Damn Domino Damselfish
August 8th, 2004After months of watching this chubby black damselfish terrorize all the other fish, scare away the other fish during eating time, and practically chew up another fish in the tank, I finally caught this fat bastard and removed him from the tank.You gotta realize that this was no small feat…I’ve tried this once a few months and went close to insane after I nearly emptied the tank and spent hours trying to lure him into my small net. I had to give up that time because Ricky felt my (mental) health would have been in jeopardy if I wasted any more time hunting down the fish.
But not tonight. The past few days, I’ve noticed that this chubby punk (named Blackie) was being more of a bully than usual, and when I saw another one of my poor fish almost chewed to deah (half his blue scales were ripped off and his fins were all eaten away) because of Blackie, it was time to finish him off. I drained half of the tank water, removed half of the live rock, and spent the next hour with both hands in the tank luring him with one hand into a net held by the other…and finally caught him.
What to do with him now? I was so ready during the long fight to squeeze him in my hand or feed him to one of our dogs or fry him up in a pan with oil, but in the end I couldn’t even bring myself to flushing him down the toilet. Ricky got me feeling too guilty, and I started feeling a little bad were he to be flushed down the toilet and end up exploding because of the fresh water (osmosis and stuff). So…reluctantly…I kept him. In a one-gallon milk bottle. Trying to decide what to do next with him. And I haven’t decided yet.
But something funny happened while I was refilling the tank with water. I poured so much water that it started overflowing out the top…and some dribbled down the back and poured onto the surge protector supplying electricity to all the electrical equipment in the tank. I didn’t realize until the tank lights blew out — and then I smelled smoke. After investigating, I noticed no equipment had really blown out, except for the surge protector itself. I guess it did its job, and saved the equipment, electricity, and our lives.
Stupid chubby black fish…it tries to kill other fish, so I try to kill it, and end up almost killing myself.