If I Could Turn Back Time...I Would Have Read The Label!!!

I love fish. I love to eat them and I love to watch them. Yum.

A few weeks ago one of my BFF's gave me a 29 gallon tank with a stand that she didn't want anymore. I was over the moon in heaven. I have had a 10 gallon tank with about 8 tropical fish (including a shark that we were sold as a catfish) for over a year now. So when I got this bigger tank I couldn't wait to set it up and let my babies loose in there! The shark had been banging his head on the side of the 10 gallon tank for months as he is a very active fellow who needs lots of room. He actually has a callous on his nose from it! I'm surprised he didn't somehow commit suicide.

Columbian "Catfish" Shark

Within 1 week of being in the new tank the entire bunch of them came down with Ich. Ich is a nasty little protozoa that appears whenever fish are stressed to the point of losing their slime coat. Ew. A bunch of fuzzy white patches appear all over the fish and they start acting like they are on a crack binge. Apparently it feels like a bunch of mosquito bites and is really itchy. Go figure.

I freaked out and ran to the local pet store to ask them what on earth I should do?!?! She said crank the temp and add aquarium salt. Apparently there is aquarium salt and it helps fish even if they are not saltwater. She was nice enough to give me this salt. I did what she said and lo and behold in a couple of weeks the white patches were gone and I only lost 3 fish.

Neon with Neon Tetra Disease

I then lost several neons to Neon Tetra Disease, a nasty little protozoa that comes with the neon when you buy it and bloats the poor little things up and makes them act like they are on a crystal meth binge. Its not pretty. I ended up flushing a live one that was on the brink of dying anyway and felt horrible about it but its very contagious apparently. I love neons so I keep buying more (expensive for what they are). I think once these are gone I will just stop.

You would think that this tank would be the extent of my aquatic adventures. If so then you do not know me very well :)

Randomly someone gave me those large goldfish that I posted about a few days ago. In a 10 gallon tank they just seemed like they were waiting for a nice big home to stretch their fins in. I looked on Craigslist to no avail for days and days. Then on Saturday the 13th I saw an add from a guy who lives somewhat nearby who was selling multiple different sized tank setups. I emailed him with what I was looking for and how much money I could spend. He got right back to me, we dialogued and I went out to look at a 40 gallon tank on a wrought iron stand. When we got to his giant mansion with the spectacular view of the mountains he had set up the 40 gallon tank next to a 55 gallon one on a beautiful hardwood stand "just for comparison purposes". He is a smart business man. For just 25$ more I could have this huge, sturdy, kidproof tank (he already had childproofed the doors on the bottom). I was worried about the baby growing up a bit and trying to climb the iron legs of the smaller one. Oh it was so beautiful. I looked at Kris and said "What do you think honey? WE'LL TAKE IT!" all in the same breath.

Then we shoved the top part in my car and the bottom part in his car. A true meeting of the minds is what it took for this to succeed. I won't bore you with the details.

Kris cleaning the 55 gallon tank with Fluffy #1 eagerly watching nearby

We got it home, cleaned it a bit, and set it up in the living room. The next day I went to the store and got gravel, an airstone, a sculpture, some REAL plants (cheaper than fake ones, believe it or not) and an airpump that could handle that size tank (ON SALE yeehaw!).





I raced home, set it all up, and then we filled it with the hose from the spigot in the garage (this means ICE cold water) and added what we thought was chlorine neutralizer. Oh well, we would wait a couple of days with the air running and let it get to room temp.

Pre-filter, before I realized it was too close to the wall

Then I had the bright idea to put the filter on it also and run that for a few days. Well this is where we realized that we hadn't accounted for the back of the filter being 4" deep and the space between the wall and the tank being 2.5" deep. Oy.

We broke out the siphons and drained half the tank. A 55 gallon tank on a stand with 50 lb of gravel in it weighs about 650 lb. Yeah not budging.

Draining it into pots and pans and buckets, lol.

Draining it made it movable. So then I had the bright idea to fill the rest of it back up with hot water in order to even out the temp and hopefully put the fishies in there. I am an incredibly IMPATIENT person by the way. I hate waiting. Its really like torture for me. Gotta work on that. We put in more of what looked like dechlorinator and let the filter run for about an hour or so. Then it was time for bed. I realized that the ammonia in the 10 gal tank that the big fish were in could possibly kill them without the filter running so I figured, hey they are goldfish. They can go from pond to tank with no problems. Let's throw them in. The temp was good, and everything else was running, so why not?

Setting the big fish free-ish

At first they seemed ok. But then the big one was laying on the bottom gasping. I knew in my gut this was bad. I said to Kris, "Honey I think we should take them out...I don't like how that big one looks." The little one was swimming all over so he said "I think they just need to get used to it. Let's let them adjust." I really had a hard time with what to do. But he seemed so reassuring and the little one looked so peppy that I just left them in. All night long I had nightmares about dead fish.

Big Fat Chubby before he kicked it :(

The next morning when I woke up was like a dream also, except it was real.

I bolted upright in bed when Kris came up from having breakfast.
"Are they dead??"
"Yes."
"Oh. Damn."

He had already disposed of them so I wouldn't have to see them and cry. Bless his heart.

So here I had this 55 gallon possible Tank of Death (as my friend Astrid says). I started playing with the pH tester. Turns out the pH is really alkaline and the pH of the tank they were in was really acidic. This could have been a problem. I went running back to the lady at the pet store down the street. She said it could have been shock. She suggested I buy a bunch of .29 feeder goldfish (which apparently if not eaten by some hideous predatory fish or snake can grow to a good 12-14") and let them break the tank in. I got 8 of them. They are all still alive and its been 2 days.

Cheap Goldfish Flourishing

This one has a comb-over and a mustache. I call him Adolf.

The live plants. Much prettier than the fake ones!

HOWEVER: I think I solved the mystery of why the big ones really died. I mean, come on, they are GOLDFISH. They are hardy, and a little alkaline water shouldn't kill them that quick. As I was doing a water change on my other tanks today I noticed the water in the bucket I was using to add new water was turning a yellowy color every time I filled it up. I changed 2/3 of the tropical tank and the water was really cloudy after. I didn't think much of it. I used the yellow bottle of dechlorinator (or so I thought) each time as usual. Then when I went to change out the small goldfish tank in the kitchen (10 gal) I was reading the yellow bottle and it said "Water Clarifier". WAIT a minute that ain't right!! This bottle had come with the 29 gallon tank's miscellaneous chemicals and it was identical to the Chlorine Remover bottle!! SO its entirely possible that I used that bottle when I filled up the 55 gallon tank and they died from the chlorine :(

I feel so stupid.

This week's "Life Lessons for Dum Dums": Be Patient, read labels even if you think you know what you are using, and be patient. Don't fry your fish before they hatch. That's deep.