Search the Community

While the weather was more of less warmer I thought I would do a quick drop and top of my cherry shrimp tank. Pulled out the internal filter (after turning it off) and gave its internal media a rinse in old tank water and put it back in. Decided might as well after retopping the tank, pull out all the weed, timber and other hideyholes and do a bit of a cull of undesired shrimp. And dumped all the removed stuff in a temp tank while I went hunting for shrimp in the main tank. All was going well, until I noticed while my fingers where on the surface of the water holding the net my little finger was getting a tingely sensation. At first I thought it might have been that I was resting my arm at a funny angle and giving myself pins and needles. But decided to investigate further after dipping my fingers in and out of the water a few more times. I then began experiementing rather "intelligently" with various fingers in the water and standing on an aluminium ladder and straight on bare concrete to pin down the suspected fault. It took a while because strangely the fault seemed to only be electrofying one small area of the tanks water surface. I turned off the heater and finally nailed the problem down to being the filter. So off I raced to my nearest pet shop (which of course was in the process of shutting for the day) and in a rush purchased the smallest internal filter I could find. Upon getting home I opened the box, only to discover no instructions and the moulded outside will let every shrimp into the actual filter. After much swearing, cursing and rummaging, I found a nifty screwdriver to prise open the stubborn new filter so I could put in my existing media. Then more rummaging around in my under the tank supplies I found a stocking to cover the filter. Then I discovered the filter has no adjustment for the flow and the shrimp are now having wild rides about the tank. Interestingly the low current of electricity didnt seem to be bothering the shrimp (but I dont think my little blue eye fry liked it), nor did it short out the house. And considering I have nearly fried myself before mucking about with tanks and lights falling into water I am really surprised. And all of this decides it has to happen when hubby is far away in Brisabane, oh well at least it wasnt a heater playing up with the cold we have been having I would have ended up with ice cube shrimp by tomorrow morning.