Monday

Monday was chaos. Work is brutal in the spring because census is continually high. In the fall it starts out low and gets higher as we approach the winter. Then it slows down over the holidays/finals. Not so much in the spring. It starts out high and stays high until summer is in full swing. This adds a whole 'nother layer of stress to my daily life that includes long work hours filled with a higher intensity of work. Yuck.

But I survived the day. I cam home and got to work on my finals. We got up to feed the fish and noticed Bruno, one of our oscars was acting strange. We did a 50% water change around 8pm and I went back to working on my finals. I finished up my last paper of the night just after midnight and went to go to bed.

I decided, after getting comfortable, that I should get up and check on Bruno and turn on the moonlights to see if I could catch a glimpse of our new eclipse catfish. Good thing I did!

I went over to the tank to find the center brace broken.

Now the thing about center braces on aquariums is that they're ridiculously important. They keep the glass from bowing out under the weight/pressure of the water. Without it the tank's integrity is seriously compromised.

In addition to the brace being broken, the tank was already bowing out. I also found that since the brace was no longer there to support the lids/light they were now submerged in the tank. The light had been on and was plugged in and there was an electrocuted catfish floating in the water. I couldn't see the other fish in the dark.

Like a maniac, I started screaming "EMERGENCY!!!", mostly because my brain had shut off and I didn't know what else to say. I also got in a few "this is not a drill!" and "for the love of God get the python" in there. (The python is a very long hose we use to change the water.

We managed to get the tank drained and the fish into the bathtub before the tank exploded. We threw in some sponge filters and the heater and tried to call it a night, but we were really still too hopped up on adrenaline to get much sleep. This set the stage for the days of sleep deprivation to follow.

Song of the Day is by Placebo: