the curse of the party: $20 fishes don't die...
now other than the old running days and a couple michigan football issues, i am not a superstitious person...ok there may be a few other things but we won't get into all that here; the point is, i don't believe in curses. oh wait, i just had a couple entries a few days ago about the wedding curse having to do with michigan football. ok so scratch that, i do believe in some of them. moving right along...
some days just plain SUCK. today was not starting out to be one of those days, but it definitely hit a peak by the evening and i'm still kind of bitter and pissed. back to the curses, or more specifically, 'the curse of the party'.
we have had a total of two official parties here at the tank, and our third is going to be this saturday. if you didn't receive an invite it's probably because you either live too far away or i don't like you. anyway, ever since the first party something has gone horribly wrong a few days or the night before the big event. our first party was in july as kind of a 'house-warming' party and it was the first time we had a lot of people over to the place. the night before the party i was doing a water change on the biggest tank (the one that got our place its name) and something went haywire and all the fishes started flipping out and a couple of them (two of the most valuable/rare) were upside down and knocked out for frequent periods of time. i seriously thought they were going to die. i was up until about 5-6am the night before the party because i wanted to make sure they were ok. the next day they were still flipping out, but somehow by the actual time of the party they calmed down and all was ok. to say that i was stressed would be a major understatement. these are not dogs or cats or children, but i do worry about them quite often (most of you have killed a fish before, so you know its not a cakewalk to keep them alive...and multiply your number x 50 and you have what we deal with at the tank). anyway, there was full recovery from a stage where i thought they were surely going to die.
they were fine after that...fast forward to two weeks ago when we had our second official party (which was really just a get-together that snowballed over the course of a week into a party)...the day before the party one of these same fishes, a Cuban gar, looked like it got the crap beaten out of it and was swimming around the top of the tank gasping. it even let me pick it up out of the water to help it breathe (they need to breach the surface to get air). this was almost a sure sign of death to me, and of course i was worried again...and hadnt had to deal with this except for the night before the last party. again, miraculously, the fish recovered by the day of the party and all was fine.
now we come to this week, i was almost expecting something to surely go wrong...and in this case (and many others) i hate it when i am right. to make a long story short, i came home from work and found one of these two fishes on its side and gasping at the bottom of the tank. i didnt have time to deal with it right then, and it looked like a goner so i had to take off and was going to come back later to do a water change on the tank (which i think would be futile). sure enough, i came back about an hour later and the fish was dead. on the floor of the aquarium with its mouth gaping open. i was pretty pissed off. just to put things into perspective, (for all you non-fish nerds) this was probably my second most valuable fish and also one of the rarest. up until today there were only a total of 6 in the country (they had to be imported from singapore) and i had 2 of them. well, at least i have one more left. that being said, its hardly ever the $5 betta that dies or the cheaper $20 gar from Florida...it has to be the rarest species in the world that is next to impossible to replace. yeah, sounds like BS to me. sarah suggested that perhaps the 'gar gods' do not like our parties or that i upset them somehow. maybe i haven't been paying enough attention to them recently, but most people who know me probably know i spoil them at worst.
so yeah, now this fish is on ice and will be brought to the university so i can preserve it and use a DNA sample for a potential upcoming paper...so i guess not all is lost, but it still sucks bigtime. all i can say is with all the stress and the actual loss of a fish this time (and not just a scare) this had better be one hell of a party. luckily my roommate james later convinced me that he wanted to watch 'Get Over It' since he hadnt seen it (it may have just been a ploy to distract me from the situation) but it was fun and pretty much worked. thank goodness it's the weekend coming up very soon...carrie's bday party tomorrow as well as the 'jell-Olympics' party (which i have never been to before, but i hear from various sources it's pretty cool) and then of course the party at the tank saturday evening.
i just poured some of my Fruit2O on the floor in memory of my beloved Cuban gar. rest in peace yo. good night <:><
Cuban gar (Atractosteus tristoechus)
some days just plain SUCK. today was not starting out to be one of those days, but it definitely hit a peak by the evening and i'm still kind of bitter and pissed. back to the curses, or more specifically, 'the curse of the party'.
we have had a total of two official parties here at the tank, and our third is going to be this saturday. if you didn't receive an invite it's probably because you either live too far away or i don't like you. anyway, ever since the first party something has gone horribly wrong a few days or the night before the big event. our first party was in july as kind of a 'house-warming' party and it was the first time we had a lot of people over to the place. the night before the party i was doing a water change on the biggest tank (the one that got our place its name) and something went haywire and all the fishes started flipping out and a couple of them (two of the most valuable/rare) were upside down and knocked out for frequent periods of time. i seriously thought they were going to die. i was up until about 5-6am the night before the party because i wanted to make sure they were ok. the next day they were still flipping out, but somehow by the actual time of the party they calmed down and all was ok. to say that i was stressed would be a major understatement. these are not dogs or cats or children, but i do worry about them quite often (most of you have killed a fish before, so you know its not a cakewalk to keep them alive...and multiply your number x 50 and you have what we deal with at the tank). anyway, there was full recovery from a stage where i thought they were surely going to die.
they were fine after that...fast forward to two weeks ago when we had our second official party (which was really just a get-together that snowballed over the course of a week into a party)...the day before the party one of these same fishes, a Cuban gar, looked like it got the crap beaten out of it and was swimming around the top of the tank gasping. it even let me pick it up out of the water to help it breathe (they need to breach the surface to get air). this was almost a sure sign of death to me, and of course i was worried again...and hadnt had to deal with this except for the night before the last party. again, miraculously, the fish recovered by the day of the party and all was fine.
now we come to this week, i was almost expecting something to surely go wrong...and in this case (and many others) i hate it when i am right. to make a long story short, i came home from work and found one of these two fishes on its side and gasping at the bottom of the tank. i didnt have time to deal with it right then, and it looked like a goner so i had to take off and was going to come back later to do a water change on the tank (which i think would be futile). sure enough, i came back about an hour later and the fish was dead. on the floor of the aquarium with its mouth gaping open. i was pretty pissed off. just to put things into perspective, (for all you non-fish nerds) this was probably my second most valuable fish and also one of the rarest. up until today there were only a total of 6 in the country (they had to be imported from singapore) and i had 2 of them. well, at least i have one more left. that being said, its hardly ever the $5 betta that dies or the cheaper $20 gar from Florida...it has to be the rarest species in the world that is next to impossible to replace. yeah, sounds like BS to me. sarah suggested that perhaps the 'gar gods' do not like our parties or that i upset them somehow. maybe i haven't been paying enough attention to them recently, but most people who know me probably know i spoil them at worst.
so yeah, now this fish is on ice and will be brought to the university so i can preserve it and use a DNA sample for a potential upcoming paper...so i guess not all is lost, but it still sucks bigtime. all i can say is with all the stress and the actual loss of a fish this time (and not just a scare) this had better be one hell of a party. luckily my roommate james later convinced me that he wanted to watch 'Get Over It' since he hadnt seen it (it may have just been a ploy to distract me from the situation) but it was fun and pretty much worked. thank goodness it's the weekend coming up very soon...carrie's bday party tomorrow as well as the 'jell-Olympics' party (which i have never been to before, but i hear from various sources it's pretty cool) and then of course the party at the tank saturday evening.
i just poured some of my Fruit2O on the floor in memory of my beloved Cuban gar. rest in peace yo. good night <:><
Cuban gar (Atractosteus tristoechus)
posted by Solomon at 2:26 AM
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