Tib: Was it in the tank the WHOLE time? Gawd. I think that teaches us something- Grass in a crab tank? I don’t think so. [SNL Sketch]So stop coddling your crabs. They’ve had it easy for much too long. Give them what they deserve.[/SNL Sketch]
No, but really…I’m starting to wish I had a couple of crabs of my own. (No STD jokes, please!) I’d keep them on my desk…maybe under the CDs. I could teach them cute, demeaning tricks. Give them odd ball names. Though I think my parents might balk, considering what happened to the frogs.
Do you by chance have an undergravel filter? I lost several algae eaters when I had them in mine. They’ll crawl the tiniest of crevices and then get under the panel under the gravel. Apparently this is algae eater heaven. All the algae & fish shit you can handle and you are well out of the way of other fish and the humans who hassle them. I used to have to retrieve my Algae eaters when I did a major tank cleaning. Just watch it cause they can get too big and get stuck and die under there.
I once came in and found my plecostamus in the foyer crawling across the tile. He was as dry as leather. Who knows how long he had been out of the water. He was still moving though so I put him back in the tank. He took off swimming and didn’t seem hurt at all by his extra-marine adventure. In fact I found him on the floor again after that.
** Zoggie - **Well, it isn’t exactly grass…it’s a plastic plant piece that sort of sits down in the tank (which is a fish tank…got a platy and some guppies) and looks like a patch of wavy, thick grass. I got it so baby fish could hide from hungry parents.
** Mermaid - **As for the undergravel filter…nope, I have a bio-wheel. I really have no clue where the little chinese algae eater went.
Am I the only person who is strangely attached to their fish? I just find them sort of charming. Even that little bastard, Crab Bond.
Tiburon,
Your disappearing waterlife sounds eerily like what one of my friends told me last weekend. We were sitting in her living room when she gestured towards the goldfish tank. “There’s an interdementional portal in there. Some times you look and there are no fish. Other times there are a hundred.” She was joking, I think.
I don’t usually get very attached to my fish. My last tropical fish, a gorami(sp) was named Herb by my brother, but other than that all his quick dying companions were known only as “the fish” collectively. Herb lasted 15 months, which is several times longer than any of the others, so I decided the hell with tropical fish. I bought 8 baby (comet) goldfish today, after looking for them for 3 weeks. Seems that the goldfish locally have been showing up sick, so when I went shopping 40 miles away, it was a good chance to snag some healthy ones. I probably won’t name them either.
[Lisa Simpson]
I had a gold fish
He died! He died!
[/Lisa Simpson]
I’ve given up on fish after an incredible run of bad luck. First, Horace took ill with that thing that makes their tummies swell so they float upside-down on the top of the tank. You know that thing? So he died. Then, Gerald went off his food and slowly wasted away. After a few months mourning for Gerald (I was really attached to Gerald), I went and got Tom, who was just fine until I put riverstones in the bottom of his tank. I washed them thoroughly like it said to on the packet, but I guess it wasn’t enough because he picked up a fungal diesese within days of the stones being added and died shortly after that.
I thought I’d never have fish again after the last time. I had a tank set up and going well for months; someone told me that my fish would get sick and die unless I added some plants to the tank, so I bought some plants from the pet shop. Like in the case of Tom all the fish caught fungus and died within days. I had high hopes of saving Akasha, but I got a little too worked up with applications of the fungal treatment, and I think I OD’ed her.
Then, Mum got hermit crabs. Two of them - Sebastian was cool, but Craig was a bit boring. One day, Sebastian came crawling out of his shell, and just sat there. We didn’t panic - we were told that when they shed their skins, the look like they are dying but they’ll come good in a couple of days. Mum hung on to her hope that Sebastian would pull through, but when he started to smell Dad took charge of the situation and arranged a small family service in the backyard. Sigh. Craig got a tab more active when Sebastian was gone, but he’s just not the same. Sebastian was cool!
Good to hear that you got your crab back, dead ones smell horrible.
I used to keep a lot of fish, most amazing of all were the clown loaches - they look like little striped eels.
I once drained a tank of it’s water and occupants and was distressed to note that a few of the loaches were missing. I filled the tank a week later and they came swimming out of the gravel no worse for wear. They must have been freaked out by the pair of massive Oscars that replaced the tetras and assorted community fishes. This too they survived.
I had a weather loach named Hoover that I could hand feed, he was so easy going he would swim right into my palm to get his feeding of worms. Sucked em back just like spaghetti.