in search of
Yesterday, after I came home from work, I decided that it was about time to clean Pascal's fish bowl. I prepped some water for my little Betta fish, and let him swim around in a large green Tupperware bowl (18+ inches in diameter, however only about 9 inches deep and it is a green tone, which Pascal always seems fascinated by). This bowl was much bigger than his little fish bowl, so he enjoyed swimming around for the half-hour I expected to spend cleaning his tank.
Cleaning the tank went fairly fast. I try to do the process frequently enough that gunk won't build up in the bowl but I also try to keep the process spread out enough so that Pascal won't get stressed by frequent moves. Besides, cleaning a fish tank is like restarting a computer... It can be a hazardous procedure. Back when I still had Louie and Shadow, they died just a few days after I changed the water in their tank (I'm still not sure exactly what happened with that), so I try to be really careful about it.
Well, something went wrong this time. Pascal is fine, but his bowl isn't. After I got the bowl cleaned, and put in some new translucent blue stones, and ensured that everything was going well. I noticed that there was some watter pooling around the bottom of the bowl, but that's not uncommon after I've done a cleaning. I wiped the watter off and put an old wash cloth under the bowl to catch anything that was still dripping.
The following morning, I found the cloth completely soaked, and my textbook for Emerging Nations was drenched (thankfully, I only have one more chapter to read). I was really lucky that the water didn't spread any further... If it had gone behind the desk, there would have been a good chance that I wouldn't have noticed it for another day or two, it could have also hosed up some of my electronics (including a small switch, LaserJet printer, my cell phone, or my iPod). Now I was concerned, but I was also running late for work. So, I removed the towel and hung it up to dry and placed a paper towel under the bowl, just to be on the safe side and rushed off to work.
When I got home, I found the towel drenched again... No pool of water on my dresser, which was a good sign... It was looking like it was just an issue with watter dripping off after cleaning after all... But the watter level in the bowl did look low... And the night before, I did have a dream that I woke up to find Pascal trying to survive in a half inch of water. Not wanting to risk anything, I decided that I would have to figure out for sure if he really was losing water or not...
What finally clued me in was I placed a piece of tape along the watter line of the bowl and a fresh paper towel under the bowl. An hour later, the water had sunk below the line and there was a new puddle on top of my dresser (which, by this time, had water damage ~sigh). I decided right then and there that I needed a solution for the night. Since I didn't want to make a 2 a.m. run to Wal-Mart, I decided to get out one of my little Tupperware bowls that I use for storing food in the fridge. The container is thin plastic (which I don't like my fish in), but most importantly, it is clear, so there's plenty of light in there for him, and he should be fine for the night (I used desensitizer on the water and let it temperature equalize a bit before putting him in there). Tomorrow, I'm planning on a trip to Wal-Mart right after work, in search of a new fish bowl.
I did take a look at the bowl, and there is a decent bit of a crack running right along the base of it. It's hardly noticeable. I'm not sure when or how it happened, the only thing I can think of is that the tap water gets pretty hot here, and running that through the tank may have caused it to fracture... But I've never had a problem with that before... Ahh well... At least it turned out okay in the end.
Cleaning the tank went fairly fast. I try to do the process frequently enough that gunk won't build up in the bowl but I also try to keep the process spread out enough so that Pascal won't get stressed by frequent moves. Besides, cleaning a fish tank is like restarting a computer... It can be a hazardous procedure. Back when I still had Louie and Shadow, they died just a few days after I changed the water in their tank (I'm still not sure exactly what happened with that), so I try to be really careful about it.
Well, something went wrong this time. Pascal is fine, but his bowl isn't. After I got the bowl cleaned, and put in some new translucent blue stones, and ensured that everything was going well. I noticed that there was some watter pooling around the bottom of the bowl, but that's not uncommon after I've done a cleaning. I wiped the watter off and put an old wash cloth under the bowl to catch anything that was still dripping.
The following morning, I found the cloth completely soaked, and my textbook for Emerging Nations was drenched (thankfully, I only have one more chapter to read). I was really lucky that the water didn't spread any further... If it had gone behind the desk, there would have been a good chance that I wouldn't have noticed it for another day or two, it could have also hosed up some of my electronics (including a small switch, LaserJet printer, my cell phone, or my iPod). Now I was concerned, but I was also running late for work. So, I removed the towel and hung it up to dry and placed a paper towel under the bowl, just to be on the safe side and rushed off to work.
When I got home, I found the towel drenched again... No pool of water on my dresser, which was a good sign... It was looking like it was just an issue with watter dripping off after cleaning after all... But the watter level in the bowl did look low... And the night before, I did have a dream that I woke up to find Pascal trying to survive in a half inch of water. Not wanting to risk anything, I decided that I would have to figure out for sure if he really was losing water or not...
What finally clued me in was I placed a piece of tape along the watter line of the bowl and a fresh paper towel under the bowl. An hour later, the water had sunk below the line and there was a new puddle on top of my dresser (which, by this time, had water damage ~sigh). I decided right then and there that I needed a solution for the night. Since I didn't want to make a 2 a.m. run to Wal-Mart, I decided to get out one of my little Tupperware bowls that I use for storing food in the fridge. The container is thin plastic (which I don't like my fish in), but most importantly, it is clear, so there's plenty of light in there for him, and he should be fine for the night (I used desensitizer on the water and let it temperature equalize a bit before putting him in there). Tomorrow, I'm planning on a trip to Wal-Mart right after work, in search of a new fish bowl.
I did take a look at the bowl, and there is a decent bit of a crack running right along the base of it. It's hardly noticeable. I'm not sure when or how it happened, the only thing I can think of is that the tap water gets pretty hot here, and running that through the tank may have caused it to fracture... But I've never had a problem with that before... Ahh well... At least it turned out okay in the end.