Exhausted—I’ve cleaned out the former freshwater tank, which Jane is going to use for a diorama….
This involved transferring all the fishes to the new setup in the 100 gallon, which involved, first, catching them, and if I say 5 cory cats and 3 giant danios, freshwater hobbyists will understand.
Exhausted.
Got the last cory cat by lowering the water level to 5 inches. The light gave up the ghost during the chase, I had to resort to flashlights, and finally got the little beggar.
Then I had to empty 50 pounds of sand, soaked wet sand, which no longer weighed just fifty pounds. This took a dogfood scoop we use for litter—and a lot of trips (4) with a heavy bucket to dump the sand where it can fertilize some flowers—like 10 years of fish poo and plant fertilizer. It should encourage plant life if it doesn’t burn it…
Then it involved a large sponge and a lot of wringing. But I have got it down now where it will evaporate and a Dustbuster can gather up the residual gravel once it’s dry.
Now we have only the tank that Jane wants to use for a betta tank: about 30 gallons, heavily grown and over in a nook.
We have confined the giant pleco and a small one to the sump, down in the basement, in dark they prefer, while we jockey about to try to find them a home…Jane has some fish I’ll take into the big tank, and one 3″ catfish that is predatory, but I’m pretty sure the 7″ pleco can fend him off. If I see any problem, that catfish —well, I don’t do them in, but I will accelerate efforts to rehome him.
The complex where I live has large (20 gallon?) fish tanks scattered about in the common areas. There’s one in the ground floor corridor where our elevator is that you pass if you are going to the dining room, the mail boxes, the main lobby or over to the assisted living section. My mom lives in the skilled nursing facility area of the complex and there is one in their “living room” — the powers that be rent them from a company that maintains them.
One of life’s curiosities is how people can be engrossed in watching a campfire or fish in a tank. I think it’s because both seem to be random, breaking our tendency to predict what’s next, much like that “Enviroments” album of randomly synthesized eastern temple bells, mentioned here some months ago.
The MTA building L:A Union Station East) has a huge tank in the lobby for the buses and trains. It’s at least 4 feet deep, and has etched figures of people in historical costume on it. (I’m assuming it’s still there. I haven’t had any reason to go downtown since I retired.)
I’ve always enjoyed fish tanks, I had a 90 and 20 until recently, watching them is so relaxing.