I am sick to my stomach ...

[OttawaPonder]

I am sick to my stomach and starting to feel like I don't deserve any fish or all the Blessing I have!!!

I feel like I am killing off my fish one by one....

Most of you don't know me ...

I tear up and even cry when I lose one of my plants. Yes a simple house or garden plant.

It is worse when it comes to pets. I guess that is why I never had any pets – after I moved away from home - until recently.

I lost our frist fish "Spot" some time ago. We think it was a low voltage shock and how I had to let Spot go. Thanks again to Gavin and his help. MANY THANKS !!!

Then some time later came the lose of PEREX(sp) our large pleco 10 to 12” from tip to tail. Sorry MRS if I spelled it wrong as it was another one of her favorites and she had named it.

Not long ago, just a few months now, we lost our last KOI. FLASH was our largest one too. She was a Butterfly KOI. We had her only two years I think it was. It might have been three. We picked her up at Pets Mart with the rest of the fish at the same time. She was a little thing then. I did measure her before I froze her. She was only 14” long from tip to tail. For any of you who might read this and have not read the other thread, in Koiphen, about FLASH passing on. MRS and I plan on purchasing a nice plant of some kind this coming spring and placing FLASH under it; that is why I froze her.

NOW TO WHY I AM STICK TO MY STOMACH:

I just now found the tail – the entire tail from the main body back laying on the bottom of the tank with snails all over it.

I check on my fish many times a day. I not only have the 350 gal pond in the basement I also have three 100 gals stock tanks set up for QT and for new or extra fish. They have bottom drains on the two main tanks – leading to one as a settling chamber. MRS picked up two new baby plecos about a month ago and I have one in the main tank and one in the settling tank with the plants.

YES my (blank) set up, in the settling tank, must of caused it. And I did not help!! I close one ball valve from time to time to do a good flush of the bottom drain system. It is my thinking that when closing the valve I cut off it's tail. It is the only thing that comes to mind. Even though I found it right next to the 300 watt heater – I do not think that would of done it.

To some its only a pleco – However it is still a living thing and still alive for that matter. It must of happened either early this morning or late night and it is now 6PM – so well over 8 hours or more. And I just now found this all out about 50 to 60 minutes ago. As most know I am bad at putting my thoughts into words and it took me a half hour to type this. Then I posted it over at Koiphen before posting it here...

What should I do?
Will it live??
Can any kind of fish live through something like this?
Can the tail or at least part of it grow back – so that it will survive?

SIGNED, Feeling like I do not deserve them!!

UPDATE: I moved it to its own little tank. NO heat yet - however I was able to see it is leaving its mark(s) all over - yes it is still able to do it's business. :grin:

[Sandi_W]

Tony & Mrs,

I am so sorry about your Pleco. I don't have any advice, but I know others will. I just wanted to say that I've lost fish before and I know it's a very bad feeling. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Sandi

[marla]

I once had a Bleeding Heart (tetra) and the crab we had in the aquarium took off the whole tail. It looked kind of funny, leaned up in the top corner for a long time, probably to keep it's balance. However it did grow it's tail back, I do not recall how long it took though. I do totaly understand your feelings, I'm the same way. We just lost one of our plecostomus, he was 12yrs old. I no longer buy fish from the larger chain stores, don't have as much luck with thier health.

[Jackie Ramo]

Tony I know how hard it is to see our pets hurt like this but unless infection sets in the fish will probably survive and yes depending on where the cut is, may even grow back.

It will swim funny for a while or be very still, not poke at it and make it swim around. It needs to rest much the same you would have to.

I'd heat up the water to 78F and salt to 0.15% or 0.2% not more. The water must remain pristine, so you may want to consider moving it back tot he cycled tank and moving the others who might torment it out. Not sure of your set up. Certainly a cycled filter will be your friend at this time.

If the cut has not healed over as yet then I'd probably dap it with iodine just to be on the safe side. Plecos are strong fish. I had one for 13 years and when I gave it and the aquarium to my niece it lived another 5 years.

[OttawaPonder]

Thanks everyone!!

Having a hard time over this....

[Jackie Ramo]

Tony, how is the fish doing now?

[Dave in Innisfil]

Losing pets sucks. Bad enough they up and seem to die for no good reason, get old before we do, and occassionally pay a high price when we err. But whether it is a dog, cat, bird, or fish, deep down we know that the odds are we'll one day feel the heartache at their loss. I used the "Circle of Life" to explain it to my 5 year old son just last week as I scooped out a floatie goldie. He was glad it wasn't Roy or Bubbles, but was still upset at Death.

Excluding the goldies, I take my fin-kid losses real personal. Last spring, 99 of our 101 fish perished to multiple causes, largely to my own inexperience with this new hobby. There are a few in our pond that I have named, many that just give me sheer enjoyment at their colours, multitudes and antics. This fall, we did everything we could to winterize our ponds, and were content we had done the best we could. We thought we were resting easy until the spring thaw. Keep it vented, test the water, and keep our fingers crossed.

This morning we awoke to find one koi, one shub, one fancy fantail, one pond fish, and three goldies lying on the ice surface of our pond. All told about 36 inches worth of pets lying in little pools of blood, killed but not eaten. The carefully laid mink trap was untouched, and judging by the size and quantity of tracks there was more than one intruder. All we can do is shut off our bubbler, leave the back porch lights on, a radio playing as a bit of noise deterrance, and hope the pond quickly refreezes before we lose too many more fish. Luckily we have a Plan B vent option that's mink-proof, or so we hope.

Wanna be me when I get up tomorrow morning and get too see who's lying on the ice ??????????

Sorry for your predicament, and hope your fish heals quickly.

[Sandi_W]

Dave,

I'm so sorry for your loss. I've had losses in the past, but never one from a predator. I hope your trap is more successful tonight and there are no more losses.

Good luck,

Sandi

[Jackie Ramo]

Several years ago, my fish kept dying and it didn't matter what I did. I met Gavin and Graham and their friend George at this time and the help and comfort they gave me is treasured to this day. It didn't stop the darn fish from dying but the support alone made a difference. Lost almost all of them and when we thought it was over it started again. Waking up to floaters is not a happy moment in anybodies life. We almost gave up the pond that year.

Still with their help we struggled on and the fish finally stopped dying and the pond is now the joy it supposed to be.

Tony, most of us here lost fish sometimes by misadventure, sometimes through sickness and worst of allthrough our own darn mistakes, these are the hardest ones. I hope you fish is doing alright.

[Merlin]

Hi Tony sory to hear of your problems, I too get upset when I lose one of my water pets :( especialy if it was due to something I had or had not done, but as mentioned we all make mistakes. The secret is to learn from your mistakes, I am sure you are a good ponder and have just been unlucky, so percervre with it.

[GregBickal]

Ouch, sorry to hear that. I just lost a 6" yamabuki because it went through the bottom drain, into the settling chamber, through that line, and into the pump chamber and through the pump. If I would have taken 5 minutes more to get my intakes build before turning on the pump..... It would have been safe.

I was missing one of my domestic 2 year old koi (see picture). I couldnt find it when we brought all the koi in November. I was collecting parts from the outdoor filter last night, and found the koi dead in the brush chamber. It was 16". It had went through the bottom drains, into the settling chamber, into the brush chamber, however since I didnt bother to check the filter for fish, it froze to death.

It happens. :-?

[marla]

Greg, ouch again. This is the hardest loosing them because of our mistakes. But life goes on and there are always more fish to come, and mistakes to be made, the thing is to learn from the first ones so it doesn't happen again.

[OttawaPonder]

Jackie, The Pleco is still alive as of an hour or so ago. Thanks for asking.

As to why it happened - I still think it went up the exit pipe from the main tanks bottom drain that enters the settling chamber. I was keeping both plecos in the main tank - HOWEVER with a four light system over the settling tank, and truned on for 12 to 24 hours at a time, and the settling is also filled with plants - the algea build up was something else! SO I thought I move the one pleco that seems to come out more then the other even when the two lights were on the main tank during the day.

And all it took was one turn of the BALL VALVE for the bottom drain clean out.

SO - now that I plan on having at least one pleco in the settling tank - I need to rework the end of the pipe - so fish are unable to swim up it - and still have the debris come out from the main tank's BD with no problems. I also derrect the flow of this water from the BD to pass over my 300 watt heater to help keep it from over heating.

[Jackie Ramo]

Glad the fish is surviving. Keep him in good water until he heals up, no settling tanks for him!!!

[Jackie Ramo]

Tony is the Pleco still ok?

[OttawaPonder]

Jackie, Shortie is still with us.

I am not ready to place Shortie back in the settling chamber just yet. So I have been changing out the water every two to three days. And I have an air stone going 24/7.

[Jackie Ramo]

Tony have a look at his tail to make sure it isn't red or having white fungus growth on it. Don't confuse white skin with fungus though. White skin is healing. Also since you said today he wasn't eating his wafers try some of that string algae that is giving you problems and see if he likes that better.

[OttawaPonder]

Hmmmm should I or shouldn't I - say this???

That is the question!! OH go ahead Tony - they mubble or say out loud.

Oh sure - you say that now - but after you read my thoughts - then what will you say then - HOW could you TONY!!!!!!! :lol: HOW COULD YOU!!!

Jackie - I'm srry but the only tail I look at these days - are one's of lovely ladies that pass by me when I am out and about. You see the MRS keeps me in our basement - she likes to keep me hidden - so I do not scare off our neighbors. :lol: But on the other hand she is a great woman - she even points out a good woman or two - in case I might of missed them. I guess with her knowing I don't get out much - she tries to make up for it - some how - LOL - Oh did I forget to mention - she has me all chained up in the basement. LOL

As for seeing some colors - are you talking to the wrong person. I guess that is just another reaons why I counted on Gavin so much. MRS unable to go down so many stairs and me with some colors.

PS Jackie, the water change before this last one - I did add some salt to play it safe. I plan to use some salt again with the next water change in a day or so.

[Jackie Ramo]

:grin: Just don't be looking at those tails when you are driving. That's how my hubby crashed our MG, and I was in the car... so he couldn't lie !bonk

Be sure to keep the salt no more thant 0.1 or 0.15, I am not sure how pleco's react to salt, it isn't the same a koi. So test, test, test.

Did you give him any algae.