Aquarium Success

Mother Goose cleaned the fish tank today, and all parties survived! Yay for the fishies and YAY for me! …now I’ll go and clean the birdie cages… Love, Mother Goose (keeper of many children AND pets)

Fish and Chlorine — They Don’t Mix

There’s always a lesson to be learnt, or an analogy to draw when tragedy strikes. Our first response is to ask “why”.

“Why, oh why didn’t I read the label?”

“Why didn’t I stop reading and really listen to my child?”

“Why didn’t I check the basement for water when the storm started?”

You get the picture. Yesterday, Mother Goose lost four pretty fish in the process of cleaning the family fish tank. And here’s the answer to “why”…

In our village, water comes to our homes via pipes that originate miles out into Lake Michigan. There are numerous pumping stations and processing islands out there lurking ominously and mysteriously just at the edge of the horizon. Some people in America have oil rigs and pumps in their ocean view — we have water pumping stations. I have heard it said that the water “out there” is cleaner than the water nearer to the shore of Lake Michigan. That may or may not be true.

Regardless, “they” pump the water out of the lake and send it in giant pipes under the surface of the lake. You can read all about the James W. Jardine Water Purification Plant by clicking here.

And here’s a sweet chart that explains the process:

Please remember that there’s miles between points 1 and 2.

You will not be surprised to learn that part of water purification from a lake involves adding chemicals to the water. Here is a list of chemicals that Chicago adds to its H2O every single minute of every single day in order to deliver one million gallons of clean water to its residents and suburban partners every single minute:

Chlorine: to disinfect the water.
Aluminum Sulfate or Alum and Polymer: for coagulation to settle out impurities.
Blended Polyphosphate: to coat pipes and prevent lead leaching.
Activated Carbon: to remove unpleasant tastes and odors.
Fluoride: to help fight cavities in children’s teeth.

By the way, if you are still reading along on this somewhat tedious essay, congratulations and thank you…

In reviewing the list of chemicals in my tap water, I see nothing positive in it for the fishies. Unless perhaps the fluoride would help to fight cavities in their teeth. The activated carbon would be completely unnecessary to a fish. I don’t believe that fish require aluminum sulfate, alum or polymers to settle their impurities. As far as lead leaching goes, I’m not a big fan so I don’t mind blending the polyphosphates for those nasty old pipes.

However, fish were not created to withstand the toxicity of chlorine. Please read this excerpt from a New York Department of Health report: The health effects of chlorine are primarily due to its corrosive properties. The strong oxidizing effects of chlorine cause hydrogen to split from water in moist tissue, resulting in the release of nascent oxygen and hydrogen chloride which produce corrosive tissue damage. The oxidation of chlorine may also form hypochlorous acid, which will penetrate cells and react with cytoplasmic proteins to destroy cell structure.

And that’s what happened yesterday to my beautiful Swordtail, my two Glass Catfish, and a little guy with a black triangle on each of his flanks.

And here’s the simple solution which Mother Goose accidentally and tragically forgot to add to the water in the aquarium before reintroducing the poor innocent fishies:

Such a simple solution to neutralizing tap water and making it safe for the fish.

Lesson learned.

Mental note to Mother Goose: slow down, dear. And you really don’t have to photographically capture every event for the purpose of blogging about it.

And please come back tomorrow when Mother Goose spiritualizes this tragic event into an object lesson about life in general! 🙂

Six new Blue Guaramies joined the ranks of the survivors to the fish tank of Mother Goose. Everybody is happy and healthy today…

Olivia from Bolivia

We have such a menagerie of pets at Mother Goose’s house! There’s Fran our dog who recently suffered an aural hematoma but is now recovered quite completely. And there are the seven Zebra Finches — six hens and a little rooster who doesn’t have a clue but is very protective of his girls. Three Glass Catfish in the globe aquarium — countless platys and mollies in the upstairs aquarium. And a partridge in a pear tree. No, just kidding about that partridge.

And then there’s Olivia our cat.

Olivia was here before anyone. Her home has been her castle, and the table has been her throne. From ages past and time gone by, Olivia from Bolivia has reigned in this house. Her words and her actions constitute the ultimate law of the land here. She would like us to bow as she passes by. She knows where every ray of afternoon sun will fall because she is the ruler of the sun and the moon and the stars. They rise and set according to her wishes, her whims and her orders.

She is suspicious of any challenger to her throne, even a mysterious ceramic one.

Olivia is learning to share her kingdom with other creatures. She loves to babysit the birds, from atop their cage. She admires the fish swimming in their watery worlds. And she enjoys a love/hate relationship with Fran. Actually, Fran likes Olivia a whole bunch! Fran likes Olivia much more than she likes other dogs or strangers at the door.

The first time they met, Fran thought that Olivia was a squirrel. Fran did what comes natural — chasing Olivia around and around the house, barking with the excitement of a hunter hot on the trail of the prey. It took many months for Olivia to forgive Fran of that case of mistaken identity, but today harmony reigns in the zoological garden of Mother Goose.