OH NO, I killed a fish, maybe two

[Paul B]

So last night I looked at my tank and I was fooling around with something and I noticed my Ozonizer didn't have the light on and according to the read out, it wasn't making any Ozone. So I remove the thing and I have a spare one. I don't remember where I got it but I put it in and turn it on. It's a Gen-X Ozonizer but there isn't any read out on it and no way to tell how much Ozone it is making so I set it at the lowest setting. My old one put out 200mg ozone but I didn't know what this one puts out. I have been running Ozone full blast for decades so I didn't think anything of it and left it on.
This morning I come down to feed the fish (the tank is in my finished basement) and I notice my copperband butterfly is up at the surface sucking air. (Either that, or he was looking at the picture of the Supermodel I have hanging on the wall and he is trying to whistle)
I shot some live blackworms in the tank and he usually chases them down all over the place. He stays up on top sticking his nose out of the water. This is not good as he has never done that.
Then as I am watching him, I see something red laying behind a bottle, obviously dead. My fish are well aware that they are not allowed to die unless it is from old age so now I am concerned. I carefully look around at the other fish and they looked a little "off". OMG, what happened?
I go around the back of the tank and check the temperature. It is a little low, but it's not like I am going to see a dog sled team flying past the tank carrying an Eskimo so I dismiss that as the cause and just bump up the temperature a couple of degrees. The skimmer is also putting out a lot of foam.
I look for a hospital tank, which I have not used since probably Jimmy Carter was President and I start to mix up some water.
I don't know why because I don't even have any medications and I don't know yet what is wrong with the fish. I remove the dead, red fish which was an old cardinal who I was kind of fond of. I have no idea when I got him. It could have been five, ten or fifteen years ago (I have a lousy memory),
I autopsy him mainly looking for parasites. His gills are clean, not one parasite.
I look at the copperband, who is a really good friend of mine and he is staring at me like, What is wrong with me? Call a doctor. He is also breathing much faster than normal.
Then it hits me. I smell Ozone. I don't normally smell anything because my smeller works as good as my memory. Just then my wife yells down for me to bring something up, or she was telling me how good looking I am, I forget, but either way, I yell back to her, "MY FISH ARE SICK".
She tells me that in the middle of the night she came downstairs and the entire basement smelled funny with a strong odor.
She was right, that little ozonizer filled my entire basement and tank with tons of free Ozone.
So I Google that Gen-X ozonizer and there are all sorts of bad things written about it. First of all the rheostat that adjusts the amount of Ozone isn't even connected to anything so it puts out at least 250mg of ozone all the time even though I thought I had it on the lowest setting. I am sure it puts out way more Ozone than that to fill my entire basement after going through my 5' skimmer.
So I immediately shut the thing off. We went out to my Daughter's in Manhattan for most of the day and now the fish look normal, except for the copperband. He looks better than he did before but is still breathing faster than normal as Ozone would deteriorate the delicate gill filaments.
I am not sure if he is going to make it, it depends on how fast his gills heal. I really like that fish so I hope he lives as he is my favorite and is the first one to greet me when I come home. He is also my biggest eater. If he dies, I will replace him but I really hate to lose a fish, especially to a stupid error or a mechanical breakdown.

 

[Sunny]

Sorry for the loss, Paul but you are a trooper and so are your fish. I really hope the CB makes it.

Sunny

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, actually the corals seemed to have liked the Ozone. I would imagine it raised the redox level quite a lot. At least now my house doesn't smell like a thunderstorm any more.
If the copperband resumes eating, he will be fine. But for now, he is just staying in the back, not looking for food. He is horizontal and not sticking his snout out but he is still breathing faster than normal which tells me he has some gill irritation.
All the other fish seem fine.

 

[Paul B]

The copperband was on life support for a while and I thought I was going to have to give him mouth to snout resuscitation but he seems better. He came out and gave me a look so I fed the tank and he ate more worms than anyone so I think he is going to be fine. I really have never seen a fish that looked so bad, recover. If he is good tomorrow I will consider him cured and send him a bill.

I also repaired my old Ozone generator that has been on the tank for years but I will wait a week before I put it back on.
Notice the 3 prongs to the left of the green knob? Those are the rheostat connections where wires are supposed to connect to control the amount of Ozone the thing puts out. There is nothing connected to them which allows the unit to put out uncontrollable amounts of Ozone. The makers of the device should have been shot when they allowed this to be sold because I know that they knew.

 

[Mark_C]

We went out to my Daughter's in Manhattan for most of the day and now the fish look normal

Manhattan has that effect on fish. I think they get overwhelmed looking at the big buildings and tend to forget they're sick.

 

[Paul B]

It also affects me, but in a negative way. I really do not like Manhattan at all and would rather stay Viet Nam. And I didn't like that place at all. Manhattan has nothing for me (except my Grand Kids) and I don't even like to fly over the place. I worked there for 40 years so I know it well as I am not a tourist. You can't park anywhere, the speed limit is 25 even though you normally go 2 or 3 mph. I get a ticket just thinking about the place. Few people speak English. No one knows how to walk unless they are starring at a cell phone. People don't even know how to speak, so they text you. Soon, instead of traffic lights, they will text you at a corner to tell you to stop. Tang police I have low blood preasure but when I go there blood leaks out of my eyes and ears.
The Museum of Natural History is nice and the best part of it is that the Neanderthals in the display are not texting. Now while you are looking anyway. I go to a play every two or three years but I could live without that. So I really can't say anything nice about the place and I will leave it to the tourists who like to see buildings and traffic. I see them on top of those tour busses taking pictures of people taking pictures. Maybe it's me!!

This morning I went to see the fish and didn't want to wake them up so I sneaked a peek with a flashlight. They were all sleeping but the copperband looked up and winked.
Now that the lights are on they are all fine and looking for food.
For a while there I was going to give the copperband last rites as he couldn't close his mouth and was breathing very fast and laying on a 45 degree angle.
He is eating worms and clams and looks better than ever.