Sunday, August 14, 2016

The fish and the Visa bill - Part II



It happened again. One of the goldfish jumped out of the tank. In all the years we’ve had exotic fish and goldfish we’ve never had any incidents with them, but now it seems we have an athlete in the family.

It happened last Friday night. I suddenly heard a plonk and noticed a goldfish on the floor. Since the tank is an upright on a stand, the poor thing had fallen about four feet (120 cm). 

At first I scooped up the fish with my hands, but slimy and slippery as he was, he wiggled himself free. So once again it was the Visa bill to the rescue.

Dieter thought he would die, after all after a fall of such a height he might have sustained an injury. I couldn’t argue with that, at the very least the fish might be concussed.

Still, I deposited him back in the water, where he sank like a stone and lay on the bottom of the tank. He was not dead though, I could see his mouth opening and closing, so if he was breathing he was alive.

While the fish recuperated I went online to find out why fish jump out of their tank. Some of the reasons were listed as:

  • ·      The water being too warm
  • ·      The water being too acidy
  • ·      The water lacking oxygen


In this case the water was definitely not too warm, since the tank had just been cleaned the acid level was correct and since the other fish were swimming at mid-level and the bottom of the tank rather than the top, there seemed nothing wrong with the oxygen level.

There was another reason listed … fish tend to jump out of the tank because they are bored. If that is the reason, we’ve got problems. What am I supposed to do? Reposition the tank so the fish can watch TV?

Anyway, to prevent further accidents, Dieter covered the top of the tank with clear duct tape, leaving just enough space for fresh water to flow into the tank and for feeding.

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