Stupid mistake killed my favourite fish

[shanzfish]

Just performing routine maintenance yesterday and I pushed some gravel to the side against the bottom rocks in my tank. This was because I was trying to scoop up the diatoms that popped up on the gravel. Little did I know, I trapped my beautiful flame Angel in the rocks work. Didn’t realise until he didn’t come out this morning. I found him battered and gasping on his side in the rocks and had to move everything to get to him. I tried everything I could in the least stressful way to save him and he died shortly after. I can’t believe that happened, he was very healthy and beautiful. Has anyone else made any stupid preventable mistakes that cost them their favourite fish?

 

[GillMeister]

No, but I did have a fish only tank with a Clown Trigger, a Miniatus Grouper and a number of other beauties. My Wife called me at work to let me know my fish were all acting weird. When I asked what she meant by weird she said 'floating. I got home and found them all dead, but the outside of my tank, the TV screen and all of the windows in the room were spotless. Never cleaner. I think you know where this is going.

Windex is not good on everything.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I was moving last week, put all fish into storage bin with power head and heater well a fish got into a power head and polluted the bin.. (all corals / anemones / inverts survived) but all my fish were dead 2 clowns 1 splendid dottyback and 1 cardinal, sad day but live and learn

 

[N.Sreefer]

I bought a recently imported wc blonde naso tang. Looked really bad in qt and i dont have many fish (well alot of fish but just mollies) so I threw it in my display after 2 days and it turned up dead a week after being put in my display. No idea what killed it. Now my gramma turned up dead and I have flashing mollies. Sometimes a stupid little mistake really haunts ya in this hobby.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Just performing routine maintenance yesterday and I pushed some gravel to the side against the bottom rocks in my tank. This was because I was trying to scoop up the diatoms that popped up on the gravel. Little did I know, I trapped my beautiful flame Angel in the rocks work. Didn’t realise until he didn’t come out this morning. I found him battered and gasping on his side in the rocks and had to move everything to get to him. I tried everything I could in the least stressful way to save him and he died shortly after. I can’t believe that happened, he was very healthy and beautiful. Has anyone else made any stupid preventable mistakes that cost them their favourite fish?

I am so sorry for your loss.

I suspect my fire shrimp was lost similar way but don't know for sure

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I was moving last week, put all fish into storage bin with power head and heater well a fish got into a power head and polluted the bin.. (all corals / anemones / inverts survived) but all my fish were dead 2 clowns 1 splendid dottyback and 1 cardinal, sad day but live and learn

I try to bring this up in moving threads as I see them that air stones are safer. Sorry for your losses... Happened to a friend of mine too.

I also buried my scissortail dartfish by accidentally covering his burrow while cleaning the sandbed.
I also accidentally shredded an African cichlid who was in a powerhead and I didn't have line of sight. The noise... the noise sticks with you...

 

[ApoIsland]

I had an awesome little peacock flounder that would eat out of my hand every morning. I was trying to catch a rogue kole so was installing a fish trap. When i was pressing the trap to the front glass I had forgot the flounder always comes front and center and pastes himself to that glass waiting for my hand to deliver the goods. When I got off the chair and looked at the trap I realized I had squished my favorite fish. Major bummer.

 

[Waters]

Just performing routine maintenance yesterday and I pushed some gravel to the side against the bottom rocks in my tank. This was because I was trying to scoop up the diatoms that popped up on the gravel. Little did I know, I trapped my beautiful flame Angel in the rocks work. Didn’t realise until he didn’t come out this morning. I found him battered and gasping on his side in the rocks and had to move everything to get to him. I tried everything I could in the least stressful way to save him and he died shortly after. I can’t believe that happened, he was very healthy and beautiful. Has anyone else made any stupid preventable mistakes that cost them their favourite fish?

Are you sure that is what killed him? I have wrasses that have buried themselves for weeks at a time with no issues......I guess a wrasse is not an angelfish. Just a thought that it might have had issues prior to anything you did.

 

[Rmckoy]

Do you think it was the sand barricading him in a cave or other issues ?
Stirring up detritus in the sand making that particular area more concentrated ?
Just grasping at different scenarios .

either way .
we all make mistakes , to learn from them and move forward .

no mistake is stupid !
But a lesson learned

 

[Rmckoy]

No, but I did have a fish only tank with a Clown Trigger, a Miniatus Grouper and a number of other beauties. My Wife called me at work to let me know my fish were all acting weird. When I asked what she meant by weird she said 'floating. I got home and found them all dead, but the outside of my tank, the TV screen and all of the windows in the room were spotless. Never cleaner. I think you know where this is going.

Windex is not good on everything.

Ive scared my wife and told her she can’t clean windows , spray air freshener
She won’t even burn a candle lol without asking if it’s ok .
Part of it is letting her be involved in purchasing livestock .

 

[josh515025]

Just performing routine maintenance yesterday and I pushed some gravel to the side against the bottom rocks in my tank. This was because I was trying to scoop up the diatoms that popped up on the gravel. Little did I know, I trapped my beautiful flame Angel in the rocks work. Didn’t realise until he didn’t come out this morning. I found him battered and gasping on his side in the rocks and had to move everything to get to him. I tried everything I could in the least stressful way to save him and he died shortly after. I can’t believe that happened, he was very healthy and beautiful. Has anyone else made any stupid preventable mistakes that cost them their favourite fish?

I’m always afraid of this, occasionally I’ll move rocks around but try to do it as slow as possible in case a fish is hiding

 

[dvgyfresh]

I try to bring this up in moving threads as I see them that air stones are safer. Sorry for your losses... Happened to a friend of mine too.

I also buried my scissortail dartfish by accidentally covering his burrow while cleaning the sandbed.
I also accidentally shredded an African cichlid who was in a powerhead and I didn't have line of sight. The noise... the noise sticks with you...

Thank you, wish I would have thought about an air stone would have been a lot safer but atleast now I know what to avoid and I can warn other reefers on what not to do

 

[Hermie]

I've made too many to remember them all, but they are all lessons learned

 

[garbled]

Put a simple old-style powerhead in a tank with my puffer, who in the night swam right up to it, and got pulled by his side up against the intake tube, and was killed. Sigh..

 

[dedragon]

I had a frag fall behind my rocks a year ago, while moving a rock to get to it, my blue hippo tang decided to swim between the two rocks. Now my tang has a huge scar on both sides of its head. Also it has started to peck at my bali slimer (i think its out of spite).
little pic of the aftermath

 

[vetteguy53081]

Oh no - sorry to hear. Bear in mind it happens as regretful as it can be

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Sorry you lost your fish. Four years ago I added some anthias that wiped out my purple, and royal gramma. I knew better.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I try to bring this up in moving threads as I see them that air stones are safer. Sorry for your losses... Happened to a friend of mine too.

I also buried my scissortail dartfish by accidentally covering his burrow while cleaning the sandbed.
I also accidentally shredded an African cichlid who was in a powerhead and I didn't have line of sight. The noise... the noise sticks with you...

Sorry for your losses, including cichlid loss - I live in fear of pump kill daily, as I turn off my pumps during feeding... yes I know there is 'feed mode' AND I upgraded all my pumps so I had 'feed mode' option, but that still blows too much (IMO) as I like a cloud to sit around each coral when I spot feed corals that share tank with fish.

 

[Rmckoy]

The mistake that hurt the most was moving from a 90 gal to a 230
I didn’t have enough water made ,
Transferred the fish, corals. Some of the sand and within 15-20 mins I had a full bacterial bloom that I really couldn’t do anything about other than wait for water .....

I lost every coral , fish ,
The whole house smelled like death

 

[Fish Think Pink]

No, but I did have a fish only tank with a Clown Trigger, a Miniatus Grouper and a number of other beauties. My Wife called me at work to let me know my fish were all acting weird. When I asked what she meant by weird she said 'floating. I got home and found them all dead, but the outside of my tank, the TV screen and all of the windows in the room were spotless. Never cleaner. I think you know where this is going.

Windex is not good on everything.

I am SO sorry for your loss.

Good reminder to educate cleaning people when they return in a few months (COVID isolation has been +1 year break in cleaning people, but vaccines soon!)