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Aug. 19th, 2008 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapeofthingsNo new jobs in this week's listings, so I get a week off from the job hunt. Consequently, I'm allowing myself to be a little bit lazy and unwind. I'm still waiting to hear back from three I put applications in for recently, plus I'll hear about my own job in the next 3 days.
Sad news: our little fishy girl Emin[1], the female half-moon Betta splendens, died on Friday. She'd been lethargic for a few weeks, but with no other symptoms. On Tuesday she took a turn for the worse, so we moved her to a hospital tank, gave her a salt dip, and since we still had no diagnosable symptoms, treated her for parasites. By Thursday we'd lost hope she'd recover. We've still got no idea what killed her - no bacterial infections, no fungus, no visible parasites (external or internal). I've concluded it was most likely a virus, but possibly liver-flukes, so all fish that shared her tank have been treated for flukes, just in case. There's nothing you can do for viruses though, except minimise stress. Thankfully, my beautiful Sieu[2] is still happy and healthy.
We've had a rough time with our fish this past year, with the 2 worst diseases, plus equipment failure, plus a handful of mystery deaths. The nasty diseases are ones that only came into the country recently, and can lie dormant in fish until they get stressed, meaning they pass through quarantine. Stress comes in the form of reduced and highly variable water quality due to 8 years of drought. Apparently everyone in the area is struggling with it. I still hate losing any of my fish.
So fish have been making me sad, but these beautiful irises, paired on my dining table with bright yellow tulips, lift my spirits. Especially when the late afternoon light flirts gently with them for a minute or two each day.
[1] Emin, as in Mn, as in manganese.
[2]Sieu, as in Cu, or copper. Yes, we're geeks, and they were both purple-copper colour morphs.
Sad news: our little fishy girl Emin[1], the female half-moon Betta splendens, died on Friday. She'd been lethargic for a few weeks, but with no other symptoms. On Tuesday she took a turn for the worse, so we moved her to a hospital tank, gave her a salt dip, and since we still had no diagnosable symptoms, treated her for parasites. By Thursday we'd lost hope she'd recover. We've still got no idea what killed her - no bacterial infections, no fungus, no visible parasites (external or internal). I've concluded it was most likely a virus, but possibly liver-flukes, so all fish that shared her tank have been treated for flukes, just in case. There's nothing you can do for viruses though, except minimise stress. Thankfully, my beautiful Sieu[2] is still happy and healthy.
We've had a rough time with our fish this past year, with the 2 worst diseases, plus equipment failure, plus a handful of mystery deaths. The nasty diseases are ones that only came into the country recently, and can lie dormant in fish until they get stressed, meaning they pass through quarantine. Stress comes in the form of reduced and highly variable water quality due to 8 years of drought. Apparently everyone in the area is struggling with it. I still hate losing any of my fish.
So fish have been making me sad, but these beautiful irises, paired on my dining table with bright yellow tulips, lift my spirits. Especially when the late afternoon light flirts gently with them for a minute or two each day.
[1] Emin, as in Mn, as in manganese.
[2]Sieu, as in Cu, or copper. Yes, we're geeks, and they were both purple-copper colour morphs.
