Help Fishie emergency

[hses2esf]

I just got home from class and the heater on my tank appeared to be smoking....Could have been evaporation of water though......All I know is the water in my tank was very hot and when I unpluged and removed the heater the glass on it shattered. I have a 2.5 gallon tank with one zebra danio in it. It has a disposable filter made for small tanks on it and it had a heater.I don't know what to do now. I can't get to the store until the weekend...will my danio be alright until then. What could have caused this my heater was set on 78 degrees which usually keeps the tank at 76 degrees? Does anybody have any advice for me?

[Punkymom]

Your heater busted because you removed it from the water too soon. You have to wait 15 min after unplugging a heater to remove it. As far as the smoking, I've never had this happen to me, but it probably got stuck in the "on" position too long and fried the water. Heaters don't stay on all the time. They are able to adjust the temp of the water as needed.

As for the Zebra Danio in a 2.5 gallon by himself...I would trade him out for a Betta or Siamese Fighting fish. Danios are schooling fish and prefer to be in schools of at least 6.

The fish will probably be fine without the heat for a couple of days...surprised he survived the "heat wave"

[hses2esf]

I had more danios I had 4 but due to an amonia problem I lost them and Danny is the only guy left Thanks for the advice though

[hses2esf]

I had more danios I had 4 but due to an amonia problem I lost them and Danny is the only guy left Thanks for the advice though

[JohnPaul]

It's a weird thing, but if you listedn to people who have been in this hobby a long time, they will all tell you that when an aquarium heater "breaks," more often then not what happens is not that it turns off, but rather, it gets permanently stuck in the "on" position. Be thankful you had a hardy fish in there; one less hardy might have died from the rapid heating of the water. And then, as Punkymom pointed out, if you take any aquarium heater out of water immediately after you unplug it, it is almost certain to break.

If you were to upgrade to a 10 gallon tank, that would be sufficient for 4 or 5 zebra danios. They love to swim so the more space they have the better. A betta would be a much better choice for your tank.