Have anyone had this problem ;) You get home and the smell from your tank knocks you back. Just wondering what you guys would say.

Two times, quite a story behind this one.

This year in the September holidays my family decided to go away to Moreton Island. (an Island around 1 hour and 30 minutes barge drive off the east coast of Brisbane, Australia) So anyway now to the main part of the story.

This was my first holiday while owning fish and I had not yet developed a plan for what to do with my fish while away. I didn't know about automatic feeders. So I decided to catch a big bunch of guppies out of my backyard dam (very healthy fish no diseases like shop feeders) and leave them in the tank. When I returned from my holiday my Oscars decided that they only liked guppie heads and i returned to a filter crammed full of dead guppies with their heads missing. So obviously when i returned there was quite a bad smell coming from the tank. I removed the guppies and as usual my Oscars which seem to be able to live through anything didn't even get the slighest bit sick.

So when the Christmas holidays came around I had to think of a new gameplan. This time my approach was to put in a weekend block (we went away for the weekend this time to my cousins) and ask my neighbours to feed them while we were gone. This was a bit of a test as we were going to Moreton Island again the next week. So when we returned we found a tank full of dark red water. Not blood red but if anyone here uses Hikari Cichlid Gold food you would know what colour I mean. You may have guessed as you read this that my neighbour did a bad job feeding and accidently tipped about 1/3 of a small packet of pellets into the tank. That is about 200 of them. I mean sure my fish would have ate till their hearts content and would have loved it but I sure didn't. Amazingly once I cleaned it all up and even though I had to do a 100% water change my Oscars as soon as they went back into the tank swam to the top ready for food as though nothing had happened. This time the tank stunk even more.

So then when I had to go away to Moreton we took my tank and everything to my Aunties house and she did a perfect job looking after my fish. Not to mention that my 2 and 4 year old cousins loved watching them. My 4 year old cousin said we couldn't put there fighting fish in with my fish because the fighter would kill them. I reckon my Oscars could show his fish. :)

So they are my two worst and smelliest fish situations. I am not looking forward to my next holiday however. We have recently bought a 40 gallon tank and I can't see myself being able to transport it to my Aunties. I think I might just just buy an auto feeder.

Its tough when you are faced with the decission of leaving your fish for someone else to feed them. I totally get where you are coming from. I also know that some times you leave your house and everything is fine and you get home and you are ready for some relaxation time "watching your tanks" you open the door and there you have it, MURPHY'S LAW it never fails.

This is the type of reply I was expecting in this topic. I know you guys have more good stories to share.

Well, kind of on the same page... I recently tried sailfin mollies again and they still don't like me. :angry: I removed the corpse of the girl (as you do), and I put it in a bag... I was farting around with the tank and didn't have a chance to put it in the bin as I had a siphon going blah blah.
Needless to say, as you can tell where this story's going - I forgot. The next day, I went into the study and it REEKED. :sick: Dead fish don't go well in the Australian climate.

Any better stories, I've forgotten. -_-
Typical of me.

Yup. When I trimmed back my plants and put a big fist full of cuttings in my 2 gallon snail tank. I think I suffocated the snails by doint that. Big die off. Big smell.

:(

bleck...think I know what you mean! :sick: my extra tank smelled like crap! but it doesn't really right now since I put in a better filter,

:P Mine is kinda boring and stupid at the same time...
I went to feed my hubbies blue cray, "Rocky", it was his responsibility, but I decided it was my turn. I lifted the vented lid, and it just smelled so bad. I asked Mongo (hubby) when the last time he cleaned the tank. It had probably been 2 weeks. As you know crays are dirty and poop alot creating alot of ammonia. I told him to thoughly clean his tank! I could not even go into the kitchen it stunk so bad. I really don't understand why I couldn't smell it. The tank had a vented lid, and is in the living room right next to where I sit. Maybe I had a cold and didn't know it. That is the only thing I could come up with.
Smell Free forever Now! :up:

Ya know, I really can't think of any stinky situations.

I felt like an idiot just now because I read the post. Then open both of my tanks and sniff the water, then open the filter and sniff. It kinda got me wondering. My 10 gallon kinda has a slight odor, but you have to open it up and really sniff. :huh:

What does smell really bad though, is fish food! :sick: Particularly shrimp pellets and other protein based foods. :D

I remember my first convict tank, it was a 10g and i was overfeeding like crazy. I remember I had that thick smile in the bottom and I didn't have a vacuum yet and the smell was horrible. its funny because it always happens when you start but if it happens now you get all stressed out about it. You want to get that stuff straighten out so fast that you change your plans, put off important things, forget about everything to get it done.

You know you are a fish lover when... fish food smells good! :lol:

Whenever my son brings over a friend that has never been here yet. He gets initiated. I tell the kid close your eyes and take a big whiff. They DO IT! It brings the whole house tumbleing in laughter. Then my son tells them to get used to that type of behavior from my mom and step dad! :lol:

lol. I (had?) some bloodworms, I swear they smelled like chocolate!
and some krill.....ugggg!!! THAT SMELL WAS STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR SOME REASON....:(

Fish food smells bad, but it's when you taste it that you really wonder what your feeding them. Then again, if your tasting fish food you should probably be worried about yourself. Let's just say I was curious...

Anyway, as long as your water doesn't smell like ammonia, which would be, you guessed it, ammonia, you souldn't worry.

When I first started keeping fish, and of course didn't have a testing kit, I could always tell when it was time to change the water. I had decided to stock my tank very heavily to get it 'cycled'. Of course I realize how bad of an idea this was at the time, but luckily, I never lost a fish. If I went over to the tank, leaned over, and smelled the water, if it was enough to make me cringe, I knew it was time to do a water change. If the water smelled clean, I knew I was OK. Your water is probably smelling from - A. A sulfur source in your water. B. Ammonia or Nitrite buildup. or C. Too many dissolved orgranics in your aquarium.

You might try a water change and test your water to make sure that you haven't had a spike.

As far as the sulfur goes, my water comes out of the tap smelling horrible. If I let it sit for a day or two, for example, when making tea, then it tastes and smells A LOT better.

Hope this helps.

You ate fish food :blink:

I remember my cons scared some neon tetras out the back of the tank. I was looking for days for the smell. Until i got tired of that nasty smell and decided to check back there, and there they were about six of them all dryed up. Nasty.

I took a fish to show and tell in 3rd grade... big fish, small bowl... I took him in on thursday, forgot to bring him home... he died thursday night, still forgot to bring him home friday... 1 hot summer weekend later, and they evacuated the school due to the smell.

lol I might try that next time I want to chuck a sicky.