Please reply soon, air question, emergency.

[KittyKatLover]

We have 3 goldfish and one pleco in a 14 gallon tank. we have a 50 gallon bio wheel on their tank. We found out just this evening that tomarrow the power will be shut off from 8 am to 6 pm, we have no where to move them and my fiancee only has a generatore that might last a little more than 2 hours. will that be enough for them?

[egbert]

this may sound silly, but perhabs you could insert a live plant for the day to put some o2 in the water for them.

[KittyKatLover]

The goldfish eat plants within a hour, plus we are broke until tomarrow evening when we get paid. Thank you for the suggestion though/

[Roz]

Hi,

I have experienced a similar situation...several times in fact. I had an outdoor pond with lots of Koi, Comets, Plecostomus, Catfish, and Sharks. At least once a year the electricity would go out for a significant amount of time...several hours, maybe a whole day. You don't need to worry about the Plecostomus, since they are one of the types of fish that have a labyrinth organ, meaning they can breathe surface air if they must (mine prefer to.) Your goldfish are a concern.

I'm not sure what kind of schedule you have, but if one of you will be home that entire day, at the very least, you can visit the fish regularly and break the surface of the water. In breaking the surface of the water you will allow oxygen to get back into the water, and carbon dioxide to escape. I never lost a fish doing this. But it can be tiring.