I got home from work tonight at about 7 pm. The guys were poring concrete around the pool today and evidently when they plugged some of their equipment in to the outside receptacle they tripped a breaker. I walked in to a dark fish room. Found the breaker and flipped it back on. The two flasher wrasse I have had in QT for 4 weeks were on their side breathing hard. One of my tanks was on a different circuit and was still running. I scooped them out and put them in there as quickly as possible. The McCoskers wrasse lasted a few more minutes and died. The Linespot flasher is still alive but I don't know if he is going to make it. Then I walked over to the tank with my purple tang that I've had in QT for almost 7 weeks. He was going to move to the DT in the morning. He is alive but evidently he had some kind of seizure or something. He literally broke his tail. His tail is flopping around like it is completely unattached. He did actually eat something tonight but I can't imagine he will survive this. I don't know whether to euthanize him or give him some time. Since he ate tonight I may wait till tomorrow and try be more objective. I had so much invested in these fish....not really monetarily although that isn't insignificant. I had these guys in the DT in my mind. They were looking fantastic, healthy and as tame as any of my fish in the DT. Right now it's hard to get motivated to even do maintenance on my tank. Oh well, tomorrow's a new day.
Oh no!!!! So can you get them to reimburse you?! Wow! I'm so sorry!! I would be so upset yet livid all at once! Those poor fish!
Sorry to hear that doc! I don't understand how the tang broke its tail but hope things get better for you. I agree that the builders should assume some responsibility. I know the money prolly doesn't even matter at this point though.
And this really makes me want to get a home generator (would that even work with a flipped breaker?!) and backup batteries! Do you think it was the powerheads going off or the heaters? Both?
Lack of oxygen. My fish begin to struggle after about hour 3 of power outage. Seizure is possible, hypoxia event. Plenty of case reports of people seizing so violently they break bones. Really sorry to hear about this Doc! This really sucks! Broken tail sounds like broken spine. Perhaps euthanasia is best.
Thanks guys. Definitely lack of circulation/oxygen. Tank temps were still in the mid 70's when I got home. Good news is it looks like the Linespot may make it. He was very active and ate well tonight. The tang also ate pretty well. It's hard to tell if he is in pain or not but he is swimming around enough that I don't feel obligated to euthanize him yet. He won't be perfect but if he recovers I owe it to him to give him a good place to live. He certainly won't be able to use his scalpels much so the other tang may have to go. We'll see. He has a long way to go yet. I don't think the guys knew it as it happened as they were finishing with the saw they were using. I don't feel bad towards them. There was no one home to tell and these guys didn't have my contact info. I'm sure they didn't even know where the breaker box is located.
I just hate this for you! Note to self, if ever away from home with workers.. leave instructions to call if ANYTHING happens! At least you have no hard feelings. I would have a hard time with that! I'm still bitter about some major yard work we had done 7 years ago! Lol
I'm going to keep everyone in QT for now. The Linespot really needs another treatment with Prazipro as still saw some stringy poo yesterday. If that goes well he will move in a few days. I want the tang to heal as well as possible. I don't know how well he would handle the high flow environment in the DT right now.
Thanks Kim. Stuff happens, just seems a lot of it happening lately. The tang didn't make it but the linespot is fine and working his way up the pecking order in the DT. He's very assertive for a flasher wrasse.
