Have you ever seen a puzzled fish?
Jul. 14th, 2002 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asherisWell that was fun. NOT.
Been doing some little domestic things while I'm still icky from working out (cleaning the cat box, changing water in the fish tank, etc.) After that, I sat down to have a drink of water and sort through some email for a minute before hitting the shower.
After a little bit I thought gosh, my fountain doesn't usually sound like RUNNING water... looked over and saw the fish tank (10 gal) down a couple inches from the top, and I wondered if I'd forgotten to put in the last gallon pail of refill water.
Then I realized water was running off the front of the cabinet the tank sits on.
I jumped up to check and saw water coming out of the joints at the bottom. Grabbed the towel I'd taken down to the gym earlier and tried to catch it, meanwhile trying to figure out how to simultaneously catch as much as possible, drain the tank (as opposed to it draining itself), pull out and prep the 2 gallon tank, save the fish, and mop up what was soaking into the carpet.
Grabbed out the small tank and the refill pail, putting the pail under the end of the towel (trying to focus the drip/drain- only about 50% successful), ran to the bathroom for the 3-4 gal cleaning bucket, got out the gravel cleaner and got that thing siphoning into the bucket, back to the closet for a couple of old towels, dug in the box of "fish stuff" in the cabinet for some kind of small bailing device, shoved the lighted lid out of the way and commenced bailing into the small tank.
Between the two that removed enough water that I could lift the tank and carry it out onto the balcony (closer than the tub), mentally apologizing to my downstairs neighbor for the water and some gunk that was landing on their balcony. Dashed back in and grabbed the vinyl I had under the tank and the towel and ran that out onto the balcony for a quick shake and wringing, draped them over the rail, back in to use the old towels to try to blot the carpet.
Out onto the balcony with the net and hunted down my fishies, dropping them into the 2 gallon.
Much more running about, trying to blot up water, setting up a fan to dry the carpet, getting the fish settled with a little new water, airstone and carbon filter, a generous squirt of novaqua and a little salt; pulled out the tank topper and found a bulb, got that on there, okay, fish settled...
(An hour and several towels of blotting later, AC on to help dehumidify the air so the carpet dries faster, messages out about borrowing a shop vac...)
I tell ya, those fish had expressions on their faces, they were so puzzled!
After I clean up I'm going to write a note to the downstairs neighbor and go drop it under their door...
Then the blotting towels go into the tub to get rinsed a few times and soaked overnight with detergent before going in the washer. Of course, the tank leaked from the bottom, and if you've ever had a fish tank you know about the kind of yuck that collects in the under-gravel filter area...
Been doing some little domestic things while I'm still icky from working out (cleaning the cat box, changing water in the fish tank, etc.) After that, I sat down to have a drink of water and sort through some email for a minute before hitting the shower.
After a little bit I thought gosh, my fountain doesn't usually sound like RUNNING water... looked over and saw the fish tank (10 gal) down a couple inches from the top, and I wondered if I'd forgotten to put in the last gallon pail of refill water.
Then I realized water was running off the front of the cabinet the tank sits on.
I jumped up to check and saw water coming out of the joints at the bottom. Grabbed the towel I'd taken down to the gym earlier and tried to catch it, meanwhile trying to figure out how to simultaneously catch as much as possible, drain the tank (as opposed to it draining itself), pull out and prep the 2 gallon tank, save the fish, and mop up what was soaking into the carpet.
Grabbed out the small tank and the refill pail, putting the pail under the end of the towel (trying to focus the drip/drain- only about 50% successful), ran to the bathroom for the 3-4 gal cleaning bucket, got out the gravel cleaner and got that thing siphoning into the bucket, back to the closet for a couple of old towels, dug in the box of "fish stuff" in the cabinet for some kind of small bailing device, shoved the lighted lid out of the way and commenced bailing into the small tank.
Between the two that removed enough water that I could lift the tank and carry it out onto the balcony (closer than the tub), mentally apologizing to my downstairs neighbor for the water and some gunk that was landing on their balcony. Dashed back in and grabbed the vinyl I had under the tank and the towel and ran that out onto the balcony for a quick shake and wringing, draped them over the rail, back in to use the old towels to try to blot the carpet.
Out onto the balcony with the net and hunted down my fishies, dropping them into the 2 gallon.
Much more running about, trying to blot up water, setting up a fan to dry the carpet, getting the fish settled with a little new water, airstone and carbon filter, a generous squirt of novaqua and a little salt; pulled out the tank topper and found a bulb, got that on there, okay, fish settled...
(An hour and several towels of blotting later, AC on to help dehumidify the air so the carpet dries faster, messages out about borrowing a shop vac...)
I tell ya, those fish had expressions on their faces, they were so puzzled!
After I clean up I'm going to write a note to the downstairs neighbor and go drop it under their door...
Then the blotting towels go into the tub to get rinsed a few times and soaked overnight with detergent before going in the washer. Of course, the tank leaked from the bottom, and if you've ever had a fish tank you know about the kind of yuck that collects in the under-gravel filter area...
