Well i have been keeping fish for around 15+ years and rare somewhat hard to keep fish for about 2-4 yrs. I have allways done my water changes the same way every week. My routine is with a python and i allways do weekly 50%'s. When i refill I have allways just used the cold side of the sink and refilled slowly and add my dechlorinator before i started to refill. And this has allways worked flawlessly. Until today that is. i went to do a WC on the big tank and drained it like normal and added my ph buffer and dechlorinator and started to refill. Everything was fine until i noticed that one of my Payara was starting to lay over on its side a little. So that got my attention 100% so i set down and started chaecking all the fish out. I then noticed that one of my Hujeta's was belly up in the corner under a amazon sword. As freak out mode set in I jumped up and reached in the tank to grab the fish so that i could try and revive it. I instanly noticed that the tank was cold and i mean goose bumps cold. I immediatly checked the thermometer and it was around 50 degree's. WOW---So then I jumped into action and ripped the hose off the back of the washing machine so that i could get some hot water in the tank. ( I am in the basment with no other source of hot water at the time.) Then I hooked that up and started to fill with hot water. I then got 2 bucket and a peice of old hose and started to drain some more of the tank water as the hot run in from one end. I kept doing the bucket drain method until i got the temp back up to around the 75 mark over a 15min period. By then every fish in the tank was jerking and twitching and all three of my prized red tailed payara's were in the plants on there sides or backs and breathing very slowly. I turned out the light and added salt at 1tbs per 5g and turned the air pump on at max and added another power head facing the payara's. I thought for sure they were dead and just had not realized it yet. But after a hour or so they were right side up again but still breathing funny and not swimming at all. And after 4 hours they have move locations but are not out and about like usual. The hujeta's snapped out of it completely with in the first hour and my bichir never missed a beat thru the whole ordeal. So the moreal of the story is I learned a very important lesson today. And now i have to modify my plumbing so that i can refill with proper temp. water.
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