Hi
Had a close call recently I thought I would share. I do my water changes fairly simply and have done for the last 20 + years. Remove water and suck up any waste with a siphon that goes out onto my garden and then put the garden hose in my tank and fill the tank back up and add dechlorinator straight to the tank. I know this may not be everyone's preferred method, but has worked for me for a very long time. I have been using the same garden hose for most of this time, recently decided to buy a new hose - nothing fancy just a normal garden hose from Bunnings. This new purchase coincided with the day I was cleaning my sump, so I changed a fair amount of water 50%, usually change 30-40% twice a week so not hugely over what my rays/fish are used to. The added water volume was because I leave the siphon running from the tank and clean my jap matting out in the garden with running tank water. I should also note, that I gave the new hose a good flush, maybe 5-7 minutes prior to filling my tank up.
As the story goes, cleaned out the sump filled up the tank added the dechlorinator, and came back about 30 minutes later and my rays were in obvious distress. One of my rays who never climbs the glass was flapping at the top, another one looked like it had the very early signs of death curl, and all 4 were breathing noticeably heavier than usual, all in all in they looked in huge trouble. I should also note that my 5 adult peacockbass looked perfectly fine, I gave them a very small feed just to gauge their feeding response, bass smashed the food and the rays were unresponsive, which is very unlike them, usually would eat your arm if given the opprtunity. At this point i double dosed with my dechlorinator, as being summer here sometimes they put more chlorine in our drinking water than normal. I should also note I use Supa-chlor a locally made product that also removes hydrated lime and other nasties that tap water can contain (something over looked by many aquarists). I tossed up whether to do another water change with my original hose but opted against it - as there was still a chance it was something I couldn't test (tested my tap water for everything I can test for - pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and hardness, all perfectly normal) for in the drinking water. I went to bed that night pretty depressed, full well expecting to wake up to 4 dead adult rays.
Got up the next day and all 4 rays had survived through the night and looked much better than the previous night, gave them a light feed and 3 of 4 ate immediately, at this point my testicles descended back from my stomach and into my scrotum. The next day all 4 were eating perhaps with not the same gusto as normal but certainly eating and breathing normally. 2 days after the incident one of the rays looked like the sheath covering its barb was disintegrating - bit of white mucous hanging off it (not fungus), this then fell off that night. Since the event i changed back to my original hose and performed a small 15% water changed daily. This all happened a week ago, and today they all seem 100% smashing food like nothing every happened - seems like it stressed me more than the rays in the end. There is also a pregnant female in the tank and she still has plenty of movement in her back, so the pups seem unaffected - will be interesting to see how healthy they are when she pops around the end of January - as she is known for producing large healthy pups that are easy to feed.
All in all this was a super stressful event - and I really feel like I've dodged a bullet. While I can't prove it was the new hose, I have lived in this house for 20 years and have never once had an issue with my tap water, and the only thing that changed was the new hose, so seems super unlikely it was anything else.
Let this be a warning to people.
Anyone else suffered anything similar?
Had a close call recently I thought I would share. I do my water changes fairly simply and have done for the last 20 + years. Remove water and suck up any waste with a siphon that goes out onto my garden and then put the garden hose in my tank and fill the tank back up and add dechlorinator straight to the tank. I know this may not be everyone's preferred method, but has worked for me for a very long time. I have been using the same garden hose for most of this time, recently decided to buy a new hose - nothing fancy just a normal garden hose from Bunnings. This new purchase coincided with the day I was cleaning my sump, so I changed a fair amount of water 50%, usually change 30-40% twice a week so not hugely over what my rays/fish are used to. The added water volume was because I leave the siphon running from the tank and clean my jap matting out in the garden with running tank water. I should also note, that I gave the new hose a good flush, maybe 5-7 minutes prior to filling my tank up.
As the story goes, cleaned out the sump filled up the tank added the dechlorinator, and came back about 30 minutes later and my rays were in obvious distress. One of my rays who never climbs the glass was flapping at the top, another one looked like it had the very early signs of death curl, and all 4 were breathing noticeably heavier than usual, all in all in they looked in huge trouble. I should also note that my 5 adult peacockbass looked perfectly fine, I gave them a very small feed just to gauge their feeding response, bass smashed the food and the rays were unresponsive, which is very unlike them, usually would eat your arm if given the opprtunity. At this point i double dosed with my dechlorinator, as being summer here sometimes they put more chlorine in our drinking water than normal. I should also note I use Supa-chlor a locally made product that also removes hydrated lime and other nasties that tap water can contain (something over looked by many aquarists). I tossed up whether to do another water change with my original hose but opted against it - as there was still a chance it was something I couldn't test (tested my tap water for everything I can test for - pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and hardness, all perfectly normal) for in the drinking water. I went to bed that night pretty depressed, full well expecting to wake up to 4 dead adult rays.
Got up the next day and all 4 rays had survived through the night and looked much better than the previous night, gave them a light feed and 3 of 4 ate immediately, at this point my testicles descended back from my stomach and into my scrotum. The next day all 4 were eating perhaps with not the same gusto as normal but certainly eating and breathing normally. 2 days after the incident one of the rays looked like the sheath covering its barb was disintegrating - bit of white mucous hanging off it (not fungus), this then fell off that night. Since the event i changed back to my original hose and performed a small 15% water changed daily. This all happened a week ago, and today they all seem 100% smashing food like nothing every happened - seems like it stressed me more than the rays in the end. There is also a pregnant female in the tank and she still has plenty of movement in her back, so the pups seem unaffected - will be interesting to see how healthy they are when she pops around the end of January - as she is known for producing large healthy pups that are easy to feed.
All in all this was a super stressful event - and I really feel like I've dodged a bullet. While I can't prove it was the new hose, I have lived in this house for 20 years and have never once had an issue with my tap water, and the only thing that changed was the new hose, so seems super unlikely it was anything else.
Let this be a warning to people.
Anyone else suffered anything similar?
