Fish Hilarity

We arrived home late last night and, per my usual routine, I checked the temperature in all the fish tanks. The were all fairly normal, except for Mr. Blue's tank, which was at 86.9 degrees. Whoa! A quick glance told me the two tanks on either side of him were at 79 degrees, fans were running behind the tank, I didn't understand. I popped the top off, pulled three large cups of water out of his tank and swapped it with the cooler water in the babies' tank.

As I did that, I became suspicious that the temperature sensor had been moved and stuck near something warm, like the water pump, courtesy of Mr. Blue himself.

Tonight, I arrived home to the same circumstance, Mr. Blue's tank temperature was showing at 87 degrees. This time, however, I looked to see where the temperature sensor was. Lo and behold, it was stuck at the top of the tank, an inch out of the water, between the lid and the light. Creativity courtesy of Mr. Blue himself, who was peering out at me from behind his tree rock.

Where the temperature sensor ended up (top of the tank, poking up)














Here's a link to a video on just how he gets the sensor up there: LINK


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Later this evening, I was eating some blueberries and happened across one that was moldy. I tossed it over to the garbage disposal in the sink, which is behind Mr. White's tank. I noticed that he darted across the tank simultaneous with the blueberry. Hmmm. Is he chasing that? It appeared so, you can take a look for yourself: LINK

Who knew fish had such personalities?

Vacation!

I'm thrilled to report that we went on vacation for a week. Someone took care of our home while we were gone, fed the fish once a day. Even though it got super hot while we were away and we have the A/C shut completely off -- all the fish survived. No lost ones. Even the babies were fine.

I labeled all the tanks: "The Babies", "Mr. Blue", "Mr. White" and "The Ladies." I amused myself in my mind with alternative labels, such as "The Spawn", "The Sultan", "Sultan in Training" and "The Whores". HA! I'm so bad.

The big tank (female tank) gets up to 78 or 79 degrees during the day and just below 75 degrees at night. I guess the tank temperature fluctuation has triggered all the females to lay eggs. Right now, 5 of the 7 females are tumbling eggs. Unfertilized, but nonetheless, eggs. They take this egg tumbling business very seriously. Until I noticed that tonight, I was wondering why there was uneaten food at the bottom of the tank. Now I understand. I suppose I should reduce the feeding amount in the auto-feeder.

I'm sad that the baby algae eater died before we left, but I'm glad that he didn't die while we were gone.