February 17th, 2009
The Dead Fish
Mikey was only trying to be helpful. He really didn’t mean to kill all the fish. Thursday, just before the blackout, Mikey fed the fish. By “fed the fish” I mean he dumped a full container of fish food in the fish tank. And then the power went out for 14 hours. No filter to clean, just the rotting of fish food in a 75 degree fish tank.
By the time I was able to get to the fish tank, it smelled like a sewer and most of the fish were passed on.
‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
Well, actually they were ex-fish. Three fish did survive their feeding and they are happily swimming in their now spotless fish tank. To be more precise, only one is swimming. The other two are catfish so they are just lying around on the bottom of the tank. Which makes me wonder if the catfish really did get its name because of the whiskers or because they demonstrate the same activity level as the felines living in my house.
Before the cleaning, when you walked into the room where the tank was, the first smell that hit you was the smell one would expect if the dog had left a present in the corner and it had not been found for several days. Anyway, the tank has been cleaned to an inch of its life. Every last trace of algae and sewage has been removed. Rocks and fake plants were scrubbed. Yes, the tank is spotless. Well, it certainly isn’t contaminated by the presence of many fish.
So that is how I spent the Saturday of my three day weekend. Sunday was spent cleaning up the broken glass from the glass table we had outside which exploded during the last deep freeze and picking up presents left by the dog in the backyard. How about you?
Ecki wrote,
Y’know, they make battery packs for those filters, LOL. My DH has a couple of fish tanks. He’ll change the water but isn’t big on cleaning the algae. So you can barely SEE the friggin fish, especially my daughter’s monster goldfish (we won them at the fair, they were like 2 inches long and in one of those tiny bowls — now we had to buy them a 20 gallon tank and you could probably have them for dinner!)
Link | February 17th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Elbog wrote,
I’m sorry to hear of their poor finnish – I’m sure their soles are in a better place. Perhaps scaling back on your collection is a good thing. I know you weren’t carping; it sounds like the tank needed cleaning, anyway. Let’s be tankful that you have three left. I hope it wasn’t too draining.
;^)>
Link | February 18th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Leah wrote,
Well, on the two or three warm (and by warm I mean 30*) days we’ve had, we’ve been picking up a winter’s worth of “presents” left by 4 dogs. I love my dogs. I love my dogs. I love my dogs.
Link | February 21st, 2009 at 10:04 pm