Jump to content

Near Miss For Ollie


VickiPS

Recommended Posts

Poor Ollie the Oscar must have seen his life flashing before his eyes...

Just after midnight Wednesday night, my daughter woke me up to tell me that something had burned out in Ollie the Oscar's 4ft tank downstairs. The water was bubbling and smoking around the powerhead, the air was full of thick smelly fumes and the water in the tank was covered in oily black scum. Ollie was lying moribund on the bottom of the tank.

Complicated rescue operation ensued, which involved filling a spare 2ft tank with hastily treated water, bunging in a sponge filter from the goldfish tank, and (with some difficulty, as I don't have big net) transferring a distressed red oscar to very cramped temporary quarters.

I spent a good part of yesterday draining the 4-ft tank, cleaning the gunge off the sides and refilling it: transferring filter media from the overhead filter to a bucket to try and save the biofilter; obtaining a suitable replacement powerhead from my lovely LFS and bodging connectors to make it fit; then putting Ollie back in his home. Ollie is still a bit stressed and lethargic, but seems to be recovering from his unpleasant ordeal.

I discovered that, lacking a large net, the easiest way to move him was to use a plastic grocery bag. Holding the bag by the handles, I eased it around him in the small tank, then lifted him out. Made it easy to put him back in the big tank as well, without having to remove the tank hood to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wow what an ordeal for the poor thin... have you figured out what happened in the 1st place yet?

The powerhead was burned out -- there was a hole burned through the waterproof outer seal. No idea how or why, but the LFS lady said that it happened from time to time with that brand.

There's now a new Resun 1200 powerhead in the tank, and it seems to be working silently and very efficiently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is he ok now?

I have an oscar too, he's about 9-10 inches, and I moved house with him earlier in the year. I chased him with the net for a while but soon realised it was just freaking him out and it was just so much easier to put his fish bag in there and coax him into it! I've also caught him with a bucket before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

poor bugger, glad he's getting better though... i need to get my self an oscar.. the nighbours make so much noise these days and if i had an oscar that was about... ohh a little bigger then 10cm... about 2 meters or so i wouldnt have problem with the neighbours any more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...