 
|
what to do
in case disaster strikes!! |
|
Back in 1994, I had two large
glass tanks in my living room. That was before bettas cast their
spell on me :) though, so my tanks were purely decorative, housing
a number of larger tropical fish. When the HUGE Northridge
earthquake hit that night, it took but 10 seconds for it to wreck havoc
in our building. Running down the stairs (still rocking) with
Ladybug in my arms, while yelling to my Dad (at the time visiting
from France and sleeping on the hideaway bed downstairs) to get
the heck out, I rushed through the front door, while a tidal wave
came sweeping down the building's entrance (the pool's water was
all over the place now - except in the pool, that is LOL). So out
I was in the middle of the night, in my sleeping gown, wet feet
and with my terrified dog in my arms. When it suddenly hit me:
"Oh my GOD! MY
FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".
Scared as I was (earthquakes
FREAK ME OUT), I handed my dog to my Dad and ran back up to my
apartment working my way through broken glass, debris and
miscellaneous unidentified objects. It was pitched dark and hard
to see anything, but I could feel the carpet was soaked (rats!) .
My larger tank (a 60 gal) had completely crashed and was left with
only an inch of water at the bottom. Large fish, now laying on
their side, were flopping around everywhere. I swiftly (and ever
so quickly - cause another shock could hit at any time and I did
NOT want to me indoors when it did) picked up fish and tossed them
in the other 20 gal which had miraculously survived the ordeal.
With a little luck, they would survive (and did).
Thank God our bettas are tough
little buggers who can stay out of water for quite some time and
still live to brag about it ;). In the case of an earthquake,
betta bowls may fly, crash and bettas will probably be OK, for as
long as they lend in a puddle or a saturated carpet area. Of
course when it comes to a hurricane or a fire, that's another ball
game all together.
So if you are ever faced with a
sudden, unpredictable catastrophe (fire in your house, earthquake,
sudden tornado, husband coming home buzzed, etc... LOL) and
you have to, at the drop of a hat, get all your bettas out of
there FAAAAST, this is what you could do (sorted by best but
slower method and ending with split second make do method ;)
).
 | jars housing bettas
are the best way to move the fish pronto. If you have too many
to hand carry in a couple trips, then grab a cooler or even a
cardboard box, dump 80% of the water out of each jar leaving
about 2 inches at the bottom. If you have lids, screw them
back on. If not, the water level being that low will prevent
the water from splashing out or the fish from jumping out. You
can now quickly stack the jars in the box (for they will be
much lighter with just a bit of water in them). When grabbing
the box, make sure to hold it from the bottom. Even though
each jar will be quite light now, all the jars in one box will
still get heavy you don't want that box butt to fall out now!
It would be best to tape the bottom first, but since we are
talking about en EMERGENCY SUPER FAST evacuation, you may not
have the luxury to fuss.
|
| coolers can be very
useful, since they usually have a hard shell and also are
insulated. I would favor this way of moving the jars. Of
course we are NOT talking about a COLD cooler (one with ice in
it) DUH! We don't need betta icicles now, do we?? Just an
empty, room temperature cooler.
|
| picnic plastic cups
can also save the day. If your bettas are in larger tanks, you
can move them out of the house in cups. You'll have to quickly
take a plastic cup, scoop up 1 inch of water in it, fish out
the betta with a net and dump him in there. Place cup in the
cooler or box etc.... Cups may not be stackable though (some
stack too tight and will crush the fish in lower cup. So you
may have to place cups at bottom of box and place a piece of
cardboard and then do another layer of cups. Or leave it at
one layer only. Make sure to stuff grocery plastic bags
between cups to prevent them from moving around and tipping
over (and spilling bettas out).
|
| freezer bags can also
be used as a last resort. In the case of sandwich bags, use
two bags per fish (cause they are not as thick and may leak).
Put 1 bag in another bag, to make the whole thing stronger,
put 1 inch of your betta's water at the bottom of bag, place
betta in it, do not zip up completely, allowing a small
opening for air. Make sure bag is not collapsed (flat) when
you lay it down inside box. You will have to be very careful
when laying bags in the box because they may spill. So they
must be secured carefully. Or you can zip them up if you leave
a lot of air in the bag (so it is round and not flat), but
that can only be OK for a few minutes (until you run out of
the house for example). Otherwise your fish may suffocate.
Once outside you can open up each bag a bit and secure them
carefully so they don't slide around and spill. Bettas could
be kept in this manner for days and be perfectly OK, for as
long as they can have access to the surface to breath (hence
we don't want a flat bag, but a round one with a water surface
the fish can get to)).
|
| grocery plastic bags can
be used if you don't even have a sandwich bag (what kind of a
kitchen is that??? LOL). A grocery bag could be used to scoop
up a bit of water, then you toss betta in there, and run off.
Make sure the bag does not have a hole in it! Many grocery
bags end up with one and Murphy's law states that if you have
3569456 bags on hand and are in a hurry, you will grab the ONE
bag with the hole in it ;P. So my advice, grab several bags,
so you have a couple spares to play with.
|
| a moist towel could
save your betta (as a last resort only), if you do not have
ANYTHING ELSE and MUST exit the house ASAP (say your hair now
also caught on fire etc...) you could get a paper towel, soak
it in tap water, put your betta in the center, lift up the 4
corners, (don't wrap him though), so betta will be inside it
and won't flop out while you run out of the house. The
moisture will keep your betta alive for a few minutes, maybe
even up to 1/2 hour or so, allowing you to get to a water
source (neighbor bottled water etc) . Better than nothing. Oh,
while you get to that water remember to put some on your hair.
It's on fire (remember?) LOL.
|
| last but not least, the
complete desperation betta saving trick: If ALL else fails
and now your fannies are on fire (along with your hair), and
if you have no jar, no coolers, no sandwich bags, no grocery
bags and can't even make it to the roll of paper towel (or, if
he's anything like Mr.181, your husband used the last sheet
and DID NOT put a new roll in the dispenser - figures!), THEN
and only THEN you can use this trick: This is the how to save
a betta in 0.1 second trick LOL. Simply dip the end of your
T-shirt (or dress, or top, or night gown, whatever you are
wearing at the moment disaster hits) in the betta's water,
long enough to get it wet, then lift up one corner with one
hand, toss betta in there (on the wet fabric) and run for your
lives. If you however, are in your birthday suit at that
moment, well, you're pretty much SOL. ;P (unless you have
really really flabby skin that is LOLOLOL).
|
Needless to say when you have
advanced warning and some time and resources, the best way is to
evacuate a betta in his jar, placed in an empty cooler (as in one
with NO ICE - duh X2). Needless to say it might be smart to keep a
spare plastic jar with lid just in case, or even buy a few fish
bags from your local fish store next time you are in there and put
them aside for a rainy (or fiery) day ;). Remember that when it
comes to transporting bettas, what they need most is AIR and NOT
water. So always have a 20/80 rule, where 20% is water and 80% is
air. A betta in a 1/4 jar with 2 inches of water and LOTS of air
can survive up to 7 days even if the jar is sealed. But if you
fill the jar up to the top and then seal it, he may be dead within
3 hours or less.
So there you have it. Remember that
"SHTUFF" happens, and not always to the other guy ;).
Wise
Faithyoda spoken once again, has.
|
|