Fish Apocalypse....

So, apparently the fish were not doing the clean-tank happy dance in that video, they were doing the, "holy cow, what did you do to our pH???" dance.  At least that's the current theory, presented to me by both my husband and a friend who is an aquarium expert.

The day after the major water change, I went in to feed the dogs, and there was another floater.  I had planned on draining as much of the tank as I could into a clean trash can until I could see the bottom to see if there was a rotting fish carcass or something that was contaminating the water.  I did not find a rotting carcass, but instead 20 recently deceased fish lining the bottom of the tank.  It looked really weird because they were all facing the same direction, so at first I thought it was the light shining through the slats in the wood...but it was going the wrong way.  I scooped the net through the water and came up with about six dead fish in the first shot.  Some of them were pretty good sized, considering I was expecting a 1-2 year growth period for these fish (I just got them in September).

After disposing of the remains, I did a search to see if it's safe to eat a dead fish.  Some people said as long as it's not floating, and you think you know what killed it (and it wasn't a disease), they eat them.  My husband said, "You can eat them, but I'm not."  Since he has more logic and common sense than I do, I decided to follow his lead.  But, in hindsight, part of me wishes I had separated the floaters from the sinkers and taken my chances with just one....oh, well, there are more fish in the sea.  Or, in this case, the hatchery.

The Apocalypse

I emailed the guys at Liley Fisheries, and they said they have more 4"-6" fish (which is what I started out with), so I think I will clean out and cycle my tank and head back up to Boulder for some more trout...hopefully a little wiser in my aquaculture decisions this time.  I still don't know what started the whole fishy death march.  All I can think of is it started as shock when we took some out, and that led to a chain reaction, ending in my stupid overzealous cleaning.

Oh, well, live and learn.  If at first you don't succeed....buy more fish.