Loaches Online Forum

Last night I turned off the venturi bubbler on my community/loach tank to take some pics. I forgot to turn it on again and went to bed. This morning I woke up and the hillstreams didn't. 4 G. kweichow, Sewellia, G. multi. G. cteno. All dead.
That air addition is absolutely vital, but I did not think that the margin was so close.
Well, I guess I better get to work on the dedicated tank I was talking about. Sadder but wiser.

Oh, how awful! Sorry, KK.

How horrible.
It just shows how important oxygen is to hillstreams. Like you, though, I am surprised that they went so easily.

Awww, sorry for your loss TKK.

Sorry to hear it.

I can empathize KK. Lost a whole tankful of hillies and babies. ;-( Was a major bummer.

Ouch!

Sorry to hear.

Oh Man! That is beyond bad.

It's like my Clown disaster the other week. They so definitely need those high O2 levels.

Time for a River-Tank proper, and better luck next time around.

Martin.

Very sorry.

It seems to be essential to have multiple air supplies in case one gets turned off or broken.

I lost a hillstream when the air hose got accidentally disconnected for a few hours, despite the presence of a HOB filter and lowered water level. Right now the policy on permanent hillstream tanks here is 3 air sources.

Sorry about your lose.

Sorry to hear that matey.

sorry to hear that.

Sorry about the loss TKK,

...and thanks for notification! I would have never thought, that one night without bubbles would be fatal!

I´m also planning a hillstream-"department" in the new tank. My current tank runs without bubbles - only O2 from plants. Plants take about have of the swimming space. At night the 2 filters, the plants and the fish are O2 consumers for 9.5 hours (without O2 supply, I avoid bubbles because of CO2 loss due to bubbles, as I´m adding CO2 to the water...),

My current setup may not be sufficient for some hillstreams

... Do you have any other O2 consumers in the tank (old wood?, or so?)

Thanks & Greetings

Wolfram
P.S: ... I did carefully study Martins article about O2 metabolism on hillstreams...

Thanks for all the comments.
Wolfram, there is driftwood in the tank, but it has been there for years and is so totally overgrown with stray cladophora algae that I doubt it has any effect on water chemistry.
The tank is heavily stocked so oxygen consumption will be high. I also keep the temp at 25 which suits everybody, but there is a penalty in terms of dissolved oxygen content.
My guess is that I was running close to the margin, vigorous air injection kept everything fine, the hillsttreams were healthy and growing. but there was no reserve capacity so to speak, and stopping oxygen addition for 8 hours or so meant that dissolved O2 levels rapidly dropped below the hillstreams' minimum requirements.