Fly Spray - or how to kill half a tank of fish

[Chris McMahon]

I made a stupid mistake last night. I know not to use fly spray near tanks. But I used it in a room about 30 feet from the tank room (killing a large and vicious huntsman spider larger than the palm of my hand). The tank room door was closed, before and after.

Unfortunately, the spray must have got into the tank room, as this morning I woke to find my new checkerboard (http://users.bigpond.net.au/darkcity/pics/5x2x2/checkerboard2.jpg), my male Red-White (http://users.bigpond.net.au/darkcity/pics/5x2x2/red-white7.jpg), and my largest snakeskin cross (http://users.bigpond.net.au/darkcity/pics/lrgdiscus.jpg) all dead.

The two red/whites had formed a pair. The snakeskin cross had also recently formed a pair with another snakeskin from the same breeder. So I've broken both of my pairs, losing a discus from each pair.

My Orange discus (center of pic) (http://users.bigpond.net.au/darkcity/pics/5x2x2/discus1.jpg) was struggling at the surface for oxygen and died early this afternoon.

I also lost 3 Royal Whiptails, 2 large bristlenoses and an albino cory.

I did a 30% water change first thing this morning, and the remaining discus seem ok, as do the rest of the tank mates.

I won't be replacing the discus, as frankly I don't want to risk killing any more. I feel gutted, both at the loss of fish and my stupidity. :(

[flukes]

I feel for you Chris after so much hard work taken away in seconds..
Iam sure they will be replaced down the line but give it time for wounds too heal.

My best wishes.

[Merrilyn]

Chris - my heart sank when I read your post. So sorry to hear that you lost so many fish - but a warning for all of us. You are not the first and you won't be the last of us to do something to accidently cause the death of fish. But it doesn't take the pain away. If you were closer I would gladly give you some young fish from my last batch to try again. Thinking of you mate.

[FinaddictFred]

My heart goes out to ya !
I had 6 wild Lake Tefe's all go belly up within minutes. I never knew what happened and to this day it still bugs me why they died. At least you know what happened..not that its easy to take. Give it time and then back on the horse. Hang in there
:cry:

[DiscusMad]

Very sad thing to happen

[jluna]

i am really sorry u lost your fish, but i think it's worth mentioning that the amount of poison it took to kill that spider (ie enough to travel 30 feet and kill water-borne species) must have caused excruciating agony for the huntsman, which is a harmless species. i find losing one animal (or several) because of the death of another kinda ironic, and a metaphor for what we're doing to the world... no disrespect chris, but next time, catch it under a takeaway container, slide a piece of paper under it and put it in the garden.

justin (expecting howls of outrage...) :?

[FinaddictFred]

I agree with ya for the most part..but..not many people are able to tell whats harmelss and whats not..add in the fear factor and you have a major household accident. Its tragic all the way around.
* bows his head and prays to the gawd of fishes*

[chrissyoscar]

Sorry he hear that mate you must be devastated.
Don't be to hard on yourself everybody makes mistakes and thanks for putting this post up as it will help others, me included not to make the same mistake.

Oscar

[milt master p]

To help remove the remaining insecticide put in a mesh bag full of charcoal in a high flow area.

[Proteus]

Dude... I am soooooo sorry to hear of your loss...

man that stinks...

as per the previous suggestion, I would get a good amount of activated carbon to leech out ANY possible remnants of the insecticides...

I lost a bunch of fish a while back when painting in the same room, again, stupid mistake on my part, but I have learnt that when dealing with anything toxic, dont do it near the tanks...

[kalebjarrod]

Man i am sorry,

for both you and your lost friends, i know how proud you where of them from your posts

if thier is anything i can do..........................

[lesley]

I am sorry to hear of your loss. It is especially devastating to watch them dying.

Jluna, I agree with you. Living in a farming area I see the results of the various spraying programs by the farmers. We once had all the maggies, blackbirds, birds that eat grubs on our block wiped out when a nearby farmer sprayed his spuds for grubs. I think that people tend to forget that anything that kills something, even in minute amounts for smaller creatures is cumulative and is eventually dangerous to people as well as other things not targeted.

[Chris McMahon]

Thank you everyone for your kind words.

Thankfully I haven't lost any more discus since the incident. The remaining fish seem ok, breathing is normal and slow, they are eating normally and aren't hiding all the time.

Kalebjarrod you're right, I was quite proud of them, especially as recently I thought that I'd finally got a handle on keeping discus healthy and happy. After initially buying my first batch of discus, which turned out to be mostly stunted and sick runts (didn't know what to look for, got carried away and impulse bought them), to buying excellent quality Blue Diamonds, and recently the red/white pair and the checkerboard.

With the two pairs forming I felt like I was finally providing a good home for my discus, good enough that they felt comfortable enough to breed. Then only a few days later to lose several of them to my stupid mistake.

Jluna, perhaps huntsmen in your region are different but up here they are pretty vicious. I'd had them jump from walls towards me and chase me down halls. The possibility of capturing one of these without getting bitten would be fairly low. And while not lethal, huntsmen do have necrotic venom. Also given that it was in a bedroom, it couldn't really be left to it's own devices. A fair amount of spray was used (perhaps 1/4 of a tin), as it used the furniture in the room to hide behind several times (dressers, beds etc). Without the spray it easily avoided my attempts to get near it. Plus there's that whole reptilian brain thing when it comes to spiders, and growing up in a redback spider area where "spider = death" was drummed into me from a early age, with good cause.

Anyway, if someone reads this post and it sets off a little warning light next time they are about to spray something and it maybe saves their fish, then at least a little good may come of it.

[jluna]

hey chris -

thanks for your diplomacy - glad to hear the rest of the tank is ok.

justin

[AdelaideAnt]

:o that sucks, sorry to hear

[fishpimp]

most unfortunate, sorry for your loss
a reminder to us all how careful we must be