Something's Fishy....

I am supposed to be seizing moments, appreciating every single minute of each and every day, living la vida loca...

Eh...

What can I say.

It's freaking cold.

Actually, with exception of a few negative 10 wind chill days, it's been quite bearable.  Have I taken advantage of those days to go for a nice brisk walk down by the ocean? Nope.  I did don my sunglasses and spent a few extra minutes basking in the sunlight before realizing that my thighs were going numb. It is January, after all.

Being caught up in all things holiday and illness has left some things seriously neglected around here and while stuff like laundry is completed on a desperation basis, other things, like routine fish tank maintenance has been non existent.

There were casualties my friends.

We lost Firefly, our firefish goby.  He hid most of the days in the rocks and only came out for dinner, kind of like Youngest. After missing dinner for two nights, the hermit crabs finally had him for dinner. *sigh*  It's like the circle of life right here in the sun room.

So, I froze my butt off as I ran hoses out the back door and did a 20% water change.  After which, our green Chromis Spaz, was not acting as spaz-tacualr as normal, and soon died. And, since Tony was kind enough to leave him in the tank nearly 48 hours so I could see him all sad and floppy-like at the bottom of the tank, I had to do another 20% water change.  And then the bi-color angel fish (who shall not be named) died, and I couldn't find him for three days. Tony had to remove all the decor, flip it over, and wiggle out the live fish to reveal the carnage.  It really wasn't pretty...

So I did another 20% water change. Which should have fixed any issues with ammonia, nitrates, and serial fish assassinations we had going on, but it hasn't.  Instead it caused an infestation of pods (apparently the goby had been eating them, keeping them in check) and a huge red algae bloom. So, after removing all the decor, scrubbing it with baking soda, replacing it, scraping the tank sides down, cleaning the filter materials, changing the lighting, adding nitrate reducers and buffering the PH, we finally broke down and bought a protein skimmer. It's a necessary evil, one that I've avoided for a while because they are expensive, loud, and produce lots of tiny bubbles in the water which annoys the heck out of me,  it had to be done.  Fingers crossed this fixes the issue, because I will be heartbroken if Hunky and Dory don't make it.

So yeah, not loving being elbow deep in salt water and chemicals, but happy that I've hopefully caught it before whatever it is wipes out the whole tank. Tony's been helpful while still managing to stay relatively ignorant about the entire process, and Youngest has popped in his opinion when necessary, examining the pod infestation, and commenting on my choice of new plants.

His tank gets done tomorrow, as his nitrates are also sky high from neglect.  Youngest's tank is exponentially easier since it's freshwater and only 20 gallons.  His attitude lately however, has been anything but easier, which is a story for another day.

*sigh*

Parenting is not for sissies.

Rest in peace my little fishes.  You will be missed.

Unlike that attitude of Youngest.

But again, that's a story for another day.