Rachel0001
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have to tell this story! Even though it hurts my gut to even think about it, it has a good ending.
On Sunday around 11:00am I packed up the last of my Red Zebra fry in an orange Home Depot bucket and flew over to my LFS. My 15 or so fry, most of which I hatched from an egg tumbler in May, were all between 1-2" and it's a good thing because my grow out tank sprung a leak on Saturday. I love my fry but I also love the cichlid guy at my LFS so I'm ok with taking them there. Last time I went in he still had 10 of my big Acei & Yellow Labs swimming around in a 55 gallon by themselves, and he'd even separated a mom who was holding. Not very fish-store-like, especially considering it had been almost a month. I love that.
So I get there and the store is packed. The fish guy is helping other customers so another employee comes from behind the register to grab the bucket from me. He grabs it, quickly pulls my large holey rock decoration out and hands it to me as its pouring water all over the floor. I'm trying to keep my cool as I'm following him, leaving a huge trail of water and tipping the rock every which way just waiting to catch a little fish as it comes flying out. Doesn't he know they hide in these things? I can't even count how many times I've lifted them out of the water and had to tip them so the fish can escape. Luckily, no fish. He dumps my entire bucket in a huge plastic bag, puts the bag in a huge tank full of huge Red Devils (???!!!!) to acclimate and leaves the bucket on the sink, nodding at me as he goes back to the register.
Now I'm standing in the fish room watching as the fry are eyeballed like they're lunch, and pulling the bag up around the edges of the tank to be sure it doesn't fall in and actually turn them into lunch. The red devils are nipping at the bag and my fry don't look too thrilled. This is not making me feel too good. This is not relevant to the story, really, it was just so uncool to me that he'd throw them in that tank (not the tank full of cory cats and tetras above it?) so I can't help but mention it. I know they're in a bag, but it was still unsettling...those bad boys were huge! Anyway.
I start to wander through the rooms of tanks while I'm waiting for the fish guy to take a look at the fry and let me know how much credit I'll be getting. I'm nervously keeping an eye on the bag because it's on a tank at floor level and there are kids all over...I'm just waiting for one to inadvertently dump the bag in.
After talking to the fish guy, wandering the store for a good 2 hours (I LOVE that place) and making a few purchases I head out to my car. As I'm leaving I see him running out of the store, holding my bucket. Oops! I jump out, grab the bucket, thank him and throw it in the back seat.
That was Sunday about 2:30.
I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, running errands, painting a bedroom...but I didn't bother to grab the bucket. I went to work yesterday (Monday) and got home around 6:00. I cooked dinner, cleaned up and decided to clean out the filters in my big tank. I realized after I pulled the first filter out of the tank stand that the fish-safe bucket that isn't currently soaking driftwood is in my backseat.
This is around 8:00. Monday.
Grabbing the bucket from my car, I pull out the holey rock, give it one last little shake and put it on my shelf in the garage. I notice how cold it's getting in the garage now that it's September.
On my way through the laundry room, I am holding the empty bucket in the light for the first time. I look down and at the very bottom of the empty orange bucket I see movement. I see one little eye looking up at me. One of the fry had been left behind!! When the rushed employee dumped the entire bucket of fish into the bag he must not have even looked to see if they'd all made it in the bag. I didn't notice because I was so busy checking the rock decoration. This fish was in less than a teaspoon of freezing cold water IF you tilted the bucket, a matter of drops when it was flat on the floor of my car.
I sprinted into the house, yelled for someone to grab a cup of tank water, grabbed some cool water from the sink, threw a couple drops of prime in, dumped both cups together in a big clay pot I just happened to have on my counter and placed him into the water. He was in the pot less than 15-20 seconds after I saw him in the laundry room!
I felt like someone hit me in the chest. That poor thing!!! I still want to cry every time I think about the day and a half that little fish was in the bucket in almost no water.
I've had people who don't have fish tell me they don't understand why I like them so much. I've heard "but they don't have personalities" or "they cant love you like a dog can" more than once. They groan and say they can't imagine how much work it must be. But it doesn't feel like work! It is so rewarding to create a healthy environment for an animal that I care for. Not to mention the free therapy I get when I lose myself in their world for a half an hour. And they DO have different personalities. Every one of my fish is a little different. They recognize me- they shamelessly beg for food when I'm in the room and hardly acknowledge others, even if they pick up their food container. When something goes wrong with their world, it's my responsibility, my job to make it right. If a fish in my care is hurt or dies for a reason other than old age, that's on me. I am not ok knowing an animal suffered because I was neglectful or careless. So to see one of the fry I stripped as an egg from one of favorite mommas- who I got to see develop from an egg and finally start swimming- in that bucket looking up at me, it was hard.
I didn't know if he was going to make it. I watched his fins twitch as he lie on his side, gasping. One would flutter while the other would stick to his side- but he started trying to swim around in just a couple of minutes. I added stress coat and a heater and an air stone and went to bed, thinking I'd probably wake up and find him gone- but I'd done my best to try and make him comfortable. I laid in bed trying to fall asleep, feeling terrible that I didn't even think to check the bucket. Of course he wouldn't have!
You can imagine my surprise when I went downstairs this morning and hesitatingly peeked in on him to find him swimming around the bucket! What?! I dropped a pellet and watched him race for it and gobble it up. Seriously?! When I left for work he was still swimming around the bucket. I have no idea what I'll do with him since I don't have a tank full of mbunas anymore but I'm not taking him right back to the LFS!
On Sunday around 11:00am I packed up the last of my Red Zebra fry in an orange Home Depot bucket and flew over to my LFS. My 15 or so fry, most of which I hatched from an egg tumbler in May, were all between 1-2" and it's a good thing because my grow out tank sprung a leak on Saturday. I love my fry but I also love the cichlid guy at my LFS so I'm ok with taking them there. Last time I went in he still had 10 of my big Acei & Yellow Labs swimming around in a 55 gallon by themselves, and he'd even separated a mom who was holding. Not very fish-store-like, especially considering it had been almost a month. I love that.
So I get there and the store is packed. The fish guy is helping other customers so another employee comes from behind the register to grab the bucket from me. He grabs it, quickly pulls my large holey rock decoration out and hands it to me as its pouring water all over the floor. I'm trying to keep my cool as I'm following him, leaving a huge trail of water and tipping the rock every which way just waiting to catch a little fish as it comes flying out. Doesn't he know they hide in these things? I can't even count how many times I've lifted them out of the water and had to tip them so the fish can escape. Luckily, no fish. He dumps my entire bucket in a huge plastic bag, puts the bag in a huge tank full of huge Red Devils (???!!!!) to acclimate and leaves the bucket on the sink, nodding at me as he goes back to the register.
Now I'm standing in the fish room watching as the fry are eyeballed like they're lunch, and pulling the bag up around the edges of the tank to be sure it doesn't fall in and actually turn them into lunch. The red devils are nipping at the bag and my fry don't look too thrilled. This is not making me feel too good. This is not relevant to the story, really, it was just so uncool to me that he'd throw them in that tank (not the tank full of cory cats and tetras above it?) so I can't help but mention it. I know they're in a bag, but it was still unsettling...those bad boys were huge! Anyway.
I start to wander through the rooms of tanks while I'm waiting for the fish guy to take a look at the fry and let me know how much credit I'll be getting. I'm nervously keeping an eye on the bag because it's on a tank at floor level and there are kids all over...I'm just waiting for one to inadvertently dump the bag in.
After talking to the fish guy, wandering the store for a good 2 hours (I LOVE that place) and making a few purchases I head out to my car. As I'm leaving I see him running out of the store, holding my bucket. Oops! I jump out, grab the bucket, thank him and throw it in the back seat.
That was Sunday about 2:30.
I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, running errands, painting a bedroom...but I didn't bother to grab the bucket. I went to work yesterday (Monday) and got home around 6:00. I cooked dinner, cleaned up and decided to clean out the filters in my big tank. I realized after I pulled the first filter out of the tank stand that the fish-safe bucket that isn't currently soaking driftwood is in my backseat.
This is around 8:00. Monday.
Grabbing the bucket from my car, I pull out the holey rock, give it one last little shake and put it on my shelf in the garage. I notice how cold it's getting in the garage now that it's September.
On my way through the laundry room, I am holding the empty bucket in the light for the first time. I look down and at the very bottom of the empty orange bucket I see movement. I see one little eye looking up at me. One of the fry had been left behind!! When the rushed employee dumped the entire bucket of fish into the bag he must not have even looked to see if they'd all made it in the bag. I didn't notice because I was so busy checking the rock decoration. This fish was in less than a teaspoon of freezing cold water IF you tilted the bucket, a matter of drops when it was flat on the floor of my car.
I sprinted into the house, yelled for someone to grab a cup of tank water, grabbed some cool water from the sink, threw a couple drops of prime in, dumped both cups together in a big clay pot I just happened to have on my counter and placed him into the water. He was in the pot less than 15-20 seconds after I saw him in the laundry room!
I felt like someone hit me in the chest. That poor thing!!! I still want to cry every time I think about the day and a half that little fish was in the bucket in almost no water.
I've had people who don't have fish tell me they don't understand why I like them so much. I've heard "but they don't have personalities" or "they cant love you like a dog can" more than once. They groan and say they can't imagine how much work it must be. But it doesn't feel like work! It is so rewarding to create a healthy environment for an animal that I care for. Not to mention the free therapy I get when I lose myself in their world for a half an hour. And they DO have different personalities. Every one of my fish is a little different. They recognize me- they shamelessly beg for food when I'm in the room and hardly acknowledge others, even if they pick up their food container. When something goes wrong with their world, it's my responsibility, my job to make it right. If a fish in my care is hurt or dies for a reason other than old age, that's on me. I am not ok knowing an animal suffered because I was neglectful or careless. So to see one of the fry I stripped as an egg from one of favorite mommas- who I got to see develop from an egg and finally start swimming- in that bucket looking up at me, it was hard.
I didn't know if he was going to make it. I watched his fins twitch as he lie on his side, gasping. One would flutter while the other would stick to his side- but he started trying to swim around in just a couple of minutes. I added stress coat and a heater and an air stone and went to bed, thinking I'd probably wake up and find him gone- but I'd done my best to try and make him comfortable. I laid in bed trying to fall asleep, feeling terrible that I didn't even think to check the bucket. Of course he wouldn't have!
You can imagine my surprise when I went downstairs this morning and hesitatingly peeked in on him to find him swimming around the bucket! What?! I dropped a pellet and watched him race for it and gobble it up. Seriously?! When I left for work he was still swimming around the bucket. I have no idea what I'll do with him since I don't have a tank full of mbunas anymore but I'm not taking him right back to the LFS!
