CWO4GUNNER

Having been pretty proud of the lack of fish death and disease in my aquarium, I have been humbled the last few days by the uncommon fish death and near deaths I have experienced this week, from two stuck BP's in ornaments that almost expired to the death of my female betta who died from no apparent causes other then the stress from the tank move and ornament changes.
But what really surprised me this morning was to find what I initially thought was one of the toys belonging to my Bombay Cat Hershey. Only thing is I couldn't remember buying him a rubber fish until I noted how real it felt and that it was missing tail. Oh my... it is my White Tip Colombian who was destined for a trip back to Pet Smart today for a free no credit return having had him 3 months way past the return period. But how did this happen with the heavy wooden canopy in place above my 120 tank. Then I realized that another set of unforeseen circumstances came into play here. Having been an investigator in the USCG for many years I naturally look for causes and solutions. Anyway I remembered that the only section of the wooden canopy that is open and exposed is the back side and that inner glass cover would ordinarily would block rear escape has a 2 " gap to accommodate both the hang filter and the canister hoses. This in conjunction with the fact that this CS likes to ride the air wand stream which was always on high in that corner placed the CS in the exact same location 24/7 swimming up & down except for feeding. The last contributing factor was that my water change 2 days ago left me with a high water mark and last night I compounded this with adding 4 bags of new fish water for the new arrivals (1 Betta, 1 Lrg BP, 2 small angels, and 3 small Otto's). And yes I know even though I acclimated correctly for temperature and pH I did a no-no by not discarding the LFS water which besides having possible unwanted germs also raised my tank water to an unprecedented level. So high a level that when I had reached inside last night in the dark (for the new fish) I could hear water spilling over the side but thought it was wave action and my muscular arm displacing the water, who knew!
So the CS must have jumped out, either that or Hershey took advantage of the situation, climbed on top of the wood canopy and with his nocturnal vision and fast reflexes waited for the CS to come withing a 8 inches of his repetitive vertical swim pattern and reached from the top and fished the CS out. Lesson learned replace the glass inner panels with acrylic panels that can be cut to fit around the filter and hoses for a tight escape and predator proof seal.

Red1313

that sucks

agabr123

i'm really sorry to hear that

CWO4GUNNER

No reason to scold the cat for something that comes natural. I know if I had witnessed Hershey in the act of either fishing or taking advantage of a situation, one command from me would have stopped him in his tracks as I have gotten him to release many an uninjured wild bunny's brought to me from our garden. However if he is responsible he will surly try it again so today I have to go to LHS and have some plastic cut.

CWO4GUNNER

Took the glass panel down to Lowes and had plastic panels cut instead. Although a little more expensive then glass, much lighter and tougher. I also had enough left over to cut a third panel that I can use to custom cut for the back hand filter and canister tubes. In winter time it should help save energy cost for heating.

Speedy

Ahhhh thats awful! Sorry about your shark.

CWO4GUNNER

Thanks. Wow your profile page cheered me up, water world and robotic fish, cool.

Speedy

I'm glad it cheered you up. Thats one of the things that makes this forum sooo awesome is being able to make a page like that. I love it and this is one of my favorite forums.

t.s

i had a 2 foot arrowana a few years back.

i went on holiday for a week and had a neighbour feed the fish while i was gone.

the person feeding the fish opened the tank lid to watch the fish consume crickets from the surface, and, in a completely unprecedented manner, the fish leeapt from the tank.

my cat swooped in, grabbed the fish and ran out the door. by the time the guy had figured out what happened, the cat was gone and the fish was never seen again.

the cat did not appear for food until i returned.

i still like the cat more than i liked the fish.