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I am having a bunch of work done on my house. There were probably 10 people here working today. When I came home I noticed that my fish were behaving strangely. They were really bloated and flakes were all over the bottom like snow. We're talking tablespoons of flake food! All three of my tanks were like this.

As if the stress of coming home to your house torn up wasn't bad enough. Time for a cocktail. Sorry for the rant but I feel slightly better now.

Atleast I learned something - don't leave the food on top of the tank when you have people over. And I thought the days of having my tanks full of popcorn after a party in college were over.

are you kinding me.. Id be right on the phone to that company and finding out what went on there.. are these friends of friends or actually company with workers, id be looking into that,most of these ppl working for construction are bondable etc...this is not a good thing..look into it..
Id need more than a cocktail if I left my house for the day to be refinished to find any mischief.. there would be hell to pay

I fully agree I would contact the people in charge of the work and complain very strongly.

As for your food problem I would run a gravel vac over the top of the substrate and try to get as much up as possible.
The filtration I would clean it as it must be full of the food.
Water changes do at least 3-4 every 4-5 days, also use some Seachem Stability to boost your good bacteria as I think it would not be very healthy for a while.

Finally dont feed the fish for at least 3 days and then only sparingly.

If you have a spare filter set that up as quickly as possible.

A cocktail would not even look like settling me down.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
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Keith

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Geez! Heads would roll if that happened here!

Not only is it disrespectful of your personal property, but it shows some serious ingnorance on the part of whoever did it. Dangerous stuff! And not only to fish either (which I'm sure would be used as a cop out) because overfeeding almost any animal can have some incredibly serious consequences.

Bill them for the food and a bottle of bacterial booster to help stabilise the environment again.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Geez, typical outsiders thinking that the fishies were hungry. I can't get over how people always want to feed fish like dogs. unbelievable. I hope that all your fish get through this fine.

________________________________________
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Uggg I've had too much stress today, that almost made me explode!

You've got some great advice in this thread, both with the fish and with what to do about those responsible. I hope the fish are doing ok. Might think of hiding the food anytime people will be in the house. Also possibly a lock on the tank? Sounds like you've had this problem before and it might be time for some serious measures.

Keep us posted !

^_^

All of my fish are fine.

All of my tanks have bio-wheel filters so I'm not afraid to clean 100% of my gravel. I know opinions vary but I'm sold on it. I didn't hesitate to do 30% WCs and waited 48 hours to resume feeding.

If any of my fish died, I would have raised hell. House is nice too. Doc says I need to work on my blood pressure so I'll let it slide.

Edit: ... and just rechecked my params and all is good. Surprised to see Nitrates even still under 20.

Very good to hear Krash!

Now, about that blood pressure, watch your tank more!
"They are known to reduce blood pressure and help people who are going through stressful situations. "

Read more here. Of course the studies may have been done on people who didn't have to look after the tank as well. I know my blood pressure skyrocketed when I walked into the office to find flake food gelling in the bottom of a betta tank once when I'd been gone for three days!

^_^

yup i agree,there would be big dramas,first off where do they get off touching something thats not theres,second that much food,causes ammonia spikes,even i fool knows they dont need that much food,what were they trying to do,kill you fish....thats the very reason why i have those little signs on my tanks saying,dont touch anything