I’ve held off posting this because I was extremely upset last week when this happened. The desert is finally cooling off and I decided to add heaters to a couple of my tanks that had been without all summer. My problem in summer is usually how to keep the tanks cool enough.
I purchased two Top Fin 100 Watt submersible heaters at PetSmart, mainly because my daughter needed to visit the store next door. I brought the heaters home and installed them without thinking much of it. the next morning, catastrophe.
My Pachypanchax playfairii breeding pair ware dead on the substrate, and my desert gobies (very resilient little fish) were sick on the bottom of their tank. I immediately recognized the symptoms of the gobies as being identical to what killed my Endler’s livebearers several months ago.
Having spent 14 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry, I thought through the setups. There was only one commonality, and it came down to the heaters. I purchased this model of heater three times and in all three instances it wiped out the tank I put it into.
Losses: Endler’s livebearer colony. Pachypanchax breeding pair, half my Desert Goby colony. In the case of the desert gobies, I lost my adult male, the females and four juveniles recovered after three consecutive days of 90% water changes.
The problem with recovery is that I now have no idea whether there is any genetic damage that will be passed along to offspring. Fortunately, I had four fry that are still in the grow-out container. Now I’ll have to keep those fish separated so i can be assured that exposed fish will not breed with unexposed fish.
I did return both of the newer heaters, the older one I still have since I don’t even remember which location I purchased it. Top Fin is a PetSmart brand. I called the company headquarters and they are investigating. I have also asked for some replacement compensation, so we’ll see where that gets me.
It does look like the desert goby colony will survive this ordeal, but I will have to be extremely careful with them as the weather gets cooler.
