Research.

A Google search reveals that what's inside of aquarium thermometers is a combination of alcohol and red dye, not mercury. So even if the "mercury" had busted, Mr. White would have been OK. But broken glass in a tank is never good... so he got a few extra gallons of fresh, clean water for his trouble.

I moved the ping pong ball out of his tank that night because he was pushing it so hard, he gave himself bruises on his upper lip area. I also ended up moving the blue skiky plant out because he was moving it by grabbing the top of it and attempting to impale himself on it. Neither of those behaviors are acceptable.

I used some aquarium sealant and rocks to weigh down the bottom of a less pokey plant and dropped that in his tank. He's been happy with that as a toy and moves it all over the place. He also enjoys flashing up against a ping pong ball floating in the top of his tank.

Given those activities, I think it's hilarious that if I feed him when his tank light is on, he is scared of the food and cowers under his rock until the light goes off. Then he'll come out and eat his food and carry on with his activities. As an FYI, his tank is located near the kitchen, so it receives external light throughout the day.

Glass Thermometers with Cichlids?

This morning, I noticed Mr. White (my male fish) had a weird red thing in the bottom of his tank and a bunch of strange things floating around. He seemed happy and was playing with the weird red thing, but ... I hadn't put a weird red thing in there. So I grabbed the long tank tweezers and pulled it out. That was when I realized, with some shock and definite horror, that it was the innards of the tank thermometer. I looked at the side of the tank where it should be and the glass casing was there, but broken off at the bottom. Immediately I thought, "OH NO! MERCURY! HE'S GONNA DIE!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!" Because everyone knows that rampant mercury is like a silver stream of death!! But after an emergency phone call to Fish Whisperer, who reassured me that the fish is gonna be OK, mercury is more toxic to humans (if it gets in the blood stream), than it is to fish and no one is going to die. He said to leave Mr. White in the tank and do a 50% water change. So, I did that with a water vacuum and searched for glass bits and changed his tank's filter. I examined the pieces of the broken thermometer and realized that the mercury is still intact (phew!!), but the red stuff that's at the bottom of the thermometer had gone somewhere... dissolved in the tank, maybe? What is that red stuff anyway?



Mr. White has gashes on his sides because he, being the masochistic fish that he is, was happily slamming himself up against the broken thermometer. But he seems to be OK -- active, and was actually pretty pissed that I took his toys away from him. Can't have a pissed fish, so I put an artificial blue spiky plant in there that his dad used to love to beat up and I poked holes in a ping pong ball, soaked it in really hot water for a few minutes to sterilize it, and then sank it in his tank. He's been having the time of his life this afternoon moving "fish safe" toys.

The blue, spike plant (Notice Mr. White in the lower right corner, moving the plant by "flashing" his body and flinging all the rocks around?)




While those gashes heal, I'll be doing daily water changes.