Big Oops!!!

[DrNic]

Last week we went to an out of state wedding for a college buddy of mine (I was actually in the wedding which was a lot of fun). We left home in the evening to drive down so we would miss traffic. Earlier in the day I did my water changes since I wasn't going to be home over the weekend to do them.

Well the whole ride down I felt like something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it but I just knew in the back of my head that I forgot something. Two days later when we came back home I realized what it was.

When I was changing the water in my last two tanks (the 20G platty, and 20G guppy tank) I got distracted when I had to take the dog outside. When I came back in I finished the fill and packed up the Python... but I never added the dechlorinator! When I arrived home from the wedding I immediately knew what I forgot as the bottle of dechlorinator was still sitting on the wrong tank.

Sure enough when I looked at the tank I saw bodies. Luckily I only lost a single (very old) platty in the platty tank. Unfortunatly however I lost almost my entire guppy colony. About 8-10 adults, more fry than I can count, and 1 panda cory. Currently there is only one single fry left in the tank, with another panda cory that does nothing but hides.

I changed the water again and added dechlorinator to hopefully remedy the problem but I just wanted to put this up as a reminder that adding this stuff is REALLY important!!

[Red]

Wow interesting you lost all that stock, just forgetting to add that stuff! Sorry for your losses.

[DrNic]

There is a local guppy association in the area. When I talked to them a while ago they mentioned this as a potential problem. Something about the chlorine and/or other minerals in the water can cause real issues with the guppies if the water isn't treated properly.

[William]

They must use a lot of chlorine in your area. I never used that stuff, just airated the water to remove chlorine before adding it to the tank.

[Northernguy]

Thats a hard lesson!
Sorry to hear about your fish!

[Kyle]

Sorry to hear all that. Thats so weird though I had a 10g with about 5 guppies and another 5.5g with uknown number of fry and when I changed their water I used my python to suction out about 25% and just refilled it using the pyton and I have never used dechlorinator on any of my tanks and have never lost a fish for it.. they must use a lot in your area

[DrNic]

Normally I add the treatment in either while, or just after I refill the tanks. I forgot with my adult angelfish a couple of times but they never seemed to mind much. This ended up being a horrible thing to forget in retrospect.