[CW: talk about losing fish]
I was so excited to get some more peacock gudgeons to join my one lonely one in a big, planted, 50 gallon+ indoor pond. I got them from the incomparable Dan's Fish. Followed his instructions to float the bags then add the fish.
For a day or so, everything seemed okay. Then it seemed like I couldn't see any of the peacock gudgeons for a couple of weeks. I didn't think much of it, as I know they can be shy while they're getting settled in.
One evening I noticed the first little dried out fishie on the floor. I wondered about the rest, but after a few seconds of searching about, I didn't see any others. The next evening I looked more closely and tangled up in the cables and tubes on the floor around the pond I found the other three.
I'm sad, but also I know they're just fish and these things happens sometimes. I hope I can learn how to prevent this in the future, if possible.
Interestingly, my local Petco had two peacock gudgeons, too. I brought them home, kept them in a mini quarantine (with a lid lol), and then drip acclimated them and added them to my mini-pond at night when the lights were almost 0%, one new fish per night. It has been almost two weeks, and both seem to have settled in, showing their cute curious faces sometimes on my underwater livestream or in person at the surface. Though Dan's Fish doesn't mention it, Aquatic Arts mentions that they can jump, especially in the first couple of weeks.
What do I think is going on? What do you think is going on?
- Could it be the stress of different environmental conditions? Dansfish keeps fish in relatively hard 8.2 pH water (16dGH, 16dKH). In NYC, my water is 6.8pH and very soft with 1 dKH and 2dGH.
- Could it be the stress of how they were added? The jumpers were added all 4 at the same time, and the lights were on.
- Could it be the lack of drip acclimation? For fish coming in the mail I know it makes sense to not drip acclimate, but now I wonder if it's better to keep them in a small acclimation tank and only then introduce them to the rest of their new family.
Thank you for your condolences. I normally keep it totally dark at night, but more recently I've shifted to having a dim light on until 12:30am, where previously all lights would turn off by 9pm. Maybe I'll keep a light in the room dimly on 24/7 for a few days whenever I add a new inhabitant.
Quarantine after acclimation is a very good idea, and thankfully I can fit a little plastic tank with lid on my desk for any newcomers. I also have a little floating hospital tank (with lid lol) that I could keep a newcomer in for a day or so for observation and adjusting to the new water.