Boom Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 I feel pretty bad. I accidently killed my oldest fish last night, a common pleco. I was doing a water change on the 33 gallon tank and I always rearrange the rocks and driftwood. The pleco likes to try to hide under everything, even as I'm moving it. Well he must have snuck under the driftwood as I pressed it down into the gravel, and I didn't notice him. A few minutes later I saw him sitting on the bottom with a hole in the top of his head and blood coming out of it. He wasn't quite dead, but definitely wouldn't have lasted, so I had to flush him. He was about 7 yrs old as I had him for about 5 and my sister had him for about 2 years before me. She had called him Snuffleupagus the Hypostomus Plecostemus. Quite the handle, that never stuck with me. R.I.P Snuffy. Boom :boom: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lana Bollers Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 OMG, That is terrible, I always worry about mine too... Now I see I have good reason... RIP, Snuffy.... as they say he has moved onto greener aquariums....guess it can not be pasture's... Lana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Awww i'm sorry I'm always scared of squishing my plecos when I move around the decorations. I once threw out my BN pleco when i was pruning my java ferns but thankfully I was able to save him, even though he was in the garbage can for almost an hour! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveDude77 Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Sorry to hear that Boom. It always sucks losing an old friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2manytanks Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Sorry about your Pleco, Boom. There's not one of us that hasn't lost a buddy because of our own mistakes. And like Degrassi, I have also been amazed at what some fish can take. I had to run out to an appointment once and my wife thought she'd give a hand with one of the tanks I wanted to give a really good cleaning to when I got back. So she hauled out all the decorations and driftwood, and left the driftwood sitting on a towel, then went out herself. Somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half later I got home and went to start vacuuming the tank and couldn't see any clown loaches, there was 4 when I left. Found them all in the driftwood. A couple of them moved a bit when I handled them, so I put them back in the tank and hoped for the best. They just layed on the bottom, but I could see them breathing. Within a couple of hours 3 of them were re-hydrated and acting normal. by the next day they were all just fine and lived for years after that. My wife felt like a murderer when she found out what she had done, and I just realized she hasn't really done much with the aquariums since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calleja Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 awww..i remember one time i felt soo bad. i was in the process of moving my fav gold barbs that had i had in my 5 gl tank that was in the bathroom to my 25gl tank downstairs. i had put them in a big bowl and had put what i thought was a good enough cover over it...well...i walked away for what was supposed to be a few mins....about an hour later the fish in this bowl suddenly came back to me. i rushed back to the bathroom and looked in it, and omg!!! i only had 1 where there had been 2. i started lookin around and finally found the poor thing under the claw foot tub. i quickly put him back in the bowl and rushed it downstairs...i didn't want to shock him too much so i still had to do a gradual introduction of the tank water to the bowl..he just laid there at the bottom of the bowl..breathin..but not doing anything. so once i had judged enough time had passed...and i just couldn't wait any longer i put them in the big tank. within a few hours he was startin to swim around again, and a day or 2 he was back to normal. he ended up livin for about another 2 years. funny enough when i moved and they were moved into my 55gl tank they stuck around for about 6 months and then within a day of each other they died. no other fish died. just the 2 of them....i figure i had them about 4 years. i still miss the buggers...they were so pretty and active. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted November 4, 2008 Report Share Posted November 4, 2008 Sorry to hear that. It definitely sucks more when you have had a fish for a longer time. Just don't blame yourself, things like this happen to everyone, and it was just an accident My clown loaches always hide in a hole in a piece of driftwood too. I almost made the same mistake of leaving one of them in it when I removed the wood. I also have some decoration like a tree stump my synodontis like to hide in, I have to be really careful there is no one in it when I take it out of the tank. The worst that happened to me was, I was removing some fish from a tank and bagging them as I was selling them, I accidently dropped one on the floor. While I was looking for him I lifted up the container that was holding the bag of fish, and he was squashed dead underneath on the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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