This ever happened to you

HI all. So have you ever gotten sick to the point where it is difficult to do stuff with your tanks? I rarely ever get sick and when I do it is brief and not serious however I may be the most sick I’ve ever been right now so I have been skipping feedings and water changes and feel very bad. I fed them yesterday but Thursday they didn’t eat and I didn’t feed them today. I feel fairly guilty about it and just wanted to share.

BTW for those who are wondering, the doctors say I have one of the really nasty strains of Flu, this morning my temp was 103.1 and it has been staying around 101-102 otherwise. On top of that I have been extremely tired and stuffy. Normally I would never not feed them, I just have basically been sleeping or laying down.

 

Considering they'll be ok if you go on 'vacation' for several days or a week, I'm sure a missed day or two is fine.

But I do understand where you're at completely. Been dealing with the flu making a comeback this past week, from 5 weeks ago.. trying to just slowly get the key stuff done and not much else. I feel bad when I'm gone for a day or two and don't check on them right when I get home.

I'm sure your fish friends will be ok, and good to take care of yourself so you can take care of them in a few days...

 

Hope you feel better!!!

 

Not necessarily 'sick' in the traditional sense but I have depression and chronic fatigue syndrome (as well as some other things that affect my abilities.) I try to keep everything on the same day every week so it becomes a habit but I do have days where it gets the best of me. Thankfully my tanks are pretty understocked and the only real "issue" that arises is build up of plant and driftwood debris. My tanks also happen to be somewhat self sufficient- my betta will sometimes eat the baby ramshorns, the nerites, black devils, and ramshorns will eat the almond leaves and algae, etc.

Basically what I'm saying is- it's ok to miss a few days if you're not doing well. Obviously it isn't ideal but but you don't need to push yourself.

 

Yup. A few weeks ago I got home from the last trip of a pretty intense season and while housed in a crowded apartment there someone in the group got nasty stomach bug and started spreading it. I have a pretty strong stomach so usually I get away with it - not this time.

I think that's the sickest I've ever been from that type of pathogen. I didn't hurl a single time which was a blessing but my intestines were a different story. I had to reduce my diet to a list of 5 bland, boring items for the span of nearly a week. If I ate anything not on the list, my stomach would be on fire. There was nothing than water coming out the other end for a solid 10 days.
Needless to say I had a hard time mustering energy and working through the physical discomfort to take care of the tanks -- but I had just returned from a trip so they'd already been without care for a week.

You can just go on a week of sick leave, should be fine for your fish. The more you strain yourself, the more you'll delay recovery.

 

The flu can certainly be nasty. I think at some point most of us have been there. Nothing to feel guilty about. Rest up and get better!

 

I haven't gotten sick to the point of not looking after the fish, but I have thought about it. So I've been teaching my 10 yr old grandson on how to do WC and feeding them. He's taller then most 10 yr olds and we use a 2 gal. bucket to add water.

 

Today I am feeling quite a bit better, though still not great. I did some water changes and fed all the fish and here is what happened while I was sick. I lost quite a few fish however most of them probably would have happened anyway. I lost a angelfish (wouldn’t have likely happened, looked like he was bullied due to the other semi-aggressive fish not getting food, fins were torn up and looked very stressed then he passed about an hour later), a amazon leaf fish (he was old for a leaf fish however they should eat everyday so probably wouldn’t have happened if I was there to monitor), a bichir (he escaped the tank which if it happened over night there is nothing that would have changed, though if it was the day I probably would have caught it, unable to tell though), all my new neon tetras but 1 (the puffer got MAD and was hungry and went on a killing spree, killed some shrimp to, however I have never really had great luck with neons anyway so some may have passed away before that). Those were all the deaths, the 130 overflowed because of a pump issue, not a lot but still not fun to clean and bubbles was very mad at me this morning. He tried to bite me when I fed him, lol. All and all defiantly not the best outcome of all of this but everyone else seems to be doing fine and I think I am well enough to resume normal schedule again so all should be good from here on out.