Here's the story. I recently set up a tank, borrowing about five pounds of gravel from my son's well established tank to "seed" the tank with good bacteria. I put it in a knee-high panty hose. Could I leave well enough alone? No. I transferred it into a plastic strainer so that I could stir it up and have better water flow through it. Again, could I leave well enough alone? Of course not. The plastic strainer had a big red plastic handle that I quickly got tired of lookng at, so I cut the strainer part away from the handle and frame, wrapped it all up in cheesecloth and returned it to the tank. Fine so far.
Tonight I noticed that one of my Gouramies is picking at the lump of wrapped up gravel in the corner of the tank. The cheesecloth is fraying because he's really going after it. So I figure it's time to take it out. Get the bucket, reach in and try to grab the big lump of gravel in the corner. The cheescloth has deteriorated so much after a week in the water that it basically shreds when I try to pick it up. There are now hundreds of little tiny threads flying around in the tank. You know what that looks like to the fish? Smorgas*******board of worms! The fish are going ablsolutely bonkers, I run to get another strainer and the fish net, I scoop as fast as I can, meanwhile, it looks like a blizzard in the tank...
After an hour of water changing and scooping and working to get all that crap out of the tank, it doesn't look too bad, but it was sheer panic for quite a while. I don't think the fish actually ate too many threads. They were spitting them back out, mostly. And maybe the threads I couldn't get will decompose fairly quickly. The only reason I'm not hysterical with laughter is I'm worried about the well-being of my fish. Especially the one I adopted from my sister today. "Hey Jennifer, I killed Mr. Doofus!" is not a conversation I want to have with her.
Wish me luck!
Tonight I noticed that one of my Gouramies is picking at the lump of wrapped up gravel in the corner of the tank. The cheesecloth is fraying because he's really going after it. So I figure it's time to take it out. Get the bucket, reach in and try to grab the big lump of gravel in the corner. The cheescloth has deteriorated so much after a week in the water that it basically shreds when I try to pick it up. There are now hundreds of little tiny threads flying around in the tank. You know what that looks like to the fish? Smorgas*******board of worms! The fish are going ablsolutely bonkers, I run to get another strainer and the fish net, I scoop as fast as I can, meanwhile, it looks like a blizzard in the tank...
After an hour of water changing and scooping and working to get all that crap out of the tank, it doesn't look too bad, but it was sheer panic for quite a while. I don't think the fish actually ate too many threads. They were spitting them back out, mostly. And maybe the threads I couldn't get will decompose fairly quickly. The only reason I'm not hysterical with laughter is I'm worried about the well-being of my fish. Especially the one I adopted from my sister today. "Hey Jennifer, I killed Mr. Doofus!" is not a conversation I want to have with her.
Wish me luck!
