Mourning the loss of my giant TSN...

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Wet Whiskers

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 28, 2008
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Amongst the Catfish & Plecos
I picked up a 21-22" beautiful Jardini yesterday. He's incredibly beefy, and so I knew my cats couldn't eat him. It apparently didn't matter how big he was though. My TSN was going to shred him in an attempt to swallow him. She was getting into full hunting mode and was even checking out my gold knife fish which she's never looked at before. The commotion seemed to get my RTCxTSN interested as well. My husband and I realized our only option was to clear out the 385 gallon pond and move the two TSN and the RTCxTSN into it. The move went wonderfully, and they all were very comfortable in there. We stayed in the garage for a couple hours after getting everyone moved to make sure there were no problems, and finally around midnight went to bed.

I got up this morning, and the very first thing I did was check on my fish. My RTCxTSN was gasping at the surface and the water was disgusting and murky. In the middle of the night, all three of them had vomited everything they had eaten the day before (one of the main concerns/reasons I had spent the extra hours watching everyone last night after the move). My two TSNs were dead, and if I hadn't gone straight out, my RTCxTSN would have quickly been next. I'm so angry with her. I know its instinct to hunt, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm mad at her. She has gotten nothing but excellent care, she was well fed, it didn't even fit in her mouth, but shredding a fish just to test things out was on her agenda. I'm so sad she's gone. She has always had such dedicated care from us, and in 8 hours she went from a totally healthy beast to dead. I don't have any regrets about my actions, which helps. However, I'm very frustrated, sad, and angry. It's difficult to accept.
 
That's terrible, So very sorry for your loss.. :(:(:(
 
Thanks guys. She had obviously gotten to a point where I couldnt introduce anything without her trying to eat it, even if it just meant grabbing at a fish and shredding it cause it was so big. I strongly suspect that I could have introduced something larger than her and she would have still tried it. She was an intense hunter, unlike anything else I have ever owned.
 
Sorry, and what are you going to do with her body? I would mummify it to preserve her and then stick her in an air tight container. Hopefully nobody else dies from vomit.

If you do mummify her use your favorite spices on her so she always smels good.
 
very sorry to hear of such a loss... and what a way to lose... very sad
 
That sucks. Remember that big cats are territorial and will act on that sometimes when they feel their territory is threatened. My big old hybrid use to tear the tails off any sized fish that went in his tank. Except oscars had three living with him for a year. Sorry for your loss.
 
msjinkzd;4822573; said:
sorry to hear it :(

Thank you for your sympathy.


aquaculture;4822757; said:
Sorry, and what are you going to do with her body? I would mummify it to preserve her and then stick her in an air tight container. Hopefully nobody else dies from vomit.

If you do mummify her use your favorite spices on her so she always smels good.

The two TSNs are in my freezer. They are going to be shipped to necrocanis to be skeletonized for his collection and study. I'm glad I'm not going to have to just throw her away.


Red Devil;4822764; said:
very sorry to hear of such a loss... and what a way to lose... very sad

Yeah. Its one of those things you just cannot prevent no matter what kind of precautions you take. Unless I had just stayed up all night in the off chance something happened, there was nothing more I could have done.


necrocanis;4822797; said:
That sucks. Remember that big cats are territorial and will act on that sometimes when they feel their territory is threatened. My big old hybrid use to tear the tails off any sized fish that went in his tank. Except oscars had three living with him for a year. Sorry for your loss.

I have definitely seen her be territorial. It's a pretty intense attack that has a bulldozing movement to it. If the fish doesn't give way she continues to push. Its very directed and more head on. This was different. It included periods of slow, stealthy stalking, that included a lot of whisker inspection and then a sudden single sideswipe. It's the same thing she was doing to my tinfoils long ago before I moved them. She did manage to eat one before I grabbed her to make her spit it out. (Tin foil survived).
 
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