Fish Tank Disaster At Texas State Aquarium Leads To Mass Die Off

Images showed empty exhibits after many fish died during an attempt by staff to treat a parasite. The staff are devastated, a spokesman for the aquarium said.

Staff at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi have been left devastated after an attempt to treat parasites in some tanks resulted in "considerable losses" of fish.

"In an attempt to control a particularly difficult parasite that had proven resistant to other treatments, staff administered a new treatment that is commonly used by many other aquariums in treating similar issues," the aquarium said in a Facebook post.

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But many of the animals in the affected exhibits had an adverse reaction to the medication, according to the aquarium.

The die-off started roughly two hours after the treatment was administered, prompting staff to start pulling fish out of exhibits in an attempt to save them individually, the aquarium's chief marketing officer, Richard E. Glover Jr., said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

The rescue operation continued throughout the night, he added.

Dozens of animals were lost, although the aquarium did not expect to have a complete count until Thursday.

The botched treatment, however, only affected a handful of exhibits at the aquarium.

Among the affected exhibits, Glover said, were Islands of Steel and Flower Gardens, the two largest inside the Gulf of Mexico building.

According to Glover, Islands of Steel is about 125,000 gallons and housed a sand tiger shark, some nurse sharks, and species of larger fish found in the Gulf of Mexico, such as tarpon and grouper.

The Flower Gardens exhibit is approximately 40,000 gallons and housed eels and midsize and smaller fish that would be found in the Flower Gardens National Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico, Glover said.

Confirmed losses included the sand tiger shark, the nurse sharks, and most of the other fish in both exhibits, he said. All of the lionfish in the lionfish exhibit also died.

Images on social media showed aquarium visitors looking at near-empty tanks.

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The aquarium said it had successfully tested the treatment on a smaller exhibit before it was administered to the larger tanks. In a statement posted on Facebook, Glover said staff members were working to find out what caused the reaction and would keep the public informed of any updates.

In the meantime, Glover told BuzzFeed News in a statement that the staff was grappling with a sense of tremendous loss.

"For the staff, this has been devastating," he said. "Our husbandry staff puts their hearts and souls into the care given to all of the animals in our collection, and this has been an extremely difficult night and day for the people responsible for the day-to-day care of our animals, as well as all of our staff and volunteers.

"These animals mean so much to us all, and this is not something any of us will get over easily."

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