Thermometer broke inside tank!

[Nim Dibbley]

I have a thermometer inside of my aquarium and i noticed it was floating around for the last 2 days not stuck to the side. During a water change i noticed it seemed to think the temp was all the way to the top and obviously incorrect. I pulled it out and on closer inspection saw that the bottom part was broken/bitten off.

The thermometer looks like this:

The bottom part is broken off and some of the little balls appear to be missing. I am not sure if this happened today or if it has been a couple of days but i haven't noticed any behavioral changes....

Should I be concerned?

I guess this is also a warning to others...keep thermometers in the sump!

 

[duanes]

They no longer use mercury in thermometers or toxic materials, so no, there really is no concern.

 

[drdrewr]

Had two of these and same thing on both. No problems resulted.

 

[ECW]

Yeah it's safe. I had that happen and fish was fine. I just don't like the idea of those little lead balls all in the gravel... But it's fine.

 

[Nim Dibbley]

The day after it happened the gourami developed some black "freckles" on his tail and on his side. I did some searching online and came up with black spot disease. I also found sources online saying that he might have a chemical burn or they might even be bruises. All the sources i found seemed to indicate that regardless it would go away and shouldnt pose a health risk to the fish.

I have seen the gourami nip at the thermometer before and I wouldn't be surprised if he ate some of those lead balls. 3 days later the freckles have almost completely gone away and he isn't eating as piggishly as normal, but he is eating. not sure if the black spots are related to the thermometer or something else but it is an interesting coincidence...

i did take some pictures of it, but i cant find the usb adapter for my camera. i'll post some when i can.