Lost my bolivian...

[twoodrough]

He was not doing well last week but seemed to be perking up. First fish of mine that stopped eating for a while but didn't die right away. I had hope. Then dummy me fed them yesterday and forgot to turn the filter back on. Came home about 6 hours later to my mistake. Everyone else made it but the bolivian got flushed this morning. It is possible he was going to die anyway, but I will never know.

My question is this: What affect does the filter being off have? Could that alone have killed this fish? What happens to the environment when the filter is off for a while?

I am still relatively new to fishkeeping and prone to dumb mistakes. Need to learn from them if I can. Thanks.

 

[Homedog98]

If you don't have an airstone, it keeps the flow of oxygen from getting to the water. All fish need oxygen in their water, especially recovering fish, and not having oxygen for 6 hours probably made things worse.

 

[jetajockey]

well a few things couldve happened.

Lower o2 level, this is less of an issue in a larger tank, but could pose issues in a small tank in just a few hours.

Lack of circulation, if you have a heater in there, you'd have cold spots since the water isn't moving around.

And finally, toxin spike. A great number of beneficial bacteria is in the filter media, and with it off, it's not accessing the water column to reduce the toxin levels. There is bacteria in the substrate and tank walls also, but without good water flow, it's not able to do its job either.