Life, Death, and Other Noteworthy Things

Well, I officially pronounced Socrates dead when I saw his operculum (see picture below) had fallen off... There's been a lot of death lately, and it's really bumming me out. Now I have just two guppies, one snail, a mixed fruit tetra, and a pleco.

I'll really miss Socrates, and I'm sure Hippocrates will too. As some of you may remember, Socrates came with my 20 gal. I remember being so happy when I first got him, watching him slide all around my tank. I knew he was old and it was his time to go, but nevertheless I'll miss him.

His shell had already begun to rot away by the time I could bury him. (Below is his final picture. I don't usually post the pictures I take of the corpses before I bury them, but this one isn't too graphic.)

(Sorry it's sideways... )

So, as some of you may know, I've been gone on a trip for the past few weeks to the Oregon coast. (Possibly why so many of my fish have been dying, though my neighbor has been feeding them,  I haven't been here to monitor them.) While I was there, I did many awesome things like going to the Aquarium and visiting the tide pools and beaches. One of the things I noticed by the seaside was the sea foam. You may be asking why sea foam was significant to me... let me tell you with this mini history lesson! It just so happens that in Greek Mythology, Aphrodite was born from the sea foam! Cool, huh?

At the aquarium

Some of the sea foam I saw in Oregon

Speaking of Aphrodite, once again she's nipping Athena's fins again! So she's back in confinement. :(

While I was on my trip, I had my neighbor, who also has a 20 gallon tank, feed them while I was gone. When I got back, I saw that the tank lights seemed to have burnt out. I was planning to replace them when I had the thought that she might not have known that my lights turn off automatically, so I manually turned them on and voila! They're up and running again! I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I got a laugh out of it.

It has also been one year since Poseidon died! It was actually one year on August 3rd, but I was still traveling then... We remember him as a fantastic fish who lived a long, happy life.

And speaking of a long happy life, Athena's one-year-in-my-tank birthday was on August 4th! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ATHENA! I'll throw a birthday party asap for her...
She has some magic immunity to sickness and injury. She has survived the black plague, countless nippings from Aphrodite, and other hard times that no other fish (except for Zeus) has made it through! Which also makes her the only fish (except Zeus) who has lived a full year in my tank! Athena is a wonderful fish with the biggest, most beautiful tail around! (I hope I'm not jinxing it..)

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All Sorts of Madness

A lot has happened recently in the Underwater Empire. Sadly, we have had a death. It came as a shock since we haven't had one in a while. RIP Trajan.

The rest is all to do with the snails. First of all, (as I have mentioned before...) both of them seem to have this magic superpower of floating. They'll be happily sliding across the bottom and then BLOOP! Air comes out of their shells and all of the sudden they go flying to the top. They float around for a while and then drop back down.... yeah... I know... weird, right? 

(Sorry for the lights reflecting on the glass..)

Secondly (Concerning snails...) It seems we have a rather scandalous situation on our hands....  Hippocrates has been somehow (I have absolutely no idea how he does it...) finding a way in the Aphrodite's separator. I take him out, but the next time I see him he's right back in! I haven't the slightest idea how he does it or how to deal with it. (Help in the comments??)  Are they in love or does Hippocrates just like the safety of the separator? 

(Well, if they are in love, Aphrodite doesn't seem to like Hippocrates much. She is always in the opposite corner with her regular shocked face.)

And lastly I would just like to quickly point out how much Hippocrates has grown since I got him.

WOW!

New Stuff, Snail Bonding, Clean Tank, and a Mystery.

Clean tank with slightly different arrangement!   

New algae-cleaning magnet

Hippocrates and Socrates feasting on algae wafer

New air stone!

Socrates cleaning Hippocrate's shell, how cute <3

New filter!

Mysterious thing I found floating in water after water change....


I'll probably add more text to this post once I have time that will provide a better explanation: ) Stay tuned!

Mission Accomplished!

Socrates finally woke up from his three day nap, look at them-'father and son'!! (I guess I could say 'Brothers' but Socrates is so big and Hippocrates is so small....)

What a Trickster!

Twice now Socrates has tricked me into thinking he was dead. The first time, I came home only to see a shell floating around in the water. Being my first snail, I didn't know what a dead yellow apple snail looked like, so I began researching what a dead one looks like. I picked him up out of the water and tried moving him back on to the glass, but he never responded. I learned that a dead snail stinks terribly, as I looked up at my tank, I saw him blissfully cruising up the glass as if nothing had ever happened. As you can imagine, I was overjoyed to see this and glad I didn't bury him alive, but also upset that he would play such a cruel joke. The next instance, I noticed that he had not moved at all since that morning. I kept an eye on him, and he still failed to move around. I had to go to a family event, and hoped to see him active when I returned. And what do ya know... when I got back a few hours later,  he was cruising along as usual! I don't know what it is with snails, they just love playing possum!