This story really starts about a year ago when I moved..I was living in an apartment and had my Tiger Shovelnose Cat and Red Tail Cat in my 135G. They were getting a bit large for their tank and I lived about 1/10 of a mile from the LFS I own in town..I figured that moving them 1/10 of a mile rather than 5 miles would be much less stressful on them. And it was. Only a couple minor scrapes from fighting while getting them out of the old tank. We have a large enough tank for them in the store and they did very well in that tank.
Fast forward to 3 months ago..
The current tank has a 3D background that has two pumps that circulate the water, and one is pumped to the top of the tank and cascades like a waterfall down. I also added just for extra security and gas exchange a 1000gph circulation pump to the tank. Now, the two pumps behind the tank are plugged into one outlet, and the circulation pumps are plugged into another, so if one gets turned off by accident there is a backup. Well, one of my employees who had recently been switched to the closing shift and didn't know the procedure switched off the whole surge protector that runs that tank. Which, normally, would not be a problem, as the 1000gph circulation pump I added for that reason is on another hidden strip..Normally I check to make sure they are running, but for whatever reason I didn't check it that night when we left..
Came in the next morning, and there was my 3' Shovelnose floating upside down...I guess the fish had gotten spooked by something in the middle of the night and knocked the impeller guard off the pump and there was no water circulation in the tank..My Red Tail was breathing very heavily and all the feeder fish were gasping as well, so my guess is that it had only been a few hours that they were without circulation..Big fish need more O2 than smaller fish, so the biggest are always the first to go..
That was my first monster fish I ever had and had grown him from toothpick size, it was really hard to see him floating like that..he weighed about 15lbs too.
There had been many nights where they had knocked the circulation pump off in the night, but since the pumps in the back were running they still had O2 and it was no problem..but the one night in 8 months that the pumps in the back get turned off....still makes me mad and kick myself for not checking like I did every other night..
But, unfortunately things happen that are out of our control. The best we can do is learn from mistakes and keep moving forward..now I check at least twice before I leave, once when the lights to the tank is turned out, and once before we leave the store.
Fast forward to 3 months ago..
The current tank has a 3D background that has two pumps that circulate the water, and one is pumped to the top of the tank and cascades like a waterfall down. I also added just for extra security and gas exchange a 1000gph circulation pump to the tank. Now, the two pumps behind the tank are plugged into one outlet, and the circulation pumps are plugged into another, so if one gets turned off by accident there is a backup. Well, one of my employees who had recently been switched to the closing shift and didn't know the procedure switched off the whole surge protector that runs that tank. Which, normally, would not be a problem, as the 1000gph circulation pump I added for that reason is on another hidden strip..Normally I check to make sure they are running, but for whatever reason I didn't check it that night when we left..
Came in the next morning, and there was my 3' Shovelnose floating upside down...I guess the fish had gotten spooked by something in the middle of the night and knocked the impeller guard off the pump and there was no water circulation in the tank..My Red Tail was breathing very heavily and all the feeder fish were gasping as well, so my guess is that it had only been a few hours that they were without circulation..Big fish need more O2 than smaller fish, so the biggest are always the first to go..
That was my first monster fish I ever had and had grown him from toothpick size, it was really hard to see him floating like that..he weighed about 15lbs too.
There had been many nights where they had knocked the circulation pump off in the night, but since the pumps in the back were running they still had O2 and it was no problem..but the one night in 8 months that the pumps in the back get turned off....still makes me mad and kick myself for not checking like I did every other night..
But, unfortunately things happen that are out of our control. The best we can do is learn from mistakes and keep moving forward..now I check at least twice before I leave, once when the lights to the tank is turned out, and once before we leave the store.
