Thank you so much for sharing your story. It's an eye-opening wake up call for me about never forgetting the basics of fish keeping, even as you gain more and more experience over the years. Hopefully your lesson learned will save many other fish keepers a similar heartache. Best of luck on your future breeding projects!
Oh my goodness, that's devastating. 😔 I had a tank crash 6 months into me entering the hobby and I understand how emotional it can be, particularly when you realise you've overlooked or mishandled something. This hobby can be a joy, but the learning curves are often brutal. I hope you rediscover your enthusiasm for that project at some point because it sounds really exciting. 😊
Sorry for you’re loss. Just keep being yourself and all things will fall in place. Everyone hates too loose a pet and I feel for you. Just keep being the person you are and keep you’re chin up. You will bounce back. I have faith in you!
I haven’t seen my fish room in over 8 months due to illness it scares me to think of how bad it will be. Listen to your story literally sends shivers up my back
So far I’m doing fine but still haven’t made it to the fish room. I know what your talking about I could have bought zebras but didn’t because of the situation
Bentley, I am so very sorry. It's devastating to loose a tank and realize you could have prevented it. I did that to my 33 gallon by not quarantining. I'd been getting fish from the same place for months with no issues. Complacency, it can get any of us. Thank you for sharing your pain and loss. It really does help people like me learn. Take care.
Sorry to hear that Bentley. I know you will recover and thank you for sharing. Sharing our failures is just as important possibly more valuable than sharing our successes.
I can understand what you are going through. I lost a full 4ft tank of mature fish. I buy them very young and love to see them grow, mature, maybe breed. They grow old in my care, angels, guppy’s, generations of them, a beautiful blue eyed bristle nose Pleco I’d had from 3mm size, now 6 inches long, neons that seemed to have arrived with the tank I’d had them so long. In all, 49 fish, lost because of a stuck on heater thermostat. I was so gutted......but you pick yourself up and hopefully learn...now I replace all the heaters every 5 years. lessons hurt.
I gave up Fishkeeping decades ago when I came home from work only to find that my bow front tank had burst and there were dead, expensive fish all over the carpet. Luckily, I'm back in the hobby again and learning from you!
I'm SO sorry for the hard lessen learned & your loss I know it's really hard to not feel crushed over such a loss I know I just lost a whole batch of awesome breeding guppies that was a major blow to me so I know how it feels.
I saw the title I was worried, but when I watched today my heart hurt for you. Two awful events, I’m so sorry. Your rainbow videos have really helped me and I wish I could turn back time for you. Thank you for sharing with us, that can’t have been easy. Again, I am so sorry.
Thank you Barbara, I'm glad the rainbow videos help! While this hurt a lot, the overwhelming heart that is our fish fam has shown me no matter how hard we get knocked down, we can always stand up and be better.
This story Is so sad :( At least every fish keeper has gone through this. Last Summer, I went to South Korea for 10 days with my dad, mom, brother, sister, etc. (Pretty cool fish stores btw) My Grandma was home and she feeds the fish when were gone. 1 thing she didn't know was the heater in my 40g broke. Which with the heat outside wiped out ny whole tank. I had 6 forktail rainbows, 2 schools of 10 ember tetras and emerald eye rasboras, 3 sparkling gouramis, and 10 pygmy cories. All the plants had died as well. That was my best tank I've done (cause i'm 13) and was so proud. I wanted to give up. I started over and its better than ever! You'll get over the thoughest things. Also I didn't know we live so close! #WashingtonFishKeepers
I had a big loss of goldfish this month... I lost four of my seven. I understand your pain and the feeling you could have done more but the fact is it happened. It sucks but and it hurts but you can only look forward and learn from you mistakes. You sharing your story let's their loss not be for nothing but rather be a lesson and a tool to save others from doing the same thing.
Sorry buddy, I hate that this sort of stuff happens so easily. I guess we forget how "easily" things could go wrong, sometimes. Best wishes with all your other amazing fish and plants, buddy.
Certainly not, but I feel it has to be done. If we aquarists seek to help each other, things like this have to be out there so others don't run into the same horrible mistake.
Jon, I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, I love wild discus much more than the line bred ones, no matter how pretty they are, because it's something I always saw as the "dream fish" as a child - then I found rainbows as an adult... well we all know what happened from there.
@@BentleyPascoe I have tanks of the "fancier coloured Discus as well, but I do have two tanks of the wild ones which are more special as I know the exactly were they are from, "first generation wild". Me Bentley I have a two 300 liters tanks of beautiful rainbows, always busy where as the discus will come and say hello then go and spend the rest of the time been divas lol.
I know this was 8 months ago but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am you lost them. And I really mean that. I just found your channel from what I can see, you care about your fish as much as I do which is a lot. I'm new to the hobby and I made my second and biggest mistake 3 days ago. I have beautiful painted cherry shrimp from LRBretz. Most beautiful in the world. They are in with guppy fry and I noticed they had internal parasites. I treated with levamisole because I was told it's safe for shrimp. The next morning I checked on them and the shrimp weren't moving. They were alive but letting me touch them. Not good! I've lost more than half. I saw my first babies that day too and they are all gone. I can't explain how sad I am. Thank you for sharing this.
My condolences. I've never tried levamisole with shrimp, but how it functions it paralyzes the parasites, making it so normal GI movements will push them out. Might be what happened to your shrimp. Thank you for the heart felt comment and I hope you give the shrimp another go, Lucas has some truly amazing ones!
I think if we hide our failures; whether from ourselves or fellow aquarists, we don't ever truly learn. Does it hurt? Certainly. Can I prevent just 1 person from making the same mistake by sharing it - and thus not have someone else feel this pain? I hope so. Cheers!
Dude I'm so sorry. I can't imagine .I have lost a whole tank of discus before and it took me a couple of years to get them to breeding size and then lost the whole tank but that's pennys compared to zebras. I remember in the 80s zebras were about 80 dollars wish I could have gotten some then. I always wanted one but never had the money. I'm back in the hobby again and plecos are what I want to breed. Not the common but like Blue phantoms or snow balls or some of the others. I did say though if I ever came into some good money I would get me some zebras. I'm sorry for your loss but you seem to know what you are talking about so on that note alone I'm subscribing cause I believe I can learn from you. so March On! and thanks for the advice I'm sharing this.
I’m so sorry! Lack of Patience is my problem and this is a strong reminder to me that even the best fish keepers get in a hurry and make mistakes, therefore I need to slow down and keep the health of my tanks first and foremost, always.
Sometimes we just get too excited for things - finally getting fish in a new tank, trying to get fish to grow faster... there's a lot that tests our patience, we just have to remain vigilant and do what's best. It's a painful lesson, but an important one.
Oh Bentley, I'm so sorry. It just sucks when we lose fish, especially a whole tank full. It hurts and it sucks and I'm sorry you've had to go thru all this.
I really feel fo r you, we've had really bad experiences, which were very costly, it really hits cos you get hit twice, it's the fish plus how much money invested. I'm glad this setback hasn't crushed your continued joy of keeping fish,. We enjoy your Utube and appreciate you sharing this and valuable information for fish keeping and aquarium plants. It's human nature mistakes happen no one's perfect but I'm glad u can dust it off and continue 👍🤗
Oh Bentley... I am in tears for you. It is never a good feeling to lose even one fish, let alone any of our favorites, let alone entire colonies. I have lost an entire tank of fish before, but due to contamination from outside sources. It's devastating. Purely devastating. We invest so very much into our tanks and animals because we love them, and when things like this happen it's severely demoralizing and makes us feel awful. The only thing we can do is try to do better for the rest of our tanks and learn as we go. I'm sorry you had to go through this not once but twice in such a short period of time. I don't even have the words to tell you how sorry I am. I sincerely hope that going forward things get better for you soon! ❣️
Thank you Savanna. I don't think loss is ever easy when you emotionally invest yourself into anything, but we just have to soldier on and be driven to provide the best we can for everyone else in our lives - pets or people, they're all family.
I feel your pain Bentley. I am afraid, as you know, you'll be suffering from this for some time. In time, your other fish will make you smile....and life goes on. This stuff happens for so many reasons (causes), try not to be too hard on yourself. All the best. Cheers
Ouch bummer. For the 23 years I kept saltwater I always worried about a long power outage. I guess one bonus of keeping goldfish in planted tanks is you can lose power for a long time before the nightmare scenario hits. Thanks for sharing and sorry for your lost.
Bentley, what can someone say when you suffer devastation like that? Unfortunately that has happened to me before with a heater that broke in the “on” position & consequently wiped out one of my tanks. I’ve suffered losses on the saltwater side as well and it stings to say the least. Hang in there my friend
😢😪😢 oh...my heart just fell to the floor. Two disasters so close together! I had the heater stick on a year ago with my King Tiger Pleco Colony, all 7 perished...I feel your pain my friend 😢😪😢 I remember wiping away my tears as I took the tank apart to get them all out. My condolences on your loss.
Sorry for your lost brother. I gassed my angels and a cardinal tetra that was about 11 years old by not setting the regulator up correctly after a CO2 refill. I felt absolutely terrible as well. So disappointed in my error. Good advise to follow what you know works for you and to be patient. Patience is often the most difficult part of this hobby.
Natural Aquariums Hi there, i immediately checked my drop counters. All well but I am awake in checking technics while doing maintenance. Sorry for your losses . Have a very nice day.
I've had a similar scare because my former roommate's 4 year old though it was "fun" to see all the bubbles and turned UP my CO2 reg... Lucky we caught it fast, almost lost my big Rainbow Community.
So sorry you had to go through that Bentley. I know how proud you were of those plecos. I went through something very similar with my rainbows. My first tank was a group of bosmoni that I simply adored. I had them for about 5 years and had just found out how to collect the eggs. I grabbed some yarn from my moms old craft stuff and made my first mop. Put it in the tank and the next morning ran like Christmas to the tank only to find every fish floating on top. I latter learned the yarn had been contaminated by insecticide. I was crushed. Since I have become obsessed with cleaning rocks, driftwood etc. just this last weekend I got some cuttlebone to put in for my snails and put it all my snail tanks. Only thing I can figure is I did not get all the soap off my hands and the first two tanks I put cuttlebones in I have lost about 6 guppies so far. I pray it’s over but spent today doing big water changes in 12 tanks. Thank God I did not add it to the Hawaiians. I have to say the whole time you were leading up to your story I was terrified it was the Guppy Palace. But then you said the plecos and my heart sank. I feel for you man. Stay strong and as you say let everyone learn from it in hopes to avoid any other losses. But this too shall pass. Thanks for sharing.
Losing anything hurts - one of the few bright spots for me over the weekend was my brother and his lady came over with her young son. He like fish and was about the cutest ball of energy and excitement you could ever think of looking at each tank. He especially lit up seeing all the babies in the guppy palace - it's funny how sometimes little things like that just remind you there's always something to brighten a day.
Oh so sorry to hear about that! 💖 I thought that I maybe should plug in my heater in my African cichlid tank. I have 24.5°C - 25°C without the heater, so it is just in the lower range for them. But hearing that it can get stuck was another reason to not plug it in! So now I probably will avoid to 100% that issue that occurs 0.1% of the time. Thanks for sharing you are great!👍 🥰
I wish some lessons we must all learn, where not so painful. I feel for you and I wish there was something I could do, other than offer you my understanding and compassion.
I wish you the best of luck, they truly are a joy of a fish to keep. I'd sit across the room at my door way after feeding mine and just watch their tails excitedly wiggling as they smelled the food in the water - always put a smile on my face.
Bentley I breed hypans zebras included. 046's, true 173's and 236 super whites. My regiment is once a week water change at least if not twice. I mix RO/Tap to 55 TDS. Water changes are about 70-80%. Every 3 weeks I tear down the tank, pull the slate out, look in the caves for detritis, if they have it dump them in the water and vacuum everything up. I put the tank back together just like it was and refill. All my tanks are on Matten filters and the ziss bed filters. Ive heard breaking the tank down will not encourage the fish to spawn but I've had nothing but success. They breed just fine. Key to breeding is mixed protien diet and feeding the best food. I also don't have any lights on my tanks, they live in constant darkness unless I'm working or feeding. Sorry you've had to go through this but thankful you've posted about your experience because even as someone who sort of knows what I'm doing this is a staunch reminder that I need to stay vigilant. You may have inspired someone else on the verge of a crash to go clean their filters, do a water change and save fish they didn't know we're about to get hammered. Again sorry this completely sucks especially with something as special as zebras. LOL, this video is 5 years old whoops
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, good or bad. I work 50 hours a week so I get where you are coming from. Hopefully you can get more of those plecos and rainbows and try again. Would one of those sensors that monitors the temp in your tank and shuts off power to your heater help? I realize you have many tanks but it may be something to look into for the tanks where you really don’t want to lose. Not that you ever want to lose any.
This is one of my biggest fears is a heater malfunctioning. For almost a decade now I have my heater plugged into a timer. It kicks on for 2 hours on and 2 hours off.
I can certainly relate and feel your pain....I have never spawned bristlenose but ended up having 3 spawns totaling nearly 300 fry...wasn't sure how much to feed having so many ...and was only doing weekly 50% water change...smelled something awful one day and had lost nearly 70 fry....not even close to rarely or cost but a loss none the less. Now I do daily changes and feed repashy cubes so I can monitor uneaten food. Sorry for the loss
I feel the pain man😭 just remember everything happens for a reason even when it's really f**ked up like that thanks for sharing. God has something bigger coming just keep going👍love the info and videos you put out👏
Sorry Bentley for your losses, if we all could turn back time and fix are mistakes in life. But if we learn from our mistakes it can make us better where we have faulted in the past. The problem is we all have different water sources, feedings, and waste load so the idea of the length of time between water changes are deceiving. Testing for nitrates is the determining factor. I know you already know this, but we need to tell less experienced hobbyist this disclaimer when giving advice. With deep felt sympathy, I hope you pick up and try again. It's how we learned to do most things in life that are worth doing. Learn from these mistakes and successfully breed zebras. Thank you for sharing the bad with the good!
Heartbreaking story, thanks for sharing. Hard lesson learned zebra pleco shave to be my favorite must haves. Just thinking here you tell me I’m nuts or not: I keep two heaters in most of my tanks 100watts or better. In case one fails the other will kick on. Would it be better to say keep two low watt heaters in a bigger tank rather then one big watt heater.
Pretty common actually, I do that in my larger tanks. Though I'll run two heaters for that tank size, one at temp and one a few degrees cooler as redundancy
Correct I do that as well I was just think two lower watt heaters say 50watts in a bigger tank. This way if one fail in the on position it won’t fry the tank just a thought
Thank you Dwain, it certainly was a rough week, but sometimes we need to get knocked down hard to remind ourselves who we are and that we can always get back up.
i just waited 4 months to get 20 tyttocharax from Peru only to lose half of them the first night and am down to 1 now...i know the feelings man...we just have to try and learn from the mistakes and get better as fishkeepers....
My sympathies Dwain. Ya'll had a rough experience trying to get the fish back from your trip and it certainly can't help the bittersweet end to have more loses.
And that's why I dont run heaters, I keep my house between 74 and 78 and that has worked for my salt and fresh for 45 years. I've never trusted heaters, I have heard so many horrible stories about bad heaters
I had six goldfish in a twenty gallon tank with an under gravel filter and an Aqua Clear HOB. I changed 1/4 of the water each week and vacuumed the gravel bed, fed sparingly, treated the water for chlorine and chloramine, saw that it was clear and clean and my fish were active and happy for a few months,,,,,,,and then slowly died one by one after less than a year. The worst part was watching them slowly get down. Since then I have obsessively watched aqurium videos and know that the tank was too small for gold fish, that I didn't understand the nitrogen cycle and how to test the many different things in water such as chlorine, ph, water hardness, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and how to control these things, but most important of all, to study the fish, know I had the skills to take care of it and create the right environment. Your loss is painful and you will learn and be a better fish keeper for the experience.
I have never bred anything in my tanks on purpose. Never get female or i would only one of a type of fish schooling or not. Sure I have wall to wall snails and I spend weeks rescuing them off plant cuttings just in time to trim again.
Sorry this happened. I know it hurts. I think another lesson to take from this is to not keep all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. If you have a population of really cool or expensive fish you love, keep them in at least two different tanks. We all make mistakes and sometimes things just happen out of our control. If your groups are spread out amongst multiple tanks, you're much less likely to lose them all at once.
Marina which is made by Hagen/Fluval. I have a bunch of them and they're usually REALLY solid heaters, but power flickers can cause wonky things with all heaters.
Maybe keep a powerhead with the aerator going in the Pleco tanks. I notice that many of these vids on youtube where people have some rare or at least costly Pleco's?..they don't seem to be providing the strong flow. Just whatever the canister or even just a sponge filter makes. A powerhead going strong would help mucho when the filters clog. Get you by..
This tank had a Tidal 110 at full power running on it - so very strong flow for a 29g tank. Sponge on on the intake to minimize clogging and that intake was regularly cleaned. Not the filter's fault in any way - its all on me.
@@BentleyPascoe I looked at those in action on youtube a second ago. That's ok for normal flow...but those small rare Pleco's -I think- would need a good powerhead or those magnetic flow pumps to keep water really moving,plus sweep up any leftovers,no uneaten foods will ever collect to rot. I'm a big believer in strong flow. I see it all the time in habitat vids and locally in nature. Pleco's are stream fish. Ancistrus are very hardy..but the L this and the L that and zebra's need more. Fish die..happens to all of us. I had a prized 32" Arowana with much red scaling for a South American fish for 8 years when she jumped out on a day I had been to a Dr. for just a couple of hours. Then,I remember a whole fishroom owned by a woman in Minnesota with huge custom tanks was wiped out because a tank filled with formalin and preserved fish..the ledge it was on gave and fell into a fish tank...fumes filled the air,poisoned all her fish and and her home. Hazmat was needed. All we can do is keep the odds low.
Heaters are the cheapest, crappiest component in our hobby. Use a temperature controller on every heater you have and throw it out the second the warranty is up. You owe it to the animals under your care. Could be useful to undersize your heaters as well.
Bentley, I'm very sorry for your losses. A very wise fish keeper once told me that if you keep very expensive fish, don't keep them all in one tank. Divide them into multiple tanks so that if you lose one tanks worth you still have another tank to work with.
I would eventually like to restart, but its fairly cost prohibitive to do so. To get a good enough shot at having females after 3-3.5 years of raising you need 10 or so fish and that's certainly not a cheap price tag when it's all said and done.
Eventually I would like to, but it's certainly a large cost to start again and a little too soon on the heart break side - time to focus on what I have and look at them again a while down the line.
The tank was previously cycled, it had been up and running for months. As for auto-water change, that's not something I can do easily in my home - its a combination of where I keep my fish (no basement in this house) and prohibitive cost. I will eventually have auto-water change in place when I can afford to remodel my garage, but that's something that will take $10,000 or more, so it's on the horizon for a while.
@@MadCheshireHat Ah, the problem is where I live it would take me likely about 2-3 hours to cycle into work versus the 1.5hr drive. I'd end up losing more time.
Sounds like you have too many tanks syndrome! The old phrase better to take care of one tank properly than a bunch of tanks half assed! But sorry for your loss!
At least you have a job, I think a lot of these guys on RUclips are going to regret spending their prime earning years on a low income activity like selling fish out of their homes. That cold dark morning at age 62 comes sooner than anyone thinks and then it is realized that there is no social security, no 401K, no pension, no job skills except working at Petco. I am a full time fish geek but I'm also retired.
The more horror stories I hear, the more I realize how freaking lucky I've been. Tch, I rarely did water changes on my convicts and only topped off when the water got dangerously low for the HOB. I've done so many things "wrong" and "improperly"... And although I've had tons of losses over the years (not always my fault), I've never had such huge devastating losses, like a whole tank. Even with no quarantine. But I think I've managed to get pretty hardy fish too. Now I'm going to be terrified of my cheap Walmart heater breaking. It never occured to me that the heaters could get stuck on before a month ago! All those times the power had gone out... :| I understand not wanting to get more of those guys even if you could. My first cat was a stray who'd turned up one day and stuck around. Named him Timon (he was a light tan flame point Siamese). Loved that little guy. Got him neutered, dewormed, de-ticked, fattened up... Then one day, after just a few months of being with me, he disappeared. Looked everywhere, put up ads. Nothing. I was devastated. Then a couple months after that my mom found an ad for a male tuxedo cat named Raider free to good home and thought it was meant to be (Raiders fans). He was pretty much feral when we got him and took a long time to gain his trust and get him comfortable coming indoors and sleeping with me. He became my son. A few years ago, I tried to get him inside after I took down the garbage. He decided to stay out for the night, no big deal. Didn't return in the morning for breakfast. My mom had gone to run an errand, was gone for only a few minutes when I heard honking, and I knew. All those times he fought off wild animals, and it was a freaking car that got him. I don't plan to have a cat of my own again. Raider and our bond was too special and I'm not much of a cat person to begin with; I prefer dogs. Maybe if the timing and animal is right, I'd have a cat again, but I don't plan on it anytime soon. (For one thing, I don't do litter boxes; for another, my life right now isn't suited for one.) Sometimes when you have something special, you just need time before you're ready to deal with a similar situation, if you ever are.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It's an eye-opening wake up call for me about never forgetting the basics of fish keeping, even as you gain more and more experience over the years. Hopefully your lesson learned will save many other fish keepers a similar heartache. Best of luck on your future breeding projects!
Oh my goodness, that's devastating. 😔
I had a tank crash 6 months into me entering the hobby and I understand how emotional it can be, particularly when you realise you've overlooked or mishandled something. This hobby can be a joy, but the learning curves are often brutal.
I hope you rediscover your enthusiasm for that project at some point because it sounds really exciting. 😊
I plan to eventually try again, but they're a very expensive fish, so it will be a while before I try again.
@@BentleyPascoe That's understandable. They're expensive in the UK too!
Sorry for you’re loss. Just keep being yourself and all things will fall in place. Everyone hates too loose a pet and I feel for you. Just keep being the person you are and keep you’re chin up. You will bounce back. I have faith in you!
I haven’t seen my fish room in over 8 months due to illness it scares me to think of how bad it will be. Listen to your story literally sends shivers up my back
I can only wish for the best for you and that your recovery goes well - cheers!
So far I’m doing fine but still haven’t made it to the fish room. I know what your talking about I could have bought zebras but didn’t because of the situation
Bentley, I am so very sorry. It's devastating to loose a tank and realize you could have prevented it. I did that to my 33 gallon by not quarantining. I'd been getting fish from the same place for months with no issues. Complacency, it can get any of us. Thank you for sharing your pain and loss. It really does help people like me learn. Take care.
Sorry to hear that Bentley. I know you will recover and thank you for sharing. Sharing our failures is just as important possibly more valuable than sharing our successes.
I can understand what you are going through. I lost a full 4ft tank of mature fish. I buy them very young and love to see them grow, mature, maybe breed. They grow old in my care, angels, guppy’s, generations of them, a beautiful blue eyed bristle nose Pleco I’d had from 3mm size, now 6 inches long, neons that seemed to have arrived with the tank I’d had them so long. In all, 49 fish, lost because of a stuck on heater thermostat. I was so gutted......but you pick yourself up and hopefully learn...now I replace all the heaters every 5 years. lessons hurt.
I am pretty new to your channel and I'm so so sorry to hear about this. Thank you for sharing this very difficult topic with us.
Mistakes happen, bad luck happens - sucks when they happen together! All about taking a breath and picking yourself back up. Sorry for your loss dude.
Much appreciated my friend. It'll hurt for a bit, but it will also spurn me to give a little more love to the rainbows around the house.
I gave up Fishkeeping decades ago when I came home from work only to find that my bow front tank had burst and there were dead, expensive fish all over the carpet. Luckily, I'm back in the hobby again and learning from you!
I'm SO sorry for the hard lessen learned & your loss I know it's really hard
to not feel crushed over such a loss I know I just lost a whole batch of
awesome breeding guppies that was a major blow to me so I know how it feels.
I'm sorry for loss as well
I saw the title I was worried, but when I watched today my heart hurt for you. Two awful events, I’m so sorry.
Your rainbow videos have really helped me and I wish I could turn back time for you. Thank you for sharing with us, that can’t have been easy.
Again, I am so sorry.
Thank you Barbara, I'm glad the rainbow videos help! While this hurt a lot, the overwhelming heart that is our fish fam has shown me no matter how hard we get knocked down, we can always stand up and be better.
This story Is so sad :(
At least every fish keeper has gone through this.
Last Summer, I went to South Korea for 10 days with my dad, mom, brother, sister, etc. (Pretty cool fish stores btw) My Grandma was home and she feeds the fish when were gone.
1 thing she didn't know was the heater in my 40g broke. Which with the heat outside wiped out ny whole tank. I had 6 forktail rainbows, 2 schools of 10 ember tetras and emerald eye rasboras, 3 sparkling gouramis, and 10 pygmy cories. All the plants had died as well. That was my best tank I've done (cause i'm 13) and was so proud. I wanted to give up. I started over and its better than ever!
You'll get over the thoughest things. Also I didn't know we live so close! #WashingtonFishKeepers
Bentley I'm so sorry for your loss. It is always so sad when something happens to our fish.
I feel your grief, thank you for sharing to help us all. My heart goes out to you.
I had a big loss of goldfish this month... I lost four of my seven. I understand your pain and the feeling you could have done more but the fact is it happened. It sucks but and it hurts but you can only look forward and learn from you mistakes. You sharing your story let's their loss not be for nothing but rather be a lesson and a tool to save others from doing the same thing.
My sympathies for your goldfish. They especially being so personable makes it sting almost more. Thanks for sharing your story and kind words!
Sorry buddy, I hate that this sort of stuff happens so easily. I guess we forget how "easily" things could go wrong, sometimes. Best wishes with all your other amazing fish and plants, buddy.
Thank you my friend - it was good seeing you at the Holiday party and glad to see you're recovery is going well - cheers!
omg...so sorry for your loss... It is always difficult when we loose fish. Sending love and hugs to help you get through.
Thank you very much, I can only hope anyone who watches this never has the same happen to them
Very sorry Bentley. Thank you for your honesty & transparency, I know this wasn’t an easy video for you to do.
Certainly not, but I feel it has to be done. If we aquarists seek to help each other, things like this have to be out there so others don't run into the same horrible mistake.
Sorry for you're losses, it happened to me with a tank of wild Discus. We I am sure have lost our wet friends that way (((
Jon, I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, I love wild discus much more than the line bred ones, no matter how pretty they are, because it's something I always saw as the "dream fish" as a child - then I found rainbows as an adult... well we all know what happened from there.
@@BentleyPascoe I have tanks of the "fancier coloured Discus as well, but I do have two tanks of the wild ones which are more special as I know the exactly were they are from, "first generation wild". Me Bentley I have a two 300 liters tanks of beautiful rainbows, always busy where as the discus will come and say hello then go and spend the rest of the time been divas lol.
I know this was 8 months ago but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am you lost them. And I really mean that. I just found your channel from what I can see, you care about your fish as much as I do which is a lot. I'm new to the hobby and I made my second and biggest mistake 3 days ago. I have beautiful painted cherry shrimp from LRBretz. Most beautiful in the world. They are in with guppy fry and I noticed they had internal parasites. I treated with levamisole because I was told it's safe for shrimp. The next morning I checked on them and the shrimp weren't moving. They were alive but letting me touch them. Not good! I've lost more than half. I saw my first babies that day too and they are all gone. I can't explain how sad I am. Thank you for sharing this.
My condolences. I've never tried levamisole with shrimp, but how it functions it paralyzes the parasites, making it so normal GI movements will push them out. Might be what happened to your shrimp. Thank you for the heart felt comment and I hope you give the shrimp another go, Lucas has some truly amazing ones!
@@BentleyPascoe thank yoi and I can't wait to see more of your videos. You have a lot so I'll be watching tons of your videos for a long time!
Fish Keepers who reveal the details of their failures will always hold a special and respectful place in my mind & heart.
I think if we hide our failures; whether from ourselves or fellow aquarists, we don't ever truly learn. Does it hurt? Certainly. Can I prevent just 1 person from making the same mistake by sharing it - and thus not have someone else feel this pain? I hope so. Cheers!
I'm so sorry for your losses. We have all been there at some point and all we can do is learn from those moments. Hang in there.
Sorry for your loss. Thanks for honesty. We have all been there.
Dude I'm so sorry. I can't imagine .I have lost a whole tank of discus before and it took me a couple of years to get them to breeding size and then lost the whole tank but that's pennys compared to zebras. I remember in the 80s zebras were about 80 dollars wish I could have gotten some then. I always wanted one but never had the money. I'm back in the hobby again and plecos are what I want to breed. Not the common but like Blue phantoms or snow balls or some of the others. I did say though if I ever came into some good money I would get me some zebras. I'm sorry for your loss but you seem to know what you are talking about so on that note alone I'm subscribing cause I believe I can learn from you. so March On! and thanks for the advice I'm sharing this.
FYI I recently featured your story in my video on the "Top 5 Worst Days in Fish Keeping." Hope this spreads your message to even more people. 👍
Thank you! Your article on the co-op blog was really great by the by!
@@BentleyPascoe Thank you so much! Hopefully the Co-Op gets lots of traffic (and sales) from it. :)
I’m so sorry! Lack of Patience is my problem and this is a strong reminder to me that even the best fish keepers get in a hurry and make mistakes, therefore I need to slow down and keep the health of my tanks first and foremost, always.
Sometimes we just get too excited for things - finally getting fish in a new tank, trying to get fish to grow faster... there's a lot that tests our patience, we just have to remain vigilant and do what's best. It's a painful lesson, but an important one.
Oh Bentley, I'm so sorry. It just sucks when we lose fish, especially a whole tank full. It hurts and it sucks and I'm sorry you've had to go thru all this.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Thank you for being honest
So sorry for your loss Brother, it always hurts when we lose a pet of any kind. Praying for you.
"Keep it Real"
Bentley we call all tell how heartbroken you are. this is so sad. I feel for you man. I’m sure you will grow from this aquarium disaster.
I really feel fo r you, we've had really bad experiences, which were very costly, it really hits cos you get hit twice, it's the fish plus how much money invested. I'm glad this setback hasn't crushed your continued joy of keeping fish,. We enjoy your Utube and appreciate you sharing this and valuable information for fish keeping and aquarium plants. It's human nature mistakes happen no one's perfect but I'm glad u can dust it off and continue 👍🤗
Thanks for sharing and taking ownership
Oh Bentley... I am in tears for you. It is never a good feeling to lose even one fish, let alone any of our favorites, let alone entire colonies. I have lost an entire tank of fish before, but due to contamination from outside sources. It's devastating. Purely devastating. We invest so very much into our tanks and animals because we love them, and when things like this happen it's severely demoralizing and makes us feel awful. The only thing we can do is try to do better for the rest of our tanks and learn as we go. I'm sorry you had to go through this not once but twice in such a short period of time. I don't even have the words to tell you how sorry I am. I sincerely hope that going forward things get better for you soon! ❣️
Thank you Savanna. I don't think loss is ever easy when you emotionally invest yourself into anything, but we just have to soldier on and be driven to provide the best we can for everyone else in our lives - pets or people, they're all family.
I feel your pain Bentley. I am afraid, as you know, you'll be suffering from this for some time. In time, your other fish will make you smile....and life goes on. This stuff happens for so many reasons (causes), try not to be too hard on yourself. All the best. Cheers
Ouch bummer. For the 23 years I kept saltwater I always worried about a long power outage. I guess one bonus of keeping goldfish in planted tanks is you can lose power for a long time before the nightmare scenario hits. Thanks for sharing and sorry for your lost.
Sorry man. Hate to say we’ve been there, but good on you for taking the time to understand why.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Something like this is so demoralizing. Keep your chin up though. We're always moving forward really no matter what.
Bentley, what can someone say when you suffer devastation like that? Unfortunately that has happened to me before with a heater that broke in the “on” position & consequently wiped out one of my tanks. I’ve suffered losses on the saltwater side as well and it stings to say the least. Hang in there my friend
😢😪😢 oh...my heart just fell to the floor. Two disasters so close together! I had the heater stick on a year ago with my King Tiger Pleco Colony, all 7 perished...I feel your pain my friend 😢😪😢 I remember wiping away my tears as I took the tank apart to get them all out. My condolences on your loss.
It never easy losing something you work hard at and care for - I'm sorry to hear about your loss as well - it's such a heart breaker
Sorry for your lost brother.
I gassed my angels and a cardinal tetra that was about 11 years old by not setting the regulator up correctly after a CO2 refill. I felt absolutely terrible as well. So disappointed in my error.
Good advise to follow what you know works for you and to be patient. Patience is often the most difficult part of this hobby.
Natural Aquariums Hi there, i immediately checked my drop counters. All well but I am awake in checking technics while doing maintenance. Sorry for your losses . Have a very nice day.
I've had a similar scare because my former roommate's 4 year old though it was "fun" to see all the bubbles and turned UP my CO2 reg... Lucky we caught it fast, almost lost my big Rainbow Community.
So sorry you had to go through that Bentley. I know how proud you were of those plecos. I went through something very similar with my rainbows. My first tank was a group of bosmoni that I simply adored. I had them for about 5 years and had just found out how to collect the eggs. I grabbed some yarn from my moms old craft stuff and made my first mop. Put it in the tank and the next morning ran like Christmas to the tank only to find every fish floating on top. I latter learned the yarn had been contaminated by insecticide. I was crushed. Since I have become obsessed with cleaning rocks, driftwood etc. just this last weekend I got some cuttlebone to put in for my snails and put it all my snail tanks. Only thing I can figure is I did not get all the soap off my hands and the first two tanks I put cuttlebones in I have lost about 6 guppies so far. I pray it’s over but spent today doing big water changes in 12 tanks. Thank God I did not add it to the Hawaiians. I have to say the whole time you were leading up to your story I was terrified it was the Guppy Palace. But then you said the plecos and my heart sank. I feel for you man. Stay strong and as you say let everyone learn from it in hopes to avoid any other losses. But this too shall pass. Thanks for sharing.
Losing anything hurts - one of the few bright spots for me over the weekend was my brother and his lady came over with her young son. He like fish and was about the cutest ball of energy and excitement you could ever think of looking at each tank. He especially lit up seeing all the babies in the guppy palace - it's funny how sometimes little things like that just remind you there's always something to brighten a day.
Bentley Pascoe Yes nothing I love more than showing kids my tanks!
Sorry for your loss Bentley, thank you for sharing a valuable lesson mate.🤙
Ouch. Man that sucks. I can only imagine how sick that made you feel about it. I feel for you..
Oh man u broke my hart I'm nearly cried just seeing your expression on your face , true grit real drama , keep going tho yea
I water change twice a week
@@dudeblue8866 If I had the time to do so I would on about half my tanks - awesome that you can give them that much attention!
I completely agree I almost cried as well.
Oh so sorry to hear about that! 💖
I thought that I maybe should plug in my heater in my African cichlid tank.
I have 24.5°C - 25°C without the heater, so it is just in the lower range for them.
But hearing that it can get stuck was another reason to not plug it in!
So now I probably will avoid to 100% that issue that occurs 0.1% of the time.
Thanks for sharing you are great!👍 🥰
I wish some lessons we must all learn, where not so painful. I feel for you and I wish there was something I could do, other than offer you my understanding and compassion.
I currently have 8 zebra plecos, so I totally get your heartache. Sorry to hear of your loss.
I wish you the best of luck, they truly are a joy of a fish to keep. I'd sit across the room at my door way after feeding mine and just watch their tails excitedly wiggling as they smelled the food in the water - always put a smile on my face.
I'm so sorry for your loss! It absolutely stinks! I feel for you!
Bentley
I breed hypans zebras included. 046's, true 173's and 236 super whites. My regiment is once a week water change at least if not twice. I mix RO/Tap to 55 TDS. Water changes are about 70-80%. Every 3 weeks I tear down the tank, pull the slate out, look in the caves for detritis, if they have it dump them in the water and vacuum everything up. I put the tank back together just like it was and refill.
All my tanks are on Matten filters and the ziss bed filters.
Ive heard breaking the tank down will not encourage the fish to spawn but I've had nothing but success. They breed just fine. Key to breeding is mixed protien diet and feeding the best food.
I also don't have any lights on my tanks, they live in constant darkness unless I'm working or feeding.
Sorry you've had to go through this but thankful you've posted about your experience because even as someone who sort of knows what I'm doing this is a staunch reminder that I need to stay vigilant. You may have inspired someone else on the verge of a crash to go clean their filters, do a water change and save fish they didn't know we're about to get hammered. Again sorry this completely sucks especially with something as special as zebras.
LOL, this video is 5 years old whoops
Appreciate knowing your regime!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, good or bad. I work 50 hours a week so I get where you are coming from. Hopefully you can get more of those plecos and rainbows and try again. Would one of those sensors that monitors the temp in your tank and shuts off power to your heater help? I realize you have many tanks but it may be something to look into for the tanks where you really don’t want to lose. Not that you ever want to lose any.
I'm going to swap to heating the room, I'd been holding off due to budget, just gonna force it to happen.
Sorry to hear this terrible news. Keep your head up
This is one of my biggest fears is a heater malfunctioning. For almost a decade now I have my heater plugged into a timer. It kicks on for 2 hours on and 2 hours off.
I can certainly relate and feel your pain....I have never spawned bristlenose but ended up having 3 spawns totaling nearly 300 fry...wasn't sure how much to feed having so many ...and was only doing weekly 50% water change...smelled something awful one day and had lost nearly 70 fry....not even close to rarely or cost but a loss none the less. Now I do daily changes and feed repashy cubes so I can monitor uneaten food. Sorry for the loss
Might not be as expensive, but easily as heart breaking - congratulations on the BN spawning and keep them going!
Thanks for the story. Sorry for your loss.
Thank you for sharing this experience, and the lessons learned.
I feel the pain man😭 just remember everything happens for a reason even when it's really f**ked up like that thanks for sharing. God has something bigger coming just keep going👍love the info and videos you put out👏
Sorry Bentley for your losses, if we all could turn back time and fix are mistakes in life. But if we learn from our mistakes it can make us better where we have faulted in the past. The problem is we all have different water sources, feedings, and waste load so the idea of the length of time between water changes are deceiving.
Testing for nitrates is the determining factor. I know you already know this, but we need to tell less experienced hobbyist this disclaimer when giving advice.
With deep felt sympathy, I hope you pick up and try again. It's how we learned to do most things in life that are worth doing. Learn from these mistakes and successfully breed zebras. Thank you for sharing the bad with the good!
Sorry for your lose Bentley but thank you for sharing! Keep your head up
Heartbreaking story, thanks for sharing. Hard lesson learned zebra pleco shave to be my favorite must haves.
Just thinking here you tell me I’m nuts or not: I keep two heaters in most of my tanks 100watts or better. In case one fails the other will kick on. Would it be better to say keep two low watt heaters in a bigger tank rather then one big watt heater.
Pretty common actually, I do that in my larger tanks. Though I'll run two heaters for that tank size, one at temp and one a few degrees cooler as redundancy
Correct I do that as well I was just think two lower watt heaters say 50watts in a bigger tank. This way if one fail in the on position it won’t fry the tank just a thought
@@Rews-fish-shed I think that would work in the 150+ watt range just fine. Cheers!
sorry for your loss. this hobby has some dark sides to it...and boy did u ever catch your share of it
Thank you Dwain, it certainly was a rough week, but sometimes we need to get knocked down hard to remind ourselves who we are and that we can always get back up.
i just waited 4 months to get 20 tyttocharax from Peru only to lose half of them the first night and am down to 1 now...i know the feelings man...we just have to try and learn from the mistakes and get better as fishkeepers....
My sympathies Dwain. Ya'll had a rough experience trying to get the fish back from your trip and it certainly can't help the bittersweet end to have more loses.
Thanks for sharing, life happens
And that's why I dont run heaters, I keep my house between 74 and 78 and that has worked for my salt and fresh for 45 years. I've never trusted heaters, I have heard so many horrible stories about bad heaters
It's OK man , we all make mistakes and we need to try new things when we do new things .
So sorry to hear about this experience.
So sorry for your loss! 😞
Wow that sucks, sorry to hear the bad news.
Sorry to hear that. That really sucks.
Really good advice thank you. I killed all my first neon fish and cried. Def didn't cycle long enough and I was rushing 😭
Sorry for your loss.
Sorry to hear of the fish loss, it’s never good.
How high were the nitrates to cause these issues? I assume zebras are pretty sensitive
Honestly I didn't test - I was in immediate "save the remaining two" mode. Also, being as panicked as I was - testing was hardly on top of my mind.
Bentley Pascoe good point, there’s no point testing when the waters already bad!!
That really sucks. Sorry to hear.
Thank you for sharing! - Little Bobby
Is there any alternative to the crappy in tank heaters we all use?
If you can heat the room yes, sadly heater technology seems to be stuck in the 70s. You would think we'd have something far more reliable by now.
@@BentleyPascoe I found the comment below regarding the ink bird, that looks like a really cool idea! I think i might throw $30 at one.
Ugh, Bentley, we have all made mistakes.. this one really hurts. I am so sorry.
I had six goldfish in a twenty gallon tank with an under gravel filter and an Aqua Clear HOB. I changed 1/4 of the water each week and vacuumed the gravel bed, fed sparingly, treated the water for chlorine and chloramine, saw that it was clear and clean and my fish were active and happy for a few months,,,,,,,and then slowly died one by one after less than a year. The worst part was watching them slowly get down.
Since then I have obsessively watched aqurium videos and know that the tank was too small for gold fish, that I didn't understand the nitrogen cycle and how to test the many different things in water such as chlorine, ph, water hardness, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and how to control these things, but most important of all, to study the fish, know I had the skills to take care of it and create the right environment.
Your loss is painful and you will learn and be a better fish keeper for the experience.
I have never bred anything in my tanks on purpose. Never get female or i would only one of a type of fish schooling or not. Sure I have wall to wall snails and I spend weeks rescuing them off plant cuttings just in time to trim again.
Sorry this happened. I know it hurts.
I think another lesson to take from this is to not keep all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. If you have a population of really cool or expensive fish you love, keep them in at least two different tanks. We all make mistakes and sometimes things just happen out of our control. If your groups are spread out amongst multiple tanks, you're much less likely to lose them all at once.
That's so sad sorry for your loss
Wow! I’m so sorry. This is a bump in the road.
Sorry too hear about your fish 🙁
I feel you B :(
Bad things make way for the better buddy; thank goodness it wasn't worse.
What brand heater was that failed
Marina which is made by Hagen/Fluval. I have a bunch of them and they're usually REALLY solid heaters, but power flickers can cause wonky things with all heaters.
Sorry man, love from The Netherlands
Maybe keep a powerhead with the aerator going in the Pleco tanks. I notice that many of these vids on youtube where people have some rare or at least costly Pleco's?..they don't seem to be providing the strong flow. Just whatever the canister or even just a sponge filter makes. A powerhead going strong would help mucho when the filters clog. Get you by..
This tank had a Tidal 110 at full power running on it - so very strong flow for a 29g tank. Sponge on on the intake to minimize clogging and that intake was regularly cleaned. Not the filter's fault in any way - its all on me.
@@BentleyPascoe I looked at those in action on youtube a second ago. That's ok for normal flow...but those small rare Pleco's -I think- would need a good powerhead or those magnetic flow pumps to keep water really moving,plus sweep up any leftovers,no uneaten foods will ever collect to rot. I'm a big believer in strong flow. I see it all the time in habitat vids and locally in nature. Pleco's are stream fish. Ancistrus are very hardy..but the L this and the L that and zebra's need more.
Fish die..happens to all of us. I had a prized 32" Arowana with much red scaling for a South American fish for 8 years when she jumped out on a day I had been to a Dr. for just a couple of hours.
Then,I remember a whole fishroom owned by a woman in Minnesota with huge custom tanks was wiped out because a tank filled with formalin and preserved fish..the ledge it was on gave and fell into a fish tank...fumes filled the air,poisoned all her fish and and her home. Hazmat was needed.
All we can do is keep the odds low.
Heaters are the cheapest, crappiest component in our hobby. Use a temperature controller on every heater you have and throw it out the second the warranty is up. You owe it to the animals under your care. Could be useful to undersize your heaters as well.
buddy im soo sorry hear about this! hang i there man all the best!
Bentley, I'm very sorry for your losses. A very wise fish keeper once told me that if you keep very expensive fish, don't keep them all in one tank. Divide them into multiple tanks so that if you lose one tanks worth you still have another tank to work with.
Certainly good advice Steve. In the future when I can stomach another go, it'll likely be in practice.
That sucks big time. Will you re-start the Zebra breeding project or simply move on to something else?
I would eventually like to restart, but its fairly cost prohibitive to do so. To get a good enough shot at having females after 3-3.5 years of raising you need 10 or so fish and that's certainly not a cheap price tag when it's all said and done.
Sorry that happened. Hope you're able to give it another shot later
Eventually I would like to, but it's certainly a large cost to start again and a little too soon on the heart break side - time to focus on what I have and look at them again a while down the line.
Sorry for your loss, but not your fault Bentley
It's painful when we let our little guys down.
Automatic water change and maybe cycle to work??
The tank was previously cycled, it had been up and running for months. As for auto-water change, that's not something I can do easily in my home - its a combination of where I keep my fish (no basement in this house) and prohibitive cost. I will eventually have auto-water change in place when I can afford to remodel my garage, but that's something that will take $10,000 or more, so it's on the horizon for a while.
@@BentleyPascoe I think they mean you could cycle to work to avoid/bypass the terrible traffic you mentioned?
@@MadCheshireHat Ah, the problem is where I live it would take me likely about 2-3 hours to cycle into work versus the 1.5hr drive. I'd end up losing more time.
That sucks what happened. Hope you've invested in a hybrid with that amount of time in traffic. Geez. Lol
You were watching the football game and you didn't smell Fish Soup cooking?
Different day - the heater malfunction was a different tank (not zebras) about a week and a half before - sorry if that was confusing.
Sounds like you have too many tanks syndrome! The old phrase better to take care of one tank properly than a bunch of tanks half assed! But sorry for your loss!
At least you have a job, I think a lot of these guys on RUclips are going to regret spending their prime earning years on a low income activity like selling fish out of their homes. That cold dark morning at age 62 comes sooner than anyone thinks and then it is realized that there is no social security, no 401K, no pension, no job skills except working at Petco. I am a full time fish geek but I'm also retired.
Dang it. Sorry this happened
The more horror stories I hear, the more I realize how freaking lucky I've been. Tch, I rarely did water changes on my convicts and only topped off when the water got dangerously low for the HOB. I've done so many things "wrong" and "improperly"... And although I've had tons of losses over the years (not always my fault), I've never had such huge devastating losses, like a whole tank. Even with no quarantine. But I think I've managed to get pretty hardy fish too.
Now I'm going to be terrified of my cheap Walmart heater breaking. It never occured to me that the heaters could get stuck on before a month ago! All those times the power had gone out... :|
I understand not wanting to get more of those guys even if you could. My first cat was a stray who'd turned up one day and stuck around. Named him Timon (he was a light tan flame point Siamese). Loved that little guy. Got him neutered, dewormed, de-ticked, fattened up... Then one day, after just a few months of being with me, he disappeared. Looked everywhere, put up ads. Nothing. I was devastated. Then a couple months after that my mom found an ad for a male tuxedo cat named Raider free to good home and thought it was meant to be (Raiders fans). He was pretty much feral when we got him and took a long time to gain his trust and get him comfortable coming indoors and sleeping with me. He became my son.
A few years ago, I tried to get him inside after I took down the garbage. He decided to stay out for the night, no big deal. Didn't return in the morning for breakfast. My mom had gone to run an errand, was gone for only a few minutes when I heard honking, and I knew. All those times he fought off wild animals, and it was a freaking car that got him.
I don't plan to have a cat of my own again. Raider and our bond was too special and I'm not much of a cat person to begin with; I prefer dogs.
Maybe if the timing and animal is right, I'd have a cat again, but I don't plan on it anytime soon. (For one thing, I don't do litter boxes; for another, my life right now isn't suited for one.)
Sometimes when you have something special, you just need time before you're ready to deal with a similar situation, if you ever are.