I have been living in Singapore for 2 months and Thailand for 2.5 months and will be continuing to live in Thailand until April at the earliest. I left my Aquatica in the care of my mother as she insisted she would look after them infinitely better then a friend I have who already has a couple of tanks reluctantly I accepted. Although my tanks were small, I had an ecosystem growing which would take a reasonable amount of time for the plants to grow and flourish, shrimp colonies to become established and fish breeding to be selected to a fine few specimens of a colour form I wanted. I estimate I have spent £200+ on the tanks and inhabitants (which are in my profile list for anyone intrigued)
I come back and without prior warning go up to see my pets which low and behold are not there. Turns out mum got annoyed because the filters were making noise (because she didn't clean them every two weeks like I taught her to do), the lights were not always on so she they were broken (timer.....). The population of isolated guppy/endler crosses exploded, which I told her not to worry about just place them in the pond or take them to a LFS where they will give her food or water conditioner in return provided she catches 20+. Instead of that she adds them to the tank next to it which contained my selected male specimens which I was planning to inbreed and improve on, thus both tanks got packed with hybrids. It took 2 months then mum emptied everything into the pond via a bucket (but its ok though as she did it "on a hot day around 18-20C" from a tank at 26C, I imagine without acclimatisation). Put all my nice substrate with fertiliser tabs in the bin and god knows what happened to the plants and inverts which included lucky bamboo which is a partially terrestrial plant. All she had to do was tell me in the numerous phone calls or emails prior to getting rid of them that she wanted to and I could of advertised online or if it met a deadline got her to take it all to a LFS and at least know they are going to a home as opposed to an early grave.
The ironic thing is she put my Thailand imported tricolour crown tail Betta Splenden in the pond and I am living in Thailand atm unsure whether to buy one as it would be cruel if I will be leaving at the end of April or not. Also to add the Pond contains goldfish which are voracious carnivores given potential prey normally and probably the most disgusting water due to the amount of rotting vegetation from leaves I doubt have been collected from the surface. My one saving grace for you shrimp fanatics and my colonies which may of moved is that the RCS I introduced into the pond before summer are still alive and active in the pond crawling through the substrate, even at this time of year. I grabbed a big lot of muck out with the net and there were quite a lot wriggling about but now I can't remove the muck in case of killing them all but it is a good sign toxin levels aren't too high.
I come back and without prior warning go up to see my pets which low and behold are not there. Turns out mum got annoyed because the filters were making noise (because she didn't clean them every two weeks like I taught her to do), the lights were not always on so she they were broken (timer.....). The population of isolated guppy/endler crosses exploded, which I told her not to worry about just place them in the pond or take them to a LFS where they will give her food or water conditioner in return provided she catches 20+. Instead of that she adds them to the tank next to it which contained my selected male specimens which I was planning to inbreed and improve on, thus both tanks got packed with hybrids. It took 2 months then mum emptied everything into the pond via a bucket (but its ok though as she did it "on a hot day around 18-20C" from a tank at 26C, I imagine without acclimatisation). Put all my nice substrate with fertiliser tabs in the bin and god knows what happened to the plants and inverts which included lucky bamboo which is a partially terrestrial plant. All she had to do was tell me in the numerous phone calls or emails prior to getting rid of them that she wanted to and I could of advertised online or if it met a deadline got her to take it all to a LFS and at least know they are going to a home as opposed to an early grave.
The ironic thing is she put my Thailand imported tricolour crown tail Betta Splenden in the pond and I am living in Thailand atm unsure whether to buy one as it would be cruel if I will be leaving at the end of April or not. Also to add the Pond contains goldfish which are voracious carnivores given potential prey normally and probably the most disgusting water due to the amount of rotting vegetation from leaves I doubt have been collected from the surface. My one saving grace for you shrimp fanatics and my colonies which may of moved is that the RCS I introduced into the pond before summer are still alive and active in the pond crawling through the substrate, even at this time of year. I grabbed a big lot of muck out with the net and there were quite a lot wriggling about but now I can't remove the muck in case of killing them all but it is a good sign toxin levels aren't too high.
