Hope they all survive.....

My classroom tanks/fish are facing their greatest challenge. Yesterday the squall line that came through TN damaged the campus fairly heavily. Fortunately there were no injuries during my first experience of a true school emergency. But with the roof pealed off the computer lab next to my room, there has been no power since 2pm yesterday.

Recently, I culled enough fish from my one overstocked panfish tank - so now (I hope) all of my tanks are stocked at a level to handle no filtration for several days. What I worry about now is the temp drop. It is low 40F outside this morning and due to drop to 30F tonight. Don't know if my mbunas, apple snails, cories, and bichirs will handle the low temps for 36-48 hours. Campus is shut down for everyone but emergency officials, construction/clean up crews and Admin - so I can't get back in today. Going to have hubby (the Fire Marshal handling this) to check on my room, but he's not a fishy person. All he'll be able to tell me is if any are floating belly up.

So I'm a tad bit stressed today. But I guess this is the big test of my tank insulating skills and the toughness of my fish.

i wish you all the luck , maybe you can get the hubby to cover the tanks or wrap the tanks with blankets or towels to try and trap some heat in them and possible get your hands on a battery powered air pump

Good luck. Hope all the fish make it ok.

Wonder if that is the same line that moved through here this morning? Wow! Was that a storm. I was actually woken up thinking a tornado was going through. That's what it sounded like. The whole front of the house is plastered with petals from the pear tree blooms.

Anyway...hope they all make it through ok.

wow. hope it all works out in the end.

oh no! hopefully they will all be okay!

James, yes it was part of the same system that hit you. Memphis was hit with 80mph winds.

Well, hubby reported that the power was restored while he was there inspecting. He checked my classroom and everything looked like it was back on. Central heat was still off though, unit was damaged. So we'll see if my two heaters can handle dipping that low.

I'll know in a few days if the stress of going under 50F hurt my fish. The bichir and corie tank is not heated since that heater went bonkers. It had always stayed in the 76-82 range because of the double lighting warming it and the insulation around three sides kept it from cooling very fast.

So now it will be a wait and see if any of my stressed fish come down with something.

Can you treat them with Melafix and Pimafix as preventative? I was told to use that stuff when I add new fish or when stressed.

Good luck- Julie

hope all goes well.... really crazzzzzy weather everywhere lately.

Spring is here again!

I hate the way the weather has been lately. Hope things go well with your tanks.

Hope the fish make it OK !

As long as the temps went down slowly and came back up slowly and it was of a short duration , you should be ok . I'd be more worried about not having circulation or at least a battery air bubbler to oxygenate the tank and "break" the surface . Good Luck and Best wishes to your fishes .
Ray

Back to work today. All the fish/snails seem to be fine.

I credit their survival through no electricity/no heat on my decision to reduce fish numbers down to the accepted '1inch fish per gallon rule' and adding insulation around three sides of all heated/temp sensitive tanks. (This was how I changed after the electricity turnoff during christmas decimated one of my 55s). Since populations were within specs, the lack of water movement did not cause the oxygen levels to drop below what they required. I believe the slow drop in water temp (which increases O2 absorbtion at the surface) also played a major role.

So it is true that proper stocking ratios will protect your investment should the unforeseen occur. Battery backup systems only work -IF- you can get in to hook them up. In this case, no one but emergency crews were allowed in so battery systems would've sat in a drawer unused.

BTW - it was determined that a tornado trached 7.5 miles through my county and then hit the school. So I've now gotten my experience living through a tornado hit. Just thanking god that both my daughter and I were at SCHOOLS when it hit. The big block buildings really protected us!

wow, those fish are champs to handle conditions like that