- Location
- Long Island, 11769
So it's the summer time, and people start to slip on their tank maintenance because they're out enjoying the beautiful weather and sun and time off (except me of coarse, because i'm kind of a fuddy duddy who hates the heat and gets really bad sunburn, but that's beside the point.) You would think that a mini crash would happen on one of the days that I slather myself in spf 70 to take the <10 minute walk to my job at a lab, where I will then be away from my tank for upwards of eight hours, right? Of coarse not (thanks, Murphy.) Long story short..ish- I had a fever for most of this week 
(, and was not really capable of doing much other than sleeping, writhing, drinking juice, and complaining to anyone who would listen to me about how the f--- I got a fever in June ( JUNE! who put a hex on me for a 101 degree fever in 93 degree heat?!) My tank maintenance slipped a little, but not much- I fed and made sure everything was happy/alive, and made sure that the temperature wasn't out of control during my brief excursions to the refrigerator to get more juice. All was well and good in my tank, the temp stayed around 81 (which obviously isn't ideal, but with thermal curtains and a fan on >90 Brooklyn summer days? I think that's pretty good without a chiller.) At one point during the day I even sat on the couch for a whole 5 minutes and peacefully watched the inhabitants of my tank (while drinking my juice, obviously,) before I decided that I needed to get back to bed as to not catch some other kind of airborne illness that could blow into my window. I mean, there were kids playing out there, who knows what they could have.
Well, this morning I wake up, feeling a little less like I'm living in the 14th century suffering from the Bubonic plague, and I look at my tank. Something seems off, nothing is moving. All the pumps are running, temp is 83 (hmm…) All tests normal, salinity is a tad high, 1.028, but the tank needed to be topped off a little on account of the fan being on it all night, so that's not earth shattering. I check out the corals, things are fine (the lights were off but nothing looked bleached or melted.) My CUC and peppermints are still scurrying about, but where are my fish? At this point I am only slightly alarmed, thinking that maybe my fish were playing some kind of sneaky joke on me, and that they would all swim out from under a rock and yell "GOOD MORNING!" in an effort to make me feel better. Well, only slightly. The watchman goby always hangs out in a cave, so it's not weird for him not to be out and about. The carpenter's flasher wrasse usually doesn't come out from whatever crevice/sand dune/uncomfortable area he sleeps in until about 2:00pm, so that's not that off-putting. I checked the overflow and surrounding floor area to see if my clowns jumped (they have a suicide pact, I'm sure of it,) and I see a little orange fin sticking out of a rock. Mildly alarmed, I slipped on a glove and gave him (well, now that I think of it, her,) a little nudge. Nothing. Dead- not even touched by the CUC yet. Disheartened, I find the male next to her (I knew this would happen, what with their pact and all.) I was upset, but not as upset as I was when I moved the rock they were next to and discovered my wrasse and lividanalis blenny (who had the greatest personality and was coloring up SO nicely…) motionless. I fish them out (I'm too distraught for this pun…) and put them in a tupperware container/coffin, and begin searching for the watchman (because surely he's met the same demise as the others) Low and behold, he's just chilling out in his cave, looking grumpy, as per usual (we are very similar, this fish and I.):frown:
I salute my fallen finned friends as their littler corpses meet their porcelain grave, then start prepping for a water change (mind you, I am still feverish, and now I am also in mourning, and out of precious juice,.) Luckily, I had mixed up a batch of saltwater the night before, because I had planned on doing my biweekly water change in the morning,pending I didn't still have the consumption and whatnot.I won't lie to you all and say weekly water change, because let's face it, my social life is just too demanding:duh:. Actually, I just have a bad back and a scolding chiropractor, so I usually wait for my gratuitously burly boyfriend (read: man of average build) to help me with the jugs of water. Anyhow, I Put a pouch chemipure in the tank, and then began brooding and lamenting, trying to recreate what possible scenarios could have caused this unfortunate situation. Were they all in on a suicide pact? Do I have a mantis shrimp that just isn't hungry? Did my cat, who slept in my bedroom, pull some kind of jedi mind trick and let himself out to massacre 4 fish because he wants more attention? Did I make an enemy that knew how much I loved and how long I waited to get that damn wrasse, and they found the perfect way to vex me? Did I give the fish my fever by staring too intently at the tank? (And then the more likely questions…) Did the power go out only in my living room last night?(not really that likely) Was there a sudden temperature spike after I went to bed causing a lack in dissolved oxygen? (more likely.) Is my thermometer giving me incorrect readings? (could be.)Did my fish just hate me? (most likely.) Would this not have happened if I did my water change the night before, if I hand't fallen asleep right smack dab in the middle of the floor? No one will ever know, I'm going to bet on a temperature spike though.
Hope no one else suffers any major losses this summer.
RIP little friends, we hardly knew ye.:sigh::goldfish2
And a little anecdote, before this happened, I had been in talks with friends about setting up a better chilling system, so I will have a better chilling apparatus on my tank come Tuesday, which will maybe prevent this from happening again. One the bright side, now you guys all know what species of fish to bring me if I ever have a housewarming party (live animals are obviously more appropriate gifts than bottles of wine and reed diffuser air fresheners, right?:fishhit
(, and was not really capable of doing much other than sleeping, writhing, drinking juice, and complaining to anyone who would listen to me about how the f--- I got a fever in June ( JUNE! who put a hex on me for a 101 degree fever in 93 degree heat?!) My tank maintenance slipped a little, but not much- I fed and made sure everything was happy/alive, and made sure that the temperature wasn't out of control during my brief excursions to the refrigerator to get more juice. All was well and good in my tank, the temp stayed around 81 (which obviously isn't ideal, but with thermal curtains and a fan on >90 Brooklyn summer days? I think that's pretty good without a chiller.) At one point during the day I even sat on the couch for a whole 5 minutes and peacefully watched the inhabitants of my tank (while drinking my juice, obviously,) before I decided that I needed to get back to bed as to not catch some other kind of airborne illness that could blow into my window. I mean, there were kids playing out there, who knows what they could have.Well, this morning I wake up, feeling a little less like I'm living in the 14th century suffering from the Bubonic plague, and I look at my tank. Something seems off, nothing is moving. All the pumps are running, temp is 83 (hmm…) All tests normal, salinity is a tad high, 1.028, but the tank needed to be topped off a little on account of the fan being on it all night, so that's not earth shattering. I check out the corals, things are fine (the lights were off but nothing looked bleached or melted.) My CUC and peppermints are still scurrying about, but where are my fish? At this point I am only slightly alarmed, thinking that maybe my fish were playing some kind of sneaky joke on me, and that they would all swim out from under a rock and yell "GOOD MORNING!" in an effort to make me feel better. Well, only slightly. The watchman goby always hangs out in a cave, so it's not weird for him not to be out and about. The carpenter's flasher wrasse usually doesn't come out from whatever crevice/sand dune/uncomfortable area he sleeps in until about 2:00pm, so that's not that off-putting. I checked the overflow and surrounding floor area to see if my clowns jumped (they have a suicide pact, I'm sure of it,) and I see a little orange fin sticking out of a rock. Mildly alarmed, I slipped on a glove and gave him (well, now that I think of it, her,) a little nudge. Nothing. Dead- not even touched by the CUC yet. Disheartened, I find the male next to her (I knew this would happen, what with their pact and all.) I was upset, but not as upset as I was when I moved the rock they were next to and discovered my wrasse and lividanalis blenny (who had the greatest personality and was coloring up SO nicely…) motionless. I fish them out (I'm too distraught for this pun…) and put them in a tupperware container/coffin, and begin searching for the watchman (because surely he's met the same demise as the others) Low and behold, he's just chilling out in his cave, looking grumpy, as per usual (we are very similar, this fish and I.):frown:
I salute my fallen finned friends as their littler corpses meet their porcelain grave, then start prepping for a water change (mind you, I am still feverish, and now I am also in mourning, and out of precious juice,.) Luckily, I had mixed up a batch of saltwater the night before, because I had planned on doing my biweekly water change in the morning,pending I didn't still have the consumption and whatnot.I won't lie to you all and say weekly water change, because let's face it, my social life is just too demanding:duh:. Actually, I just have a bad back and a scolding chiropractor, so I usually wait for my gratuitously burly boyfriend (read: man of average build) to help me with the jugs of water. Anyhow, I Put a pouch chemipure in the tank, and then began brooding and lamenting, trying to recreate what possible scenarios could have caused this unfortunate situation. Were they all in on a suicide pact? Do I have a mantis shrimp that just isn't hungry? Did my cat, who slept in my bedroom, pull some kind of jedi mind trick and let himself out to massacre 4 fish because he wants more attention? Did I make an enemy that knew how much I loved and how long I waited to get that damn wrasse, and they found the perfect way to vex me? Did I give the fish my fever by staring too intently at the tank? (And then the more likely questions…) Did the power go out only in my living room last night?(not really that likely) Was there a sudden temperature spike after I went to bed causing a lack in dissolved oxygen? (more likely.) Is my thermometer giving me incorrect readings? (could be.)Did my fish just hate me? (most likely.) Would this not have happened if I did my water change the night before, if I hand't fallen asleep right smack dab in the middle of the floor? No one will ever know, I'm going to bet on a temperature spike though.
Hope no one else suffers any major losses this summer.
RIP little friends, we hardly knew ye.:sigh::goldfish2
And a little anecdote, before this happened, I had been in talks with friends about setting up a better chilling system, so I will have a better chilling apparatus on my tank come Tuesday, which will maybe prevent this from happening again. One the bright side, now you guys all know what species of fish to bring me if I ever have a housewarming party (live animals are obviously more appropriate gifts than bottles of wine and reed diffuser air fresheners, right?:fishhit
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