Flooding and Rescued Fishies

All I can say is, thank goodness this happened while we were all there. Otherwise our department would have gotten wetter than it did, bad things could have happened to electrical outlets, and our fish would have died. It all started on Thursday, when the pump that normally oxygenates our fishes’ water stopped working. While I wasn’t at work that day, I was told what had happened and that we’d have to keep an eye on the fish until we got a replacement. I came in to work on Sunday to find that the tank was filled pretty much to the top so that the fish would have enough dissolved oxygen to get them through the next few days. I fed them as usual and didn’t think too much about it (i.e., I didn’t think of the fact that the tank we were using is actually a terrarium and is not designed to be filled to the top with water). Then yesterday we were all out since it was Christmas, and when we got in this morning, all was apparently fine.

Then around 11 am, I heard a slight popping noise, and then I heard the sound of water rushing out of something. I turned around and found water gushing out of a crack in the front of the tank. We had to contain the water and save the fish. We found a bucket, but the amount of water that was rushing out was going to be too much for it. So we grabbed a large recycling bin and put it under the pouring water. Then the rescue operation started. I was holding the bucket while someone else caught the fish with the net and deposited them in the bucket. The fish were stressed out and were harder to catch than usual, especially Crazy Fishy, who is always trying to jump out of the tank. Finally we had most of the fish in the bucket, but we couldn’t find the algae eaters. Around this time I also realized that if I didn’t leave right then I would be late for a presentation. So I rushed off and thought about the fish during my whole presentation. By the time I got back, I found that all the fish had been rescued and had been placed in a 5-gallon jug that had had the top cut off to house our fish temporarily. It turned out that the algae eaters had tucked themselves into a spot in the tank where they couldn’t be fished out with the net and had to be scooped out by hand. I also found a carpet dryer blowing papers around the room, and that the outlets on the ground near the fish tank had been pulled out of the ground to dry properly. What I didn’t know until later this afternoon is that we almost had an electrical fire. A member of our department was there with her son today, and he noticed that something was making a “sizzling noise.” Sure enough, bad things were happening in the wet ground and luckily it didn’t go farther than that.

So our fish are spending the night in a 5-gallon jug covered with some mesh so that Crazy Fishy won’t jump out (he’s been insane ever since his conspecific friend died a month or so ago). I think someone is bringing a spare tank from their house tomorrow so that the fish can once again have more room to swim. And I bought some more algae wafers for the algae eaters since we ran out of their food about a week ago. Maybe it will reduce their stress level to latch onto the algae discs. I just hope they don’t all freak out overnight.