Tancho Sanke

Monday should have been an easy day. I was almost done setting up two new aquariums and I was looking forward to having a better day after a week of reconditioning back some of my fishes that went on display the week earlier. And what do you know? Upon getting out of bed, I was shock to see my fiberglass fish pond almost empty of water! My super red arowana and other taller fishes were basically lying on their sides gasping as the water was more or less 2 to 3 inches! The others were a bit more 'fortunate' as there was enough to expose the dorsal fins above the water surface. Not wanting any additional distress to my fishes, the first thing I did was to refill the pond with fresh filtered water which fortunately went on maintenance the night before. At the end of the day, I lost my only Tancho Sanke (top-most koi in the picture above and whose head is partly covered by the tail of the showa).

So why am I sharing this to you? Sad as it maybe, I believe there is a lesson for all of us in here - and it is about equipment failure. I have always been a firm believer of over-filtration (which is actually a misnomer as one can never approximate nature's capacity) and always made sure I have the best equipment I could afford and unbelievably reliable too, but I also do miss out on some things at times. The loss of almost all of the water was not due to a leak from any cracks with the fiberglass material but simply from disconnection of the hose supplying water to the trickle filter from the pre-filter/pump which was easily preventable with the use of clamps to keep it in place. Just as simple as that and I lost a Tancho Sanke! The same thing happened to a hobbyist friend during the christmas holiday who lost many discus while his family was out of the country, and it was all because of a disconnected air tubing. Thus, here's the suggetion, or better still, add it to your checklist, always check on your connections, make sure they won't easily disconnect.