I gave my fish CPR (and it worked!)

[Diamondhitch]

I sure had a close call last night. This is something everyone should know just in case!

I moved my Lyonsi Back into my 180 after being treated for a fungal infection last night. Later on I noticed she wasnt doing well and the smaller fish were all swimming near the surface. I just kept an eye on things and about a half hour later they were getting pale and pumping their gills franticaly, the lyonsi was on her side hardly breathing (the big fish were not affected yet). That is when I noticed that the air pump had crapped out. Since I did not have a spare pump and they were obviously suffocating I lowered the water level a couple inches below my filter return line level and allowed the resulting waterfall to churn things up and everyone started to slowly get better immediately. I moved the Lyonsi (who was unresponsive) over near the filter return line where the water was rich with small air bubbles and she started to regain her balance and start breathing again, 45 min later she was finaly interacting with the other fish. By morning she was still pale but seems to be going about her business as usual.

At the end of the night I had no casualties!!!

 

[pdbrady]

Good thinking. How long do you think it was out? You must have hella bio load and a really warm tank for it to happen so fast.

 

[fishfreak317]

wow, give yourself a nice pat on the back

 

[TLkmDN]

quick thinking under pressure...u might wan get a spare air pump now though :s

 

[Diamondhitch]

Ya I am definitely getting a spare pump! I am not sure how long it had been off but I dont think there was much air left when I put the Lyonsi back in because the pictus cats were out sitting on top of the rocks instead of darting around under them like usual. The other thing that probably contributed was that I had accidentaly overfilled the tank last water change and I never drained it down so the water level was touching the euro bracing which caused it to be still at the surface not to mention cut down the surface area for air exchange, i didnt wory about it though because of the air pump. Normaly I have a jag in a different tank that has no air pump and she has done just fine for years like that.

Oh well no harm done and lesson learned.

 

[oanaya]

I agree... you should have a spare pump. You got lucky though!! I had a similar experience and lost 2 of my Red Devils. The Electricity in my neighborhood got shut off for 8 hours while I was at work. I had no idea and came home to 2 of my devils floating and the third just barely making it. Since then I've purchased a battery operated air pump to help in such a situation. Hopefully I'll never have to deal with it again.....