Holiday reading
Having been on holidays, I’ve read a fair few books. Probably the best was The Cruel Sea , by Nicholas Monsarrat. My mum recommended this to me a very long time ago, and visiting her I finally decided to borrow it and read it. I knew basically what I was getting myself in for – WWII convoy ships would necessitate some drama and tragedy, because that was simply a reality of the situation… I’ve also read MacLean’s HMS Ulysses, which is on a similar subject, so I was somewhat prepared.
Mum had said this was the first book that she had ever read where she was sad to reach the last page, and I think I had the same feeling, although it wasn’t my first time. It is astonishingly well written; there were a few points where I almost cried – and that rarely happens. I was almost heart-broken at the end, both because it had finished and because the characters had suffered so much: and I know this was reality for many, many people in war.
The characters are fantastic, well drawn and realised. Monsarrat doesn’t fall into the trap of making all the combatants heroic, bearing up stoically under pressure and always self-sacrificial, which while painful to read sometimes made it all the more gripping, because they seemed so real, I guess. I appreciated the introduction to the novel: it acknowledged that while there were women affected by the events, the novel concentrates on the men just because that’s where the story lies, for him. However, I was quite shocked that he told the reader to expect the first ship to sink; I found that quite incredible, and I’m not sure whether it changed my approach to it or not… I guess it did, because I was always on tenterhooks, knowing that this could be their last convoy, that something could happen to them any time now.
A powerful, enthralling novel, anyway. Probably something that should be read by students of WWII and naval history.
Stupid pH tests; don't know what their problem was
Have moved the sick gourami to the qt – since we’re going to be away again, it’s totally not feasible to leave the poor guy in the isolation tank. He’s not doing much better; in fact, he almost seems to be shedding, or flaking… not quite sure what to do. Haven’t got any medication. He doesn’t seem much fussed by it all – swimming around, eating a bit, etc. Sigh.
It’s odd: out of all the babies we have had, only two have been male. I wonder if this is normal? Of course, can’t completely accurately assess the latest batch yet – too small, really – but I suspect the same will hold true.
We got home today
Everything looked fine; a few plants had come adrift in the main tank, but that’s no drama. There were no dead babies, which I guess is a good thing; I’m still thinking about getting a betta.
After church, however, I noticed that one of our gourami was not looking good at all. He looked to be missing some scales on both sides, and have small reddish blotches. At least one eye looks redder than normal, too. It took quite a bit of effort, but eventually I netted the poor sod and put him in the isolation tank… I wonder if I should actually put him in the qt, since we’re not fussed about the babies… someone on TTT forum has suggested this could be flex, or aeromonas; I’m not sure. I’ve read a little and it sounds like it could be a bacterial infection, furunculosis (aeromonas salmonicida bacteria, apparently). Guess I should go and get some bacterial stuff.
Having issues testing the pH. The main tank seemed to have high pH – like around 7 – which I thought was odd so I checked the tap water, and it turned almost the same colour. This was worrying, and also odd because I would have expected more fish to be affected. So I checked the qt, and its pH seemed to be perfect. So I checked the tap water again – and it turned very blue, like 7.8. Very strange. I conclude I must have done something wrong, so I will check again soon, after rinsing the test tubes thoroughly.
Back from holidays #1
Five dead babies in the qt – not sure if this is from hunger or toxins – have done a water change and will check the levels soon. Other tank looking fine, except that there is another lot of babies. So they came earlier than expected; 2 months’ gestation was hopeful. Not sure what to do about them; James is offering to kill them, but I’m not sure about that! Maybe we really should get a betta. So, interesting… I guess… It’s nice to see the tanks after a week; I wonder if that is pathetic.
Ammonia zero in both.
I have been playing the "Spot the Fourth Gourami" game all day
To no effect, until just now. He’s safe, just hiding all day I guess. The Dropsy Gourami is really not looking well, though.
I started writing this up to RandomAlex today [later note: what a long process this has been…], which is cool – I hope it might actually be vaguely useful to someone. I’ll keep going paper-based until I catch up with myself.
The cloaches have been very active recently. I wonder how the tanks – particularly the babies – will go while we’re away? It will only be a week… I’m not going to put the feeder on either tank: I know the main tank will be fine, and I think it would overfeed the babies. I might put it on the main tank when we come home in between weeks away.
We really have to catch Bitch Fish (is it obvious that she is annoying me?). Given the record, she’ll drop again while we’re in Ballarat, which will be annoying. I may well be close to despair – what will we do with these babies?! I made another attempt at catching her tonight, to absolutely no effect.
Eight rasboras
I had been wondering where the other was, and found it today. I noticed two male babies in the qt, and so wanted to catch them and put them in the main tank – last thing I need is a pregnant young molly. I did the removal, and then noticed there was a dead rasbora floating on the top of the qt. I can only guess that it got caught when the net was last in the main tank (and came out when the net went in to catch the babies) – although I thought I checked the net pretty well. One other remote possibility it that it went over when I put some cuttings from the main tank to the qt and then didn’t like the change in water.
All the babies are now in the qt – that’s a lot of babies – except for the two males. There is still a possibility that Dave’s friend will want them – and God willing, Miss Molly as well. Just have to catch her first…
I seem to have lost a harlequin rasbora
I don’t know what can have happened to it – haven’t seen it against the filter, but I guess it could have been eaten quickly. Sigh.
A couple of days ago I noticed one of the cloaches seemed to be, for want of a better description, be blowing bubbles. It’s very odd; there seens to be white stuff coming out of its mouth every now and then. Not sure whether or not to be worried!! And two of the SAEs were having a serious fight earlier, although they seem fine now.
I have only been able to spot two black widow tetras in the last two days
I must admit I haven’t looked at all closely for them specifically in quite a long time. I wonder is one constantly hiding, did I miscount ages ago (although I think that would be quite hard), or has it died and very quickly been eaten – it’s certainly not attached to the intake, and hasn’t been. How confusing.
The neons are growing on me, slowly.
It has been so long since I wrote in here…
So long, in fact, that I have kept putting it off because there is too much to write and I am lazy.
Every single one of my angels is dead. It happened quite suddenly and, as far as I can recall, there were no symptoms. They were still in the qt. I called Coburg afterwards and asked if they’d had any problems with them; they got snooty and said no. However, someone on TTT said they’d also had angel issues from there, took in a sample of their water plus ths receipt and got a refund. I only found this out ages later… lesson learnt.
The last batch of babies are in the qt and having much fun, it seems. They are always hungry, or at least act it, and almost seem to know how to go about getting fed: whenever I am in the kitchen, they cluster in the closest corner of the tank (where I do usually feed them). I did buy an ornament: a large Grecian urn-type thing. It’s a bit tacky but I like it, and some of the fish seem to like swimming around in it. Whenever I prune the main tank, I have taken to putting the cuttings in the qt; seems like a good idea for dealing with the nitrates, and gives the fish some shade. The reason I’ve been induced to write today, actually, is… more babies. Miss Molly hatched them last night. I wasn’t expecting her to for a few more weeks, actually, and I see that today is 2 months to the day since the last batch were born; how interesting. But what a pain… what am I going to do with 80-100 babies? I might advertise on the Boronia forum again. I am a bit distraught, I must admit.
We came home to discover a SAE on the floor, quite a way from the tank, three weeks ago; that too was a bit distressing. It had obviously jumped out of the tank, through quite a small hole, and wiggled over there. Probably I should not fill the tank quite so much, so there is a greater gap between the top of the water and the lid.
One more gourami has dropsy – has looked ill for maybe a fortnight now. He’s the one who was looking constipated ages ago… I had thought he was getting better, although never entirely losing the constipated look. Now, though, it’s quite clear he is sick.
We went fish shopping about three weeks ago. We got nine harlequin rasboras – who are just gorgeous, happily schooling and zooming around – and ten neon tetras. They are just about to go in the main tank; I wanted the tetras to be qt fish, but James insisted they be moved. Actually, we’ve left one neon in the qt; he doesn’t look very happy, perhaps a bit bloated.
The main tank now contains:
three cloaches
three black widow tetras
four gourami (one ill)
four adult mollies
? baby mollies
three SAE
two male platies
nine rasboras
nine neons.
It’s looking quite beautiful, too.
Well, that wasn’t quite as hard to write up as I had thought. I may now get back to writing more regularly.
I am still intent on getting a betta at sometime – if it wasn’t for the gourami, I would be tempted to get one right now to eat some of those pesky babies. Maybe I will get one – qt for a few days, then into the main one – and qt the gourami (all of them), because apparently they might have relationship issues. I wonder if I can convince James…
Talking to strangers
It’s a cliche to say that you shouldn’t talk to strangers.
People do talk to strangers all the time, of course – you can’t help it if you want service and so on. Of course, there are also times when you don’t have to talk to strangers but you do. I went to give blood a few months ago and, having drunk copious amount of water so that I would bleed quickly and beat my brother, I needed to find a toilet. I didn’t want to take my bag with me, though, so I turned to the woman next to me. I didn’t know her; I’d only heard her speak once or twice, to her friend. However, I said something like – ‘excuse me, could you mind my bag, make sure no one runs off with it?’ And she smiled, and said yes, so I left and then came back a few minutes later and it was all ok. I thought about it later, though, and I wondered – who was to say she wouldn’t run off with my bag? I had no idea whether she was a kleptomaniac or not. Did my having sat next to her for maybe 10 minutes somehow alter her status as a stranger? And was my bag any safer with her supposedly keeping a watch? Was she exuding some sort of alert to would-be bag-nickers that she would beat them over the head if they attempted to steal the bag of a person she didn’t know?
It was very strange.
