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Bad dream while asleep - nightmare awake


1sloopy57

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I had one of those horrible dreams last night where the real world and dreams mingle. A pleasant dream of some gathering in a park was interrupted by explosions and gunfire, and myself and friends running for cover. Woke up, went to loo then back to sleep.

Woke up this morning and started to "do the rounds", turning on tank lights, feeding cat & fish etc. All fine until I opened the study/breeding room door. Door crunched and didn't want to open, carpet wet. Forced door open to find fish, glass and water everywhere, (including through printer on desk at opposite end of room). Have no idea what caused the breakages, but assume that some sort of "chain reaction" went on.

I have lost:

3foot divided which was housing: HMCT pair (she died, he's alive but injured) red CT pair (both dead) and platinum PK pair (he died, she seems ok). Stress stripes showing +++ (no surprise)

3x 12x12x15 breeding tanks: with fry from above - have rescued a few fry but not many

20" swordtail breeding tank: one female and male rescued but not looking good.

I have got all the survivors in 3.5L kritter keepers, have added melafix and pimafix to adults, but didn't know whether I should add it to those with the fry (oldest are 2 weeks, other 2 spawns are almost 1 week). I also pretty sure that when sucking up the surviving fry I have collected some tiny glass particles, which I will try and siphon out when I have calmed down a little more.

Any advice as to further treatment will be most gratefully welcomed.

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hoooly crap that's not good. I think you're on track with the treatments etc, just keep a very close eye on everyone.

what would cause that to happen? did a table, desk or soemthing break and knock everything over???

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Sloopy that's terrible! Did I count them correctly? Five tanks?!!? That's really bizarre. Melafix and Pimafix for the adults is fine. Not sure about the fry. I generally avoid medicating fry. Those meds are anti-fungal and anti-bacterial and really just a precaution. The stress of the event is probably the most life threatening things at the moment. The only thing you can do is to get them back into working tanks and hope for the best.

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Thanks guys. Feeling somewhat calmer now, but still upset about fish.

Still trying to figure out what happened. The stand the 2 larger tanks were on is fine, as is the wall-mounted shelf above where the smaller tanks were. Remains of tanks (bases & partial walls) were still in-situ. The 3 betta breeding tanks were all <3months old, so effectively new tanks, and these have just got huge cracks in the walls (not that I will risk repairing and re-usine them after this). The swordtail tank and the 3-footer were both very old (I had recently re-siliconed the 3-footer before doing the temporary divide) and these have most of the walls gone. All the filters and heaters were <6mths old. Only thing I can think that had any indication of fault was that one of the (older) air pumps was very noisy and vibrated a lot. Door was shut, so can't blame cat or dog for anything. As it stands now, the only tank in the room which survived was the quarantine tank on top of bookshelves on another wall (which was empty, lol).

Cranky at myself now for not just putting pairs back into kritter keepers after breeding, as I nearly did last week. I have been working on aquascaping small individual planted tanks for my "best" bettas and was keeping them in the divided tank pending these being ready in a week or so. Guess 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful commodity.

None of the rescuees looks exactly perky, but I am hopeful that there won't be any more losses, and I will just have to build my equipment back up and start over, starting with the 2 new pairs I won on Aquabid yesterday. Am just really hoping that the fry from the pairs I don't have any more (maybe 3 dozen in total) make it through.

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wow that is the biggest mystery ever! I wonder what the hell happened!? was it windy last night? were the windows open? do u have vertical blinds with those cord weights? coz mine fly all over the place when the windows are open, maybe it started swinging and hitting tanks?? Times like these don't you wish there was a fly on the wall who could recount to you everything that happened?

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Window and door were both closed tight and no animals other than fish in the room, so no explanation there. Not that knowing how it all happened will help atm, but would give an idea of what NOT to do another time - it has just got me stumped.

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May have found problem - I finally got all the loose glass out of way and started to move frame of 3-footer, when I noticed a burnt piece of extension cord behind the tank remains. On closer examination the cord ((which is only a couple of months old) had 2 small holes about 1/8 inch apart on one side and 1 small hole opposite this. About 10 inches away amongst the rubble was a very dead, rather large mouse who looks like he may have died by electrocution (not that I'm an expert but I've seen enough mice dead to know that this was not a "natural" death).

I am thinking that maybe the mouse bit into cord and was thrown against tank, breaking glass and somehow setting up chain of other breakages by flying glass.

Any thoughts?

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Im thinking that one of the tanks may have been structurally weak coz under normal conditions thay can take a bit of the rough stuff so maybe one was just hanging in there and then any thing even a slammed door will be enough to break the tank .

So maybe 1 tank shattering started a dominoe effect but still tanks are tougher than you think...It is a mystery isnt it?

Anyway hope your survivors are all OK .

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ugh thanks to you.. last night i had a dream where my shelves collapsed and my giants, Firefly, Milo, and Sunny & Carlito + their fry were smashed ... water and glass everywhere ... eek!

(everything was FINE when I got up though so yay)

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The power of suggestion, LOL. At least yours had a happier outcome than mine. My dream wasn't even remotely fish-related, but the noise of the tanks going must have come through my unconscious mind and been translated into dream gunfire.

jusdeb: yes, as I said, the 3-footer and the 20-inch were both very old tanks, so this accounts for their weakness. The 12" breeding tanks were almost new though :D so there must have been some very strong force behind the flying glass to crack them.

All the adult rescuees are hanging in, although noone looks very happy still. Have lost most of the fry, including a heap the female swordtail gave birth to overnight last night - think they were a little early.

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So sorry to hear about all your tanks & fish, what a nightmare. I hope the ones you managed to save survive. Speaking of the mouse being electrocuted, it is lucky all the fish weren't with all that water around the electicals, not to mention you when you went in! I guess it is times like these that we have to be greatful for safety switches.

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Guest Carla

The mouse biting the cord could have caused a short which may have made a pump or heater very hot. That could have been enough to break the first glass, or several tanks if you had an octopus setup.

Speaking of safety switches, we had an earth grounding thingy installed under our electrical box so if anything causes a fluctuation in the power, all the plugs in the house instantly switch off. It is a minor nuisance to go and switch the power back on compared to the devastation that a child with a screwdriver or a pet cockatoo (or a mouse) can do to themselves or your house if the power stays on. It was cheap, too. Best insurance I ever bought.

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Well, a week on and all we have left are the male swordtail and 4 of the red CT fry. There have been no deaths in the fry since Saturday, so I'm really hoping that these 4 survive.

I've relaxed the policy of allowing the cat into that room - it has until now been the only room in the house (other than son's bedroom which is the dog's domain) where she wasn't allowed, and there has been no sign of mice anywhere else in the house (except for the couple of months after the bushfires) since shortly after we moved in 6 years ago. The fact that the cat wouldn't even think of touching a mouse doesn't seem to matter - I think simply her presence deters them! She has taken to going in there to catch the early morning sun coming through the window, so hopefully any other mice will notice the cat aroma and stay out in future.

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  • 1 month later...

Hay guys i know im a bit late hear but thor you would like to know (if you didnt already) that you contence insurance of your home also covers tank breakages over 60ltr also you can get a sepecial covarge for aquarium equiptment i did min a couple weeks ago and it turned out to be $3000 this has only added $5 to our monthly payment and i think is well worth it the only thing you cant cover is the accutal fish you have to get seperate insurance for them hth sera

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Sloopy that's terrible news;

I'm really sorry for your losses ( tanks, stuff and especially fish). the mouse probably caused a short which blew a heater/air pump and the debris from these may have hit at just the right place to fracture/break the next thank along. and so on.....really bad stuff just luck it didn't happen when you were in the room.

Hope your remaining babies do well!

regards

Jane

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