The Hospital Tank

[lydamorehouse]

I really need to be reviewing my corrections which are due back at my publisher’s today, but instead I find myself once again embroiled in FISH TRAUMA.

Last night, at dinner, I noticed that Gill (the new Bob) had a white spot on his fin. We stared at it a long time wondering if he was just brightly colored, or if he had a growth. After much consideration, we decided it looked a bit too furry. We found out that it was entirely possible that Gill had a fungus. One of the simple solutions for a fungal growth is a “salt bath,” wherein one puts regular table salt into the hospital tank and lets the fish stay there for a couple of days.

Our hospital tank is really a plant nursery, which means we don’t have an aerator (no bubbles) and it is not anywhere near conditioned (as there has never, ever been a fish in there – until now.) But, it’s also brand new water, which means there are no ammonium, no nitrites, and no nitrates. The oxygen has not been gobbled up yet, either. So, it seemed like a good, temporary place for Gill to hang out.

So far so true.

Now Nemo (the new Frieda) is floating upside down in a cup. She was sinking (like her predecessor) and I snagged her to put her in the hospital tank, too. She zipped around a bit, and then started doing that freaky twisty “oh-look-I’m-almost-upside-down-nope, I’m-good!” swimming. A death nell, as far as I’m concerned. Suddenly, looking at Gill (who is relatively healthy comparatively), I thought to myself: What if she gives what she has to Gill? Then we’d loose two again instead of one. So, now she’s floating in a cup awaiting death. Cruel? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem right to contaminate either Joe (aka healthy as a MOOSE) or Gill in his salt bath.

Having fish is depressing.

Thank god they’re only 12 cents.

However, I think that this is the last fish I get from PetSmart. I may take Doug’s advice and get my fish from the HarMar pet shop or I may range even farther out and try getting fish from “A World of Fish” in Richfield. They have everything a fish hobbiest could want, and more… including, I hope, healthy fish.

Comments

[sbarret.livejournal.com]

Petsmart has a bad rep for fish. That said, I lose about 25% of my new fish regularly. Not that I'm the stellar fish person here, but in my tank, tetras seem to hang on. Mollys are great, but once they get knocked up, it seems they hide until giving birth and then die. The Guarmies were going great for about 5 months then... belly-up. Same w/ the african frogs. Those were sooo cute too. *sniff*

[lydamorehouse]

From what I've read (and I've been terribly obsessive), 25% die-off is actually really good. I've experience the more common 50% die-off rate, and I was trying to be really, really careful. I guess there's only so much you can do, and frankly I'm willing to go quite far, but there has to be a kind of happy medium. If have to super-treat my water all the time, that becomes kind of a hassle. So, Shawn and I made a pack to only do so much, you know? Goldfish are just going to have to cope. :-)

[sbarret.livejournal.com]

Ah.. never did the goldfish in a fishtank. We've gone the tetra/guppy etc route. Filter,tank, oxygen bubble maker (dunno it's real name) and a temperature thingie that I think is busted.

The only time we did goldfish was when someone told us you could put goldfish in a horse trough to help keep down the algea population. Poor sacrificial goldfish. The horse played w/ them to death within 2 days...