Loaches Online Forum

Just woke up to three dead zebra loaches and one possibly dying flying fox tba. Tank temperature was at 90 F! Obviously my 2 year old external in line heater/stat had given up the ghost. I'm gutted. I used to always run two undersized heaters before this one but wanted to get rid of the clutter. I'll be going back to the old ways from here on in.

Why lucky? Well fortunately my clowns and my silver shark whilst obviously warmer than they fancied were unaffected. I'm surprised about the silver shark. I'd always though he was a colder water fish, perhaps it is just a size thing. The clowns are all 5" or above and the shark is big too. The little zebras probably never had much of a coping mechanism. Good job I was around to spot the problem, shame it didn't occur in the winter rather than on a very hot summers night.

Must say I had thought heater stat failure was a thing of the past

A lot of people on various aquarium forums have reported heater failures, even with new ones. Seems quality control isn't what it used to be. There was a major recall awhile back of the Marineland Stealth heaters -- but all they wanted to do was replace the old ones with new ones -- not a great deal to receive more of a product that has been notoriously unreliable in the past.

Makes me glad I have a coldwater tank -- no heater necessary ....

Sorry about your little loaches, but glad the others survived.

-- Dojosmama

thanks I needed some sympathy!

yeah, I have worried a lot since I have read about EXPLODING stealths, etc.
I agree with your plan for redundancy in the system. MY tanks may be somewhat cluttered... two smaller heaters and two filters on most tanks. The idea, of course, is that it covers BOTH situations: an equipment failure (just won't work) OR a thermostat failure (heater becomes energizer bunny and keeps going and going and going).
Sorry about your loss. I;ll bet they were some cute little loaches.