goddamnit! Fish tank of nightmares!!!!!!!
ok here's the scenario. Ed and I decided to get a new cage for the rats. Up until now, they've been living in a medium-sized terrarium-style glass tank. We went to the pet store today and bought a multiple-level wire cage for them because we figured they'd like bouncing around from level to level instead of just being in a boring glass cage.
So we brought it home, put them in there, everything's fine.
Then I decided to put the fish that I had on top of the bookshelf (siamese fighting fish and a snail) into the tank the rats used to be in (because it was a fish tank anyway) because it was bigger and I thought they'd like it better.
I washed it out really well, I let it soak in boiling hot water and scrubbed it really good because I didn't want any leftover rat-germs in there. I didn't use any soap or anything, because I didn't want any chemicals in there that might hurt the fish.
After I was sure I washed the tank out properly, I rinsed it a whole bunch of times just to make sure, and filled it half full of water and treated the water with our aquarium water treatment stuff to make it safe for the fishies, and made sure it was the right temperature. Then I mixed that water with the water that was already in their fish bowl, gradually introducing them to the new tank.
It was a long process, but it was finally finished and I was happy with myself. Then I notice the snail not moving. The snails tend to do this (curl up in their shell and not come out for a while) so I figured he was just angry that I moved him and was hiding. Then, about ten minutes later, I notice my fish going all spazzy and swimming around like a psycho. I thought maybe he was just upset about the move too, but it soon became obvious that he was dying. He was gasping and thrashing around, and then just layed kinda sideways and motionless, and then died. I started freaking out and ed had to calm me down. I don't know what I did wrong. I killed my pets! *sob*
So, I guess that even though I thought I had spotlessly cleaned that tank, it wasn't suitable for fish-use. I should have known better I guess. But I thought I had it perfectly clean, and I figured that soaking it in the boiling water would have killed off any kind of germs or anything that could possibly harm the fish, but I guess I was wrong.
Now I have a dead fish and a dead snail - and to totally make matters even worse, after we had a little burial service flushing down the toilet, the glass on one side of the tank cracked (I have
no idea how) and water cascading all down the book shelf. Hello nightmare fishtank from hell. So we spent an hour cleaning that up.
*sighs*
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I don't understand what crossfire has to do with me killing my pets. and why is this a "non-crossfire-zone"? 
