post vacation fishtank blues

[mncspradlin]

Hey there, went away for 10 days and had my friend watching my tank. She fed and cleaned regularly.
when we returned we had lost an entire kenya tree (looks like it melted). Our long tentacle plate was a naked skelleton. We had 6 pulsing xinia and 2 were missing, 3 are looking puny and one is fine.
After some investigation I found my gold headed goby just a skelleton in the tank.
our parameters on return are: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, phos 0, ph 8.2, temp 78
Any ideas? All I can think is the fish died for some reason and sent my ammonia skyrocketing and it was down before we returned.
Will the sickly lookin xinia recover??
Oh yeah, my tube worm lost his crown too. Worm still alive and peeks out occasionally but no crown.
Vacation was great but tank was almost a disaster.

 

[Jason]

GOOD GOD!

that is a lot to have happened in 10 days!!!

the xenia will probably recover after it melts away, just give it time and it'll come back.

Sorry to hear about all your losses!

 

[Phyl]

Wow. That sounds horrible. My neighbor had a pet sitter come and watch her FW tank for a week and when she got back one of her fish was just a skeletin too. When I went away I made a list of all of the animals in their tank and what they should look like/normal patterns of behavior. That way when she was watching the tank she could count fish, watch them eat, read over how they were supposed to act, etc.

I premeasured all the food and put them in separate containers (frozen) and baggies with dates labeled.

One of the days while we were away she called me to tell me that one of my frogspawn was looking smaller than normal. Turned out I had moved it just before we left and it didn't like the flow it was getting there. She was very attentive to each of the animals and I think having the care guide was critical for that.

Sorry to hear about your losses and near total disaster. Hopefully the Xenia will rebound. They're pretty resiliant.

 

[BDAWG]

Same thing happened to me. I didn't lose as much as you did but I did lose two beautiful Anemones. So I feel your pain.

Sorry for your losses, too.

 

[Thumper]

Well if it makes you feel any better I feel like that everytime I come home from work, Just kiddin, I do feel your pain, Last time I did go out of town I lost several fish before I could return.

 

[Clown Monarch]

Is this thread for everyone to join in?


When we left on out honeymoon in October, we left possibly the 2 stupidest people in the universe in charge of my young tank. They were my wife's friends and my only option. I told her I'd rather leave the tank unsupervised than even have them anywhere near it. For you Simpson's fans, they would be the two people you'd put in charge of "watching the bee". I explained everything - the timers, lights, wet/dry, return pump, how to start and stop everything and how to tell if anything is wrong.

We were gone for 7 days.

Obviously they only used my house to smoke, eat our food, and do other unmentionable deeds, because they sure as heckfire didn't even look at the tank.

First off, someone had turned the light timers to "ON" rather than "AUTO ON" which was fairly obvious because there was a carpet of algae on every square inch of the glass. Seven straight days of booming daylight. My corals looked like they just travelled to hell and back. My Mandarin was never seen again - probably because it couldn't find any pods in perpetual daylight.

The water level in the tank was about 6 inches below the rim and the return pump in the wet/dry was running dry, the PH in the skimmer (in the sump) was dead and buzzing. I touched the PH and it shocked me, so that went right into the trash. The heater in the sump went in the trash. Somehow the return pump survived this torture test (a CAP 2200 if you're interested). I spent the next 3 hours fixing this disaster area - exactly what I wanted to do the second I got home.

Anyone, except possibly Helen Keller, within 50 feet of this tank could tell that something was dreadfully wrong. Even Helen could have smelt the ozone that was eminating from the burned-out pumps and heaters.

When I was finished cleaning and went to relax, I noticed that they did, however, manage to eat my entire stash of about 10 frozen pizzas.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest their armpits. I told the wife I don't ever want them in my house again.

 

[Clown Monarch]

I forgot to mention that in a period of 7 days, they used HALF of a full-sized brick of mysis shrimp - to feed maybe 10-12 inches of fish. Either that or they ate it themselves when my pizzas ran out which is highly likely I suppose.

 

[Rach101]

Not to be off topic but my brother once put his snake in my guinea pig cage when i went up north to visit my grandmother when i was eight.. Needless to say i have never forgaven him and hes not allowed near any of my critters anymore..

 

[JamesR]

Clown Monarch...........

All i can say is OH MY, how can someone be that incompetent!
I cannot imagine how irate you must have been.

Jim

 

[Clown Monarch]

You can't imagine, Jim. The only difference between these 2 people and common dogs is that they walk upright. They're only capable of the basest animal functions - food and sex. Oh, they can smoke cigarettes too. They can walk upright and smoke - it's all that separates them from the primordial soup.