# Disaster! Disaster! Disaster!



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I came home tonight after a 6 hour drive to find my 29g plant grow out tank with 3 inches of water left and the carpet soaked. This is the tank I had just put my gravid gold danios and long finned red glow danio males (fish I had just grown up) in last night and they spawned. I also had a red glow light leopard (VERY RARE) in there that had also spawned. I lost 3 of my male red long-finned glow lights and my leopard female.  All the eggs are lost. Plants are sitting in a bowl. I also had amano shrimp and my blue berry shrimp in there. The two leopard danios and the one lone red long finned that survived and the shrimp are in my 125g tank. I sure hope it's cycled enough for the ammonia. All my briggs snails are also in there. Water is all over the carpet. I have wet vac-ed until I'm exhausted. I've used almost every towel in the house. Then tank split in the bottom underneath glass length-wise. 

BOO HOO HOO! My worse loss was the red long finned danios and the leopard glow light. The LFS only gets a leopard once in a blue moon. I think I will fill the plant bowl up with water. Maybe some of the eggs will survive and will hatch. Who knows!


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## jmontee (Feb 7, 2008)

OH NO Tex. I am so sorry to hear that. I hope that your fish and your house are OK!


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## Erirku (Oct 5, 2004)

Sorry to hear of your loss. How did the tank have a water leak? Hope you find some fry in there.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I'm so sorry to hear that! The carpet will probably have to be professionally cleaned (or you can rent a carpet shampoo-er). Otherwise you'll have fish-water smell coming up for the next 6 months. (I've had this happen before.  ). 

Sorry to hear about the fish and I hope you get some eggs to hatch that might be hidden amongst the plants.

-Dave


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

So sorry to hear about that Tex Gal!  I hope what you salvaged out does ok.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Oh that's horrible.

Was it a tank failure or a siphon problem? All it takes is for one little tube to come off somehwere. Ugggh.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Oh man that stinks. I think my worst disaster was CO2 malfunction. I had it going to 3 different tanks and I lost all of my fish except for a few Endlers.


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## inareverie85 (May 5, 2008)

I'm so sorry to hear that, Texgal  Perhaps you can fish up a few eggs somewhere in that mess and save those babies.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Really sorry to hear that. 

Unfornuately when you have alot of tanks or been in this hobby long enough, everyone eventually has an unforseen disaster. Hope it works out O.K.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

sorry to hear about that ive lost an aquarium of 2 in my day to just think things can only get better from here!


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Tex Gal

Sorry to hear about your disaster and fish loss. Hopefully you can salvage some of the plants, shrimps, and eggs. I don't see long fin danios here often, but I will keep an eye open for you.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks for all the support. I took the tank back to Petsmart and they exchanged it for a new tank. I'm getting my substrate back in there pronto so that I don't loose my bacteria. Then I'll stick my filter on and plants back in and hope that I have some eggs in the plants. 

After hearing some of you alls stories (Aaron -3 tanks!, oh my!!) I guess it's not so bad. 


BryceM the tank bottom glass actually cracked. The only thing that makes sense is that they had the silicone uneven in the bottom frame, making it out of square and it eventually gave way. It had been set up about 3 or so months. It was on a countertop which is level.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

WOW.

They really don't make them like they used to. Good quality tanks are getting pretty hard to find.


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## Shurik (Mar 22, 2008)

Oh I am so sorry for your loss, this is so awful! I hope some of eggs will survive…


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

What a nightmare to have a tank fail and I'm so sorry you lost your fish. I hope you do have some eggs survive, I enjoyed seeing your neon long-finned danio babies.


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## Brilliant (Jun 25, 2006)

Thats not good. Quick thinking trying to save the eggs. 

I almost had a very bad accident. I had my glass diffusor out on the ground. I walked over to the tank and almost stepped on it...shifting my foot at the last second to avoid crushing the diffusor made me lose my balance. Well I started falling over and by instinct grabbed the closest thing to prevent it. It was the top 30g in my dual tank stand. It almost fell right over with me but I quickly let go. Hopefully my vivid story makes you laugh and all the work rebuilding makes you forget about the mishap.

Take a look into why it broke. Finding the cause now may prevent another disaster.

Everything gets better


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Ahhhh I know your pain, I've had 4 bad floods of no less than 20 gallons each. Had to replace the under carpet padding, carpet, and insulation in the ceiling in the basement (not to mention call in professional cleaners to stop water damage). 

Very very unpleasant experience, made me want to quit for good.


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## Afyounie (Aug 10, 2007)

That sucks that this happened to you tex gal. Though it really makes you wonder about the quality of the tanks that we buy now.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Misery loves company... lets see, a few years back I had a house "guest". A friend and his girlfriend. They were supposed to watch my place for a few days while I was away . They decided to set off a bug spray bomb, and did not cover my aquarium. It killed every single fish in the tank!

And later in the same aquarium, I had the hoses connected incorrectly on the filter, and while I was away at work the entire aquarium emptied onto the living room floor. I also had a C02 tank dump its entire contents into a 55 gallon aquarium, wiping out all the fish!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Maaannnnn! YOU guys are killing me! ound: I'm actually beginning to feel pretty happy about my disaster! 

Brilliant- I see an I LOVE LUCY episode there..... :doh:

*Anymore disaster stories out there?*:yawinkle:


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

I'm very sorry for you TG.

Last month I cracked the glass on a aquarium where I have some things stored. I had a brand new set of Yamaha surround sound speakes that got soaked. The box had never opened. I had them sold, but this person would not buy them when he saw the water marks on the box. Oh well.


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## maulgerr (Mar 23, 2008)

sorry for your hard luck, but that will just make you come back bigger and better. all those other stories makes me wonder if i should empty my 6 tanks and take up knitting. gerry


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

maulgerr said:


> sorry for your hard luck, but that will just make you come back bigger and better. all those other stories makes me wonder if i should empty my 6 tanks and take up knitting. gerry


Don't do it. Those knitting needles can put your eye out! 

Thanks for the sympathy! Went to LFS today looking for another red glo-light leopard. It will take months before I find another genetic throw back... I am ready for a few boring weeks with no fish issues. It has been a challenge!


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## xspy (Mar 29, 2008)

I worry about that kinda thing happening to me. mmm 75 gallons on the floor. Not good! Sorry to hear about your tank tex, happy to see you got another red glo-light leopard.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Sorry about the loss Tex Gal! :tear:

Reading thread it makes me wonder how common tank failures are and whether big tanks are more prone to this problem because of the amount of water it holds.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

BryceM said:


> WOW.
> 
> They really don't make them like they used to. Good quality tanks are getting pretty hard to find.


Before I made the plunge into this PT hobby. I looked at a lot of tanks in the Petsmart and Petco, and frankly was disappointed by the appearance and workmanship (the aquarium stands were even worse). The only decent one was this http://www.tetra-fish.com/sites/tetrafish/catalog/productcategory.aspx?id=1276&cid=3209 which ended up getting for the kid's betta after replacing the filter with an Aquaball.

Then I saw the ADA tanks :faint2:, and I knew I that this was the one!


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

so sorry for your loss!!! :Cry:

my worst fear is losing a tank (again)


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I GOT BABIES!!! I'm blessed again! Some eggs must have survived on the plants! I looked in the tank today and I have a few babies. I have no way to know if there is a leopard one or not. If the fry make it then I'll see. AMAZING!!! 

Xspy - I didn't get another glo light leopard. They are almost impossible to come by. I'm hoping one of the fry might be a leopard!


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

CONGRATS on the baby survivors!!!!

ill keep my fingers crossed that their the fish you hope for!


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Congrats! :thumbsup:


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

That doesn't surprise me. I've had fish show up in tanks from eggs that were carried on plants shipped to me from Florida.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I counted about 6 in there. I see some more clinging on the walls of the tank That means they are still hatching! I'm so excited about this. I really hope I get a red long-finned leopard!arty:

Robert- I sent some plants to somebody, who contacted me later and asked if I could have sent a fish with them. They found a baby red fish. I think an egg may have been on the plants I sent. That was the time I thought the fish had NOT spawned. I sold plants out of the tank and changed water. Probably killed so many and I didn't even know it!


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## sithspawn (May 28, 2006)

Strange but sometimes after prevent a disaster, things still go wrong. I managed to spot a piece of broken glass in my 1200 liter asian arowanna tank and quickly drained the tank while getting a spare 3ft tank ready. By talking a little filter media from the sump tank of the big tank to the side overflow filter of the small tank I ended up with a working and mature filter. Saved a major flood in my living room after spotting that the center brace of the mega tank cracked, but the arowanna got stressed out from the lack of space and got swim bladder disease, probably of some sort of infection. Didn't manage to save it with all the medication and it was swimming upside down and on it side for 3 weeks before finally dying.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

sithspawn said:


> Strange but sometimes after prevent a disaster, things still go wrong. I managed to spot a piece of broken glass in my 1200 liter asian arowanna tank and quickly drained the tank while getting a spare 3ft tank ready. By talking a little filter media from the sump tank of the big tank to the side overflow filter of the small tank I ended up with a working and mature filter. Saved a major flood in my living room after spotting that the center brace of the mega tank cracked, but the arowanna got stressed out from the lack of space and got swim bladder disease, probably of some sort of infection. Didn't manage to save it with all the medication and it was swimming upside down and on it side for 3 weeks before finally dying.


So sad about your arowanna! Well at least you didn't have water all over also. Course I'm sure the fish was the most important thing anyway. So sorry.


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## Revernance (Aug 20, 2007)

Now I'm really scared. A tank spill in my room would make me curl up in the corner and cry. :0
I wonder if there is any way to prevent some tank spills.


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## The old man (Apr 12, 2008)

I just saw this thread and was sorry to hear about your day at the beach. You need a good attitude to find the good side of what happened. When I told my wife I was adding another tank she said, "you know if one of them breaks you gonna have to have the carpet cleaned and part of it replaced". I told her..."Seeing as it is about 20 years old that would be a good excuse to get new."


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Love the positive outlook! I have at least 10 babies. They move to fast and are really too little for me to know for sure. I had 3 females, one of which was the leopard glo-light in there. There's a good chance some of them might be from her. Now the trick will be growing them up. There are no predators in the tank. I do however have to change water.


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## xspy (Mar 29, 2008)

ahh I'm sorry, Thought your lfs had one for ya. Hope the little ones are the glo-lights. I have a few new little fishes here, close to a month old now. Mickey Mouse Plattys. Very cool when they are born, just looks like a couple of eyes darting arround the tank.


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## ericpop27 (May 13, 2008)

*Really sorry to hear about your tank, TexGal. I read this thread last night and was surprised that I've never had a tank disaster.

I spoke too soon.

About an hour ago. My little brother poured a container of fish food in the aquarium about an hour ago. I siphoned out as much as possible and did a water change.

Unfortunately, it looks like they are dying.

As to my reaction...I am sitting here bawling my eyes out. I worked SO hard on the tank. Luckily, nothing I have is rare...but I was really attached to these fish. First time I've ever kept fish alive for this long and I even managed to accidentally breed them.

If they don't make it. I will have to take a break from the hobby.*


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Do you have any Prime or water conditioner that will take out the ammonia. Put some of that in. Also do another water change. They might recover.

I'm so sorry. I know how it is to get attached to fish. 



ericpop27 said:


> *Really sorry to hear about your tank, TexGal. I read this thread last night and was surprised that I've never had a tank disaster.
> 
> I spoke too soon.
> 
> ...


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## Afyounie (Aug 10, 2007)

My cousin once poured an entire container of fish food into my 20 gal. I quickly siphoned out the food as much as I could, then I got the fish out as quickly as I could and put them in my new 55gal. I returned all the fish back to the tank about a week later after the water was clear enough. It was pretty hard to get the fish out. The water looked like a wall of sludge that no light could penetrate. Everyone lived though and the plants that were in the tank grew enormous. Ericpop, if I were you I would try to catch as many fish as you can and get them out and into a bucket or anything till the tank clears a little. Also do a lot of water changes and everything will be ok.


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## ericpop27 (May 13, 2008)

*I got lucky on several levels.

1) the second he put the container down I reacted to the disaster.
2) all the fishfood settled nicely on the ground
3) i have a ridiculous large population of cleaner fish
4) there are two filters on there
5) I changed about 45%-50% of the water...depending on how much is between the gravel I guess.

The fish are stressed, but none have actually died yet. My PH, KH, GH, Ammonia, etc levels are always good.

The funny thing is that I wanted to buy loaches today to kill the snails...the pet store was out of them. The snails are laying eggs like crazy now!*


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## ericpop27 (May 13, 2008)

*Oh, another plus. During the disaster I reaquascaped (took everything out to get as much of the muck out as possible) and it actually looks great.

The more I wait, the more it looks like the fish will be fine. The only problem is the SMELL! Ugh. I know what to do! Put a stocking of carbon in the filter! *


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## Afyounie (Aug 10, 2007)

Yea the smell will be pretty bad. Add that extra carbon, and probably get a air deoderizer. Good luck, I hope things go okay.


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## ericpop27 (May 13, 2008)

*All of the water parameters are perfect...but the fish are still dying. They look stressed. I am thinking about running to the store for Stress Coat...do you think that will work?

Is there any chemical that can save them at this point?*


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## xspy (Mar 29, 2008)

stress coat is a good buy, keeping the light off will also calm them down a bit.


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## ericpop27 (May 13, 2008)

*Added stress coat and salt...body count is at six so far.

Sorry to hijack your thread, Tex Gal!*


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

No problem Ericpop27. You hijack away. Keep us posted! Don't think I would have added salt. Can't understand why they are dying if all levels are fine. Are you testing with those strips? If so they are not accurate. You can have ammonia and not know it. Wonder if he may have put something else in the water and is afraid to tell you. It isn't right that they should be dying if you found it right away. Something just doesn't add up. Maybe you should ask him if he "fed them some sort of treat food too".


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## ericpop27 (May 13, 2008)

*Well, unfortunately all efforts were in vain. All twelve neon tetras, all four oto cats, all three of the adult albino cory cats, the albino cory babies, and the umpteen billion snails have died.

I do test using strips, I can't seem to find anything else. The only liquid test kits I have found were just for PH. I'll probably have to buy online.

Now my concern is...will the plants die too? The water is pretty much clear, it does smell. There was a 50% water change. The temp is normal. I added the plant ferts back in. It's all dechlorinated...I don't understand what's going on at this point.

The strangest thing is that the fish died SO slowly. My little brother only put fish food in. I'm guessing the shock of the major water change is what killed the fish. I never did any major water changes before...only filled in what evaporated.

Gonna stick to just plants for a few weeks. Doesn't feel right trying to replace my 'kids'.*


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

So sorry. I know you are sad. IT is so strange that they died so fast. Was your tank a natural tank set up. Is that why you don't do w/c. I have read when Walstead says to do a change once in a while. I know that fish can adapt to water levels that would otherwise be toxic to new fish, but to die in so quickly is still odd to me. Even if you brought a fish home from the store and just dumped him in he would live overnight usually. How often do we check ph, kh, gh, ect from the bag to our tanks? [smilie=c: I know that usually we acclimate by putting some water in over an hour or two. BUT who of us hasn't at one time or other just caught them out of the bag and popped them in??  I think it's also wierd that it smells so bad. Can't understand that, especially since you got the food out, it didn't have time to rot, and you did a 50% water change. Could something (residue) have been left in the bucket that you used for your water change? I guess we'll never know.

I can't imagine that your plants will die, except that they do not like salt. You might want to do another w/c to get the salt out for your plants. They won't care about the ammonia, actually they will probably grown like crazy. Some people even do water changes of 90% on a regular basis and their fish are fine. I was reading an article a few months ago about w/c in TFH. Even the experts don't agree.

Again, :sorry:


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Just an update on my disaster tank. My last count of the hatched babies was 16. I looked in the tank tonight and saw some much smaller babies. It's been about 6 days since the disaster and a full week since the fish spawned. I can't imagine that it took any that long to hatch. I am amazed at the size difference. It is definitely newly hatched fry. The light in the tank is off so I can't see the entire tank well. In the am maybe I can get some pxs and post. Amazing!!










Can't get a px of the teeny tiny ones. I counted 4. They are danios. They have definitely just hatched. Incredibly after all this time.


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## The old man (Apr 12, 2008)

This seems as good a thread to tell you about my disaster last week. My small raised pond about 6x6 and about 18 inches deep lost most of its water due to high heat and the filter pumping the water out due to the outlet top with small holes putting water in the air and being blown out of the pond.
Well, when I got home all the goldfish were about cooked and dead. Sad. So I took out all I had (6 about 3 inches and the two parents about 8-9 inches. The bottom of the pond had a lot of gunk in it so gave me a chance to dip out a lot of it and put in fresh water. The next day I was out dipping out more gunk and floating algea. The water hyacinth and hornwort seemed to have survived. Well, anyway, Then behold, I found two fish dead on the bottom about an inch in length and were NOT goldfish as they were silver and shaped quite different. I believe they had come from my Tropical tank and were barbs as I had put a lot of hornwort from that tank into the pond several times and they had hatched from eggs left on the plants. I know that they were not goldfish as they are black at that size and then turn orange later. I believe that it shows you the incredible ability to survive.
What do you all think? I wish I could have saved them to really see what they were. Hope I'm not hijacking.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

That's pretty neat. Well they had to come from somewhere and that's the most likely source. It's amazing your goldfish didn't eat them. Did they die because you had taken them out with the gunk? 

I tried a small goldfish pond in the backyard once and it was shallow about 12-18" deep. It was too shallow to stay cool enough in the summer. The fish couldn't take the heat. This was in Springfield, IL. They would have died in the winter. I don' t know how these ponds work. Too cold in winter, too hot in summer.


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## Brilliant (Jun 25, 2006)

If you were a baby danio in an egg and all the water went away would you want to hatch? Smart little guys...I would keep them around for breeding! :-D

I am happy to see they hatched for you. I had a good feeling they would.


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## The old man (Apr 12, 2008)

The smaller ones I found had just died from the heat and lack of water I'm sure along with the goldfish. I had a lot of hornwort and water hyacinth in the pond so I guess they had hatched out and just survived by hiding and eating what they could as the 6 baby goldfish had done last fall. Oh well, another trip to pet store for 10 for a dollar feeder goldfish again after the weather cools down this fall. I had lost about 10 big ones a couple years ago to raccoons.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Congrats on the new fry, TexGal! It's hard to believe that it took so long for them to hatch, but the proof is there in your tank. I hope some of those fluorescent dots are the long-finned variety you lost.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Cool stuff. Good luck with them. Life is amazingly fragile and tough, all at the same time.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> Life is amazingly fragile and tough, all at the same time.


Thats DEEP Bryce! Wow..  I might use that line


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks for all the well wishes. The fry will be long-finned as it's a dominant trait. What I am hoping for is some red leopard ones in there. I do see that 2 of them are tan so they will either be long-finned golds or zebras. I'll just have to see as they grow!


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## Sterling919 (Jan 19, 2008)

My worse nightmare...sorry to hear that. Hope your house is ok and glad to see you are starting to recover.


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## Afyounie (Aug 10, 2007)

Well I guess I can now add my own mishappenings since I had my first planted tank mishap yesterday. I had an end of co2 dump into my 10g CRS tank. The CRS are like C grade, but there was only 6 and now I can only find 2. Also my filter was not functioning correctly for some reason, so the water was not being circulated. Thankfully it wasn't as big a disaster as some have had on here, but it was very discouraging. I almost thought of just giving up on trying to raise CRS. I will have to say that I will be going for a 2.5lb cylinder rather than those small 9oz paintball ones.

Anyways, its great that the eggs hatched for you tex gal. I hope they grow up bigger and better than there parents.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Afyounie, so sorry! It seems like we all have a story.

Babies are growing great! They are getting big. I still can't tell whether they are leopard reds or not.


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