Man, the Gods up there just doesn't want us to set up a larger tank for Ossie!
Two Fridays ago, we had bought all the materials for our new 75-gallon tank. Every night prior to that Friday, W. had observed Ossie swimming about the tank at night, playing with one thing or another.
The coolest thing W. observed was Ossie seeming to dance to flickering lights. I had bought a little battery operated fountain for W. The fountain has oscillating lights, (blue, green, red, white) and cycles through the various lights, casting color on the wall behind it.
The first few nights we had the fountain on, Ossie would swim to that corner of the tank, dance along the water's edge, then swim down to the substrate, and then swim back up to the water line, almost swaying in time to the oscillating lights. I wish we had gotten video of it, but Ossie has developed a fear of the camera. Whenever she sees it, off she swims to her den.
Anyway, W. was at the Octopus Gardens picking up the tank, the stand, and 60 gallons of water. Earlier that week, I had gotten the new protein skimmer and a couple of new pumps. I was on the phone with W., when I realized our phone was dying. At the same time, the DSL was conking out as well.
Investigating the source, I soon found out that our condo was being flooded AGAIN. This time from our upstairs neighbor's dishwasher. About 20 gallons of water was dumped into my living room/kitchen and the laminate flooring that the tank was going to sit on, was pretty much ruined.
Needless to say, all plans for the 75-gallon has been put off. Nothing can be done until the floor is replaced, the drywall dried off, and the kitchen cabinet replaced. *heavy sigh*
Soon after that, Tonmo suffered the server problems and to be honest, both W. and I don't even want to walk into a LFS to just look around right now. We both really want the larger tank cause we're sure Ossie would be happier in it but we're stuck in limbo right now. We don't want the tank set up anywhere else in the house because we just can't fathom setting it up, then having to move it two months later.
In the meantime, Ossie's water levels have leveled off and remained stable. We're doing water changes at least once a week and we're doing our best to not to look at anything relating to tanks in the meantime.
I've asked W. to take more movies of Ossie if she could. I have a very hard time seeing her with my bifocals and therefore have left the sightings to her. I did manage to see a tentacle flick out of the back of her den yesterday, to chase away an errant hermit crab that wandered too close. Occasionally, W. will call out and from the light of the television I can see a shadow swim across the back of the tank. On those occasions, I often think that the Batman was misnamed - that the name Octoman is more appropo, because of the blending into the shadows, flitting across the dark, and the ability to strike fear into the hearts of crabs and shrimp everywhere.
S.