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Post by siobhan on Jan 19, 2015 10:53:38 GMT -5
Freud or somebody once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Obviously I'm loony or I wouldn't have all these birds, but I also have these two fish tanks. I've had a run of really bad luck with fish lately. But I keep trying, and yesterday I bought two Dalmatian mollies and some other kind of molly with a pot belly and speckles. They all seem very lively and they've distracted Betsy so she doesn't chase poor Harry around all the time. For a "peaceful" fish, Betsy sure is mean. I believe the Dalmatian mollies are a male and female, and Betsy and Harry are male and female, though Harry is a different kind of platy from Betsy. I'm told by an aquarium-keeping friend who's crazier than I that it won't matter. When Harry gets big enough, he and Betsy could still get together.
As of this morning, they were all still very lively and had a feeding frenzy at breakfast time, so I'm cautiously optimistic. When I got Harry, I got a second one at the same time and that one died almost instantly when I put it in the tank. Seriously, it was maybe five minutes at most. And a couple of days later, Arthur died, though he'd been perfectly all right the day before. The same fishy friend told me I shouldn't do water changes as often as I've been doing because I'm interfering with the good bacteria, so I just added some water this week to make up for evaporation, and didn't clean.
My remaining betta Opie is still doing fine, alone in his tank with his snails. I decided not to put any other fish in his tank until he goes to Rainbow Bridge, and then maybe get guppies. My brother had guppies when I was little. I suspect the platyfish and now the mollies are snacking on the snails in their tank because there's a very high mortality rate, lots of empty shells showing up, but the snails procreate so enthusiastically that I don't think there's any danger of the fish wiping them out. Sherlock the mystery snail is too big for them to bother him, but the ramshorns are itty bitty. Opie has such an abundance that I can't put any more in his tank, so the ones in the community tank will just have to take their chances.
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Post by cnyguy on Jan 19, 2015 22:31:51 GMT -5
I'd have to say that you deserve credit for persistence in the face of past disappointments.  It's been a long time since I've kept fish, but I do recall that too many of them had a discouragingly short life with me. The guppies were fairly long-lived and very good at reproducing. The longest-lived fish I ever had was a not-too-exotic one: a minnow I caught in a stream a few miles from home when I was about 9 years old. That fish lasted 7 years in a very large goldfish bowl on the living room coffee table. I still remember how he used to leap up out of the water to catch fleas that escaped from our cat.  |
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Post by siobhan on Jan 19, 2015 23:16:29 GMT -5
That sounds like an interesting fish to have around! I was wrong about the fish not bothering Sherlock. He'd been hiding out for two days, so I went looking for him and he was all pulled into his shell and floating instead of attached to something. I was actually kind of afraid he was dead, but I fished him out and put him in Opie's tank, thinking maybe all the crazy zipping around from all five fish was upsetting or scaring him. He emerged after a while and stuck himself to the side of Opie's tank and then I could see that one of his antennae is nipped off. I feel guilty for not noticing sooner. But he seems to be okay otherwise and is oozing around in Opie's tank and poked out his little face so I could see his eyes, and looked right at me. I think he'll be all right and Opie won't bother him. Opie's pretty mellow and spends a lot of time just hanging out in his floating log or behind the heater.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Jan 19, 2015 23:26:26 GMT -5
Poor Sherlock. At least you rescued him and he is safe.
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Post by easttex on Jan 20, 2015 6:59:41 GMT -5
I guess even a small world is full of dangers. I'm curious - what did Sherlock do to earn the name? |
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Post by siobhan on Jan 20, 2015 12:58:48 GMT -5
Well, he's a MYSTERY snail. LOL That's why I called him Sherlock. I guess I could have called him Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot or after one of the Hardy boys but Sherlock seemed to suit, so that's what he got. And we already have a Trixie, so Trixie Belden was out. I've been a fan of mysteries since I was a kid. I'm saving the name of Poe for if I ever get a raven, though. My mom turned me on to Poe when I was 9 or 10 and I devoured all those creepy Poe stories at an impressionable age. Her favorite was "The Telltale Heart." When I got to high school and they introduced Poe and I was already very familiar with him, my teachers were a little stunned that I'd read that stuff so young.
Sherlock is still oozing around this morning, so I was right and he's happier in Opie's tank. I'll remember to keep mystery snails away from mollies and platyfish after this. Don't believe it when experts tell you those two kinds of fish are "non-aggressive." They don't fight, but the store told me not to put any in with Opie or they'd bite off his fins, and now they've proved that they'll bite off snail antennae. And they certainly chase each other all over their tank, but they seem to be taking turns being bully and victim, so at least nobody's always the one getting chased.
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Post by biteybird on Jan 20, 2015 17:34:57 GMT -5
I devoured all those creepy Poe stories at an impressionable age. Her favorite was "The Telltale Heart." When I got to high school and they introduced Poe and I was already very familiar with him, my teachers were a little stunned that I'd read that stuff so young. OMG, I was the same - went through the entire school library by Grade 4 and Poe stories were guaranteed to give me an adrenalin rush every time!  The other one that scared me ****less was 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and there was another one 'Feet of Clay' (or some similar title - can't quite remember it).
Hope Sherlock remains safe!
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Post by cnyguy on Jan 20, 2015 21:26:11 GMT -5
The minnow was interesting. I was told by the owner of the local tropical fish store that he probably wouldn't survive more than a few weeks in an indoor fishbowl. I guess he was wrong. Looks like we've got plenty of mystery buffs around here (including me). I've thought if I ever get an African Grey, one name I might consider for him would be Hercule Parrot. Since Sherlock Holmes often was slow and methodical in his investigations, I suppoze Sherlock is a fitting name for a snail. |
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Post by msdani1981 on Jan 21, 2015 3:46:32 GMT -5
"The Telltale Heart" is my absolute favorite Poe story! Oh, now you're going to make me dig out my copy of his short stories....LOL
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Post by siobhan on Jan 21, 2015 10:36:46 GMT -5
Sherlock has moved into one of the hideys in Opie's tank and parked himself there. He's probably not sure, yet, that there are no platy or molly fish zooming around looking for snails to torment.
Now I'm wanting to dig out my Poe book, too. I have a "complete works" of Poe and the story that always creeped ME out was called "William Wilson" and was about a guy who was buried alive. YIKES.
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Aquatics
Jan 21, 2015 12:35:21 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by msdani1981 on Jan 21, 2015 12:35:21 GMT -5
I don't have his "complete works", just a collection of his short stories.
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Post by siobhan on Jan 21, 2015 15:46:27 GMT -5
It was a book club find. Poems, short stories, the novel The Murders in the Rue Morgue. I've had it for several years. It's two volumes in a cardboard sleeve and if you want a good creepfest, just dig into that. LOL
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Post by biteybird on Jan 21, 2015 18:01:38 GMT -5
Yeah, here the 2nd-hand book shops are the best place to find this stuff. The other short stories book that freaked me out was one by Roald Dahl (I THINK it was him). There was this short story about a guy stranded on a deserted island with lots of illicit drugs but no food ...started eating parts of his own body. UGH! Definitely NOT a kids' book. |
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Post by aaron on Jan 30, 2015 12:23:43 GMT -5
Yeah, here the 2nd-hand book shops are the best place to find this stuff. The other short stories book that freaked me out was one by Roald Dahl (I THINK it was him). There was this short story about a guy stranded on a deserted island with lots of illicit drugs but no food ...started eating parts of his own body. UGH! Definitely NOT a kids' book. This sounds a lot like a Stephen King short story that I read a long time ago... was disturbing. |
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Post by aaron on Jan 30, 2015 12:44:16 GMT -5
I have a couple fish tanks as well... A 20 gallon and a 29 gallon. They are so much work, and in general, so many casualities come from keeping fish... sometimes really slow deaths, too -- at this point I've decided not to purchase any more, ever. I asked a reputable fish shop how best to euthanize last time I had a slow death situation and they told me to give them "a good whack in the head"... Rubbed me the wrong way.
Initially I knew very little about them, and basically inherited them from our roommate, who didn't have enough time to take good enough care of them, so I took over... He had overstocked the tanks as well, so the need for water changes has been intense and I'm always barely keeping up with it... And of course in the 20g tank I have a huge (~10") Jack Dempsey cichlid that is way too big for the tank (I think he should probably be in a 70g tank). I don't know why he was purchased in the first place (he was less than 1" at the time, I know that much), and he has just kept growing and growing. He's in there by himself and he has a cave that he can hide in, so he seems happy enough but I can never keep the water clean enough because he generates so much waste and I am doing 50% water changes generally every 5 days or so. Always fighting fin rot... aquarium salt has been helping lately. I'm slowly cutting back how much I feed him, but it doesn't seem to matter and I don't want to starve him either... I definitely do not have room or time for a bigger tank. Sigh. I'm not even sure how I would move this huge fish if I found a way to rehome him either.
I also used to have all kinds of compatibility problems in the larger tank -- I agree that they often tell you that fish will not be aggressive, and then you get them home and they are a total menace.
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It's been a long time since I've kept fish, but I do recall that too many of them had a discouragingly short life with me. The guppies were fairly long-lived and very good at reproducing. The longest-lived fish I ever had was a not-too-exotic one: a minnow I caught in a stream a few miles from home when I was about 9 years old. That fish lasted 7 years in a very large goldfish bowl on the living room coffee table. I still remember how he used to leap up out of the water to catch fleas that escaped from our cat. 
The other one that scared me ****less was 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and there was another one 'Feet of Clay' (or some similar title - can't quite remember it).
