We have another goldfish we're worried about. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger noticed it gasping at the air, as goldfish sometimes will when they're not getting enough oxygen from the water, or when they find interesting-looking bugs floating near the surface. But this fish was swimming way too hard at the water, enough that they would pop a couple inches above the waterline. They're in no realistic danger of leaping out of the tank, but still, they shouldn't be trying.
The local destination pet store in town has a fish veterinarian who's in most mornings. So this morning I took the fish in, leaving just a few minutes before bunnyhugger was ready for the day. I was too nervous about the vet leaving before we could be seen.
The verdict: they dunno. They did a skin scraping, to look for flukes, and our fish gave a good fight at being scraped. They apologized to the fish for the trouble. None were obvious. It's possible there are flukes inside the gills, but they couldn't test that except posthumously. Plus, we treated the tank for flukes proactively, back near the start of winter. Still, considering this is the same tank that had a fish die several weeks ago ...
So there's unfortunately little actual data to go on. The water quality seems fine, but it could be something outside the normal test kit. They recommend water changes, and aquarium salts, which is generic advice. They did say it's probably best to put the fish in the pond outside as soon as we can, since that water's almost certainly better than what's inside.
And we'll be able to do that soon. bunnyhugger bought a new pond vacuum. We couldn't get the parts to repair the old; the company she ordered from sat on the order for a week and then refunded her money. And the exact vacuum we have and that I broke seems not to be made anymore. So we got a replacement, that looks about the same except for being more flimsy. Hopefully this one I won't break too soon. And hopefully going out to a nice clean pond will do good things for this poor fish.
Doing a bit more walking around town, including some pictures of the Eastside south of Kalamazoo, plus more jigsaw puzzle updates.
Oh ... I guess this street is also the neighborhood remote control. Probably should protect those buttons better.
The remains of when they tried to jump-start development in the Eastside.
Back home again. Tulips getting ready to bubble!
And some tulips already bubbled.
Spring looks full of promise, doesn't it?
With Gobbler Farms finally finished and celebrated, bunnyhugger lifts the puzzle, prelude to disassembling it. Like many good-quality puzzles you can lift it surprisingly far without the thing falling apart!
The hard work of taking apart the puzzle and putting the pieces back, to be reassembled some other Thanksgiving. And hey, what's this underneath the white foam board? ...
That's right, it's Spring Garden Room, a puzzle that took so long last summer to work on that bunnyhugger put it on pause, and underneath a foam board, so she could work on Halloween and Thanksgiving puzzles instead. We were amazed it had held together so well under those boards.
Trivia: By 1940 the Farm Security Administration had opened 56 camps for agricultural migrants around the United States. 18 of them were in California. Each could accommodate up to 350 families. Source: A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, Jane Ziegelman, Andrew Coe.
Currently Reading: The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber.
