There's play-doh in my tank!

[chriscoli]

So we had a bunch of friends with kids over today for a BBQ and I noticed one of my 40B tanks was cloudy....then I noticed that there were blobs of hot pink, turquoise, and orange dissolving in the bottom if the tank.....probably a handfull total volume of what I found out was play-doh. (we found the corresponding containers nearby)

I've removed the play-doh from the tank and am doing a water change. I'm not too freaked out since the stuff is pretty non-toxic (to people). I will be watching for a bacterial bloom from all of the extra starches, though.

I'm quite sure that I'm not the only person to experience a child's over zealous need to feed the hungry-looking fish with play-doh......

Any words of advice on what else I might consider doing to help this tank recover?

 

[jonclark96]

Water changes sound like the best idea to me. Do a big one now and maybe another tomorrow.

 

[dogofwar]

Yes - you can (almost) never go wrong with a big water change or three

I've actually experienced the play-doh-in-tank phenomenon when I had a fish tank maintenance business (back in high school). A 55g in a HMO waiting room was oddly cloudy. Once it was lumps of play doh. Another it was French fries. Another if was a diaper. We had to tape the top closed (other than a small hole for feeding).

Matt

 

[chriscoli]

Well, so far, other than having hot pink poops...the fish don't seem bothered at all.

 

[Tony]

Well, so far, other than having hot pink poops...the fish don't seem bothered at all.

Epic.

 

[Pat Kelly]

Well, so far, other than having hot pink poops...the fish don't seem bothered at all.

LOL OMG


LOL

 

[Pat Kelly]

My sister fed our Parents fish one time when we were little. She was probably 3.
The fish did not do so well with the powdered detergent.

 

[Tony]

My sister fed our Parents fish one time when we were little. She was probably 3.
The fish did not do so well with the powdered detergent.

ouch!

 

[mchambers]

Any legos in the tank?

And I'll bet the play-doh had some pretty interesting microbes in it when it was introduced to the tank.

 

[chriscoli]

The fish did not do so well with the powdered detergent.

OMG! Well, as I was doing my waterchange on that tank lastnight, I did comment to myself that there could have been A LOT worse things put in that tank...

Any legos in the tank?QUOTE]


Acutally, we almost did bring the legos down to that level of the house for the kids, but we were using the back door a lot and I didn't want them in the middle of traffic.

 

[dogofwar]

How old were the culprit(s)?

I was away for a few days a couple of weeks ago...and Siena did a great job feeding some fry and keeping an eye on the fishroom.

The Tots stay out of the fishroom...

Matt

 

[chriscoli]

I'm thinking the culprit was a 6-year old.

 

[mchambers]

Pretty sure the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that six-year-olds are too young to be culprits!