Had a scary morning...

I've recently been thinking of renaming this blog... "torment from the tank."

No, folks, I'm not referring to the tanks my plumber husband works on (thank God!)

I'm referring to the fish tanks, and the torment they put me through on a regular basis.

My daughter has a Betta fish. It has its own tank in her room, because, well, it likes to eat other fish. not a friendly critter. Daughter has very diligently set up the tank, and cares for her fish oh so carefully.

As with the other tank, Mama gets to clean the betta's tank as well.

Today I realized we'd been putting off the usual cleaning for too long. That tank was funky nasty, and I was somewhat amazed to see the fish still swimming in there.
Time to git-er-done.

So, I got my handy dandy fish net, asked Husband if he wanted to go fishin with me, haha which of course got him as excited as if I'd asked the kids if they wanted to go to disneyland. . . until he saw me with the net!
Awww, poor hubby...

Off to work. I scooped the fish out of the tank, and put him in the jar we use while cleaning the tank. Today for some reason he flipped a bit more than usual in the net.

When I put him into the jar, he just floated to the bottom, and, may I say, at an unusual twisted position. I looked very closely, and his gills were going, so he wasn't dead.

maybe just shocked a bit. ( hmm, maybe at the fact I finally remembered the tank was nasty!)

so I went ahead and cleaned the tank, and all its fun little accessories. filled it up with fresh water, checked the temperatures, started the filter up..and checked back on the fish.

the fish hadn't moved, but the gills were still going.

Oh NO!! she's had this fish almost 2 years, and I killed it by cleaning the tank. OOOOOHHHH nooo! Husband thinks I'm exaggerating. no, seriously, the thing hasn't moved... its 'breathing' though, oh my God, do you think I could have paralyzed it somehow with the net?? How on earth do I explain THIS? "honey I tried to clean the fish tank today, your betta did a little extra wiggling and got paralyzed?"

oh no... no no no ... this is bad.

Husband says " its shocked. leave it alone, it'll be fine"

but look at the weird bend in the middle of its body!! do you suppose I somehow broke its back?? If its not swimming before she gets home, .... holy cow, how do you euthanize a FISH? really!! it can't swim, it can't eat, if it can't eat- thats a slow painful death I don't want to be responsible for!!

Husband says "leave it alone, you spaz, just check it in an hour"

easy for you to say pal. I returned the fish to the tank, again an odd scenario- the fish did not swim hurredly out of the jar- it sort of, well, sank out of the jar. oh jeez, cmoon fishie, SWIM!!
It proceeded to sink to the bottom of its freshly cleaned tank.

When daughter returned home, I explained to her I wasn't sure what was wrong with her fish- either it was shocked silly, and would be ok, or it was somehow badly hurt and couldn't swim anymore- which was bad. Being 8 years old, and having been through several fish, and a very much-loved dog, this was not what she wanted to hear.

"if he can't swim, mama, he'll starve! can we take him to the pet store to get him fixed up? "

(oh breaking my heart here !) um, honey, it doesn't quite work that way with fish. if he can't eat, he'll die, but if he's just shocked, he'll wake up and be ok... (trying to keep the positives out there!)

"do we get him a shot, like we did with the dog, so he doesn't hurt so bad?"

weell... um... no. if he isn't swimming more by tomorrow, he's hurt badly- and we'll have to find a way to end his suffering.

(i did not want to tell her the only way I could think of was to remove it from the water!)

Daughter had a bit of a cry, and we talked about it, she's had the fish a long time, as far as fish go he's getting old, she's been asking for other fish anyway, we can go look this week and see what she likes.... besides, he may be ok after all, we'll watch him and see how he does.

ok.

WE all went to visit some friends for a few hours, the kids had a great time... On the way home Daughter reminds me about how when we had gone for a visit one day, returning home, her first golfish had died.
yea hon I remember..( oooh please, please don't let that fish still be comatose!)

When we got home, Daughter beat me to the tank.
"MOOOOMMMMYYYY mom!! mom!! hurry!!!! "

oh no...

"He's in his CAVE ,Mama!! he MOVED!"

when I approached the tank, the fish gave a little spurt of a swim, and.... much to my delight, hovered above the rocks, like he should!

I'll be.....
"he's gonna be OK mama!! he IS! I just KNOW it!!"

He does look a bit better hon, and look, he even ate his food! But, we'll keep an eye on him, and make sure he stays better ok?

WHEW!!!

Husband again , fought the urge, and lost- to say "I told you so"

we're still watching the fish.

***11/8/09 update : the betta is fine! can't tell you how happy i was to see him recuperate by the next morning! ***