Massive fish tank bursts, flooding store, killing 350 fish

A beautiful discus fish swimming among aquatic plants.
Aquarium breaks FILE PHOTO: A 2,000-gallon fish tank suddenly burst, sending water and 350 fish cascading to the ground of a pet store. (nuttayabaifin_51932/Nuttaya Nampai - stock.adobe.com)

A small business had a catastrophe hit it when a massive fish tank burst, sending thousands of gallons of water flooding and killing hundreds of fish.

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The tank exploded at Something Fishy Pet store in Fox Lake, Illinois, last week, flooding the business with about two thousand gallons of water, WGN reported.

Owner Derrick Johnson was at the shop when the tank burst.

“I was moving stuff back from here to over there and as I was grabbing the ladder from the other side, I just hear a loud crash-bang. I can’t even describe the sound,” he told WGN.

Of the more than 350 fish, Johnson and his employee were able to save about 100 of them.

According to the store’s Facebook page, no customers were there, but because the workers were, they were able to start cleaning up.

A GoFundMe page, set up by Trevor O’Gorman and Johnson, said that the tank was about 20 years old and was being transformed into a “Slice of the Amazon” display.

WMAQ said it will cost around $20,000 to rebuild the tank alone.

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