37 posts tagged “fish”
Update Number 1: The Fish
Last night when I came home from work, Tetra #3 had died. This leaves me two tetras left, who seem to be swimming around much easier than the others were. They're still not eating anything that I can see though, so it may only be a matter of time before they crash as well.
I'm continuing to medicate for a fungal infection with the side effect of the meds being that it medicates for a bacterial infection as well, so hopefully that'll knock the problem out.
Update Number 2: The Car
I took my car into the dealer because the drivers side door wouldn't open from the outside. I dropped it off there and waited while they worked on it, playing Hearts on the computer they had set up in the customer lounge. Very handy. They also had some nice donuts which was good because I had forgotten to make myself some breakfast when I left because i was too busy playing with the New Xbox Experience update that was released for the Xbox 360 this morning. I'll probably post up my impressions on that later.
Anyway, as it turns out, the cable that was hooked to the door handle became unhooked. So they hooked it up and got it all straightened out and sent me on my way, no charge. I'm not to worried about it now...if it happens again I might start asking more questions, but fluke stuff happens every now and then.
As I mentioned, my fish are having a bit of an issue with disease now in my main 20 gallon tank. The betta is fine, thankfully.
I had initially thought it was Ich, but after treating for it it eneded up not really helping. Over the past week I've lost 2 of my bleeding heart tetras with another one on the way out (I found him sitting upside down on one of the plants last night). I took the opportunity to observe him closely and it definitely looks like it's a fungal infection now. Of course I was sure about the Ich too...but anyway...I went out to Petsmart last night and picked up some more medication which I'm treating with now.
I've seperated the sick fish from the other ones in a little container floating in the water and I'm treating him along with the rest of the fish in hopes that he might get better, but it's not looking real good. He's kinda swimming on his side and not really moving very much. I have a feeling he'll be dead by the time I get home today.
Hopefully this actually ends up being what I think it is...this is getting very old.
After about a year and a half of fish keeping, it had to happen eventually. But there's something wrong in my larger fish tank.
I noticed about a week or two ago that my bleeding heart tetras weren't eating, or were eating very little. I had initially attributed this to the fact that they were restless due to me removing one of their decorations that they hide under (It had served it's useful life and was just totally falling apart). Then I replaced that but still no change, making me think it was food related. But I tried a couple different types of food and still nothing.
A couple days ago, I noticed that one of my tetras was totally gone. I only seemed to have 4 left. I started to suspect that the real culprit was a diseas. Probably Ich, although they weren't breaking out with the telltale spots. They did seem like they were losing their apetite and breathing more heavily than they had in the past.
Then I came home last night to discover that one of my tetras was swimming aimlessly at the top of the tank, it's skin covered in what I think are white spots. So I think Ich is pretty much confirmed here. The little guy is probably going to die as there isn't much I can do to help him now...but I've started treating the tank for Ich in an effort to attempt to save the rest of the fish. Hopefully it really is Ich because it loosks like he's got a fungal infection too, which could be the main cause of the problem or it could be just a secondary effect due to how weak he is.
Only thing I can do is just sit and wait it out, really. Hopefully most of them make it through ok. This being my first fish emergency and all. I want to do what I can to save them, but I also don't want to over medicate because that will make the problem worse.
As the title suggests, this post is going to be about two things...food and drinks.
So starting with the food, I just wanted to give a little update on my cooking attempts. I've tried two new recipes this week. First up was some garlic chicken. This one turned out REALLY well and I'm definitely going to do it again. The best part is that it's pretty quick to do, about 30 minutes or so, so it's easy enough to do during the week. It's not terribly sophisticated, but it's very tasty. I think I used a little bit too much of the seasoned salt in this one though...it was a tad too salty, but I'll adjust that for next time.
The next recipe was for baked halibut. I had another halibut steak from last weeks seafood experiments and I wanted to try out this one. I didn't like it quite as much as the garlic chicken, but I thought it was servicable. I think It was a little too tangy, so I might need to reduce the mustard powder and dill weed a bit.
It's a little difficult to do some of these because I'm trying to reduce everything from feeding a family of 4 to one person. Not exactly easy sometimes. Later this week I'm probably going to try out a recipe for baked scallops, and potentially chicken quesadillas. We'll see what I feel like.
As far as the liquid consumption goes, I've been exploring different types of tea and I've arrived at Rooibos, or Red Tea. And man, I wish I would have gotten here sooner. It's now my current favorite tea. I tried it Monday night just straight with no flavoring and though it was pretty good. A little sweet, very smooth and very tasty. Then last night I tried the earl grey version, which is your standard rooibos tea with bergamot added. And it was simply awesome. I forsee myself going through the sample tin I have of this VERY quickly.
Just a quick post to share a new Betta development! I was hanging out watching the Olympics with Wassy (standard mid week get together) and I looked over at Fish to find that he had constructed his own little bubble nest.
I didn't think Fish would ever make one because the current is a little off. But, I'm glad he did because it means he's a pretty happy little fish and feels comfortable in creating a nest for himself. Unfortunately for him...there aren't going to be any Betta females wandering by that he can ask out.
What was the last thing you built with your own hands?
Submitted by Nick.
Ok, so technically this isn't something I built. And I guess it isn't with my own hands...but, it's the best I've got. For the longest time now I've been unhappy with how my Betta's tank has been set up. It's kinda generic, the plants suck and the sponge filter I had going in there was ugly as heck and took up a crapton of room. So I decided that I would switch back to a power filter.
Betta's have a particular issue in that they don't like strong currents. And while my tank (an Eclipse System 6) came with a filter, it didn't have any flow control on it so it ended up being much too powerful and Fish didn't like it very much at all. So I switched to the sponge filter, but it didn't do as good a job as I wanted it to do on the actual filtering bit. So I would have to buy a new filter for the tank with some kind of flow control. But the problem then became that the hood of the tank was set up in such a way that it wouldn't allow for a filter that hangs off the back of the tank without modification.
I talked to my parents (who are much handier than I am with these sorts of things) and we came to the conclusion that we could cut a hole in the plastic hood such that it would allow a filter to fit through. So I brought it over last night (after being tricked into carrying a very heavy elliptical machine into their house that they had just bought) and we proceeded to begin the cutting process. After quite a bit of work, we ended up with a nicely sized hole.
I set up the new filter last night and everything seems to be working fine. Fish doesn't mind the current so much since it's less, I have more room to work with tank decoration and it doesn't look as horrible in there. Now I just need to figure out how I want to decorate it, as well as getting a couple of ghost shrimp to complete the tank (and provide some possible little snacks for my betta)
Fish (my betta) is swimming around quite nicely now, exploring everything. He just discovered that there's a middle bit to his tank with plants and stuff in it and has been examining them up close and personal. He's getting blown around a bit by the filter though so I'm going to be changing it out to a much calmer sponge filter as soon as I get some parts I need via mail order.
And now I'm going to go from fish to the Eliot Spitzer thing, which has to be one of the strangest transitions I've ever done on here. I try to avoid commenting on political news events because I'm sure nobody really wants to read it, but this is kinda big and I've got some stuff to say. First of all, I've seen a lot of people asking why this is such a big deal and how it's any different from what Bill Clinton did (for example). Normally I'd agree. I think somebody's personal life is their own business and if Spitzer simply had an affair I would probably not vote for him again, but I wouldn't call for him to resign either. That situation would be between him and his wife.
This however, is different. Spitzer ran on a platform of stamping out corruption in government, using his record as Attorney General as proof of what he's done over the years. And he's done some really good stuff as AG which is why I voted for him in the first place. And then, as it turns out, he's involved in this prostitution ring which violates several state and federal laws. Once he starts breaking laws, that's the point where a personal matter becomes an issue for the public.
I just read he's going to resign, effective Monday which is good for everyone involved. Hopefully people can put this behind them and keep working on the important business of running the state. And I hope that with the passing of Spitzer, Upstate New York isn't forgotten becaus he really started to focus on upstate which is typically ignored by the state government.
So, as you may have noticed if you checked yesterday or looked downward first, I have my betta now. Fish the betta (yes, I named my betta Fish) is, as of this morning, alive and well but we had a bit of an adventure getting him. We being myself and Wassy because she likes to come along on my fish getting excursions. The basic plan was that I was going to go over and pick her up sunday afternoon and we'd get the fish, go back to my place and then we'd head back over to her's and we'd hang out.
The first thing that should be mentioned is the weather. It was very windy and we were having some lake effect snow. Well, when I say "we" I mean "me" because as soon as I got about halfway to my friends apartment the snow stopped immediately. Sigh. I hate lake effect snow.
I picked her up and we went off searching, checking out a few different shops to see what they had. We also made a unscheduled stay at Wild Things (local pet store for those reading from outside the area) so that my friend could visit with possibly the coolest looking ferret around. After that we ended up going to petsmart to look at their bettas.
I was looking for a blue crown tail type because I think they look pretty cool and petsmart happens to have those so we tried to browse through all of their little cups to find a good one, Wassy was looking through the selection and picking out ones that would work, and we had a little lineup going on the shelf above where the bettas were kept. It was an agonizing process but eventually I settled on one betta, so we moved to the next stage which was the actual purchase. I turned to go down an asile heading to the cashier but then discovered that there was another cache of bettas that we hadn't seen the first time. So that started the process all over again.
In the end, I ended up with that guy right there. Not the blue I was looking for, but suitably interesting. He's actually a little more black than that now. I think the body color was mostly because he was stressed out.
We got him back to my place and I started to get him used to my tank water. I had a little problem though, because he was in a cup with a bunch of chemicals and other crap and I didn't want that in my tank, so I had to pour him out of his cup into a net over a bucket (in case I missed him with the net) and then plop him in my tank, which was quite the production. Everything went well though and there he sits.
I think, however, that the filter that came with the tank is a little too much for him, so I'm going to scout around tonight a bit to see if I can find him a sponge filter and get things going that way instead. I tried doing some more modifications to my power filter but without flow control it's hard to regulate it.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing over at Jay and Wassy's place, which was much needed. We watched Stardust, had a wonderful turkey dinner along with some wine and just hung out. Some much needed relaxation.
Just a couple quick pictures because I don't have time to do a writeup but...here they are!
First up, and update on my Betta tank. I got the temperature stabilized and now I'm working on getting the filter and such ready. I'll probably be getting my betta this weekend since I have another filter with which to seed my new tank. All is proceeding according to plan. I also purchased some new/better (hopefully) plants for it over the internet as I'm having trouble finding the decor I'm looking for locally.
Wassy came over last night for mid week activities and that went pretty well too I thought. We watched Silence of the Lambs which she loved and I had never seen before. And by the end of the movie I was ranking it up there as one of my favorite movies of all time. VERY well done, and makes me want to read the books now, which I will do at some point in the near future.
We also listened to some music (Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane to be specific) and hung out and talked. While we were hanging out she mentioned that I really needed to get a fish in my new tank because it draws your eye but it's all empty now. So since on my origami calander for today was a goldfish, I figured I'd try to fold one up. But, uh...lets just say it didn't go well. It didn't look much like a goldfish, or even the picture on the calander when I was finished.
All and all, the evening was a good de-stresser which was something I really needed this week due to stuff happening at work.
