Funniest aquarium stories

[convict]

Ok all, I am severely bored at work and wanted to hear some of your funniest, strangest, interesting stories of having a saltwater tank.

I will start this one off.
I was gone for a week period to an undisclosed location for military business and my wife was tending to the tank while I was gone. I made sure to explain to her everything that needed to be done and even showed her the emergency procedures incase of power loss or overflow.

The location where I was did not have a very good cell phone reception, as most desolate locations are known to foster. 11pm, I receive a phone call from a semi hysterical wife who informed me that she had been trying to call me for the last 45 minutes and wondered who I had been talking to on the phone since my phone had been busy and she had desperately been trying to reach me.

Apparently, she let the water in the return tank of my sump refugium get too low so the suction from the horsehoe had broken. She proceeded to add about 5 gallons of water to the return side which pumps the water back to the main tank and in turn recycles down to the refugium from the overflow.

Not realizing that the syphon had been broken the refugium is filling to over capacity and starting to spill onto the floor. Since she forgot the instructions that I told her incase of overflow, she did not break the suction from the top overflow (it was an external HOB overflow connected by another horseshoe syphon hose). She then proceeded to bail water from the refugium to the return tank which started the cycle again.

By the time she finally raised me on the phone she had been bailing water for almost an hour and was near the point of giving up. When I asked her why she didnt do what I told her, she said that she never pays attention to me when I talk about fish or fish tanks. I think now she will pay a little more attention :D

Now its your turn. Fill me in! I am bored...

[CruiseX]

Military...bored at work for the time being...I think I can throw my two cents in...

My story only comes full circle after I figured everything out but here it goes.

I had an original Koralia #2 that was recalled. I never heard why it was recalled so I did not pay much attention (big mistake I would later find out). Anyhow I came downstairs one morning to an extremely quiet fish tank AND 50 Gallons of water on my floor. My second tank that acts as a fuge which is plumbed into my whole system had drained all the way out through the sump and onto the floor. Why would this be - cause a check valve (from HD) did not work. Why did everything turn off? I later find out it was due to that K2 tripping my GFI. So eventually after everything was cleaned up (saltwater is a great tile floor cleaner) I got a new check valve (clear flapper valve this time) and returned the faulty K2. Did not loose any livestock, but was left with one hell of a mess. All is well now - I just need to catch who the culprit is picking at my zoos.

[GSRGRL00]

One time I watched an overturned turbo snail struggle to get upright for nearly an hour cause I thought it was going to change shells :o doh! Crabs do that... not snails.. I know better now.. :)

[convict]

Come on people, I know there are more than just 2 stories.

[da6d2003]

He's mine from an old post.

I traded jwelch87 my galaxy coral yesterday and picked up some sw ghost shrimp in the trade. I'd never had these before. I decided to split 40 of them between 2 tanks. All the fish were definitely interested in them but they are too fast. I then sat down on the floor and started to finish up plumbing my ferugium. About a minute later something hit me in the head. Few seconds later something on my leg. I looked up and a shrimp hit me in the face. Good lord, it's raining shrimp! Little shrimp missiles flying through the air. Did I forget to say that I don't have a lid or canopy on 1 of these tanks. I spent the next 30 minutes catching, scooping and transporting shrimp to the other tank.

Lessons learned. Shrimp can jump, rabbit fish love ghost shrimp and the big pieces of plastic that came with the tank fit nicely in the big holes on top of the tank.

[convict]

Now that's what I am talking about LOL

[BigAir]

Hospital tank in my bedroom about 1.5yrs ago. Time to remove the meds from the tank, so I start running carbon and turn on a Jebo HOB skimmer. A hour or 2 goes by, and I check on the equiptment. Skimmer cup is about to over flow, so I pull the cup off to empty it. I must have freaked out the fish, cause the next thing I know the venturi on the pump has fallen to the bottom and the skimmer if overflowing. 3-4 gallons onto a power strip that was powering a FW tank next to the hospital. No way to get to the power cord for the skimmer, and the cup was so full it was pointless to put it back on. Had to chuck the cup, and reach for the venturi. My wife just sat and watched it all go down.:confused:

Carpet stained with meds, and 1 power strip dead.

[BigAir]

Dripping top off into my 20 that had the babies in it, had a few too many beers, and forgot. Passed out, only to wake up and remember at 1am.:eek:
3 more gallons on the carpet. Only my stupid ass did it 2 times in 6 months.

[barometer]

I posted this a few weeks ago:
I had just gotten a new loose hairy mushroom from a friend. Dropped it in my tank to let it find a spot to settle. The next day I couldn't find it anywhere. Then I noticed one of my larger palys had it almost fully devoured with just a small piece still sticking out of it's mouth. I didn't know that palys were hunters :p

[convict]

mmmmm Got to love smelly, moldy underaquarium carpet.

[convict]

I caught my bubble eating 2 heads of my frogspawn. That bubble is now in timeout in its own little corner or the tank. QUOTE=barometer]I posted this a few weeks ago:
I had just gotten a new loose hairy mushroom from a friend. Dropped it in my tank to let it find a spot to settle. The next day I couldn't find it anywhere. Then I noticed one of my larger palys had it almost fully devoured with just a small piece still sticking out of it's mouth. I didn't know that palys were hunters :p

[DaChrisDude]

I had my hands in my tank moving some corals around ~2 months ago early in the morning --before I had put my contacts in. Put contacts in. Hour or so later began to realize that everything was looking a little fuzzy. Attributed it to staying up till 3am studying/starting at the computer. It progressed (or rather, my eyesight got worse and worse) until by 5pm I couldn't read the book in front of me it was so blurry --everything had an opaque, whitish blur. I thought it was my contacts so I took them out and rinsed them - then realized vision still blurry even w/out the contacts. Uh oh. Finally told my GF - who insisted I call my mom - who took me to the eye-specialist. After several minutes, the eye doctor said "Holy crap what did you get in your eye? Your eyes have come into contact with some sort of toxic that has shut down the cells that control the amount of fluid going between your corneas and the rest of your eye. Your corneas as swollen to 1.5x their normal size!" I mentioned touching my corals earlier in the morning.... He eventually went into an adjoining room and calling some other doctor-friend. Listening in to his conversation was hilarious (for me) and terrifying (for my mom)... "Hey this is Doctor P...I've got a patient with a probably contact with some sort of highly toxic coral... in my 31 years in the field I've never seen anything like this...if I had the time this would be an amazing case for the book...."

My eyes eventually cleared up after 2-3 days. I couldn't wear contacts for nearly a month and a half....

That's my lil story. :D

[convict]

Glad your eyesight is back Chris. We would hate to not have the top poster on the site be able to read the board ;)

[jblaze]

Chris, do you know which coral the toxin came from?

[Poacher]

Ill post a couple of stories soon, My first was when I bought a beautiful flame angel and had to sneek it into the house. I came home and my wife had a honey do list ready for me. I did the list which took all of my day. I was so tired that night that I went straight to sleep. I woke up the next morning and remembered I had bought the angel but left him in the car all day in the heat....DOA :eek: :eek::(

[convict]

This is a funny story my wife wrote on her blog while she was pregnant.

If you're ever watched the relationship between a clownfish and an anemone, it's a pretty fascinating thing. A clownfish is a tropical fish whose species has recently been made more famous by Nemo's character in 'Finding Nemo'. An anemone is a living sea plant that has the potential to sting and kill small fish in order to survive. However, when you pair a clownfish and an anemone, a magical thing happens...

For some reason, the anemone does not sting the clownfish. The clownfish will actually protect the anemone and chase other fish away, also saving them from being stung. Clownfish tend to be very protective of their anemones and love them like fat kids love cake. Even more amazingly, the clownfish will actually venture out of the anemone's tentacles, where they love to wallow like a dog in wet grass, and get food for the anemone.

We have a clownfish and an anemone in one of our tanks and I was just sitting and watching as my husband fed the fish today. The clownfish immediately dives out of his anemone, grabs the biggest piece of food he can take and darts back towards his precious anemone.

"Must be fun being an anemone's *****, right Clowny?" I snorted.
"You're talking to the fish?" Blaine asked.
"Nooooo," I said sarcastically, "I'm talking to you!"

He didn't say anything so I continued wi****lly, "You know, I see a lot of myself in that anemone..."
"Huh?"
"Yeah...I stretch out on my ass all day and expand while some clown goes in search of food for me..."

I guess if nothing else, I make him laugh and that's why he tolerates me.

[convict]

Thanks all for the great stories. I at least feel as I am not alone with the soaked carpets, jumping fish, and drunk water changes. If anyone else wants to add a story, please feel free.

[Poacher]

This is a funny story my wife wrote on her blog while she was pregnant.

"Must be fun being an anemone's *****, right Clowny?" I snorted.
"You're talking to the fish?" Blaine asked.
"Nooooo," I said sarcastically, "I'm talking to you!"



I dont think I will ever feed my fish again without feeling so used and abused by them...:p

[DaChrisDude]

... anenome *****... now that's funny. :)



Glad your eyesight is back Chris. We would hate to not have the top poster on the site be able to read the board

Lol, what would I do w/out SDR?? I'd have so much more free time on my hands...that's for sure. ;) lol....




Chris, do you know which coral the toxin came from?

No, not really. I know I was handling some paly's and zoos, among other things. I was concerned it could have been Palytoxin - from the paly's.... upon being sent to the Urgent Care after the eye doc, the Urgent care people did some research concerning Palytoxin. Turns out, the only group that can diagnose, and has any sort of anti-toxin for Palytoxin, is the US ARMY! The Urgent care guy said we're 99.9% sure it was NOT Palytoxin --cause if it was, I'd be dead. :eek:

[boalgf]

Had the temperature guage for my heater fall out of my hospital tank while I had a yellow tang in quarantine. The heater must have been reading the outside temp, which was around 70 degrees, so it kept trying to heat the tank water. When I got home the water was at 120 degrees or so, my house stunk, and my dinner was ready. RIP patches.

[barometer]

Had the temperature guage for my heater fall out of my hospital tank while I had a yellow tang in quarantine. The heater must have been reading the outside temp, which was around 70 degrees, so it kept trying to heat the tank water. When I got home the water was at 120 degrees or so, my house stunk, and my dinner was ready. RIP patches.

I just did the exact same thing with my MAIN DISPLAY :eek: (hence the thread resurrection). The past couple days I thought the temp readings had been funny. I kept turning up the heater but couldn't get it to be past 74 (luckily I only use it at night). This morning I found the temp probe hanging under my tank. When I replaced it the reading was 90. I thought my corals had been looking a little limp, d'oh :o

[Chanas4]

I cleaned my tunze powerheads and was putting them back in the tank. i accidentally let the magnets get to close so snap!! they go right on to my finger. Completeley enveloped the tip all the way to the joint. Arghh that hurt, and the msgnets kept squeezing and squeezing. So i run out to the living room and tell my daughter and niece "i need help". they look at me, dont move, and say what do you want us to do. 'I need someone to get something in between the magnets and pry them apart. They sit there and look at eachother like they were each waiting for the other to go first. "I need help now, or this finger is going to break." So then they both get up and run into eachother in their hurry to get something. Niece grabs a steak knife.
:-) My finger is numb and black by now. So i tell my niece unless you're going to cut my finger off you better get something else. I then had to tell them step by step, which drawer to go in, which type of butter knife to get, how to pry them apart etc. I was almost ready to cry from the pain. I am so afraid of Tunze magnets since then.