Hi,
Let me start by saying that I'm rather new at this hobby. Since I have a rather busy day I thought I'd give it a try because I read somewhere that fish are "low maintenace" pets. Low maintenace my Aunt Polly's flip flops! I' never, in my wildest dreams, imagined I'd be doing ammonia, ph, nitrites and all sort of silly names tests... of water... of all things! Let alone enjoy doing them. The funny thing is that I actually am! I'm all excited when I get my hands on my test kit.
So far I'm not doing so bad. After almost two months of my tank finishing its cycle I've only had one loss (due to a nasty bacterial infection on my pretty female platy). But today I had the freakiest moment I've had in a looooong time my friends. One of my female guppys hasn't been well all week. I suspect she gave birth without me noticing 'cause her gravid spot is not gravid anymore and looks slimmer than she used to. The bad thing is that she's also very weak and swimming erraticly. Well, early today I went to the tank to check up on her and see how she was doing and my heart almost stopped when I saw her in a "quasi-vertical" position stuck in some plants!!
I nudged her a little with the net and she recovered her "horizontal position" right away. I think, "well, she's ok now" and go watch a little TV. I come back and what do I find? My guppy girl stuck, HEAD FIRST, in the orifice on the powerhead that "sucks" water in. Now I'm having a major collapse! Running around like a crazy person, throwing the lamp and the tanks lid as far as I could and desperatley reaching for my fish with my bare fingers. Then after an instant of lucidity it ocurred to me that I probably should turn the powerhead off first. So I did, and in absolute panic I tugged (as gently as I could) to free her from the "sucking orifice of death". I did it on the third try. As I was going at it, horrible images of a headless or eyeless guppy kept crossing my very stressed mind. Fortunatley nothing of the sort happened and she started swimming away looking as scared as I was, the poor thing. And then it hit me. I thought of the silliness of the image of a crazed girl (I really should start calling myself a woman) in her pajamas, bad morning hair, tossing lamps around, in her quest to rescue a very small fish... and couldn't help but chuckling a little. The things we do for our pets, heh? I keep saying to myself that I got a fish tank in order to "relieve me from stress" in the first place and now I wonder how more stressful than this can it get? Definetly not what I was expecting from a soothing hobby. But I don't care. Now I feel I have faced (and succeeded at) a trying situation that made my bond with the inhabitants of my tank a bit tighter, and feel I can face things like this with a little more confidence.
As for the guppy, she's not well yet, but she's sure putting on a fight. I really hope this little one makes it.
I'm not ranting or complaining, but I needed to vent my chest a little I guess.
Thanks for listening.
Let me start by saying that I'm rather new at this hobby. Since I have a rather busy day I thought I'd give it a try because I read somewhere that fish are "low maintenace" pets. Low maintenace my Aunt Polly's flip flops! I' never, in my wildest dreams, imagined I'd be doing ammonia, ph, nitrites and all sort of silly names tests... of water... of all things! Let alone enjoy doing them. The funny thing is that I actually am! I'm all excited when I get my hands on my test kit.
So far I'm not doing so bad. After almost two months of my tank finishing its cycle I've only had one loss (due to a nasty bacterial infection on my pretty female platy). But today I had the freakiest moment I've had in a looooong time my friends. One of my female guppys hasn't been well all week. I suspect she gave birth without me noticing 'cause her gravid spot is not gravid anymore and looks slimmer than she used to. The bad thing is that she's also very weak and swimming erraticly. Well, early today I went to the tank to check up on her and see how she was doing and my heart almost stopped when I saw her in a "quasi-vertical" position stuck in some plants!!
I nudged her a little with the net and she recovered her "horizontal position" right away. I think, "well, she's ok now" and go watch a little TV. I come back and what do I find? My guppy girl stuck, HEAD FIRST, in the orifice on the powerhead that "sucks" water in. Now I'm having a major collapse! Running around like a crazy person, throwing the lamp and the tanks lid as far as I could and desperatley reaching for my fish with my bare fingers. Then after an instant of lucidity it ocurred to me that I probably should turn the powerhead off first. So I did, and in absolute panic I tugged (as gently as I could) to free her from the "sucking orifice of death". I did it on the third try. As I was going at it, horrible images of a headless or eyeless guppy kept crossing my very stressed mind. Fortunatley nothing of the sort happened and she started swimming away looking as scared as I was, the poor thing. And then it hit me. I thought of the silliness of the image of a crazed girl (I really should start calling myself a woman) in her pajamas, bad morning hair, tossing lamps around, in her quest to rescue a very small fish... and couldn't help but chuckling a little. The things we do for our pets, heh? I keep saying to myself that I got a fish tank in order to "relieve me from stress" in the first place and now I wonder how more stressful than this can it get? Definetly not what I was expecting from a soothing hobby. But I don't care. Now I feel I have faced (and succeeded at) a trying situation that made my bond with the inhabitants of my tank a bit tighter, and feel I can face things like this with a little more confidence.As for the guppy, she's not well yet, but she's sure putting on a fight. I really hope this little one makes it.
I'm not ranting or complaining, but I needed to vent my chest a little I guess.
Thanks for listening.
) 
