suicidal fish

Thursday, January 11, 2007

We've had 3 deaths in the family over the past 3 days. On Tuesday we went to Petco (where the pets go!) to get a few more fish for our 55 gallon tank. I was immediately struck with the Giant Danio (photo below).



Our tank is set up to look like a pond or lake. We had real plants at one point but they kept getting eaten and caused the water to go murky and scummy, so we pitched those and got some fakers instead. The really long/tall kind that anchor to the bottom and then float across the top. They're covered with moss and algae now so they're pretty realistic looking and give us the look we wanted - Lake Dwellers.



our fish tank - horrid photo

So anyway, these Giant Danios look remarkably similar to the minnows that swim about in the lake we visit every summer. Lake Sutherland, west of Port Angeles, WA. When I saw them I knew I HAD to get them. So, we got 5 at $3.00 each. Pretty cheap, all things considered.

Got them home and what fun. They schooled together and zoomed around the tank. Fed them later that night and went to bed. The next morning I'm wandering past the tank and I'm thinking that something looks off. I only see 4 Danios. Where is the 5th one? I spend 10 minutes peering on top of and all around the outside of the tank - looking inside for the obviously elusive Danio. Weirdness - it's like he vanished. We go about our day and then later that afternoon I'm still puzzled to see that I can't find him.

I'm sitting on the sofa looking at the tank when it suddenly occurs to me that he jumped. As in right out of the tank and into our world. Without water. Sure enough, there is his stiff-as-a-board little body laying about 2 feet from the tank. What a stupid fish! Didn't he/she know that fish can't live in our world?!

He has a memorial in the garbage can and I take some aluminum foil and cover the gap between the lid light and the front of the filter system hanging off the back. That'll fix 'em!

Next morning, only 3 Danios. What? Another look around inside and then outside the tank - no Danio to be found. Ok - they're the second biggest fish in the tank so he couldn't have been eaten. Bizarre.

Today, 2 Danios left. It's like their being teleported out of the tank and to another dimension or something. I don't see their little bodies lying about anywhere so we figure that they're behind the tank stand (a big piece of rustic Mexican furniture that ain't moving unti the tank is drained) having figured another way out of the tank.

I don't know what's so bad about their home that they need to off themselves. They get dried bloodworms and color flakes every night and every 2-3 days, they get a bloodworm "gumball" - yes, it's about as appetizing as it sounds. Frozen bloodworm formed into a "gumball" shape. So it's not like they're going to find a better life somewhere else.

We've covered every possible crack and gap with aluminum foil. Hopefully tomorrow morning will find 2 Danios still. If not, once they're gone, I dunno that we'll be getting new ones. Suicidal fish aren't exactly what we're wanting to stock our tank with...