|
6/16/2008 - Day 4
When I got home from work my son and I went straight to Mori’s tank. I had left the light in the aquarium on for him all day while the other lights in the apartment were out. We said hello and Donovan (my son) fed him some freeze dried blood worms. He ate well. Donovan went to go play one of his new video games so I took a seat to see how Mori was doing. I turned off the lights in the kitchen and dining room and just left his 15w incandescent tank light on.
As I was watching him, he started freaking out! He began acting very strangely and swimming up and down one of the “seams” in the hex tank very aggressively. Then, I noticed that he had his gills flared out! I realized that he must be seeing his reflection and trying to fight off his evil self!
Well, I was a little startled by this, of course, so I flipped on the dining room light. Instantly, Mori settled down, but continued swimming up and down one seam of the tank “jerkily” like he was trying to show off to some rival. It appeared as though he could still see his reflection, although perhaps not quite as well as before as his gills weren’t flaring anymore.
If I held a piece of paper over the area where he was going nuts, he’d settle down right away, like he was tired. I realized that he may have been doing this all day! Poor guy! So, I left the paper up to help and he began relaxing and swimming around as normal. As he swam to the other side of the tank, he saw another seam, and apparently another one of himself and began doing it on the opposite side of the tank!
Alright, so that wasn’t working obviously. I played with the lighting in the room and figured out the only way I could get him to really settle down was to turn all of the lights in the area off, including his tank light. Ahh, crisis averted…if I never want Mori to see light again! I made the decision that I would talk to the Fishlore forum folks about it tomorrow.
Donovan and I then went out for a while and let my wife rest. She had a pretty bad headache so I figured getting us out of the house would definitely help. We had something to return to Target, so we did that first. Then I realized that there is a PetSafe in the same strip mall area! How had I missed this before? Probably wouldn’t be better than Wal-Mart or Pet’s Barn when it came to fish stuff, but worth a try nonetheless.
So, after our trip to Target, we ventured over to PetSmart. And, much to my surprise, they had a LOT of stuff! Bunches of aquariums, stands, decorations, conditioners, food, lights, and fish! Fish conditions weren’t great, but they were better than anywhere else I had seen yet. They were even pretty honest with their advertisements (“beginners should buy a bigger tank,” “be careful not to overstock your tank,” etc.). The young lady who worked there, while nice, didn’t know anything about the nitrification cycle, but, not really a surprise there.
They did have all of the types of fish I want for the community tank once the rest of the stuff comes in later this week, so that was good. I was afraid I’d have to order those online, too! Their prices were higher than Drs. Foster and Smith, but that is no surprise. A place worth going back to, for sure.
We got back home, I told Gabby (my wife) all about Petsmart and Mori’s behavior. She took a look and concluded the same thing as me so she worked on settling him down while I cooked dinner for the family.
Last edited by tzqng8; June 18th, 2008 at 11:47 AM.
Reason: Wrong date!
| 
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads
