| Monday, May 17, 2004 |
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Massacre! Dracula strikes again!
We were warned not to name the new fish "Dracula", although I thought nothing of it at the time. I think that's because the rationale was something along the lines of "I wouldn't want a fish named after me." Well, in the totally ridiculous frame of mind that I've been in lately, I would love a fish named after me...so we named the new panda cory "Dracula" and thought nothing of it. Dracula, it seems, has killed his two panda cory tankmates. Although likely not on purpose, he's knocked off the entire panda cory population, leaving all of that fish food scavenging and plant exploring to himself. I think that he was likely a 'Typhoid Mary' - the carrier of a disease who was not affected by it. The worst part? We decided not to quarantine Dracula when we got him. On the off chance that anyone actually wants to know what I'm talking about, here's the deal... Whenever you bring home a new fish, you're supposed to quarantine it in a separate tank to make sure that it's not carrying any diseases it might of picked up at the fish store. Once you've watched the fish for a week or two (some people quarantine up to six weeks!) then you can plop him in the tank with all of the other fish, and be relatively sure that you are not introducing some sort of nasty disease. So anyway, we didn't quarantine Dracula. The place where we bought him from has one of the best reputations in the city, and maintaining the quarantine tank for two weeks is a pain in the ass. So we threw him into the main tank right away, and now we've got two dead fish. Although, I suppose that we would have put in him the main tank anyway, because Dracula himself is just fine - scurrying up and down the walls of the tank, busily exploring his new surroundings, trying to school with the other fish. Since he's looked healthy since we got him, there was no way of knowing that he was carrying a disease. The quarantine period would have been inconsequential. But I still feel horribly guilty anyway. Like maybe, living in the quarantine tank would have magically rid Dracula of whatever disease he was carrying. So it was particularly devastating when we got home last night to find the two panda cories (Chubb and Kitty) keeled over and totally colourless. I'd known that they weren't quite 100 per cent in the last few days, but I was hoping that a water change and some extra food would perk them up. So we got home, and checked on the snail (that's a story for another post) and I had the misfortune of looking into the tank in exactly the wrong spot. Needless to say, there was much crying and carrying on on my part - I am particularly attached to the panda cories (they are my favourite fish even though I proclaim not to have favourites). Luckily, Chris was there to get rid of the bodies...I couldn't even look at them, nevermind fish them out with a net. So this ends the story of Dracula...for now. If he starts killing anyone else, I'll be sure to keep you all posted. Liberated at 10:36 a.m. | |
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