Fish in a Tree
How does someone free a fish that is stuck in a tree?
The is not a punchline from a joke, nor a line from a Dr. Seuss book. It is a question that I found myself asking — and not just myself. This question was spread among many people, each with a unique and humorous answer.
We have an office aquarium with four African Cichlids. As I was reaching to turn off the light and head home for the evening, I noticed that one of the fish appear stuck — which later turned out to be very stuck. With one hand, I shook the artificial tree with no luck. The fish was stuck. I continued to shake, rotate and wave the tree about while calling my wife to explain why I would be a few moment late.
An hour later, I called my wife again... this time explaining to her that the fish was still in the tree. She decided to come down to the office to give it a go. Shortly after, Manders arrived... and the fish was still in the tree.
Many hours later, three intelligent adults were staring in a tank at a still-stuck fish. We had tried just about everything you can imagine with no luck. The fish was simply stuck head-first into a plastic tree stump with its tail sticking out the top. The situation had become a thousand times more humorous than it sounds. One fake tree, one fish, three adults and no hope.
As a last ditch effort, I successfully snapped a piece of the tree which granted a small opening to see the fish's face — something that we had not seem in hours. Manders offered the use of pliers from her car. Using the small hole, we were able to tear-off small chunks until the opening was barely large enough for the fish to back out.
About 3 hours later, the fish was free. It felt like a glorious miracle... I was certain the fish was a goner. The fish is suffering some major scale damage, but I am pretty certain that he will live.
Also told by: Ong and Manders.
1 Comments:
I started laughing at "one hour later.." yet in the back of my head asked "am I a bad person for laughing?"
You probably did the right thing by not touching the fish, much like a human's epidermis, fish have a thing layer of mucus on their bodies which is a big factor in their immune system. (the oils on your skin will breakup the mucus)
Though I've seen a gold fish get dropped, bounce, get picked up by hand and put back. He wasn't doing so well after that but we gave him some fishy first-aid (salt water) and he was fine.
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