I made a terrible mistake and I need help

[khdh1612]

To start I have 3 parrot fish and 1 angel fish that I've had for over 5 years. They come up to the glass when they want fed, follow my finger along the glass, they are like dogs with fins and I love them very much. Ive never made any errors when it comes to there care until last night and now 2 are still in shock and 2 have died . So here it goes....the water in the tank was a few inches low and the glass needed to be cleaned. We have filtered water so I can use it and always have topped it off right from our faucet water. My husband had the large pitcher I use already filled(he also uses it to fill our chickens water since the pipes are frozen in our barn this time of year). I figured he had filled it to take to them and hadnt gotten to it yet so I felt it and it was the right temp. so i pourerd in the tank and refilled it for him. About an hour later I was going to clean the glass in the tank and noticed a couple of our lil schoolers were dead on the bottom and then a couple more and as I was contemplating why they were dead it clicked..WHAT WAS IN THE PITCHER?!...he said water and BLEACH! I panicked and filled a stock pot I use for there water changes and though I made sure it was warm it was of course not the same temp or ph im sure. They were still swimming slowly in the tank but went in to shock immediately after putting them in.I felt so guilty, I was crying, I just wanted to save them and made a split second discission. Now I know they would have been better off with a water change and chlorinator. my angel fish and giant parrot have passed but my to smaller but still large parrots have been in shock for 24hrs now. My question is how long does it take for fish to die after shock? Is there a chance they'll make it? and also there in a 5gal pot with a air pump and there heater set at 78. Im afraid of the other ilness they can get from being in such a small amount of water together. Do I leave them in and for how long if they do recover? Sorry for such a long question but I thought I should explain the whole story so you understood how they ended up the way they did.

 

[jlk]

I am so sorry

It was a mistake and we humans make them every day- please do not beat yourself too much! Do you know how much bleach was in the water? The best you can do now is simply supportive care with limited stress. Being in a small container that will become toxic quickly isn't the best thing but you can not move them back to the big tank until you are positive all of the bleach has been completely removed/dechlorinated. Do you have a good water conditioner?

 

[khdh1612]

yes i have stress coat and have already added it to the tank to start but i don't want to shock them more with the water temp change again and the move in general. they are both swimming around occasionally but are laying on the bottom most of the time swaying there fins and breathing heavy. I don't know what to do I know it can be toxic in there but with th mistake i made last night i dont want to make anymore. I'm not sure how to get them back in there tank without causing more shock to them and also dont know how much water I should change in the tank 0%, 25%,50%?

 

[jlk]

Ok, this is a tough call here. If you keep them where they are, you will have to change the water- frequently. If not, ammonia will further injure them. It's likely also stressful for them to be a small area.

On the flip side, we don't know how much bleach is in your tank and we know it was running for awhile with bleach in it. This is a big unknown. So, it's safe to assume your tank has been disinfected if it was enough to result in fish demise. Personally, I would consider tossing the media and rinsing well any substrate/decor as well as the tank before refilling.

Alternately, I would do a 100% water change and refill with 10x conditioner. Let it run for atleast hour or longer, making sure you mix around the substrate. Then do another 100% wc with double dosed conditioner. This should hopefully remove all the bleach.

I have used bleach before to disinfect fish stuff but it's always followed by tons of rinsing, a conditioner soak then air drying. Your situation is not typical so these are the best suggestions I can think of at the moment. Hopefully, someone else has some suggestions as well!

 

[tropical-fish]

thats an unfortunate story but these things do happen. i killed a beautiful discus when de-worming. i measured out the medication exactly but next morning it was dead. then i realised that i hadn't added prime with the water change. i felt guilty about it for days.

Alternately, I would do a 100% water change and refill with 10x conditioner. Let it run for atleast hour or longer, making sure you mix around the substrate. Then do another 100% wc with double dosed conditioner. This should hopefully remove all the bleach.

+1 for the advice given by jlk. i think the best thing you can do now is get the tank up and running again and put the fish back in there. although you may have to cycle the tank all over again, but with a bit of luck some of the bacteria in the gravel may have survived.

all the best.

Brian.

 

[khdh1612]

I just went in to check on them and start emptying the water from the tank and they had both passed. Thank you again for the advise.

 

[tropical-fish]

i'm very sorry to hear about that .

a mistake that could have happened to any one of us. so don't be too hard on yourself over it.

my suggestion now would be to continue with the plan to get the tank cleaned and cycled. then pay a visit to the lfs and start restocking, or keep and eye out for fish living in horrible conditions that you can rescue and give them a good home.

 

[leayrstar]

oh no. that sux. i would be giving your hubby a smack over the head for that one. i dont think there would have been much else you could have done to save them. definitely invest in an aquarium only container. i make sure my partner doesn't touch the buckets i have for the aquarium although they are tempting to use to clean the floor.
the upside is we all learn from mistakes. thats really the only way we learn.
Good luck with the new setup, this may give you a chance to do things that you couldn't before.

 

[jlk]

I am so sorry

 

[khdh1612]

where do you suggest i start looking for fish to rescue? Ive rescued snakes, cats ,dogs,birds.... but never thought of rescueing fish?! I'm working on getting my tank set up for a new fish family so id like to look into that

 

[emerald76]

Craigslist, many people keep fish in horrible conditions, wether purposely or out of ignorance, then try to get rid of them.

 

[maddy.]

Teared up when I read that you cried when you saw your fish struggling. One of my guys seems to be very sick right now, I'm very upset. People may think we're crazy for crying over fish, they don't understand. I know how you're feeling and I know you'll keeping on raising beautiful fish. Don't be discouraged.

 

[Autumnsky]

Hi,

So sad about your fish, I am sorry that you had this tragedy. JLK is right, we are humans and make errors. It was an accident. You didn't intend to harm them and were taking care of them.

You can rescue fish for sure but, let me say there is heart break in doing that too. And how many can you rescue, as all kinds of fish don't necessarily get along in the same tank, so you may be able to rescue certain fish, but not the others, and then you would feel heartache about that too.

Take a little time to grieve and think about your tank, and what you want to put in there.

Just take a little time and do what will make you happy.

 

[khdh1612]

Thank you for all the advice,support, and sympathy and i hope your fish pulls through maddy because your right when you said that alot of people dont understand the bond so I hope you and your fishy have many more years together.....
Thanks again and I'll post pictures of my tank when I start adding a new family to it

 

[Fishygirl7]

I just went in to check on them and start emptying the water from the tank and they had both passed. Thank you again for the advise.

Sorry for your loss I'm new to this and I had a couple fish die trial and error and I felt bad and I only had them a couple days I can imagine how u feel I have to treat mine for intestinal parasites Gonna use garlic guard don't want to lose anymore God bless u w your new fishies

 

[khdh1612]

I havent been on in a couple weeks and just saw you message. thank you for your sweet message. Im doing better and started a new fish family with a new set of problems but they seem to be doing better and we have some babies on the way from a molly I got unknowningly pregnany so thats exciting after all the losses I had. Let me know if the garlc guard worked since Ive never dealt with parasites and its good to know. God bless you and your fishies as well and I hope there doing ok.