Last month, around 400 fish died at the Texas State Aquarium due to a simple maintenance error. The staff was trying to treat the aquarium for parasites, but a mislabeling error led to the introduction of a poisonous chemical into the tank.
Accidents happen, but there are some things you can do to make sure you decrease the likelihood of them happening in your aquarium:
- Start with small doses — whenever you’re introducing anything new into your tank, do it carefully, trying a little bit at a time. If you have multiple tanks, implement the change in one tank first to see if there are any potential issues, before you do it to the remaining ones.
- Solve issues before they turn into problems — the parasite at Texas State Aquarium sounds like it was immune to a lot of conventional treatments. Issues like these are best taken care of before they blossom into full-fledged problems, so if you notice anything weird in your tank, take care of it as soon as you can.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help — if something seems fishy (ha!) in your tank, one of your best bets is to reach out to the professionals. At Blue Planet Aquarium, we’ve encountered almost every problem you can think of in our many years of business, and we’ll be happy to help, whether by consulting with you or by solving the problem ourselves.
Follow these three steps to decrease the chance of disaster striking your aquarium, and remember: we’re always there whenever you need help with anything aquarium-related!
