When the people I am house sitting for left they gave two instructions for Oscar the fish, feed him and then make sure the filter was clean. Well I've been doing the first but I kind of forgot the second and yesterday we had a power cut from 9 am to 6 pm which meant the pump wasn't on. I did look at the tank and think it was getting murkier but Oscar seemed OK. I had friends come round for a Christmas drinks party and we kept checking on Oscar. At one point my friend Brendan said he could do with some drama in the evening. Well we sure got it shortly after midnight. Oscar suddenly started floating on her side and the tank was really not looking great (although the pump was now working with ZESA). We went into panic mode and William and Claire took charge. Brendan had won a kitchen whisk in the secret Santa pirating game and this was used to try get more oxygen to Oscar. William dismantled the pump and cleaned out the filter (we noticed that the electric cable has exposed wires - water and electricity, not a good combo, eeek!)
Whilst all of this was going on my playlist happened to be playing Carmina Burana. We were so preoccupied though I didn't change it. Lucy started googling how to save an Oscar fish. In her search she found "Should you flush a dead oscar fish down the loo?" and "How to comfort a dying oscar"! In the end we decided to put a little of the tank water in a bucket with fresh water and propped the water filter/oxygen pump in it and made sure it was plugged into the inverter in case there was another power cut. Oscar perked up a little and was upright again. This was the best we could do by this time 2am. This morning I tentatively opened the bucket and was relieved not to have a floating fish on top. I tried phoning the owners. They hadn't left instructions on how to clean out the tank. I opted to empty most of the tank and put in fresh water. Well I'm afraid I was a Borrowdale madame, Thomas the gardner carried the buckets whilst I directed operations in my pyjamas. When it came to transferring Oscar back, she suddenly got a new lease of life and bit Thomas (oh dear). She was on her side again initially but with the clean filter going she has regained uprightness. The owners have now said not to empty the tank (even though it is still murky). I need to keep cleaning out the filter and if ZESA goes again I must run the generator for the fish tank, eish!
So yes, after all of this I don't think I want to pet sit fish again. You can't exactly take it to the vet! Very grateful to Claire, William, Brendan and Lucy for helping hopefully save Oscar. Team effort :) I don't think I will be going to make the 500 meals for the homeless though. Have only had 3 hours sleep and I don't do too well on a sleep deficit. From lunchtime the house keeper and the gardner will have gone for Christmas, so it will be just me the great danes, Oscar!, the chickens and the rabbits. Hope nothing else goes wrong.
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