timmystood
:-)
Hey Guys
Well, as some of you know I work at an LFS and as such, have got a few 'regulars'. People who want to deal with me everytime they visit the shop. Ghent_3rd is one of them (or at least i'd like to think so!) Anyway, one of my regulars has had the basic bread and butter community tank for a couple of months now - I helped them set it up and stock it etc. Anyway, the other day I got an excited phone call from them telling me they had won a Juwel 400 on eBay! Only problem was it was at Heathrow (London area for you non-English folk). We live in Lincolnshire, some 2-3 hours away. Anyway, the next problem was that the tank was including 6 fish that the original owner couldn't find homes for, so it meant having to transport the fish from Heathrow to either my regulars house or the LFS where I work. They didn't know exactly what fish they where because the original owner could only describe them as 3 big ones and 3 big ones at the bottom!
The plan of action was for them to collect the tank and fish (they didn't want the fish but had no choice but to collect them) on sunday and then bring the fish to me in the shop where I work. I made them come in on Saturday so I could show them how to bag the fish properly. I sold them some oxygen tablets for the bags and also gave them a big polysterne box to safetly transport the fish from the owners house in heathrow to the LFS where I work some 2-3 hours away.
So, sunday came and around 2pm I noticed them in the shop. So, I quickly finished serving who I was with and rushed over to them to find out how the move had gone.
"Not so well" I was told. "One of the catfish things burst it's bag shortly after setting off and all it's water has leaked out and it's died" They said.
Well, it wasn't really their fault. I opened the box to find 2 Big synodontis, 3 adult tinfoil barbs and the 1 dead syndontis that had burst it's bag.
"Right" I said "First part is to get the live fish acclimatised to our system" So I went off and got them floating in our big display tanks. Then came the job of disposing of the dead synodontis.
"Won't be a moment" I said and took the syndontis and it's water-empty bag into our office and got ready to transfer it into our freezer.... when I went to get it out I noticed it's mouth moved... then it didn't... thinking I was going crazy I carried on transferring it to a freezer-bag. Then it moved it's mouth again.
"WHOA!" I shouted to myself! I quickly ran out of the office and through crowds of people carrying the synodontis.
"This fish is still alive!" I screamed to the people who brought it in!
"Not possible!" Said my regulars in disbelief. I quickly grabbed a new bag and got over the selling tanks ready to transfer the synodontis into a bag full of water. I turned the bag he was in inside out and popped him in a net... he wasn't moving - just moving his mouth very slowly.
I quickly tried to get him out of the net and into the bag of water but in the rush and being a synodontis he got his barbs all tangled in the net. Me and one on-looker scrambled to get him out of the net ASAP... we struggled with his barbs for like 40 seconds when all of a sudden this lifeless, limp, near-dead fish spurted out of the net, freeing his barbels in the process and thrashed into the waiting bag of water, then zipped around in the bag as any just-caught fish does. It frightened the life out of me the way he suddenly came to life and fell over taking some people with me!
Eventually, once we had all calmed down and got the fish acclimatising we worked out how long he had been out of water. We reckon around 4 hours is the best estimate because my customers had taken the box of fish home before bringing them into me. 4 hours this little synodontis had been out of water and had began to shut-down but I saved him in the nick of time! At the end of the day when everyone had gone home I gave him a lovely helping of frozen foods and he went crazy for the food. I'm now thinking of bringing him home and putting him in my Malawi Tank... I need a name for him!
Sorry for the long story but I was amazed at this little guys survival!
Well, as some of you know I work at an LFS and as such, have got a few 'regulars'. People who want to deal with me everytime they visit the shop. Ghent_3rd is one of them (or at least i'd like to think so!) Anyway, one of my regulars has had the basic bread and butter community tank for a couple of months now - I helped them set it up and stock it etc. Anyway, the other day I got an excited phone call from them telling me they had won a Juwel 400 on eBay! Only problem was it was at Heathrow (London area for you non-English folk). We live in Lincolnshire, some 2-3 hours away. Anyway, the next problem was that the tank was including 6 fish that the original owner couldn't find homes for, so it meant having to transport the fish from Heathrow to either my regulars house or the LFS where I work. They didn't know exactly what fish they where because the original owner could only describe them as 3 big ones and 3 big ones at the bottom!
The plan of action was for them to collect the tank and fish (they didn't want the fish but had no choice but to collect them) on sunday and then bring the fish to me in the shop where I work. I made them come in on Saturday so I could show them how to bag the fish properly. I sold them some oxygen tablets for the bags and also gave them a big polysterne box to safetly transport the fish from the owners house in heathrow to the LFS where I work some 2-3 hours away.
So, sunday came and around 2pm I noticed them in the shop. So, I quickly finished serving who I was with and rushed over to them to find out how the move had gone.
"Not so well" I was told. "One of the catfish things burst it's bag shortly after setting off and all it's water has leaked out and it's died" They said.
Well, it wasn't really their fault. I opened the box to find 2 Big synodontis, 3 adult tinfoil barbs and the 1 dead syndontis that had burst it's bag.
"Right" I said "First part is to get the live fish acclimatised to our system" So I went off and got them floating in our big display tanks. Then came the job of disposing of the dead synodontis.
"Won't be a moment" I said and took the syndontis and it's water-empty bag into our office and got ready to transfer it into our freezer.... when I went to get it out I noticed it's mouth moved... then it didn't... thinking I was going crazy I carried on transferring it to a freezer-bag. Then it moved it's mouth again.
"WHOA!" I shouted to myself! I quickly ran out of the office and through crowds of people carrying the synodontis.
"This fish is still alive!" I screamed to the people who brought it in!
"Not possible!" Said my regulars in disbelief. I quickly grabbed a new bag and got over the selling tanks ready to transfer the synodontis into a bag full of water. I turned the bag he was in inside out and popped him in a net... he wasn't moving - just moving his mouth very slowly.
I quickly tried to get him out of the net and into the bag of water but in the rush and being a synodontis he got his barbs all tangled in the net. Me and one on-looker scrambled to get him out of the net ASAP... we struggled with his barbs for like 40 seconds when all of a sudden this lifeless, limp, near-dead fish spurted out of the net, freeing his barbels in the process and thrashed into the waiting bag of water, then zipped around in the bag as any just-caught fish does. It frightened the life out of me the way he suddenly came to life and fell over taking some people with me!
Eventually, once we had all calmed down and got the fish acclimatising we worked out how long he had been out of water. We reckon around 4 hours is the best estimate because my customers had taken the box of fish home before bringing them into me. 4 hours this little synodontis had been out of water and had began to shut-down but I saved him in the nick of time! At the end of the day when everyone had gone home I gave him a lovely helping of frozen foods and he went crazy for the food. I'm now thinking of bringing him home and putting him in my Malawi Tank... I need a name for him!
Sorry for the long story but I was amazed at this little guys survival!
