A Bipolar Tank

(I just found I that this post never got published, so I'm doing it now.. Let the record show that I wrote this on June 12th, 2014.) 

Hello again! Well, I come again bearing bad news... Hippocrates, our dear sea snail, has passed. In all honesty, I have to say that his death was the most disgusting one to have to deal with... You know way back when when I thought Socrates might be dead (he was actually napping..) and I looked up how to know if a sea snail is dead, and they told me that they would stink. Yeah, well they weren't kidding. He smelled SO BAD. Only to make things worse, when I lifted his shell out of the water (with the net..) this nasty, smelly, brown liquid poured out into the water (I assume it was what was left of his actual body.. 😳😁) I'll spare you the rest of the juicy details. I'm still not sure if I should worry that the water is contaminated now.. I had a small funeral and buried his shell, remembering how tiny he was when I first got him... I'm gonna miss him a lot! He was a great snail! I other news, a couple of days ago I was cleaning my tank and I accidentally scrubbed something I shouldn't have on the filter..ll which ended in it making horrid noises every time I turned it on... So I kept it off for a few days until I could get a new filter and just for kicks I tried turning it on again today ans voila! It works! I also got some new goodies... A new bubble curtain and this stuff that's supposed to minimize algae (which I could use now that Hippocrates and Zeus are gone!). So, we'll see how this all goes.... Y'all can expect to be introduced to some new fish soon! 

Productivity?

Hello there, blog! Haven't seen you in a while! Well, to say nothing has happened in a while would be a major lie... I've just continued to be lazy and forget to maintain all these things.. I've decided the most painless way to update you is in the form of a list, so here ya go! 

-Persephone died (3/30)

-I did a ghetto water change (it involved filling up plastic Tupperware and dumping, then repeat as necessary, then reverse.) 

-My cousin is moving and all over her fish died except one, so I adopted him! Please welcome Hera (4/21) to the Underwater Empire! She will be a great friend to Aranyani after the fairly recent death of Persephone (Hera is a fancy guppy..). 

- Speaking of Aranyani, I am lightly considering changing her name to Dionysus.., just cause whenever I look at her, that's what I want to call her... Thoughts? (Leave a comment!)

- I FINALLY buried all of the fish we've lost! What's it been? 3 months? 4? Sheesh. It felt good to finally be caught up with that. Now they can finally rest in peace! (In my defense, the ground was still frozen until like March, so really my laziness as an excuse only really applies to the last month or two.) I also rewrote all the gravestone markings because they were all rubbed off after all the winter snow. Hooray! 

Is that all? I felt like I had so much more to tell you all... Huh. Well, If I remember anything dramatic, I'll be sure to update you guys (hopefully 😁)! 

Oh yeah, and as a sidenote: none of my other tabs are updated right now because I have to be on a computer to do that (I'm writing all this via ipad..) and I haven't gotten around to it yet.. But expect it soon and goodbye!

My Extreme Negligence, and the Consequences Thereof

HELLO AGAIN. (As you can probably tell from the title..) I have been one very negligent person as of late... Posting to my fish blog being one of the many things on the list of things I haven't been doing... Anywho! Probably at the top of that list is cleaning my fish tank. Before you ask, yes. Yes I finally did it. But it was nasty. I hadn't cleaned it in weeks.. Feast your eyes on the before/after below to see what I mean. It seems the dirtier my tank gets, the less motivated I am to clean it and even take care of my fish at all....(Yeah. I know, right? Usually it would be just the opposite.) Due to my laziness, we lost a couple fishes :(. Poor Nyx and another Pachus were lost as a result of my lack of responsibility. They shall be deeply missed. Because of the snowy weather, I couldn't bury them at the time of their death, but now rain and sunshine have come and melted the snow so now it's the next thing on my list, so expect a new post soon! Anyways, there's your quick little update! Happy end of February! 

Before/ After (above)

And in case you wanted to see some close ups of the fifth that I allowed to plague my tank, here ya go! (Below)

 And viola! A whole new tank!

Happy New Year! - Remembering Napoleon

Just posting to wish everyone a Happy New Year (unless you're in China, I guess..) ;) today we're also remembering one of the original fish in my tank, Napoleon, who died on this day two years ago, making him the second fish to ever die in my tank. We miss him dearly! 

Ps- I'm making a New Years resolution to post to this blog more often-so hold me to it and look for new posts often! :)

Once again, I have been negligent to post to this blog even though stuff has happened. Claudius disappeared, and Messala died, just to keep things simple. My tank now has an emptiness that I hope to fix in the coming days/weeks. Messala's death was very drawn out and painful to watch. He started swimming on his side (see picture below) and seemed unable to swim right-side up. He looked like he was suffering a lot. I almost wanted him to die, so he'd be put out of his misery. He was like this about 3-4 days before he passed away. Messala was another one of those fish that spent a lot of time in my tank (8 months to be specific) and I am more attached to than others. He was a wonderful fish and I'll miss him a lot. Now there's just the 5 Pachi, Aphrodite, Persephone, and Socrates.

A chalk memorial to Messala

(No, he's not dead.) Messala swimming on his side.

Oh Claudius, where art thou!?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Athena, who I have always thought to be immortal, is dead. She has been the only guppy to live over a year in my tank. She survived through the Black Plague of my tank, and has been friends with guppies from Eiosepa to Claudius! (That's FIFTEEN GUPPIES! :O) She was always the familiar face to make me happy in hard times. Nothing ever brought her down. Even when Aphrodite continuously nipped her tail it would always grow back. Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War is a fitting name for her after the many battles she's fought and the long life she lived. I can easily say she has been one of the best fish I've ever had in my care and I'll miss her a lot! 

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War

One of the last pictures I took of her. (about 2 days before she died..)

(Here's an example of the algae I mentioned in my last post.)

:(

Well, Artemis died. She actually died on August 30th, but I have been lazy about posting to this blog as of late. She was a wonderful fish for the four days I had her. That morning was a terrible day for the Underwater Empire. I woke up in a hurry, late for school and found her dead. Not only that but somehow Messala had found a way into Aphrodite's confinement overnight..... locked in the monster's den. Messala ended up losing most of his tail from nipping, and has never been the same since, although his tail has grown back. In fact, him and Athena seem to be going on the downhill spiral and I'm quite sad. It rained at Artemis' funeral, which I found fitting. My tank has turned a goldish-brown with algae without Zeus' constant cleaning, which finally leads me to something positive..... I'm getting a new, small albino Pleco this weekend! He'll only grown to 4 in, so I will never have to sell him! I'll keep you posted as best I can.

Also, Artemis just happened to be the only one of my new fish that I didn't get a picture of..... :( ( I do, however have a not-graphic picture of her dead corpse if you want it, so leave an answer about if you do/don't want to see it in the comments..)

Claudius

Persephone

3/5 of the new Pachi!

Aphrodite is scared of Hippocrates..

Messala on the downhill spiral.

Messala on the downhill spiral...

Somehow she got out of confinement...

... and Hippocrates got in!

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..)

-

Many Many Things!

Well, many many things have happened today alone. Prepare yourselves, because most of it is negative. First things first, dear Augustus has passed away.

Here's the story:
So, I was at a camp all week. My family was taking care of my fish. When I got back, everything seemed ok, but I noticed Augustus wasn't around. My mom told me that she'd seen him last night when she fed them. After looking all around the tank, I began to worry. I knew he wasn't alive. If you remember how I found Poseidon dead, this should sound familiar. I saw a small whisp of what looked like fish bones with rotting skin. Accepting this as his dead body, I buried it. Gravestone and all. As returned to my tank, I was shocked to find another, fuller corpse. This one was defiantly Augustus. Feeling foolish, I went back (with my dear cousin) and dug up the false corpse (which was probably just some algae) and replaced it with the true one.

The false corpse

The false corpse

Augustus was a wonderful fish. He was friendly and accepting to everyone. His tail shimmered with every color imaginable and couldn't have been more beautiful. He will be missed.

Just to add to the pile of bad news, Socrates isn't moving. I'm not saying he's dead, he's just not moving. I keep telling myself this is another false alarm, and he's just sleeping, but I don't know. He's sucked into his shell and looks pale. I'm trusting that what I read about water snails when they die (that they stink) is true...

I also let Aphrodite out of confinement. I guess it's up to you whether that's good or bad. She was sure happy about it, swimming all over the place! I'm glad to see her happy, but also worried about my guppies.
 

Aphrodite enjoying all the new space

To make things worse, I'm leaving on a trip TOMORROW until August 7th, which means I won't be able to monitor or take care of my tank! I'm so worried about what I'll find when I return.

As far as good news, I cleaned my tank! YAY! It was so dirty and gross!

Lastly, tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Tutankhamen's death. As one of the original fish, he will always have a place in my heart. We remember him tomorrow as a great fish who loved many.