Crash
of my Tropheus Tank - Demise of my 21 Tropheus
It happened 3 days after I accidentally dislodged the electrical plug to my
Eheim filter. I was doing a water change when I realised that the filter
had stalled. However, I had already changed about 1/2
the tank and decided to just re-start the filter. Wrong
decision. The
stagnant water in the water for 3 days was circulated into the tank and I
cold smell the stench. I then washed the filter and had to perform more
water changes to get rid of the stench. After a couple of hours, my
whole tropheus tank crashed and all my 21 tropheus (Duboisi and Ikola) were
wiped out. I have them for almost 21/2 years
and it was painful.
In washing the filter and changing all the water, I probably introduced
the new tank syndrome and this was too much for the tropheus. On
hindsight, upon realising that the filter had stopped, I should have just
washed it and stopped the water change. At the very least, this would probably
be less stressful for the fishes (avoid washing the filter and water
change at the same time).
I had also observed that the water was slightly cloudy (though the fishes
were behaving normally) but did not attempt to look at it more closely or
else I would have noticed that the filter had stopped. The water had
remained good as I have a power filter that was providing water
circulation. Lesson learnt is that daily observation is important and
check the essentials e.g.. filter , heater if anything seemed amiss.
