ok.... it seemed like we had too much lace rock in the house of sam....the fish would sometimes get scraped up on it.
solution remove some lace rock and add a little more driftwood..........no problem....michael did the diving hauling out rock from the far left side and putting back a little driftwood....sam kept to the right hand side and watched...........all done with the lhs michael is out of the tank and we are getting ready to replace all the covers.........michael went upstairs to dry off and cybr went to make a call.
sam makes a high speed turn and comes crashing out of the tank landing at my feet ( 7 feet below the edge of the tank)...i pull off my tee shirt and try to cover sams eyes and head and screaming for cybr.....i add my sweat shirt to the cover without much success as sam whips around ( 150 lbs ?? all muscle).....
there was a large moving blanket nearby which we were able to roll sam in.....it seemed from past experience that if they are covered and upside down things clam down....
with two ladders in place cybr and i struggled to lift sam high enough to clear the top of the tank and slip him and the moving blanket into the water......
was was he so spooked ??? why is he only swimming in the rhs of the tank....
he lost a few scales and has a few small cuts but doesnt look too beat up.
added a gallon of stress coat and continue to reinforce the cover if sam wigs out again.
a scary couple of minutes and a reminder that sam is truly a monster fish......even with two of us we were not in charge of the situation.......thankfully for all sam is back in the house of sam and there were no injuries among the humans.........
based on past experience it will take several weeks for the dust to settle
