Fish massacred by pump :/

[Danny Daniel]

Well today i go check on my Fish and i noticed that my air pump is not strong enough and i wanted to buy a new one, so i turned it off  and when all the bubbles stopped , i noticed something weird around the pump so i pulled it out, and like 4 or 5 fish were stuck on it and all guts and everything squeezed into the part of the pump that sucks in, it has a filter around it, like i dont no how they got stuck onto it, it seems impossible lol but i guess not.

 

i dont know how long they have been on there, im thinking atleast 1 day. the bubbles from the air pump where so much around the water pump i just never noticed it.

 

Now it seems like there is all kinds of fish guys all around the FT, and it has gotten moldy looking but very white color. Do i  need to change the water? can the fish survive? besides the fact they just witnessed there best buddies guts sucked out of there bodies and into the pump lol :/ so dramatic.

 

i did tests on the water yesterday and the ph was at like almost at like 9.0, i topped the water last night and checked again today.

 

everything is at 0

and ph has dropped a bit to like 8.2.  i topped again with the same water hoping to drop the ph again until i can figure something out.

 

Now i need to think of something to put around the pump maybe.

 

 

 

[TCLynx]

Get a couple plant baskets like they sell for water plants and you can make a small hole along the rim of one for the pipe and cable and then zip tie the baskets together around the pump.  That is a quick and fairly cheap method that doesn't involve wire that would corrode and cause metal leaching problems.

[Danny Daniel]

good idea :) thanks alot .

 

everything in the water looks moldy and nasty all at the bottom of the FT. 

 

and a few of the fish keep coming up to the top of the FT(im going to buy a bigger air pump tomorrow).

 

[TCLynx]

If you have good water on hand, a partial water change after you net or scoop as much of the gunk out as you can would be fine.  However, just pumping as much water through the grow bed as possible and as much splashing as possible and don't feed the fish if anything seems "off"

[Danny Daniel]

i did add alot of good water, but didnt not take any out i will do that tomorrow after i buy the pump.

 

the holidays get really busy so i have to stay at our store all day, tomorrow i should have little more free time on my hands, i will be able to get a lot done :).

[TCLynx]

If things are still looking cloudy tomorrow then perhaps change out some water but if things have cleared up much by then, I would leave it alone.

 

Death by pump seems to be far more alarming to us than it seems to be traumatic to the surviving fish as long as you catch and fix the problem before you have a massive ammonia spike.

[Danny Daniel]

the second i turned off the air bubbles and saw the fishes and the pump i was like oh no this is not going to be good :/  . i will keep an eye on ammonia and i will maybe do a water change, ill see how things look tomorrow after i buy a new air pump and some ammonia eating fish.

 

whats weird is how it happen, because the first day i got the fish i did not have an air pump, so all the fish had gathered on the water pump right at the place where the water sucks in same place all this stuff happen, but that time not 1 fish got hurt, this time i don't know what happen, maybe the fish where drunk or maybe the fish have gone mad? lol

[TCLynx]

My first fish death was death by pump.  It isn't uncommon.  Some sort of cage or grill to protect the fish and pump from each other is important.

 

Well you have not gotten through your first big HSM.  Sorry for the loss.

[Danny Daniel]

Thanks for the help :), for sure tomorrow im going to buy something to protect the fish from the pump.

 

also what is a HSM?

[TCLynx]

Oh there are several phrases that HSM could stand for.  "Heart Stopping Moment" perhaps,  the moment you look and see that something is very terribly wrong in the system.  Some might call it a "High School Musical" Full of drama and tragedy.

Or most call it a "Holy $h!t Moment" as they scramble around trying to recover the situation.

[Danny Daniel]

oo i was thinking something like that but was not sure. :)