Hello all. Just thought I'd try my hand at starting a topic, though to be honest it's just a little story.
My family and I live in Florida. My grandfather also lives in the area, but he leaves to visit Massachusetts with his fianc?e for a few months every summer (to see relatives in both families). He usually asks us to take care of his fish while he's away. That usually means stopping by his apartment once a day to feed them, possibly cleaning the tank once in a while. A year ago, my Dad decided that it would be easier to just keep his fish in the tank at our house, so we moved them to our place. Over the next few weeks, we noticed something odd: our fish were disappearing, one by one. At the same time, one of the fish we brought from my grandfather's apartment was getting bigger and bigger. After a few months, there were only five fish left out of the dozen we had originally, and that one fish had nearly doubled in size. We put two and two together and realized what was happening (I shouldn't have to point it out, right?). We had a serial killer fish. We learned months later that it was a Jack Dempsey Cichlid, which should not be kept with other, non-cichlids because they have an unfortunate tendency to eat any living thing that will fit into its mouth. By this point it had stopped eating the others, and we were, oddly, starting to grow attached to it (like reverse Stockholm Syndrome or something). I even give it a name: Ted Bundy (I have a twisted sense of humor, I know; my Mom named it Jack the Ripper). We've had it about a year now (my grandfather didn't want to take it back, I wonder why...) but this morning my Dad decided he wants to get some new fish, and he doesn't want Ted Bundy to eat them. So we put him in a bucket of water, drove to a nearby pond, and just dumped him in. My father thinks that this was the humane way to get rid of him (at least he has a fighting chance; my mother wanted to just flush him down the toilet). I have a feeling that he has been eaten by an alligator by now, though. I'm kind of embarrassed to have grown so attached to a serial killer. I even said "sorry" to him(her?) before we left the house. That's what you get for naming a fish. Seriously.
Anyone else have any sordid tales of blood in the aquarium?
My family and I live in Florida. My grandfather also lives in the area, but he leaves to visit Massachusetts with his fianc?e for a few months every summer (to see relatives in both families). He usually asks us to take care of his fish while he's away. That usually means stopping by his apartment once a day to feed them, possibly cleaning the tank once in a while. A year ago, my Dad decided that it would be easier to just keep his fish in the tank at our house, so we moved them to our place. Over the next few weeks, we noticed something odd: our fish were disappearing, one by one. At the same time, one of the fish we brought from my grandfather's apartment was getting bigger and bigger. After a few months, there were only five fish left out of the dozen we had originally, and that one fish had nearly doubled in size. We put two and two together and realized what was happening (I shouldn't have to point it out, right?). We had a serial killer fish. We learned months later that it was a Jack Dempsey Cichlid, which should not be kept with other, non-cichlids because they have an unfortunate tendency to eat any living thing that will fit into its mouth. By this point it had stopped eating the others, and we were, oddly, starting to grow attached to it (like reverse Stockholm Syndrome or something). I even give it a name: Ted Bundy (I have a twisted sense of humor, I know; my Mom named it Jack the Ripper). We've had it about a year now (my grandfather didn't want to take it back, I wonder why...) but this morning my Dad decided he wants to get some new fish, and he doesn't want Ted Bundy to eat them. So we put him in a bucket of water, drove to a nearby pond, and just dumped him in. My father thinks that this was the humane way to get rid of him (at least he has a fighting chance; my mother wanted to just flush him down the toilet). I have a feeling that he has been eaten by an alligator by now, though. I'm kind of embarrassed to have grown so attached to a serial killer. I even said "sorry" to him(her?) before we left the house. That's what you get for naming a fish. Seriously.
Anyone else have any sordid tales of blood in the aquarium?
