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--the other day, i had something mildly amusing happen.
You see, at school there is a 20 gal tank and a 55 gal tank there, and the teacher had a project where the students each get a classroom pet. so, i chose a fish, of course being a beginner i had no clue about nitrogen cycles, and all that good stuff. i got 3 blue gouramis, a pink kisser, and some mystery snails.

after 3 months of being in a 20 gallon tank, i decided to move my finned friends into the 55 gallon tank. everything was set up, it had been fishless cycling for a few weeks, and all the aquascaping was done.

the time to move the fish was upon me- i put then all into little fish bowls with water from their old tank(so not to cause too much shock) and i started the acclimation process

well, as you could all imagine, my arm got quite tired after holding a fish bowl in place for upwards of half an hour.

so i let it float, and of course it sunk

i took the bowl out and started to rinse it off, when suddenly i see the pink kisser go crazy and jump out of the water and jump back in, and, sadly, float lifelessly to the bottom

my heart sank

i scooped him out, and set him on the lab table( i was going to chop him up and feed him to the other fishes, who will eat anything->not the wisest idea since i did a little research on fish deaths and diseases)

i had the razor out and ready to slice off his head, when all of a sudden i saw his fin move

LIFE!
i put him back in, but he sank to the bottom... so, not wanting to take him out just in case, i went off and started rinsing off plants to put into the tank

i watched this little pink kisser( the elementary school kids named him Kissy Face-poor guy) swim sideways up to the top of the tank to breathe in air(labyrinth fish) and then he would float helplessly back to the bottom
this went on for several minutes
by this time i was trying to get the second hand air pumps from the seventies we had to work, and i paid no attention to the tank

suddenly something caught the attention of my eye
this pink kisser was swimming around as if nothing had happened at all, and he had been fine the whole time

i couldnt believe it, and neither could my zoology teacher, that this fish that had died*i swear i saw him not make any movements at all for like a minute) had came back to life like nothing had happened to him

The miracle of life is truely amazing


-a solidary predator, the firetruck stalks its prey

Acclimating for half an hour should have been more than enough in normal circumstances, I'm not sure why you saw what you did with what should have been a healthy fish.

Yeah, fish can be crazy that way, though. One of my debauwi cats I bought recently had jumped out of the tank at the LFS while I was there; I tossed him back in and he was laying on its side for what felt like the longest time (but was probabl about 15 minutes) before he got up and started swimming with the rest of his buddies like nothing had happened.

Some fish don't have to actually move their operculum (gill cover) too much to breathe, many fish have muscles in their throat that can also move water and allow them to breathe. This is especially true with one of my fish's, a wood cat Entomocorus radiosus, which I believe is adapted to camouflage and thus wouldn't want to give away its location with large gill movements. He has the added behavior of laying on his side a lot. I often think I've killed him every time I do something drastic but it's just natural behavior. This kind of stuff can make it difficult to see if some fish are breathing or not.

Reviving some fish can sometimes be improved by moving them through the water so that water enters their mouth and moves over their gills. I've never really had to resort to that, though, luckily.

Sounds like you're pretty young. How old are you, or what grade are you in? That's kind of a cool assignment, although as a teacher I'm not sure how much I could trust most kids with pets.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

im in eleventh grade
i dont wanna give away my age because of internet stalkers
not that you're one, haha

but yeah, zoology is a new course at my school this year, so the teacher wanted to do something that connected us with animals on a level other than "this is a bird, it flies" or "this is a fish, it needs water to live"

most of my classmates decided to choose a hamster, or a lizard(boring animals in my opinion)

i, however, love the ocean, and water, and of course all its inhabitants, so i naturally chose a fish

i really learned a lot about fish and myself
and i think i found a hobby that should last me a lifetime

-a solidary predator, the firetruck stalks its prey

Understood. 11th grade, huh? For me, that was four years ago, so it looks like you're not that young compared to me... My mistake, for some reason I had the idea you were younger. Does your high school do AP? I bet AP Environmental Science would be a breeze now.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I wonder why it got shocked so badly too.



Hehe AP Environmental Science would be a cake walk

Haha, I see your Debauwi cats on facebook Shini.

Wow, that is a bit odd. The only time I've seen anything like that was fairly serious pH shock, and it was nowhere as fast or severe by the sounds of it, and recovery was not on the cards. How interesting!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

yeah, we have AP, but since there's only like 400 kids in our school, there's only AP spanish, french, english 4, chem, euro history, and bio 2

sounds like a lot, but i am pretty sure its only the basic of the AP classes

idk if it was pH shock or what, but it was definitely something, ill tell you that
he is still just the happiest little pink kisser in the world

-a solidary predator, the firetruck stalks its prey