOING WATER CHANGES!" He said he was going to come over and steal all my 5 gallon jugs (that I use for water changes) so I wouldn't be able to do any, lol.

I've experienced that too, from bad tank heaters in horse watering tanks as well as fish tanks. scares the jeebers out of you!
well, it did for me!

Katnapper - Technically the electricity isnt 'running' through the water until you stick your hand in it and it shocks you. When you have provided a ground with your body, then the electricty starts flowing, which is usually bad. The fish dont feel it because they themselves are not grounded.

Thank you David for the explanation!

So I've been keeping 5 angelfish, a small army of assorted cory cats, and 9 glowlight tetras in a 75 gal. tank. About two weeks ago, two of my angels paired up for the first time, laid eggs on the heater, and then promptly chased and sent everyone else cowering into the corners while they spawned (and for several days until after they ate the eggs). It almost looked like there was nobody else in the tank except this pair, the rest were excommunicated and hiding so well. So I started looking for another tank in which to move them. I rationalized that I'd been considering getting another smaller tank for a quarentine tank anyways.

Then last weekend I found a 20 gal. tank complete with all accessories and a stand for $65.00 on Craigslist, which I thought was a pretty good deal. It came with the fish too - 1 angelfish, 1 gourami, and 1 algae eater. So I roped my ex into going with me to help get it all (amicable divorce, and we're still each other's best friend... we just can't live together, ). Then, while we were there, they also had an empty 5 gal. with all accessories sitting on the counter (if I "knew anyone who might want it") for $15.00.

Me: "Oh?" Eyeballing it.
Ex: "You don't need it!"
Me: "But I could use that one for a quarentine tank!"
Ex: "But you're already getting this one... you don't need it!"
Me: "And it's only $15.00, complete!"
Ex: "Where are you going to put it? You don't have any room for it!"
Me & Ex: Assorted bickering like we were still married.

So I ended up packing it home too. I figure I can use it as either a quarentine or a fry tank if I decide to try the breeding thing.
Dumb thing? Maybe... maybe not. But now I'm rearranging furniture, cleaning both tanks (pretty dirty with algae and mineral scale all over), setting myself up for more work maintaining tanks, and $80.00 lighter... which I really didn't need to be spending right now. And enduring criticizm from my son to boot in the same vein as ex's concerns.

But I must include a dumb thing my ex did that day too. We were back at my house and ready to transfer the 3 new fish into the 75 (don't have the others cleaned or up and running yet).

Me: "Here, you hold the bowl (big, to catch bag water) up here (close to the top near the open hood/lids) and the net over it, and I'll pour the fish out one at a time and you can pop them in."
Ex: "No, just set the bowl down here" (on the new stand, several feet away from the 75).
Me: "No, I don't want them jumping out of the net on the way over to the tank!"
Ex: "They're not going anywhere, here... put it down!"
Me: "No, it's too far away... I want you to hold it up there!"
Ex: "Just give it to me!"
Me: Exasperated... "Fine."
Ex: Puts bowl on new stand and holds net like he's got everything under control.
Me: Pours angelfish out, then gourami. Both transferred without incident.
Ex: "See... what'd I tell you!"
Me: Pours algae eater out into net.

Algae eater promptly jumps right out of the net and flails around on the top of the stand. Ex is trying to catch him.

Me: In a panic... "Oh no... get him!"
Ex: Bungling around trying to get hold of him... "He'll be OK!"
Me: "You're scraping him on the wood!!" (rough composite top)
Ex: "He's fine!" Manhandling the poor fish back into the net.

Algae eater promptly jumps right back out and down into the kitty litter box sitting beside the new stand... flapping and flailing around, getting coated with speckles of cat litter all over him.

Me: Freaking out... "I TOLD YOU!!!"
Ex: Scoops him out and quickly drops him into the bag water bowl, where he immediately falls over on his side and lays there not moving like he's instantly dead.

I don't remember all that was said next. But it wasn't good. We swished him around a bit and got most of the litter off of him and then dropped him in the tank. He took off, apparently getting as far away from us as possible. Fortunately he doesn't seem any worse for the wear from the ordeal, and was shortly swimming around like nothing had happened. Ex had to get in the last word, "See... I told you, he's doing fine!"

I've been thinking about writing this post for a bit now, but have been too demoralized and embarrassed. My fish keeping experience is still an up and down affair it seems. About a month and a half ago I bought 12 beautiful blue pearlscale angels from Gina, some for me and some for Brad (my ex). I was so excited, and so thrilled to get them. We finally divided them up, he took 5 and I kept 7. Everything was going great... until about two weeks ago. I went to feed them one evening and saw 2 of them dead and floating at the top... then found 2 more dead among the plants. One more gave it up a couple of hours later during the 50-60% water change I did in a panic that night after discovering all the deaths. So I lost 5 of the 7, and also about 6 Black Neon Tetras at the same time. I was devastated.

In the previous days right before this event I had been researching to identify what kind of "algae eater" I had (came free with the used 20 gallon I'd bought). I determined it was almost positively gyrinocheilus aymonieri (Chinese algae eater) and then came upon all kinds of negatives about them, including the most common complaint of them becoming aggressive and territorial when gaining some age, and killing other fish by attaching themselves to them, with complications from sucking, especially happening overnight when the algae eaters were active, and slow moving, broad fish were less active.

As it also happened, the day or two before this event my main lights had stopped working. If they had been on I might have noticed the deaths sooner. But I jumped to the conclusion that the algae eater must have killed them all in his sudden free reign of darkness. When I found the 4 dead, all their fins were either raggedy/almost gone or completely gone. I was immediately terrified he would kill everything in sight before I got him out of there. Then I tested my water.

My parameters had been good and steady for almost 2 months (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, ~10-20ppm nitrates) with steady pH at 7.0 (achieved with Seachem's Neutral Regulator, with which I've been pleased). So I'd stopped testing as much. And I'd also stopped doing water changes as much. It had been about 3 weeks or so since I'd last done a water change. When I tested my water after finding the deaths, I was shocked to find the nitrates had skyrocketed to over 80ppm. Also there was a measurement, around .25ppm, of ammonia, and a barely perceptible hint of nitrites above 0. I freaked out and did two 60% water changes, one that evening and one the next day. And I'm ashamed to say I flushed the poor algae eater in anger after I finally caught him, I think maybe needlessly. I now think the fin damage might have been either fin rot, or just the other fish taking advantage and looting the carcasses after the victims succumbed to the bad water quality. Or both, or maybe all?

A few days before this I had added 6 new Panda cories and 14 Black neon tetras to my tank. And about a week before that, I had added about 5 new Panda cories.... all to my 75 gallon tank. In retrospect, I think the sudden additions of all the new fish caused a mini cycle, along with probably steadily and then dramatically increasing nitrates after the additions. I think I over-crowed, and suddenly to boot. Does this sound like it might be the explanation?

To make matters worse, and ironically or unbelievably... this all happened on a Thursday. The following Saturday when Brad got home from the road, he opened the door to his apartment, immediately smelled a rotting smell, and discovered almost half of his fish all dead... with only 1 of his 5 new blue pearlscale angels surviving. When he touched the glass and then water, he found his water temp. to be about 90 degrees. We think one of his heaters went bad and stuck "on," basically cooking most of them. It was a big blow to him too. But it was strange that both incidents happened likely within the same few days span, separately in each of our tanks.

Luckily my tank has been stable thus far (*crosses fingers*). But it got even worse for Brad. He came home this past weekend and found all but about 10 of his remaining fish dead, including his last pearlscale angel and a bunch of other fish he'd spent a lot of money on. I'm not sure if his heater problems hadn't been resolved yet or it was high nitrates (I tested his water and his were around 80ppm also, after his first round of fish deaths), or what. And then, unbelievingly, he had yet another catastrophe while doing a major water change after that, and filling his tank back up before leaving on the road for work Monday . He was talking about posting about it, so I won't go into it. But I will say I've been over at his apartment for hours at a time the past 2 days, shop-vaccing water and bringing a dehumidifier over there.

I almost hate writing this.... like I'm exposing both Brad and I as well-meaning, but bumbling fish idiots. But I felt I needed to get it off my chest (if I don't tell you guys - who do I tell?), and also in hopes I can learn from it, along with your advice and help in understanding what I might have done wrong.

This is one of the most idiotic things I've ever done in my entire life, and I'm almost ashamed to post it here. But for some reason I feel like confessing as you all have become my friends...

I quit smoking August 11, 2013. I'd smoked since I was 13, thirty four years of an average of a pack a day. I never thought I could do it and have been so amazed, impressed, and proud of myself. I almost couldn't believe that I'd really done it.

This past week I found a partial pack of cigarettes in my work coveralls, and I ended up smoking them. Then I went and bought another pack and I smoked them. This afternoon I went and bought another pack and am smoking them. I can't believe I'm doing this after almost 4 months of being smoke-free for the first time in my adult life, and am mad and ashamed at myself. I need to get back in the mindset of staying quit, and quitting what I'm doing... going right back to where I was. After all the hard work I went through to quit. I just hope I can.

It's hard to do, but you know you should so that's half the battle. Just dont buy anymore. When you feel that you need to, go 'play' with your fish!

You can do it. Let us know how/if we can help.

DZ

A lot of people at work are working on quitting. Some have switched to e cigs, the fake ones. They claim its much cheaper and it helps? Or swap one addiction out for a cheaper healthier one...lol. Too bad starbucks doesn't qualify for "healthy".   

Thank you much for the support and encouragement... it helps.  I was too embarrassed to say anything about it at the meeting yesterday.  I'm eating sunflower seeds in the shell as my replacement therapy.  And mouth-fiddling and picking my teeth with plastic toothpicks - oh, and eating everything in sight unfortunately.  I'm resolving to not buy any more after I finish this pack.  Yes, I know I should just quit now and not smoke the rest of the pack - pour water on the cigs and throw them out, or something.  But I can't bring myself to do it.  Currently trying to fortify my mental strength to make good on my resolution and get back to being smoke-free.

Show your mastery over the cigs and give them the flush!!! Find something fun to snack on, you are not exactly to a point I'd worry about eating too much.

Good luck!!!

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.
Mark Twain

Hey Randy...

Yes, I've heard that quote before. I'm just determined not to resemble it!

Found out the hard way that large black skirt Tetra will eat young Neon Tetra. Whodathunkit???

Ooops!

I learned last night, that when you are moving PVC pipes to shut OFF the pump BEFORE cutting into the PVC.

Took a little bath with that boo-boo.

DZ

I learned that digital cameras have capacitors in them that can pack quite a punch if you happend to take your camera apart and touch the wrong thing! My hand tingles thinking about it.   

This week I learned that a fish I thought was dead was actually alive and well guarding a nest of eggs....found out by cleaning the tank and destroying the nest of eggs.   

What kind of fish was it? Just curious...

It is Betta burdigala. I picked them up from the last auction. It is a CITES species. Somewhat disappointed because they hide constantly. They are cave spawners.