Backstory: I work very long hours. I work back to back shift and was not home when the cat decided she wanted to end the fish Lives in the cat playroom Permanently That was put up there when the flooding happened last year. It was meant to be short term that ended up being months after months of issues putting off putting fish that was in there going back Into their main tasks.
Yes I have an cunning smart evil bengal. She’s a purebred , a runt , a castoff of her litter. But still has the worst characteristics that comes with some of the Bengals. She’s a prime example why you need to do research before owning a Bengal. This is a result of her pure boredom After the death of my 3rd cat back in Jan, she has lost source of half of her entertainment. She has doubled down on her mischief and antics.
What happened:
She managed to PULL the immersed heater to above the water, sometime last night. yanked out the floss media off the AC110 HOB so half of it was hanging halfway into the tank onto the lid, luckily the media that was left was clogged enough that water was going back straight off the HOB down not onto the lid. And also Pulled the air stone tubing out and chewed on the hoses for good measure. It was not the first time she has done the air tubing stunt. she did this few weeks ago resulting in 2 deaths of the 6 clouded archerfish I had in that specific tank. i replaced and put tube back in with clips And tape. And sped up the process of moving stock around , it was annoying when I had back to back weekends I had to go out of town for 3 weekends in a row. This weekend was the actual weekend I was going to spend time on moving everyone back downstairs. THIS TIME she dang pulled out the both tubes enough that it wasn’t touching the water anymore , 3 of the 4 remaining was dead, the last one was preciously hanging in balance on deaths throes on the bottom gasping. The clown loaches that was left in there seemed to be doing OK to my surprise. No loss whatsoever For the loachkind, the loaches looked at me like WTF out of the pvc pipe hideouts. Thank god I had the house heater set at 72 degrees and it gets hotter up on the 1st floor around 74 for some reason in that room. And the basement is too cool due to 3/4 of the wall being below the ground Level. Hence me having it at 72 degrees so it feels comfortable down there at 68 etc.
I immediately chucked the remaining half alive archerfish into the main tank with hornworts floating on the top so it could rest unbothered by others. located in the basement hoping it will make it through the night tonight while I’m at work again. I smell the deaf fish. WTF. Looked in it....no dead fish. Checked air tubes all good. .. looked around for the source of smell...she struck the 20g tanks with my breeding group of cories In the quiet corner of the basement. The air tubes were pulled out (I didn’t cat proof it as she wasn’t focused in that section) OH BOY. bodies everywhere. I stopped counting after 6th dead Cory fry/adult mix. Netted everyone that was still moving and moved them right into the 75g tank that had 4 new fish in there.
The cat is literally running laps around the basement While I’m doing all of this pulling out dead cories and netting alive ones porting them to the other side of the room into the 75g.
Lesson well learned the hard way. Just feel awful when both worlds clash. I’m not taking it out on the cat whatsoever. It was MY own fault I did not cat proof it enough. its my responsibility to ensure its not overstocked if something like the power that went off. I had several empty tanks I could have set them up in. I was caught sleeping and postponed too many times. I had opportunity to turn down things and make it my priority. Its all on me 100%
Everyone is moving around when I get home from work and medications has been ordered to deworm /treat everyone for ammonia burns etc as QT proctol is going to be breached even further when everyone is just going to be moving into their tanks without steps being taken. Am drawing up plans on electrical outlets being moved up to the walls. Looking into clear PVC a friend told me about for the air tubing .
Argh. This Bengal might be the death of me. She’s only 8 years old, no signs of slowing down. Dang it. She’s supposed to be mature And chill by now.
Yes I have an cunning smart evil bengal. She’s a purebred , a runt , a castoff of her litter. But still has the worst characteristics that comes with some of the Bengals. She’s a prime example why you need to do research before owning a Bengal. This is a result of her pure boredom After the death of my 3rd cat back in Jan, she has lost source of half of her entertainment. She has doubled down on her mischief and antics.
What happened:
She managed to PULL the immersed heater to above the water, sometime last night. yanked out the floss media off the AC110 HOB so half of it was hanging halfway into the tank onto the lid, luckily the media that was left was clogged enough that water was going back straight off the HOB down not onto the lid. And also Pulled the air stone tubing out and chewed on the hoses for good measure. It was not the first time she has done the air tubing stunt. she did this few weeks ago resulting in 2 deaths of the 6 clouded archerfish I had in that specific tank. i replaced and put tube back in with clips And tape. And sped up the process of moving stock around , it was annoying when I had back to back weekends I had to go out of town for 3 weekends in a row. This weekend was the actual weekend I was going to spend time on moving everyone back downstairs. THIS TIME she dang pulled out the both tubes enough that it wasn’t touching the water anymore , 3 of the 4 remaining was dead, the last one was preciously hanging in balance on deaths throes on the bottom gasping. The clown loaches that was left in there seemed to be doing OK to my surprise. No loss whatsoever For the loachkind, the loaches looked at me like WTF out of the pvc pipe hideouts. Thank god I had the house heater set at 72 degrees and it gets hotter up on the 1st floor around 74 for some reason in that room. And the basement is too cool due to 3/4 of the wall being below the ground Level. Hence me having it at 72 degrees so it feels comfortable down there at 68 etc.
I immediately chucked the remaining half alive archerfish into the main tank with hornworts floating on the top so it could rest unbothered by others. located in the basement hoping it will make it through the night tonight while I’m at work again. I smell the deaf fish. WTF. Looked in it....no dead fish. Checked air tubes all good. .. looked around for the source of smell...she struck the 20g tanks with my breeding group of cories In the quiet corner of the basement. The air tubes were pulled out (I didn’t cat proof it as she wasn’t focused in that section) OH BOY. bodies everywhere. I stopped counting after 6th dead Cory fry/adult mix. Netted everyone that was still moving and moved them right into the 75g tank that had 4 new fish in there.
The cat is literally running laps around the basement While I’m doing all of this pulling out dead cories and netting alive ones porting them to the other side of the room into the 75g.
Lesson well learned the hard way. Just feel awful when both worlds clash. I’m not taking it out on the cat whatsoever. It was MY own fault I did not cat proof it enough. its my responsibility to ensure its not overstocked if something like the power that went off. I had several empty tanks I could have set them up in. I was caught sleeping and postponed too many times. I had opportunity to turn down things and make it my priority. Its all on me 100%
Everyone is moving around when I get home from work and medications has been ordered to deworm /treat everyone for ammonia burns etc as QT proctol is going to be breached even further when everyone is just going to be moving into their tanks without steps being taken. Am drawing up plans on electrical outlets being moved up to the walls. Looking into clear PVC a friend told me about for the air tubing .
Argh. This Bengal might be the death of me. She’s only 8 years old, no signs of slowing down. Dang it. She’s supposed to be mature And chill by now.
