I just lost my copper band butterflyfish after my parents sprayed for bugs

[TortillaMan]

This is the spray that was used. So yesterday and a few days before that my parents bought this spray because they claimed to be “over run” by ants. It was manageable and it’s summer, what do you expect? So they would spray it in random spots in the house where the ants were. Yesterday was different, they decided it was a good idea to remove all furniture and appliances into the hallway and then spray along the baseboards. Here is the problem, my tank is in the kitchen and against a wall with baseboards. They sprayed very close to the tank and the whole house REEKED of this stuff. I tuned my skimmer to accommodate for it the fumes and it didn’t make my skimmer overflow. I had some water mixing in a barrel inside because of the heat over heating my water. I had to resort to bring it inside for that reason. After spraying the whole downstairs I monitored my tank and everything seemed fine but the butterfly was hiding and normally when it’s in the rocks and sees me it come out to beg for food. So this morning I came downstairs and saw him stuck to my ai Nero 5. It was set to 60% maximum for the time being until 930 am as per my schedule. I unplugged the Nero to fish him out and he floated down and twitched a few times, he barely had any boyancy(?) left in him. He wouldn’t make it through the day. I made 25g of water to do a water change today on my 120g. Hopefully this will be enough water. This was literally my first and last copper band, it ate pods, mysis and brine. Super rare and 100% luck. But I was told “it’s just a fish”. If you guys had a copper band and it’s eating frozen and pods you would probably be over the moon.

 

[Formulator]

Sorry for your loss. Interestingly, geraniol has been studied as an anesthesia agent in fish at low concentrations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848621001794

 

[TortillaMan]

Sorry for your loss. Interestingly, geraniol has been studied as an anesthesia agent in fish at low concentrations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848621001794

Yeah I’m extremely sad and ticked because that fish was my most prized possession of all time. They used a whole bottle and like 75% of the bottle pictured

 

[slingfox]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Fish and coral are very sensitive to water quality so I hope no other issues arise in the days and weeks ahead. I deal with an ant invasion a few times every year. Best thing to do is to set up liquid bait stations which allows the ants to collect bait and bring it back to their colony. The bait used in Terro and similar products is not toxic to humans or household pets and is super effective. The Terro bait poses virtually no risk to aquariums since the chemical is liquid and never gets into the air.

 

[TortillaMan]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Fish and coral are very sensitive to water quality so I hope no other issues arise in the days and weeks ahead. I deal with an ant invasion a few times every year. Best thing to do is to set up liquid bait stations which allows the ants to collect bait and bring it back to their colony. The bait used in Terro and similar products is not toxic to humans or household pets and is super effective. The Terro bait poses virtually no risk to aquariums since the chemical is liquid and never gets into the air.

We should have done that from the get go. Too late now. Should I make a new batch of water to be safe? I’m sure some fumes got into the barrel

 

[Spare time]

Do you run carbon?

 

[slingfox]

We should have done that from the get go. Too late now. Should I make a new batch of water to be safe? I’m sure some fumes got into the barrel

If I was you I would try to do as large of a water change as possible with the cleanest salt water possible. Run a few rounds of carbon as well.

 

[TortillaMan]

Do you run carbon?

I do not but I will pick some up today

 

[TortillaMan]

If I was you I would try to do as large of a water change as possible with the cleanest salt water possible. Run a few rounds of carbon as well.

So I take it I should toss the batch I made yesterday

 

[slingfox]

So I take it I should toss the batch I made yesterday

Only you can make that call since nobody else can assess how exposed it might have been to the chemicals. If the saltwater is already mixed it still might be cleaner than the water in the display tank.

 

[TortillaMan]

Only you can make that call since nobody else can assess how exposed it might have been to the chemicals.

I don’t want to loose anymore fish so I might just toss it to be safe. I’ll for sure get the carbon tho

 

[Dom]

So I take it I should toss the batch I made yesterday

If the batch of water was in a closed container, you should be fine. If the top was open, ditch it.

 

[TortillaMan]

If the batch of water was in a closed container, you should be fine. If the top was open, ditch it.

There was a lid but I had my mixing pum in there and I pretty much just smooshed the lid down. It still sealed tho. I might be ok

 

[Spare time]

I do not but I will pick some up today

Always run carbon. Avoid lignite.

 

[ZoWhat]

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[BristleWormHater]

This is the spray that was used. So yesterday and a few days before that my parents bought this spray because they claimed to be “over run” by ants. It was manageable and it’s summer, what do you expect? So they would spray it in random spots in the house where the ants were. Yesterday was different, they decided it was a good idea to remove all furniture and appliances into the hallway and then spray along the baseboards. Here is the problem, my tank is in the kitchen and against a wall with baseboards. They sprayed very close to the tank and the whole house REEKED of this stuff. I tuned my skimmer to accommodate for it the fumes and it didn’t make my skimmer overflow. I had some water mixing in a barrel inside because of the heat over heating my water. I had to resort to bring it inside for that reason. After spraying the whole downstairs I monitored my tank and everything seemed fine but the butterfly was hiding and normally when it’s in the rocks and sees me it come out to beg for food. So this morning I came downstairs and saw him stuck to my ai Nero 5. It was set to 60% maximum for the time being until 930 am as per my schedule. I unplugged the Nero to fish him out and he floated down and twitched a few times, he barely had any boyancy(?) left in him. He wouldn’t make it through the day. I made 25g of water to do a water change today on my 120g. Hopefully this will be enough water. This was literally my first and last copper band, it ate pods, mysis and brine. Super rare and 100% luck. But I was told “it’s just a fish”. If you guys had a copper band and it’s eating frozen and pods you would probably be over the moon.

Sorry for your copperband they are such a pretty fish. Love the natural spray that's 93% "other ingredients"

 

[Formulator]

Sorry for your copperband they are such a pretty fish. Love the natural spray that's 93% "other ingredients"

Natural does not = safer. This new age hippie BS about using natural alternatives for everything drives me nuts. Like I wonder if they would still use vinegar if they labeled it acetic acid. Clueless…

 

[Tamberav]

Sorry for your copperband they are such a pretty fish. Love the natural spray that's 93% "other ingredients"

oddly enough I went down this road with a natural bug spray for kids that has "70% other ingredients".. turns out they can't put what is on it because of a law... HA!

"The other 70% of ingredients are deionized water and corn ethanol. These aren't listed on the bottle due to strict regulations set forth by the EPA that only allow "Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus" to be named. We would love for them to be listed out as well!"


Looking up this Stem product, it is: Other ingredients: 93.3% white mineral oil, isopropyl myristate, and ethyl lactate.

 

[Tamberav]

Side note... pods, mysis, brine is probably not enough for a copperband, mysis is a lot of shell.

LRS, clam (you can buy them fresh at asian market and freeze them), live white worms (can culture these) or black worms from the LFS.

Remember correlation does not imply causation. I wouldn't spray this crap in my house because who wants that crap where they live? But really not enough info in this thread to say what happened for sure if all other fish and corals are looking well.

 

[Reefering1]

Sounds like time to get your stuff together and move out...