PANIC !!!!!

[argyll]

What was your recent one. I figure keeping fish entitles you to a panic or two.

 

Mine was this evening. Got home, walked out onto the patio to find seven very large and very healthy koi gasping for breathe on the surface and the pump off. Started the hose to get some oxygen into the water. Ah fuse...plug is under the stairs out of reach of my thick fingers and the screw on the plug is too chewed up for the screwdriver to bite. Rushed around the house and garden, all of the other lights and appliances working...must be the fuse. Only thing to do is cut off the plug and replace the fuse. Cut off the plug, smashed the plug to get at the fuse, stick the fuse into a tablelamp plug to see if it works ... it works .....cant be the fuse...what now. Check the connection box with a plug in table lamp..it doesnt work. No power....check the lead out of the house under the floor to the terminal box, possibly chewed by mice. Drag all of the junk out from under the stairs, pull up loose floorboard, get down between the joists with a torch and check the wire.. checked it through.... no breaks. Panic is now setting in... must be the pump....too late to buy a new pump tonight and its humid out there.

 

Then I remembered I'd switched off at the mains whilst fitting a new light yesterday. Took a look at the fuse box about the same time as the penny dropped. I fitted the pump on its own circuit for safety and when I switched the mains back on, it tripped the circuit. Time taken to get to this stage and replace the cut off plug 2hrs 30 minutes. Time it should have taken to solve the problem and just reset the fuse...10 seconds. What a dork.

 

[ 12. August 2005, 07:45 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[MrWiggly]

Yep ...

 

Look for the easy answer first.

 

Keep it simple-stupid.

[Alan Taylor]

MrWiggly:

Yep ...

 

Look for the easy answer first.

 

Keep it simple-stupid.                  

Did the fish survive

 

Alan

[argyll]

They did fortunately Alan. Got the pump running again and kept the hose going until they all started to get some life back. The pump was probably down for about 20 hours tho' Doubt if they'd have lasted much longer.

[Alan Taylor]

Thats good news

I am now bed ridden so Sonja is looking after our tank. 3 days ago we had visitors at feeding time and 3 new babies were spotted

They are hiding on the same places that the 2 previous babies used, these places are too small for the other fish to get at the so they do have a chance.

I am now on a lap top in bed so can't make it to the office to post the pics of the original 2 lots of babies.

I was told that the resident fish would only allow sufficient new fish into a tank if there was enough room for them, so far this seems to be an exception to that rule

The tank is 40cm x 40cm x 1mtr with some big stones in it. Total amount of fish now is 19

 

Alan

[argyll]

'I am now on a lap top in bed'

 

Doesn't sound very comfortable to me Alan.

 

Sounds like an interesting tank, hope you're well enough soon to get your ass out of bed and go feed 'em