[lvandert]

Alright So i am out of town for just over a week so i got someone to watch my fishies whiles I was gone. I left detailed instructions how to feed them and what not. I got a text about half way through that I may have to change my water when I get back because its cloudy. I planned on the water change but there is NO way the water should be cloudy. Then she tells me that she may be over feeding them. She was only stopping once a day so I had her feeding them 3-4 pellets OR 2 freeze dried blood worms (her choice on which) and no more. I have a feeling she did the "oh you still look hungry, you poor dear I'll give you some more" I was going to attempt a spawn when I got back but now that they've been in cloudy water (probably high in NH3) I may have to treat for ammonia burn or worse...

 

[bettalover2000]

I hear about some of these sitters... They just don't get it.

 

[Bombalurina]

My last sitter ignored my instructions about pushing my filter down so it stayed below the water as it evaporated...I came back to find it a good two inches above the water line, and the goldfish tank developed an algal bloom.

 

[lvandert]

OMG my poor babies! I just got home and omg! such neglect! I knew something was wrong when I walked in the door and I was hit with this stench of rotting something...It was all 5 of my tanks with rotting food on top of their water and under. One was so bad it looked like there was dwarfs beard hanging from the plants UNDER the water! One of my girls (Big Red) is already sensitive because I think she was a fighter with her previous owner so she has some scale and skin problems, and she is horrible! She's got skin just rotting away and scales falling off everywhere and her tail has a chunk missing with white edges :'C I took every one out of their tanks and put them in pint mason jars for the night. Luckily my 5 gal with 3 snails, a sponge filter and just its sheer size didn't get horrible like my others so I have at least semi clean water for the night (I use the same chemical balance in every tank) I scrubbed every one of their tanks and rinsed their gravel with scalding hot water until it ran clean along with any plant/decoration. I'm going to go to petsmart tomorrow and get a gallon cage, antibiotics, a better water testing kit and probably some fin rot stuff. I'll attach some pics but beware they are horrible!

 

[MollyJean]

This is after a week? What in the world did your sitter do?? I've never seen anything like it! Is this a friend or a service or what?

 

[Aus]

One week??? What did she do, dump a week's worth of food in at once? That's a bit beyond the results of a little 'overfeeding', I think.

It's hard to think how else a tank could go that bad so quickly. Your poor fish. I hope they all recover well.

 

[miish]

Thats terrible!! How did the sitter manage to make them THAT disgusting! Poor fish!

 

[Fin2you]

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!! Fin's blowing healing bubbles your way! keep us updated on how they're doing!

 

[GuppyBetta]

I hope your fish get better! That must be horrible to have seen when you got home! All of your fish are still alive, right?

 

[VikingPrincess]

My gosh! Thats horrible! :-(
Poor fish!

Things like this is why I have a hard time trusting people to look after my pets.

 

[lvandert]

My fish are all currently in fresh new tanks and I have my poor big red in a gallon and a half hospital tank. I'm going to try the natural healing stuff (salts and Indian almond leaves) before I go treating her with all sorts of chemicals. Just being in the new water seems to perk them right up. Luckily my two I was planning on breeding didn't get seriously sick, hopefully by the end of the week I can introduce them. I think I may have found out why it got so bad. I think she did pinches instead of singular blood worms unfortunately this is a friend/my boss, so I've resorted to if she dont say nothing I wont. She is for sure not watching my fish again though, and if she asks why I'll tell her.

 

[Bombalurina]

Wow. Uncomfortable situation...she made those tanks horrible...

 

[lvandert]

It is but it isn't. She's really understanding of everything and I'm positive she wont fire me if I were to say something. I guess I just have to teach her how to care for fishies. Side note: Totally helped some random family pick a betta today. They were confused as to which ones were which and what ones looked healthy etc etc. I even made sure they had the right set up. I guess some lady at petco tried to push the fluval on them and saying "they HAD to get it for a betta" They thanked me a ton because they were headed to return it and get their money back.

 

[Lissa52664]

yeah.... same thing happened to me, but it was a friend that was supposed to watch our house/dogs for ONE night. It's partly my fault because I just assumed he wouldn't bother with the fish overnight since we hadn't talked about it. I was so wrong. Came home the next day to orange water and food covering the bottom of the tank. The sitter admitted to feeding him just a couple, but when he was still hungry he added enough to cover the bottom of the food cap! Who knows how much my fishy ate before giving up on the rest.

 

[lvandert]

Yeah I ended up having a talk with my sitter and she was shaking the food container into their tanks >:C she said something about not wanting them to get "hungry". I told her they are fine with what I said to give them. If she thinks she's going to get one of mah babies she best be ready to get schooled

 

[lvandert]

So here's an update on this whole situation. Big Red's scales have all but cleared up, she isn't all patchy now. She still has two bad spots, one on each of her sides but thats starting to look better too. Her skin doesn't look as ragged as it did before. Everyone else is just like it never happened, although Walter doesn't seem to like blood worms any more lol.

 

[blueridge]

Glad to hear that they are doing well. Your sitter was ridiculous!

 

[littlegreen]

I'm so glad that your fish are doing alright! I hope that all of them make complete recoveries. : )

 

[djembekah]

WOW. yikesss. glad Big Red's doing better, she's a gorgeous girl!

 

[lvandert]

I'm pretty sure she's a giant and ex fighter. She had some bad scaring on her sides (where the rot took). I originally bought her to breed but I just don't have the heart to put her through that much stress with her "weak spots" so she just gets to ride her life out in her tank with her snail and moss ball