shawmutt
Aquarium Advice Addict
I was cleaning out my 30 gallon, and fixing up my 10 gallon. I take all my decorations out--my skull, my plastic trunk, and put them in the bathtub. I start draining some water and putting gravel in a plastic bag. I put a bunch of gravel in my 10 gallon, and pour some water in. I move the plants over, hook up the heater, get the filter going. I'm moving as fast as possible, becuase I don't want the water to cool too much. Then I start pulling fish out...four corys, then three, no four (! ) ottos--seems they all lived...one cardinal 
...and then the three hatchet fish. This all takes about an hour. I don't want the algae on the decorations to dry up, so I start filling up the tub and scrubbing them with my aquarium brush. I grab my plastic tree trunk, and who should pop out? My freakin' talking cat fish!!! He fell right into the fresh tapwater, I'm like :censor: !!!!!!!!!. I dash out and grab my net, scoop him up, and dropped him in the 10 gallon. Now, you may notice, I've never mentioned my talking catfish before. That's because he was the first fish I bought since getting the tank. When I inherited the tank from my father-in-law, I got it with a 10 year-old angelfish with a mean disposition. So I thought a catfish would be cool, bought the first one I found that wouldn't get too big (4" according to the petsmart tag), and left it at that. I never fed the catfish, I just assumed he was getting leftovers from the angelfish. He disappeared and was nowhere to be found, and I assumed he was dead. Well, that was over a year ago (way over a year I think), and he survived the death of the angel, my failed gourami experiment, removal of the ugf, a move in December in which his stump was out of the water for 20 minutes (yet another time I thought he was dead but found out otherwise), my total conversion to a black water tank including changing the substrate and adding a bunch of crap and messing with the pH, ich, and now, (hopefully)the move into the 10 gallon, which involved being out of the water for an hour and a dunk into cold bath water and a frantic human scooping him up, running screaming dripping through the house and being dumped in a tiny tank. My kinda fish .
Sidenote: For those of you who are shaking your head at the fish load in my tiny tank, I just want to let you know that tomorrow I'm off to the lfs to return my hatchets and ottos. So I'll have 4 corys and the 4" monster in a nice planted tank.
Another side note: Since I started collecting tiny fish, I've only lost 4 before the ich epidemic--three cardinals and a hatchet. I never found their dead bodies...and now I know why!
...and then the three hatchet fish. This all takes about an hour. I don't want the algae on the decorations to dry up, so I start filling up the tub and scrubbing them with my aquarium brush. I grab my plastic tree trunk, and who should pop out? My freakin' talking cat fish!!! He fell right into the fresh tapwater, I'm like :censor: !!!!!!!!!. I dash out and grab my net, scoop him up, and dropped him in the 10 gallon. Now, you may notice, I've never mentioned my talking catfish before. That's because he was the first fish I bought since getting the tank. When I inherited the tank from my father-in-law, I got it with a 10 year-old angelfish with a mean disposition. So I thought a catfish would be cool, bought the first one I found that wouldn't get too big (4" according to the petsmart tag), and left it at that. I never fed the catfish, I just assumed he was getting leftovers from the angelfish. He disappeared and was nowhere to be found, and I assumed he was dead. Well, that was over a year ago (way over a year I think), and he survived the death of the angel, my failed gourami experiment, removal of the ugf, a move in December in which his stump was out of the water for 20 minutes (yet another time I thought he was dead but found out otherwise), my total conversion to a black water tank including changing the substrate and adding a bunch of crap and messing with the pH, ich, and now, (hopefully)the move into the 10 gallon, which involved being out of the water for an hour and a dunk into cold bath water and a frantic human scooping him up, running screaming dripping through the house and being dumped in a tiny tank. My kinda fish .Sidenote: For those of you who are shaking your head at the fish load in my tiny tank, I just want to let you know that tomorrow I'm off to the lfs to return my hatchets and ottos. So I'll have 4 corys and the 4" monster in a nice planted tank.
Another side note: Since I started collecting tiny fish, I've only lost 4 before the ich epidemic--three cardinals and a hatchet. I never found their dead bodies...and now I know why!
