daninthesand
11-25-2003, 04:53 PM
This morning I came home at 8 am following a night shift. I sleepily went to the basement bathroom to brush my teeth before bed and sat in front of my wall display discus tank, waiting for the 2 minute warning of the electric tooth brush to signal it was ok to stop brushing and go to bed. I have this habit of counting the discus so here I was 1...2...3...4...5....6...7....er uh 7...... 7...... 7! Hey there's supposed to be eight wild adults in there. ***! 1...2...3...4...5...6...7..... 7 .... 7....... CRAP!
I went to the other room where I have access to the back of the aquarium and looked at the floor..... :( darn, there sat number 8 (of course the favourite of the 8 ) on the carpet, black, dry, motionless, lifeless. :'(. I went to pick it up and examined it, yep hes dead. The skin was not completely dry, the eyes had started to cloud over and there was no respiration. With a sinking feeling i picked up the fish and began to walk upstairs to put the fish outside in the snow in the backyard to feed the nieghbours cat. (I do this with most dead fish)
It occured to me that the fish was not stiff yet, so it must not have been too long since he had died. I almost got out my stethescope (i am a respiratory therapist) to see if I could hear heart sounds. yeah right, as if i could hear anything anyway, but I did take a peak under the gill plate to see how dry the gills were. Hmmm they're still wet, and they're still bright RED! Just then the fish jumped out of my hands! HOLY SH!T i thought and carried him back to the tank and plopped him in.
Well, damn if that doesn't beat all heck! He took a couple of short bursts and floated up to the top. I inspected him as he floated and there was just a faint hint of gill movement on one side. I figured "what the heck" try and resucitate the poor little fellow. (I had spent the night doing just that to humans)I moved him back and forth in the water for a few minutes and he began to breath harder....geeze... NO WAY! I watched him float there for a while and saw the breathing slowly get weaker as he sunk to the bottom of the tank. Oh well, I tried....but I was too tired to get on the chair and stick my hand to the bottom of the tall tank and get him out. I'll do it later....I'm going to bed.
Well, I woke up about an hour ago and had breakfast. Well, I might as well get that dead fish out. Went downstairs, to brush my teeth again, sat in front of the tank. 1..2...3..4...5...6...7........
8.....
8?
8!!!!!!
HOLY SH!T HOLY SH!T HOLY SH!T.
He's alive and swimming around! Swimming around like nothing happened!
I WAS AMAZED! He looks like crap, skin all peeling and slimy and stuff. But as far as he was concerned he was hungry and was right up at the front of the tank with the rest of them, beggin for food.
Today is going to be a great day after all! ;D
I went to the other room where I have access to the back of the aquarium and looked at the floor..... :( darn, there sat number 8 (of course the favourite of the 8 ) on the carpet, black, dry, motionless, lifeless. :'(. I went to pick it up and examined it, yep hes dead. The skin was not completely dry, the eyes had started to cloud over and there was no respiration. With a sinking feeling i picked up the fish and began to walk upstairs to put the fish outside in the snow in the backyard to feed the nieghbours cat. (I do this with most dead fish)
It occured to me that the fish was not stiff yet, so it must not have been too long since he had died. I almost got out my stethescope (i am a respiratory therapist) to see if I could hear heart sounds. yeah right, as if i could hear anything anyway, but I did take a peak under the gill plate to see how dry the gills were. Hmmm they're still wet, and they're still bright RED! Just then the fish jumped out of my hands! HOLY SH!T i thought and carried him back to the tank and plopped him in.
Well, damn if that doesn't beat all heck! He took a couple of short bursts and floated up to the top. I inspected him as he floated and there was just a faint hint of gill movement on one side. I figured "what the heck" try and resucitate the poor little fellow. (I had spent the night doing just that to humans)I moved him back and forth in the water for a few minutes and he began to breath harder....geeze... NO WAY! I watched him float there for a while and saw the breathing slowly get weaker as he sunk to the bottom of the tank. Oh well, I tried....but I was too tired to get on the chair and stick my hand to the bottom of the tall tank and get him out. I'll do it later....I'm going to bed.
Well, I woke up about an hour ago and had breakfast. Well, I might as well get that dead fish out. Went downstairs, to brush my teeth again, sat in front of the tank. 1..2...3..4...5...6...7........
8.....
8?
8!!!!!!
HOLY SH!T HOLY SH!T HOLY SH!T.
He's alive and swimming around! Swimming around like nothing happened!
I WAS AMAZED! He looks like crap, skin all peeling and slimy and stuff. But as far as he was concerned he was hungry and was right up at the front of the tank with the rest of them, beggin for food.
Today is going to be a great day after all! ;D