I left my tanks for 5 days. I asked my Mum to look after the fish, they were all perfectly ok when I left, but when I rang home Mum said that about 10 had died then when I returned 16 had died, 4 Corrys, 4 Guppy's, 3 three thread fin rainbows. Wierdly the Platties did not suffer at all. My chinease Algea eater has survived, but his eyes have a puss like substance on them and I am certain that it cannot see as he used to shoot back to his hidey hole as soon as there was any movement, now (I know this is inpractical) when you tap on the glass he shoots off knocking into everything including the tank sides often heads on collisions. two questions. Does anyone know what this was? and What do you suggest for the future of the Chinese Algea eater? everything seems to be settled apart from the blinded Algea Eater.
Wipeout!
- Thread starter Tetra
- Start date
Well it's always difficult when you have to leave for a while and finding someone with enogh knowledge and know how in order to take care of your pets can be a real pain. Once when I was younger and I left my turtle for a week or two with my grand father in charge of feeding him, well lets just say the turtle was ok but my house stunk for several days. It was like a Bio hazard or something. NOT FUN! Anyway this was the effect of overfeeding the poor turtle. TBH i think he dumped the entire can of pellets into the tank. This helps bring up my first point. What did your mother do to the fish that could of caused such a disaster! I mean this was 5 days not 5 weeks! I'm assuming that this somehow happened from overfeeding and the then the water quality went to hell. I'm also assuming that you took some precautions before departing on your short trip, like making sure you did a decent water change and making sure the filter was clean as well as testing the water, etc. These precautions always help incase of an occuring problem while you are gone. This at least gives your fish and your tank a fighting chance if something goes wrong. Then again leaving your fish in the care of someone that knows little or nothing about fish doesn't help either. The best thing to have done in this case would be to try and give your mother a few basic guidelines as to what to do and what to look for. Like only feeding the fish once or twice a day in "SMALL" quantities. Or better yet prepare the food for your fish in advance and have each batch clearly labeled for each day your gone. This way your fish won't get over fed and they won't starve either. As for you algae eater, it would seem like he contracted some sort of fungal infection from the poor water conditions. One thing you could try would be to put your sick fish in a seperate hospital tank with clean water and raise the temp of the water, but not TOO much. You don't want to have a cooked Algae eater. You should also consult your lfs for other general remedies although they can be expensive and might not work. I'm by no means an expert on fish illness so I'm sure that someone else on this site could offer much more qualified advice than I could. :-/
Well it seems that it might be my mother overfeeding the fish. although I did show her previously how much I normally give them. well next time I leave a tank full of fish, I think I may resort to the idea of labeling pre arranged food 
that way they wont be over fed. well thanks for the awnsers to what may have been the problem, and I'll let you know how everything is going. the problem seems to have resolved now after a major dump and a dose of Methane Blue, so lets hope I got it in one, then I'll think about restocking
that way they wont be over fed. well thanks for the awnsers to what may have been the problem, and I'll let you know how everything is going. the problem seems to have resolved now after a major dump and a dose of Methane Blue, so lets hope I got it in one, then I'll think about restocking 
If you are going to be going away for several days on a regular basis, it might pay to get an automatic feeder where you can premeasure the amount feed at each feeding time. Then you just need mom to check up on things to make sure everything else seems OK.
Also, I've heard that cleaning things right before you leave for some time may not be the best thing to do since doing a water change, cleaning the filter stuff and everything else can change the amount of beneficial bacteria and that can add stress to the biosystem (never done it myself so I can't speak from experience).
Also, I've heard that cleaning things right before you leave for some time may not be the best thing to do since doing a water change, cleaning the filter stuff and everything else can change the amount of beneficial bacteria and that can add stress to the biosystem (never done it myself so I can't speak from experience).
Yes! Cleaning the filter can remove valuble bacteria neccessary to carry the bio load. However, doing a water change and vacuuming the gravel is most recommended before leaving as this will provide clean water and less waste. Cleaning the filter should only be done every couple of months and depending on the filter, only the first stage or mechanical like sponges should be rinsed in tank water. Every filter should have another stage containing most of the bio filter. This way you can keep the water flow going by cleaning the mechanical stage but yet not effect the bio filter.
