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I woke up this morning to a 55 gallon tank at 68 degrees! My thermometer stopped working. The stores do not open for another three hours. I've begun a water change, adding warm water into the wet/dry filter tank. Will my fish die?

How fast should I raise the temp. I have another tank with the same water quality.... should I transfer the fish to that tank, or will the change be too dramatic?

Is there an alarm device that I can purchase to prevent any future mal-functions?

My particulars:
55 gal
wet/dry 75 filter system
2 clown loaches
1 pleco
2 black skirt tetras
4 angels
2 bala sharks
6 black neon tetras
4 rainbows
3 corys

Thanks.... hope some is up around the world.

your best bet for now is to just insulate it or keep the room temperature around 68 to keep it from dropping any more.

Raise your temperature at a rate of about 2 degrees per day until you reach your ideal temperature.

Most likely the fish'll be fine, but watch the clown loaches for spots of ich, as they're the most succeptible.

Thank you. I just did a water change through the filter, bringing the temp up to 72. based on your advice, I'll stop and allow the tank temp to rise more slowly at 2 degrees per day.

Much appreciated..... I'll keep an eye out for the ick.

Lucy

yea, i forgot to mention that you should just let it be, instead of causing temperature fluctuations by doing changes and such, a steady temp is more important than the 'ideal' temp.

Agreed.

If you dont' have ich meds, I'd suggest picking up a clown loach approved one (rid ich plus) just in case. It'd be better to have the meds than to have ich come up and be late with treating.
As for alarms, I'm fairly sure there are some, programs you can run on a spare computer ect....

^_^

[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

In my opinion your fish should be fine...like the others said make sure you rise the temperature but slowly and keep a watchful eye on the loaches, they are very sensitive to ich...good luck my friend.

oh and by the way...you might already know this and i don't want to be a bearer of bad news...but your tank is way too small for the type of fish you have in there...bala sharks get huge...and if your pleco is a common one they also get huge...and even worse the clowns take a long time to get big but trust me they do...so hopefully you'll be able to find them another home when the time comes...good luck

Thanks everyone. I ran out and purchased a new thermometer. I'll slowly raise the temp. The fish look fine. I guess a few days with tell all. I have ick meds just in case.

As far as my fish choices.... no, I didn't know it was that bad. I've had my tank for about 18 months. The look of the variety I have is nice.

I've recently had to visit a relative at my local hospital. The lobby has a huge tank (200 gal?)with only a few fish. When they get big, I'll see if they will adopt mine. ...or, I'll buy a bigger tank!

Thanks again.

When they get big, I'll see if they will adopt mine. ...or, I'll buy a bigger tank!

The problem is that bala sharks are not only schooling and reach 12" in lenght but they're very active swimmers. In that tank they won't be able to "get big". They'll be stunted, a process that causes the body to stop growing while the inside organs continue to grow. They need a minimum of a 125. Clown loaches are also schooling and grow very large.

I'd suggest starting with returning the loaches and the sharks to the lfs. Depending on what type of pleco it is, you're likely going to need to return that one as well. Since you're rather stocked already I'd exchange the black skirts as they need a full school. IME two black skirts will be nippy towards each other.
Once that is done, you'll have the space to fill in the schools of corys.

^_^[hr width='40%'] "Ah, yes," said the toad. "You've got Nac Mac Feegles!"

12 inches???

Wow. I knew Bala Sharks could reach 7, but I've never seen 12 inch ones.

By the way, it's at this point that I feel qualified to make the following observation. When you buy things such as heater/stat combos, never buy just the one. Always get spares. I have spares lying around the house somewhere, so that if one of my existing heaters goes belly up, I can replace it in short order. A little bit of extra money spent on spares now will save a LOT of headaches later!




Last edited by Calilasseia at 27-Feb-2005 08:32

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

lrooth

This just backs up what many have said previously. Have spares on hand all the time, and use two heaters. By doing this it can save a lot of stress on your fish and yourself.

Keith

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