Seahorse down the drain

 I finally realized yesterday morning that I hadn't fed my new seahorses at their normal feeding time (I was about an hour late) and I scurried to thaw out their frozen mysis shrimp cube.  As I waited for the cube to thaw in a small bowl of their tank water, I looked for all 4 of my new fish.  I only found 3.  Not unusual, really.  Seahorses like to try to hide and camouflage themselves when they sleep.  I started slowly pouring in their food and watching for the 4th seahorse to rise up from the depths of the rocks or something but she never appeared.  I looked down in the rocks from all angles, no fish. I had the idea that maybe she somehow went down the drain but couldn't figure how she could have since the drain opening is right at the top of the water and she would have had to throw herself over the edge by coming slightly out of the water.  Well, it was worth a look.  I opened the cabinet below to see the sump but the light hadn't come on yet.  Darn it, now I have to find a flashlight.  I can't find anything since I had to pack up all our belongings into boxes and move them to the basement for the carpet layers last week. After a half an hour of looking and finding no sign of her, I woke my husband. He did the same things I did.  Look into the rock, around the rock, he even reached in with his extra long rubber glove and moved the rock.  She wasn't underneath it, either.  She had completely disappeared.  He came to the same conclusion I did and reached for a flashlight to look in the sump.  He somehow found one immediately, looking in the same place I looked and found none.  We looked together in the sump and as he was getting up to put the flashlight away, I thought I saw something funny.  I told him to bring the flashlight down again and then I saw her!  She was laying flat and immobile at the back of the drip tray that the drain empties onto. My husband reaches in to take her out and dispose of her, but her tail curls around his finger as he lifts her out! She somehow survived the trip!  He put her immediately back in the tank where she swam to her mate and wrapped herself around him for comfort.  We'll watch her carefully for a while, but there was no visible signs of damage to her.  This morning she was well and ate heartily with the rest. What an ordeal!


  

Renovations and seahorses

  Our apartment complex is going through a rather extensive renovation.  So far we've had our roof completely torn off and redone, windows replaced, our sliding glass door replaced, our carpet torn up and replaced, our front wall cut open, cleaned out, and fixed (apparently there is a design flaw that allowed moisture to come between the outer brick wall and the inner drywall, causing a buildup of mildew...ew!  We've had our bathroom exhaust fans replaced, a few bricks on the outside corner of our kitchen cut out and replaced, and there is more to go!  Our carpets were done on Monday and we had to box up everything we own and take it to a room without carpeting (bathrooms, kitchen, or basement) to get them out of the way for the carpet layers.  Now the carpet is in and looks marvelous, but I have to go through all our boxes and put everything back!  I'm using this as an opportunity to downsize.  It's taking a bit longer, because I'm emptying everything out one item at a time, choosing whether to keep it or not and if not, whether to throw it away or give it away.

Through all this, we decided to order more seahorses.  We loved having them before and have been waiting months to get more.  We had a couple repairs to do on our car first, but now that's done and our carpet is in and we no longer have to worry about moving a 45 gallon tank with temperamental fish in it.  So here they are: Inky, Blinky,  Pinky, and Clyde.  The diamond goby we have in the tank is named Pac-Man.  If you've ever seen a goby eating, you'll understand the name!  We have 2 bonded pairs that we hope will mate soon...I just love seahorse babies!

Pinky

Inky

Blinky

Pinky and Clyde