The Weekend, Fish Rescues and Bad Fathers

This last Friday afternoon we enacted FPA

Fish Protection Agency

We thought about making some outfits, a bit superheroish, film ourselves in slow motion to show how badass we are while trying not to shatter tanks and drop fish

My 16 year old son Lane, his good friend James and I all went over to a house where the people had recently moved and the power had been shut off for 2 days, leaving a 30 gallon fish tank with what we were told was a female Red Devil in it.  Someone else had just recently came and rescued the hedgehog that was also left in the home in a little cage.  As you can see from the videos we eventually discovered there was no Red Devil but 2 large Goldfish, a 10 inch Pleco and mystery cichlid. 

Spent the rest of the weekend saving the cichlid from starvation and ammonia stress.  The slime coat on the Pleco and cichlid was extreme, thank God they had a means of protection that I'm sure was built up over time.  The little guy is meaner then hell!  Now that he's not in a brown swamp he can now seek and shred Goldfish tails!  I think he's feeling better. Not exactly the weekend I had planned........

You can see sand stuck to his extreme slime coat

Their 30 gallon tank, cleaned and set up on my counter

Now, Sunday morning, I'm headed into town to take the 2 goldfish and 10 inch Pleco to their new digs, a nice pond in Spokane, WA.  Folks have been great, really reaching out to help re-home and rehabilitate these fish.  The goldfish, of course, act like they just had a walk in the park, AMAZES me always what type of water conditions they can survive and even thrive in.

So, out of all this I gained a 30 gallon and 10 gallon tank to add to my collection.  Worth it? Saving those poor fish was worth it, I'll NEVER forget that smell draining that tank.  There had to be dead fish in there.....

Bad Fish Fathers.......

My Ancistrus male has proven to not be the greatest of Dads.  The poor guy was so freaked out over the absolute circus that happens in the 20 gallon every time the Corydoras Aeneus aka Weeble Wobble spawns with her 3 males.  They rip and tear through the tank like little freight trains and would race past his cave, smashing into his tail causing him to zoom out and threaten.  Well each time he would do this he would drag eggs out with him.  Eventually I ended up with all 31 eggs in a container and him sucked up to the driftwood, completely abandoning his cave.  So now I'm trying to "fan" his eggs like he would to keep them from getting fungus, looks like I might get about 20 to hatch, fingers crossed.

I think he needs a quieter setting next time, once his frazzled nerves settle that is.