This last Sunday I returned home from a week long vacation, and when I woke up the next morning I had the flu. I'm still fighting it, but I have a job coming up that'll be keeping me away from home for another week and my 20 gal was looking messy, so I did the water change today. The tank houses my black mystery snail, my two adult hillstream loaches, and their eight kids. The fry are about three months old. I heard it's pretty difficult to get these guys to mate, so I was amazed when I came home one day to a bunch of little guys swimmin about. I was able to find a buyer for them when they get a bit bigger.
Today it took me longer than normal to clean up the sand substrate, and I ended up siphoning about 60-65% of the water out. Then I totally misjudged the heat of the tap water I was putting back in, which brought the temp to about 85°F. I tried to put in a bit of water on the colder side to even it out, but it was going down slowly. Normally afterwards I just put in water conditioner and liquid fertilizer for the plants, but I thought I'd also add a bit of Pristine and Algaefix to help keep the tank clean while I'm gone.
I'm an idiot. Couple hours later and now four of the eight fry have died, and everyone else is staying close the top of the tank. I'm heartbroken, and I'll admit I cried pretty hard for them. I love my fish and I try to give them the best life I can, but I made several bad decisions during this one water change that most of the little ones just couldn't weather. I'm still worried for the others too. I put out a bit of food but none of them are eager to go to the bottom of the tank.
I'm still pretty new to fishkeeping, and I know that this is a learning experience, but this hit me pretty hard. I wanted to write down my heartache and share it with some people who might understand. Any sympathy or advice would be appreciated. Thanks yall.