It's Tank Day, which means it's time for an hour or so of fishtank cleaning. for the big tank, that means removing the dead leaves from the plants, scrubbing the algae from the front, and doing a gravel vacuum and water change. for the bowfront, it's a vacuum, water change, and i re-pile the rocks that the pleco moved. for the smallest, it's just a gravel vac. this is our basic tank maintenance, with filter cleanings as needed. other than this, all our tanks need is feeding, as they're pretty stable.

in the biggest tank, we have several old fish. they're about three, which is pretty old for the livebearers. as such, some of them are in rough shape. we have one who, at random intervals, will just start spazzing out and jumping. we have an angel that's been egg-impacted since we got back from our honeymoon. she's still doing fine except that the impaction is messing with her swim bladder. she's figured out that if she lets herself tip over, and then gives a good flick of her fins, she can wedge herself upside down in a plant and just observe the world from there, without much effort. she has no problem flipping back over whenever we walk by, though, she still begs for dinner.

so as i was cleaning the big tank, i apparently disturbed the spazzy one, because she started jumping. before i could stop filling and close the lid, i'd been hit by a flying fish. nick scooped her off the carpet and put her back in. i finished filling the tank and closed the lid before she could try it again.

move on to the next tank. i was engaged in my normal task of siphoning crud out of the gravel when the tank's resident crabass darted out from behind his plant and BIT ME. of course i jumped and scraped my thumb on the edge of the tank. so now i'm hesitant to stick my hand back in to control the vacuum...i did it anyway, with a close eye on him. no further incidents.

on to the last tank. at this point, i'm wondering if i should find my goggles or a helmet of some sort, because i fully expect to be, say, sucked in the face by an airborne pleco. i carefully put my hand in and start cleaning, when i notice the angels are being a little nibbly. okay, i can see how things being sucked up the vacuum might look like food, okay, go ahead and try to eat that. and (you see where this is going) i apparently look edible too, because i got nibbled as well. then while i was rearranging the rocks, one of the Corys ran into me.

i've never had incidents like this in all three tanks. i dont know what's gotten into them, maybe they've all gone militant. or maybe it's the weather. they're breeding an army...which they'll start working on right after they've eaten their fill of their own caviar, as seems to be their current project.

in news other than fish, i havent heard anything about my interview, but it's only been a week. i have high hopes.

there are other issues, but they're for deeper, darker places than this.

work today was physically tiring. we rearranged our workspace to be more efficient, which involved moving rather heavy objects across the room. we periodically have to do things like that to accomodate new equipment, new procedures, etc. while it looks rather nice compared to before, it's still really crowded. that sucks.

i worked up a sweat during the moving process, because it was really hot in the room today. as such, i need to excuse myself to go take a shower. i like to go to bed clean. goodnight everybody.