Hi All,
My name is John, I have been away for a while from the forum though mainly I looked for info and read topics.
I decided I would give you a quick heads up on what happened to me this year. May 4th I had a temperature that had been running at 40C headache, confusion, and fatigue, and massive night sweating has resulted in dehydration oh and a productive cough. Now, this was a bank holiday weekend therefore no Dr till Tuesday Morning if I could get through. In hindsight, the local mini-hospital may have been ok but I was not thinking right. I attended the GP late on Tuesday and was refused entry and had to be seen in their little tent outside. On examination, GP announced yep, think you have COVID, and you are in a bad way...my Blood O2 levels were down to 82% breathing very shallow and laboured etc. Ambulance called and I was whisked away just like that. I was so unorganised I forgot my mobile at home and couldn't call the other half it was chaos.
Arrived at the hospital and was examined again and I said "could they not give me antibiotics and let me go home" ergh no was the answer. Anyway, I was relieved when the Consultant said you do not have COVID But you do have. Double Pneumonia, Bronchiectasis (widening of the Bronchus) COPD, Severe Asthma and an enlarged heart. At least it's not COVID then I said to which I was told I was actually worse off and this was going to be a hard slog and recovery will be approx 6 months.
I was admitted to the acute units and COVID overflow etc. I spent 2 months in hospital and 4 weeks recuperating. During this time I did enquire how the fish were doing and my other half informed me she had forgotten about them outside but the tank failed inside......I eventually plucked up the courage to look at my tanks and to my surprise, they were all ok bar one who was never well anyway. Plants and fish went to town this is complete abandonment. I did take a quick sweep of an algae magnet to take a pick but not scrubbed it. I fed them some lovely live food and watched them go mad at the idea, the Buenos tetra were recreating a scene from jaws with the red-eyed tetras.
So I need to tidy up and sort the tank out and thin out the huge amount of java fern, java moss, and red tiger lotus Lillie's. What should I do? I have done a 40% water change, treated everything but I wonder if it is too plant-crowded now? I do have desires of finding another 4' tank or a few nano's and making a sort of Paludarium.
I have to seriously take things easy as I also have heart issues now and as such effort and exercise cause angina as well as picking up chest infections at the drop of the hat (4 since discharge in June) I find the hobby very sooting and time-consuming which is fine by me. Hope I have not bored you but I don't think I need to worry about the future when going away again esp. as they are well fed and maintained normally which I think was the key.
Please comment esp on what to do with the tank....South American Tropical Community
All the best,
John
My name is John, I have been away for a while from the forum though mainly I looked for info and read topics.
I decided I would give you a quick heads up on what happened to me this year. May 4th I had a temperature that had been running at 40C headache, confusion, and fatigue, and massive night sweating has resulted in dehydration oh and a productive cough. Now, this was a bank holiday weekend therefore no Dr till Tuesday Morning if I could get through. In hindsight, the local mini-hospital may have been ok but I was not thinking right. I attended the GP late on Tuesday and was refused entry and had to be seen in their little tent outside. On examination, GP announced yep, think you have COVID, and you are in a bad way...my Blood O2 levels were down to 82% breathing very shallow and laboured etc. Ambulance called and I was whisked away just like that. I was so unorganised I forgot my mobile at home and couldn't call the other half it was chaos.
Arrived at the hospital and was examined again and I said "could they not give me antibiotics and let me go home" ergh no was the answer. Anyway, I was relieved when the Consultant said you do not have COVID But you do have. Double Pneumonia, Bronchiectasis (widening of the Bronchus) COPD, Severe Asthma and an enlarged heart. At least it's not COVID then I said to which I was told I was actually worse off and this was going to be a hard slog and recovery will be approx 6 months.
I was admitted to the acute units and COVID overflow etc. I spent 2 months in hospital and 4 weeks recuperating. During this time I did enquire how the fish were doing and my other half informed me she had forgotten about them outside but the tank failed inside......I eventually plucked up the courage to look at my tanks and to my surprise, they were all ok bar one who was never well anyway. Plants and fish went to town this is complete abandonment. I did take a quick sweep of an algae magnet to take a pick but not scrubbed it. I fed them some lovely live food and watched them go mad at the idea, the Buenos tetra were recreating a scene from jaws with the red-eyed tetras.
So I need to tidy up and sort the tank out and thin out the huge amount of java fern, java moss, and red tiger lotus Lillie's. What should I do? I have done a 40% water change, treated everything but I wonder if it is too plant-crowded now? I do have desires of finding another 4' tank or a few nano's and making a sort of Paludarium.
I have to seriously take things easy as I also have heart issues now and as such effort and exercise cause angina as well as picking up chest infections at the drop of the hat (4 since discharge in June) I find the hobby very sooting and time-consuming which is fine by me. Hope I have not bored you but I don't think I need to worry about the future when going away again esp. as they are well fed and maintained normally which I think was the key.
Please comment esp on what to do with the tank....South American Tropical Community
All the best,
John
