Aquarium hazard

[Guppysnail]

I wanted to share this because it is something I have never run across. I usually use driftwood and natural decor or small large hole resin driftwood rock look alike to tie plants in as a planter. I seen this tall resin aquarium specific decor that was perfect for a spot I wanted to change. My bristlenose were displaying breeding behavior.  I put this in and immediately he went to the hole at the top right under the light where I intended to stuff extra cardinal plants. He trapped her in a few days later and did not come out for 6 solid days. He is a puppy and sits in his food dish begging daily so I was reasonably sure he had eggs in there.  
on day 7 he came out looking a bit red on the top of his head like it was rubbing but it cleared up in a day. After 7 more days no fry and he or she never went near the opening which I found peculiar.  Day 7 I also had a dead shrimp near that decor. I seldom have shrimp die but the weird thing was no snails or other shrimp were near it. Usually if I do lose a shrimp it is gone in an hour 2 maximum. Day 8 another uneaten dead shrimp.  I was testing the water like a madwoman with every test I had starting day 7. And doing large water changes ( my shrimp are good up to 50% change)
today was day 9 another 2 shrimp uneaten…panic….

I pulled the decor thinking dead fry. When I lifted it a rotten egg smell hit me. Much to my displeasure all the water stayed in this thing…what not a single flow hole?… grrrr my bad I should have checked

I dumped it into an empty bucket and gagged repeatedly. Rotten egg putrid decay and I’m certain a disintegrated fetid zombie…actually nothing but mulm and stench. I am assuming it went anoxic. The design for this was not thought out and I didn’t think it through because I really liked it.

Had it not been for my shrimp I would have never known until the bad bacteria took over my tank and I lost fish. I should have drilled holes in it but aquarium safe it read on the description hmmmmmm

i just wanted to share this because when I ran across this piece there were tons similar in design so if you have something tall hollow without proper aeratin holes you may want to drill some. 

Edited July 29, 2021 by Guppysnail
Add picture

[Aqua junky]

Wow nothing worse than rotten egg smell! Glad you figured it out.  Nice to see someone so in tune with their tank that they notice stuff like that. Meaning everything besides the dead shrimp lol

[Biotope Biologist]

If you want to keep that piece in the aquarium run warm water on it and like you said in the post add your own drain holes. Those pieces are dangerous though and fish get stuck in the hollow tapering root structures. Cannot tell you how many we had returned because of this.

 

Glad you found the culprit and didn't have too many casualties

[Guppysnail]

On 7/29/2021 at 12:40 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

If you want to keep that piece in the aquarium run warm water on it and like you said in the post add your own drain holes. Those pieces are dangerous though and fish get stuck in the hollow tapering root structures. Cannot tell you how many we had returned because of this.

 

Glad you found the culprit and didn't have too many casualties

I’m still in my Amazon return window…it’s going back I’m sticking to driftwood.  Yes he actually broke the tip of his right wing when he first went in. I was going to ditch it then but he wouldn’t get off it 🤣