kamikaze spectacular
DS and I hit the Library today, and the play area at the mall, and the fish store to replace our sad black molly who died. I went ahead and got two more of the Dalmatian Mollies, another black on white female and a white on black male with a Sail. I dropped them in when we got home and observed them for a while. All seemed well. I turned the lights off over the tanks and put DS down for nap. After nap I came down and couldn't see the new male Molly. I made dinner and kept checking. I have so many plants that he could hide easily if he was nervous. DH comes home and we try to see behind the stand in case he jumped. Didn't see him under either. So we eat dinner. After dinner I pull out the nets and move every plant, check every inch of the bottom, fully expecting to find him dead. Still no sign of him. I make DH move the heavy stand holding both tanks. There he is. I send DH up to distract our son and finally go to pull out the expected fish jerky. When I did, I saw it moving. He could have jumped out anytime during nap. I noticed him gone 2 1/2 hours prior. With little hope I drop him in a cup of tank water, and added an extra salt chunk. I figured he was dead and I should be doing the humane thing, but I felt so guilty for not finding him sooner that I had t try to save him. I hid the cup in the laundry room so my boy wouldn't see it. Twenty minutes in the cup and the molly is swimming. I put him in the tank and he's swimming actively with the group. I couldn't believe it. Of course he could still die. It was quite a shock to his system, I'm sure. He looks nearly normal. He's respiring a bit fast. They must be able to get O2 from air like the Bettas, Gouramis and Oto. I plan on looking it up. If he makes it he'll have survived a fall 36 times his height with resulting rapid deceleration trauma, temperature drop of 6 degrees, dried gills and body, loss of protective slime coat (on his skin), and at least 2 1/2 hours of greatly reduced oxygen. I'll keep you posted.
