FishProfiles.com Message Forums

lost a panda cory yhis morning and another one is turning brown in colour, several other fish seem to be losing colour.

discovered that the glass on the heater has shattered exposing the elements, is there anything in a heater that could harm them?

teprerature has only dropped to 21c but i havent had time to do a full water test yet.

Nothing harmful in the heater other than the electricity. I suspect most of the problem is the drop in temp.

As far as I know there really isn't anything that would particularly harm the fish from the heater breaking unless there was a sudden change in temperature. Fish are usually not harmed too much at least by electrical current because they aren't grounded but I suppose the corys may have been if they were resting on the bottom. Of course any electrical current or event like that is awfully stressful and you can expect them to react to it. For the sake of caution get those tests done and answer the questions from the sticky at the top of the forum:

Help us to help you with your sick fish:

When making a post to the hospital forum, you will save valuable time by providing the following to us. Post what you can now then bring the rest back later if you are missing something. Copy and paste the info into your post as a guideline, then edit out what is not needed. based on symptoms, we may ask for more info later.

It is also important for us to know what country you are in so we can recommend medications that are actually available to you.

ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

Water Parameters
There are many things in a fish tank that can cause a fish to appear sick, when natural toxins or water chemistry are not just right.

Ammonia:
Nitrite (note the “I&#8221:
Nitrate (note the “A):
pH:
Temp:

If you do not have one or more of these, please take a bag of water to the fish store and ask them to test it for you. Most will do this for free. If not, try another store. Make sure you write them down so we can review the numbers with you.

Tank Information

Tank Size (gallons and dimensions if known (20 gal long versus regular 20 or 20 gal high):
Stock List (Quantity/Species):
Fish size for larger fish (a 5 inch angel or a 9 inch oscar has a different effect on water parameters than a half-dollar size angle or a 3 inch oscar).
Filtration (ex: Penguin 330, Whisper 40, Fluval 204, etc).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Additives
Tell us what you add to your tank or replacement water like conditioners to remove chlorine/chloramine, fertilizers for plants, aquarium salt, pH adjusters, etc. Describe for us how often you use and how much.

INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SICK FISH

Be as descriptive as you can and provide pics, if possible (see the post about how to add pictures at the top of the hospital forum).

We not only need detailed information about what you see ON the fish, we need to know about it’s behavior. This does not attempt to capture everything, but gives you some ideas on how to present what you are seeing. Don’t limit yourself to what is here.

Examples of some physical attributes
Pale, darker, grey fuzz/white fuzz/off-white fuzz, grey slimey film, blue haze, gold dusting, salt grains/spots, blood bordered white area, ulcer, pustule/boil, cloudy eyes, protruding eye, eroding fin, etc.

Examples of some behaviors
Lethargic, rapid breathing, sits on the bottom, hangs out at the top with head down (or head up), darting in a spiral fashion, swimming slowly without orientation, choking, flicking against objects in the tank or gravel

(again)

I would do a water change and add some carbon to be on the safe side, also where are the brown bits,as it could be velvet.

update, done a 50% water change and replaced the heater, also added a crbon sponge to the filter.
bringing the temperature back up slowly now,
no obvious problems with the water quality, nitrite and ammonia 0, nitrate 20, ph 7.2 hardness 16-20dh.
fish are now seeming very active and not as pale as they were this afternoon so i will moniter the tank closely over the next few days.

thanks for the advice

Last edited by hembo666 at 08-Jun-2005 15:55

good to hear it It sounds like it was just an immediate stress reaction and they should be ok. Unfortunately some fish are more resistant to stressors than others, sorry for your losses.