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Long, Boring Fish
Aug. 11th, 2008 10:50 amSince I promised a fishy blog for those of you who might care to hear long and involved stories of my fish woes and triumphs, here it is.
To begin with: woes. As I mentioned briefly, Bob[2] died under some what startling and mysterious circumstances. The tank Bob[2] lived in is our oldest and most stable. He was getting to be a fairly big fish, though no more than a couple of inches – maybe three – but nowhere near the potential full-size of a shubunkin. The only thing that had changed before he died was that I added some java moss that had come to me via my vet.
I’ve been taking my cats to All Paws Animal clinic since it opened its doors. In fact, we moved with our favorite vet, whom the cats had been seeing since we first got them, from another clinic when she quit to start up her own business. Dr. Holly has been with us through all our traumas, including the great cat die-off of 2004. Moreover, though we’re not exactly close, I’d consider her a friend in that sort of friendship you might have with your co-workers way. She’s come to my signings at Uncle Hugo’s even. So several months ago when I was in with Deliah for her rabies shot, I admired their fish tank. They had this gigantic pile of java moss, which I can never seem to find at the local fish stores and some other plants I couldn’t identify. Anyway, while chatting about Deliah’s general health, I asked if Dr. Holly’d be willing to ask their fish guy for the names of the aquatic plants in their tank.
She called me with that info, which I dutifully wrote down, intending to maybe see if I could order those some day since they clearly did well with low light, etc. I never did anything with it.
A couple of weeks ago now, the secretary at All Paws called us up and informed me that they were taking apart their aquarium and finding homes for everything and wanted to know if I’d be interested in the plants. “Of course,” I said. I drove out to Saint Louis Park the next day and picked up a biohazard cooler full of java moss and other plants. Now, I KNOW you’re supposed to quarantine plants from other people’s aquariums, but it’s such a hassle. Besides, usually the only thing to worry about is snails and snail eggs. Goldfish will devour snails by the bucketful if given the opportunity, and both the tanks that I wanted to put the java moss in were the downstairs goldfish tanks.
Well, sure enough after I put the moss in the tanks, what do I see in both tanks (though especially the 10 gallon, Bob[2]’s tank) two mornings later? A million snail babies. I’m not even sure that’s an exaggeration. They were Legion. Tiny, white, LEGION. Bob[2], meanwhile, was sitting at the bottom of the tank. I thought, “Oh crap, there was some dread disease on the moss and I’ve killed him.” I quick changed the water, and, you know, he kind of perked up. I thought, “Okay, let’s just keep an eye on him.” While I watched, he continued to eat all the tiny snails. I started to think that maybe he was constipated. Fish can get constipated. Their poop gets thin, stringy and white, and sometimes they will sit on the bottom of the tank. When I saw thin, stringy, white poop hanging from Bob[2] later that day, I was relieved. He was swimming normally, and except for the yucky poop seemed fine. I thought, “Okay, dummy just ate too many snails. Give him some time, and he’ll be okay.” But, just as a precaution, I changed the water again.
The next day, there was Bob[2] stuck to the filter, dead as a doornail.
In retrospect, I wish I’d thought to give him a little daphnia (water flea larva, I believe). It’s actually recommended as a fish “intestinal cleaner.” If constipation actually killed Bob[2] (which I’m not sure it was the sole culprit,) that might have helped.
I doubt, however, that there was any kind of dread disease on my vet’s java moss. Both Joe and Fergus are flourishing, and they got the lion’s share of the java moss in their 30 gallon tank. They, too, I think had a little snail feast because I thought that Fergus was eating the moss, but actually it appears he was happily sucking all the eggs from it, as their snail hatching wasn’t nearly so spectacular (and there’s still lots of moss left – and goldfish will eat any plant they find tasty to the roots.)
Speaking of Joe and Fergus, Fergus is changing colors AGAIN. When we first bought Fergus, he (or she?) was orange, white, and black – calico, a lot like a shubunkin, though he was in a tank labeled “comet gold fish.” Then, over time, he became completely orange, so to be indistinguishable from Joe. Now, he’s getting white spots again. No, it’s not a fungus. His scales are turning white – he’s even developed a stripe on his fin of white. It’s actually quite attractive. Fish can change color as they mature (particularly marine fish), but I had no idea that it happened to comet goldfish.
He’s a perfectly healthy fish, though. Both he and Joe are likely to live forever. Well, or at least until Joe reaches his potential fourteen inches. Then there will be room for ONLY ONE, Highlander!
Anyway, after Bob[2]’s sudden and untimely demise, I decided it was time to get Kenya, our white cloud mountain minnow, some companions. White cloud mountain minnows (that’s their common name, the scientific name is tanichthys albonubes – I only remember it because the urban legend is that they were discovered by Chinese Boy Scout named Tan, thus “tan’s fish” = tanichthys.) The white cloud mountain minnow is often mislabeled as a white cloud danio. However, unlike danios, the minnow can tolerate cold water – it can even be housed outside in the summer months, if you have a pond. I only tell you all this because some yahoo on YouTube “yelled” at me for housing a goldfish with a danio, because danios need warmer temps. That would be a problem if I had a danio, which I don’t.
Ehem.
However, Shawn, who loved Bob[2] almost as much as she loved the original Bob, wanted another shubunkin. Since I think sometimes Shawn merely tolerates my fish keeping habit because she loves me, I thought the least I could do would be to get her the kind of fish she likes (not something she would consider “creepy,” which includes any number of fish, it turns out.)
I knew PetCo had shubunkins. My specialty stores, however, might not. Thus I headed first to PetCo last Saturday. Shubunkins were on sale, as it happened. I bought one that most resembled Bob[2], though this one is now named Madagascar.
They did not have white cloud mountain minnows either by that name or by white cloud danio, so I headed to the fish store on University with Madagascar, some kitty litter, a water softening pillow for my tetra, and some other odds and ends in my passenger side seat.
At the store on University, I had much better luck. Not only did they have white clouds (which they’d labeled danios, too,) but also a replacement for my dead hornwort. The hornwort is a plant, btw. It lived in the upstairs 5 gallon tank, and also had a somewhat mysterious demise. One day it was super bushy and dark green. The next it had shed all its leaves and dwindled to a few floating strands. This particularly baffled me because plants love the upstairs tank. It has the CO2 canister, special plant substrate, AND I feed the plants “leaf grow” every couple of days (as directed.) When I asked the fish lady at the University Avenue store, she said that the die-off might have been part of a natural life cycle for the plant. Even so, I bought the hornwort and three white clouds and went home.
Kenya was super excited to get friends. Kenya, in fact, picked a “special friend” right away, and has been chasing anyone and everyone out of “their” territory. In fact, she may have bullied one of the white clouds to death. I found him (I presume) face down in the gravel – like deep, like he’d been shoved – a few hours later.
Of course I worried about another dread disease, so I changed some of the water right away. No one else has gone belly up – or face down, as it were – so I think we’ve settled finally. Kenya may actually have a harem now, I’m not sure. (White clouds apparently sex like tetra, in that sometimes the females’ stripe appears “bent” due to a slightly rounder belly, but danged if I can tell). Kenya still chases one of the two remaining white clouds around a lot, so maybe she decided she could handle one rival, but not two.
The triumph, if I may brag, is the shubunkin. When Madagascar came to us, she tended to hold her fins clamped. I was worried, because that can be a sign of disease as well. But, due to the fabulous water quality I maintain in my downstairs tanks, within a couple of days, she was happy spreading them broadly. Makes me a bit proud, if I do say so myself.
To begin with: woes. As I mentioned briefly, Bob[2] died under some what startling and mysterious circumstances. The tank Bob[2] lived in is our oldest and most stable. He was getting to be a fairly big fish, though no more than a couple of inches – maybe three – but nowhere near the potential full-size of a shubunkin. The only thing that had changed before he died was that I added some java moss that had come to me via my vet.
I’ve been taking my cats to All Paws Animal clinic since it opened its doors. In fact, we moved with our favorite vet, whom the cats had been seeing since we first got them, from another clinic when she quit to start up her own business. Dr. Holly has been with us through all our traumas, including the great cat die-off of 2004. Moreover, though we’re not exactly close, I’d consider her a friend in that sort of friendship you might have with your co-workers way. She’s come to my signings at Uncle Hugo’s even. So several months ago when I was in with Deliah for her rabies shot, I admired their fish tank. They had this gigantic pile of java moss, which I can never seem to find at the local fish stores and some other plants I couldn’t identify. Anyway, while chatting about Deliah’s general health, I asked if Dr. Holly’d be willing to ask their fish guy for the names of the aquatic plants in their tank.
She called me with that info, which I dutifully wrote down, intending to maybe see if I could order those some day since they clearly did well with low light, etc. I never did anything with it.
A couple of weeks ago now, the secretary at All Paws called us up and informed me that they were taking apart their aquarium and finding homes for everything and wanted to know if I’d be interested in the plants. “Of course,” I said. I drove out to Saint Louis Park the next day and picked up a biohazard cooler full of java moss and other plants. Now, I KNOW you’re supposed to quarantine plants from other people’s aquariums, but it’s such a hassle. Besides, usually the only thing to worry about is snails and snail eggs. Goldfish will devour snails by the bucketful if given the opportunity, and both the tanks that I wanted to put the java moss in were the downstairs goldfish tanks.
Well, sure enough after I put the moss in the tanks, what do I see in both tanks (though especially the 10 gallon, Bob[2]’s tank) two mornings later? A million snail babies. I’m not even sure that’s an exaggeration. They were Legion. Tiny, white, LEGION. Bob[2], meanwhile, was sitting at the bottom of the tank. I thought, “Oh crap, there was some dread disease on the moss and I’ve killed him.” I quick changed the water, and, you know, he kind of perked up. I thought, “Okay, let’s just keep an eye on him.” While I watched, he continued to eat all the tiny snails. I started to think that maybe he was constipated. Fish can get constipated. Their poop gets thin, stringy and white, and sometimes they will sit on the bottom of the tank. When I saw thin, stringy, white poop hanging from Bob[2] later that day, I was relieved. He was swimming normally, and except for the yucky poop seemed fine. I thought, “Okay, dummy just ate too many snails. Give him some time, and he’ll be okay.” But, just as a precaution, I changed the water again.
The next day, there was Bob[2] stuck to the filter, dead as a doornail.
In retrospect, I wish I’d thought to give him a little daphnia (water flea larva, I believe). It’s actually recommended as a fish “intestinal cleaner.” If constipation actually killed Bob[2] (which I’m not sure it was the sole culprit,) that might have helped.
I doubt, however, that there was any kind of dread disease on my vet’s java moss. Both Joe and Fergus are flourishing, and they got the lion’s share of the java moss in their 30 gallon tank. They, too, I think had a little snail feast because I thought that Fergus was eating the moss, but actually it appears he was happily sucking all the eggs from it, as their snail hatching wasn’t nearly so spectacular (and there’s still lots of moss left – and goldfish will eat any plant they find tasty to the roots.)
Speaking of Joe and Fergus, Fergus is changing colors AGAIN. When we first bought Fergus, he (or she?) was orange, white, and black – calico, a lot like a shubunkin, though he was in a tank labeled “comet gold fish.” Then, over time, he became completely orange, so to be indistinguishable from Joe. Now, he’s getting white spots again. No, it’s not a fungus. His scales are turning white – he’s even developed a stripe on his fin of white. It’s actually quite attractive. Fish can change color as they mature (particularly marine fish), but I had no idea that it happened to comet goldfish.
He’s a perfectly healthy fish, though. Both he and Joe are likely to live forever. Well, or at least until Joe reaches his potential fourteen inches. Then there will be room for ONLY ONE, Highlander!
Anyway, after Bob[2]’s sudden and untimely demise, I decided it was time to get Kenya, our white cloud mountain minnow, some companions. White cloud mountain minnows (that’s their common name, the scientific name is tanichthys albonubes – I only remember it because the urban legend is that they were discovered by Chinese Boy Scout named Tan, thus “tan’s fish” = tanichthys.) The white cloud mountain minnow is often mislabeled as a white cloud danio. However, unlike danios, the minnow can tolerate cold water – it can even be housed outside in the summer months, if you have a pond. I only tell you all this because some yahoo on YouTube “yelled” at me for housing a goldfish with a danio, because danios need warmer temps. That would be a problem if I had a danio, which I don’t.
Ehem.
However, Shawn, who loved Bob[2] almost as much as she loved the original Bob, wanted another shubunkin. Since I think sometimes Shawn merely tolerates my fish keeping habit because she loves me, I thought the least I could do would be to get her the kind of fish she likes (not something she would consider “creepy,” which includes any number of fish, it turns out.)
I knew PetCo had shubunkins. My specialty stores, however, might not. Thus I headed first to PetCo last Saturday. Shubunkins were on sale, as it happened. I bought one that most resembled Bob[2], though this one is now named Madagascar.
They did not have white cloud mountain minnows either by that name or by white cloud danio, so I headed to the fish store on University with Madagascar, some kitty litter, a water softening pillow for my tetra, and some other odds and ends in my passenger side seat.
At the store on University, I had much better luck. Not only did they have white clouds (which they’d labeled danios, too,) but also a replacement for my dead hornwort. The hornwort is a plant, btw. It lived in the upstairs 5 gallon tank, and also had a somewhat mysterious demise. One day it was super bushy and dark green. The next it had shed all its leaves and dwindled to a few floating strands. This particularly baffled me because plants love the upstairs tank. It has the CO2 canister, special plant substrate, AND I feed the plants “leaf grow” every couple of days (as directed.) When I asked the fish lady at the University Avenue store, she said that the die-off might have been part of a natural life cycle for the plant. Even so, I bought the hornwort and three white clouds and went home.
Kenya was super excited to get friends. Kenya, in fact, picked a “special friend” right away, and has been chasing anyone and everyone out of “their” territory. In fact, she may have bullied one of the white clouds to death. I found him (I presume) face down in the gravel – like deep, like he’d been shoved – a few hours later.
Of course I worried about another dread disease, so I changed some of the water right away. No one else has gone belly up – or face down, as it were – so I think we’ve settled finally. Kenya may actually have a harem now, I’m not sure. (White clouds apparently sex like tetra, in that sometimes the females’ stripe appears “bent” due to a slightly rounder belly, but danged if I can tell). Kenya still chases one of the two remaining white clouds around a lot, so maybe she decided she could handle one rival, but not two.
The triumph, if I may brag, is the shubunkin. When Madagascar came to us, she tended to hold her fins clamped. I was worried, because that can be a sign of disease as well. But, due to the fabulous water quality I maintain in my downstairs tanks, within a couple of days, she was happy spreading them broadly. Makes me a bit proud, if I do say so myself.