Gah! sorry, but help!

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

My lack of activity in the guild should be temporary. But don't worry, I do try to check in once a day and make sure you're behaving. It's the dreaded duty week. Where I wake up at 5:30am to leave for school, arrive home around 7pm, walk Cowboy, wash my scrubs, feed the animals, eat, and then, well I'm in bed by 9 at the latest. Yeah I'm in bed now with my laptop so I can study, although technically I should be asleep in 15mins to achieve 8hrs of sleep. So lucky and glad I don't have any midterms this week. Just a lil quiz to review for.

It's been pretty crazy, since myself and my classmate have 4 1rst year students that we're in charge of. I'm not one who enjoys bossing people around but, well it has to be done. Because otherwise all four of them will go to get the laundry lol. And my partner doesn't give them tasks she just goes to work on her own but if we don't give them a job to do they'll just stand there lol.


OMG, enough of that, I could go on forever about our cases, clients, patients etc. But I will have time for that again hopefully next week. Maybe even Saturday after work.

What I really came on here for, was because I'm really worried about Zuko. I was checking him out for a while, and I think his fins might be getting nipped. I haven't SEEN annyone do it. But, he's a lot MORE timid than when I first got him. When I first got him, he would flare at the platties, and chase off the ones who settled in his spot near the heater. Now he seems really intimidated by them. He doesn't flare, let's them eat all the food. He looks like he's just trying to stay out of their way all the time. I dunno if the babies are nipping, if the adults have started to bully him, or if he's just stressed the heck out with so many baby fish in the tank now. Which are starting to get a decent size. I NEED to figure out what to do with these fish, there's way too many to keep. And I'm thinking getting rid of my male might be wise too. As fun as it is to have babies in the tank, unless I have an almost zero survival rate of fry, I can't have him continuously impregnating my fish!

So, as soon as duty week is done, I'll try the pet store, see if they'll take some. But what if they won't??? Does anyone remember how to build a divider so I can give Zuko a bit of peace? Or maybe I should just buy one.

Also, I've mostly just been feeding bloodworms, but I should probably feed other stuff too hun? I have crappy flakes, but Zuko can't eat those, the platties are too fast with those, Zuko only goes after the worms cause they sink and everyone takes a while to eat them.

And while we're on the topic of bloodworms...my rat ate a few confused I was defrosting them, and like, half the cube was missing. This was last night and she seems fine, so, I'm assuming she's ok.  

[Vanilla eXee]

Rats can eat protein right? So she'll be fine. Here's a quick tutorial on making a divider, it's not the best one, hopefully Savage will come and be able to explain step by step how she made hers. I know how, but I'm not good at explaining it.

Have you ruled out his fins getting stuck/dragged on anything?
Call all the pet stores that you can get to reasonably and ask if they take trade ins. That would be very good for you because you'd be able to get some store credit.

Get some type of good quality betta pellet for Zuko to eat.

Good luck during duty week!  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

well today I completely broke down... At least I didn't faint this time, but ya. I lasted pretty long. First my friend blew up when the teacher singled her out, then another student started to break down and the teacher was telling her to take deep breaths and she blew up at her. I don't even know who else burned out but our after surgery meeting our teacher said our attitude sucked. Except for the two goodie two shoes students of course, who she's in love with. I made it through the whole class, everyone giving me s**t for different things. My vet gave me a prescription to fill and I wanted to get it done before the client came but in doing so (and because 2/3 comps aren't working and the printer was broken) I was 2mins late for class and the teacher made me sit outside while they all wrote the quiz. Which I fell alseep studying for anyway. I was just feeling really PISSED off at that point, cause she was being a snoody lil b***h about it. Not even looking at me but calling the other two girls who'd been like 20 secs ahead of me, to come inside. She finally let me in and I went from pissed off, to crying in an instant and I was mortified so I covered my eyes with my hands as if I had a headache and tried to take deep breaths. It was weird, I felt completely disconected. I felt okay but when I tried to breath it was short gasping breaths and when I tried to look up my eyes filled with tears. It took me almost 10mins but I was able to regain control and then I ate, for the first time in 8hrs. Was happy I forced myself to eat that morning or I might have wound up on the floor again. And then after class I went back to my duties.

*SIGH* well anyway, Cowboy and Rascal are coming with me tomorrow, so...hopefully it will go a bit better.  

[Vanilla eXee]

Geez, that sounds tough! I think your teacher could be a little bit more understanding.  

[SmoothSavage]

When I did my divider, I did it in a dry unfilled tank. I have noooo idea how you would set one up in a filled tank! The one linked might work, with the suction cups, but I dunno.

Sorry Gaby!  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

that's okay, I'm gona try to buy one first on account of I'm lazy...I also need to see if I can get the pet store to take these fish. At what age will I know the sex of the fish?  

[Vanilla eXee]

Probably between 1-2 months for definite, but you might be able to see gravid spots on the females sooner.