Aquarium Drama

The boys and I have been keeping a small 10 gallon aquarium with various fish in it since March 16, 2013, when Lucas got his first beta fish, "Spider man Peter Parker".

We haven't really had any issues with the tank maintenance in all of that time, but apparently we were just lucky.

On Monday, Jan. 26 I noticed that one of my our neon tetras was ill and dying. We had just bought new zebra danios on Friday night so it was possible that an illness was introduced to the tank, so I treated it with Lifeguard.

To do the Lifeguard treatment I had to remove our Yo-Yo Loach and 3 snails from the aquarium.  On Tuesday the 27th, the crazy yo-yo loach managed to jump from the 8 cup measuring cup on TOP of the aquarium and into the big tank!  The holes he had to make it into are less than 3" square!

On Wednesday the 28th, I took a water sample to PetSmart to get it checked out. The ammonia was dangerously high, the nitrates were low and the waste in the tank was high.

I bought "bottled bacteria" and a marimo moss ball to add to the tank.

I also noticed that morning that the female Mickey Mouse platys we have had given birth & there were still 2 fry alive in the tank!

I moved them to a "medicine tent" in the tank to keep them safe from Mr. Yo Yo.

On the 30th I had another water check done & although most of the levels in the tank were safe, the ammonia was still too high.

I bought more bottled bacteria & added the whole bottle & a new bottle of dechlorinator too.

I also bought an artifical sea sponge & added that to my filtration system.

On Feb. 3 I had the water tested again and the nitrates were at 20ppm (which is good) and the ammonia was lower!  Yay!

That evening I dumped the rest of the stability brand bottled bacteria in the tank.

On Feb. 6 I had the water tested again and the nitrates were around 30ppm and the ammonia was still measuring a little high.  But now the clerk said the ph and alkalinity were low.

I also pulled the carbon filter out of the tank.

Its now Feb. 7 and I'm itching to expand to a bigger tank. I'm convinced we need more room to make the water stabilize.  Its just too touchy with such a small tank. 

Our current "family" includes:

3 Neon Tetras

4 Zebra Danios

2 Female Mickey Mouse Platy

1 Male Mickey Mouse Platy

2 Male Fancy Guppies

2 Mickey Mouse Platy fry (about 1/4" long & starting to look orange!)

1 Yo Yo Loach

2 Ramshorn Snails

1 Mystery Snail

a handful of feeder snails

UPDATE: Feb. 18, I haven't had the water checked in a couple of weeks now.  The filter has some obvious growth in it, which is good.  Also my little baby fry are getting larger! :) They are 3 weeks old now!

I did a 3 gallon water change today & cleaned the gravel pretty well. 

UPDATE AGAIN: March 1 

On Friday Feb 27th I bought my new 29 gallon fish tank!  I got the Tetra brand kit fromWal-Mart for $99 because I had $40 in Savings Catcher bucks and a $10 gift-card from e-bates. :) I got it set up on Saturday morning.  Some of the feeder snails made it over in the initial move & I added one of our Ramshorns later in the day.
Just before bed time we added the baby platy fish, (they are now a month old and are about 1" long) and the other 2 big snails to the tank, 

This morning we woke up and everything was still good in the tank so we began the process of bringing over a little more water, the filter sponges, and the rest of the fish.  Yo Yo Loach took a while to catch but its better that he was the last one to acclimate to the new tank anyway, so the others had time to settle in.
I went out to Petsmart later in the day and got a water sample tested and compared with tap water.  The only issue was slightly hard pH, which I will monitor and then treat as needed. 

Blondie

Well, some of you may remember this post, about Blondie. Either way, I'll recap. It was from Jan. 1 and I proclaimed that Blondie was not ready to be put down. Unfortunately, after this past week, we feel that her time has come and we are making the arrangements for her final days.
Poor Blondie has been blind for years, deaf for at least 2 years, and incontinent for about 9 months. She pees on herself, she walks in her own feces. She has 2 open sores that we have not been able to heal, no matter what we try to treat them. We believe she has recurring urinary tract infections that antibiotics have not helped.
She stopped eating her dry dog food sometime last week. I noticed it over a period of 3 days. Tim maintained that she was eating the puppy food. We left town for PA on Friday & by Saturdy morning, she hadn't touched her dog food.
Mandy dog sat for us & began feeding her wet (canned) food. Blondie ate that, but was still peeing on herself and walking in her poo. She made quite the mess for Amanda. Although she went outside 2x a day and ate canned food and drank plenty of water, Blondie does not seem happy anymore.
So, tomorrow I'll be calling the vet to find out what needs to be done & how much it will cost to put poor Blondie to sleep.
We aren't all mushy, we won't be preserving her ashes in an urn, or sending her to the "rainbow bridge" or anything like that.
We are sad that our Blondie-dog will be leaving us, but at this time we feel its the best thing to do.

Blondie is NOT ready to be put down!

OMG. I just gave Blondie a bath. She doesn't have AS much fight left in her as she used to (it used to take BOTH of us, in swimsuits, to get her to stay in the tub!) but she still has LOTS of fight left!

She started out ok. I had run a full Aveeno Baby bath for her. I lathered her up & washed her top parts and she was OK. Then when I drained the water, so I could do her legs and her belly she started having a cow. Then when there was just an inch of water in the tub, she decided to use the toilet everywhere. And then walk in it.

GROSS.

So then, I had to keep her in the tub & use soggy toilet paper to get the CRAP out of the tub. Then I had to turn the shower on (and keep her in the tub) to run the dirty water & the PISS out of the tub.

Now she HATES the shower. So that was no fun. Also I got my hair & entire upper body wet.

So then I start running some more water to rinse her with. Yea, she's on to me now & is in no way, shape, or form going to stay put. She fought & fought & then she SHIT again! UGH. I was so pissed again!

So, I pushed her to the back of the tub, turned off the water & grabbed some more tp to get it out. Then rinsed the whole darn tub again & then continued with the bath. It probably took less than 15 minutes, start to finish. But it sucked.

Then I had to get her out of the tub in a towel (for her not me), go around the ladder that's blocking my doorway, into the kitchen to dry her. Then back to the guest bathroom to use a blow drier and a comb to get her brushed and dried.

I washed her "jacket" this morning, so its all fresh and clean and so is she!

I can assure you that this dog is not ready to be put to sleep. She is still very much alive. She is NOT in pain. She gets around and loves her mommy and daddy.

Yes, she has a skin condition, but when we bathe her regularly (it's been less than a month since I bathed her) it is easy to control.

Up next, her toe nails. And that one STILL takes 2 people!

Blondie Dog

It came to my attention that Blondie gets left out of the blog, so here's a post just for her!

Blondie is 15 or 16 years old. (There is confusion over just WHICH year she was given to Tim.) She is blind, mostly deaf, and very tired.

Tim says he got her when he was 10 years old, she was just a tiny puppy. As a puppy, she was SUPER fast and very playful. She loved to hide her bones in the back yard. One time she even ran headfirst into a fence chasing a cat. She was Tim's dog through and through and he loves her.

About 12 years ago, (when Frankie was 4), Blondie had her second litter of puppies. (Her mate is Mocha, Loren's mini poodle. Peaches, Beth's dog, is one of Blondie's puppies from the first litter.) My parents got Tippy, from the second litter. She is Frankie & Dad's dog.

When Tim and I had just gotten the apartment, so the fall of 2005, Blondie's uterus got an infection. She was still living with Tom and Peggy. They didn't tell us anything was wrong with Blondie until she had stopped eating and drinking water. We rushed to their house. She was nearly dead. Tim convinced her to eat some deli meat and I used a syringe to put some water down her throat. We took her to the Emergency Vet to be looked at. The doctor said that there was a mass in her belly, possibly a tumor. We were so worried. Then he came back and said that he just realized Blondie was "in tact" and that the mass was actually her very infected and ruptured uterus. The condition is called pyometra. She had to have surgery right away to save her life. The doctor expected her to be OK afterwards, so Tim and I decided it was worth the $1,800. Tom and Peggy weren't willing to pay that kind of money. When Blondie got out of the hospital, we brought her to come live with us. We had spent the $$, she was going to live with us, and that's just how it was.

A week after her surgery we had to take her to the vet to get her staples removed. Dr. Watts at PetSmart saw her and wouldn't even sell us an insurance plan, because Blondie was so pathetic, she didn't think she'd live.

Two weeks later, after following the doctor's orders for (DAILY) baths, meds, and attention, we had nursed Blondie back to health. Dr. Watts said she was a new dog! We put Blondie on a PetSmart plan then.

We used to put her out back of our apartment and she'd go to the potty and then wander around. She never went far and it was nice. We had a "stake and chain" that was really a nylon cord we could put her on if there were others around too.

At one point, when we still lived in the apartment, the doctors told us Blondie had a liver problem and that she'd need put down or would die soon. We went home and cried and cried and were so upset. It was April. We went out and bought a stepping stone kit and made Blondie a stepping stone with her paw prints, that date, and some gems on it. However, Blondie had other plans. She started eating again and within just a few days was fine. That's the first time we said goodbye.

Then, shortly after we moved into this house, we were locking Blondie in the guest bath when we weren't home and at night, because she was not holding her bladder. She would CRY and CRY all night, so we were sure she was in some kind of pain. We discussed putting her down. Then, we decided to stop locking her up. Sure enough, she stopped crying. She wants to sleep with us. That was the second time we said goodbye.

More recently, Blondie has lost all control of her bladder and bowels, and she cries sometimes. She also has a little bit of a stuffy nose. She's still eating and drinking though.

All she does is eat, sleep, pee, and poo. She sometimes growls or snaps at Rosie if she gets on her nerves. She really likes to climb into the baby bouncy chair and sleep in it. She has a blanket that's all her own.

Within the last month, Peggy has been nagging us to put Blondie down. She even went so far as to say that she'd pay for it if we did it this Saturday. When we declined her offer, she THREATENED to do it while we're away. Tim was actually ok with it and ready...but then we talked last night.

We had decided a while ago, that we'd put Blondie to sleep, if she stopped eating/drinking again. She's STILL eating and drinking. She's not in chronic pain as far as we can tell. She doesn't cry or whine when we touch her or pick her up. She eats and moves and does her business. She's old. Kind of like my Grams. Grams wears diapers because she can't control her bladder/bowels either. She eats mush and not much else. She doesn't go out unless she's got money to spend. She barely socializes and spends all of her time in her room. Should we put Grams down? NO! So why should we put our Blondie dog down?

I'm pretty sure that we are now on the course to let Blondie choose when she dies. Tim's sincere hope is that she just goes to sleep and then doesn't wake up or that she comes to us and then dies in our laps.

Anyway, Blondie dog, we love you!

PS. Blondie even has a Dogster page! Check it out!