My suicidal BTA at it again!

[Jon Fishman]

Long-wordy story. Also ellipses are used inappropriately both in frequency and contextually... You have been warned:

Edit: Kids named him Charlie Bucket via the way he came home.....

This guy is just insane.......

So, originally, My BTA which was nice and big, foot the size of a softball, was living his best life, happy etc etc. No covers on the powerheads........ I decided to cover them anyways....... “better safe than sorry” So I covered them..... he even sat directly above one to the point you could barely tell a powerhead was there, but after a week, I turned the powerhead off, “persuaded” him to move, and resumed normal operation.

Well..... he missed his old friend Mr. Blowhard the Powerhead, and went back to it...... this time however he didn’t sit happily above it having Tea-time..... He managed to work behind/under the cover and I found him stuck in/on/to it.....

I guess he was a North-Pacific Nem, because he tried to pull the old “Harikari”
He had a serious case of Foot and Mouth disease, AKA he was torn from foot to mouth, and half (and it was about the size of a salad plate when fully open) of his dreads were shaved off too...... He was ROUGH.

Well.... this guy may not make the best decisions of where to lay his hat, but this ramblin’ Nem is a fighter!

So, it took 3 weeks maybe to where he looked like a BTA that got chewed up a little, and not like he lost a fight to a cuisinart...... after 2 weeks he looked like he was gonna be ok. After 1-week Vegas wouldn’t touch the action....It was anybody’s guess.

But I digress...... So.... Eventually he is MUCH better (way to go Charlie Bucket!)

Well, New tank being built, and the landlord of said tank discriminates..... so there was a “No Nem” policy written into the lease..... so Charlie Bucket was gonna be homeless....

But at this point, Charlie Bucket is 100% although maybe not status-post Enzyte Bob from the commercial size, but health-wise he was opening fully, still a very big Nem......

Since Homeless CB didn’t sound too hot, I picked up a little Red Sea Reefer for a Nem tank....and for the clownfish which were also not welcome in the new tank..

This is where his life got flipped-turned upside down.... let me take a minute just sit right down and I’ll tell you how Charlie Bucket became .............. Charlie Bucket?

Charlie Bucket, mere weeks before going to his new Nem Haven, went from being Charlie Bucket, to “Charlie AND Bucket”

Yep. He hit that 7-10 and did the split.

..

Either way.... Charlie and Bucket now, both doing just fine, went into the Nem Tank....

Just running the return pump, and both nems doing great! The bigger half was Charlie, smaller of course was Bucket......

So..... since I can’t help but to mess with a good thing, I added a powerhead...... Now..... I don’t want Charlie and Bucket. I want to give Bucket to be given to a new home, because my Nem tank is small, so “free to good home” he goes.

Well, Charlie and Bucket liked their home, so after 2 days of powerhead, ice-cubes and general poking and prodding, neither Charlie nor bucket could be persuaded out of the drilled holes/tunnels in the rock..... so there they stayed.... I just added two small mini-maxi carpet nems, and will remove Charlie/Bucket when I run out of room I guess.....

Well, no need to cover the powerhead, these guys aren’t moving. right?

I know..... I know what you’re thinking..... but that powerhead was added months ago!!!!

Sure enough, Charlie and his siamese brother Bucket stayed firmly entrenched in their foxface-holes (tried too hard to make that work) and one of the carpet nems found a cozy spot and the other continued to move about.......

Then, I finally found the secret to getting them out of their holes......

I find poor Charlie, the larger of the two of course.... just my luck, turning south QUICKLY......

Oh no! Quick! Check water parameters! Oh wait..... I don’t test my water, and with one Nem looking like current day Abe Vigoda, and the other looking very healthy and open, I figure I would wait it out and see if Bucket starts to..... uhhh. “kick himself?”

So.... Charlie knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, and Bucket looking great.

Here comes the catharsis!!!!!


Then I find Charlie expelling a tasty snack he had........ Yep.....
My crazy BTA was at it again..... apparently he ate (or tried, or partially ate?) the Mini-Maxi Carpet Nem that never really found a good place to hang his shingle.....

Well.... photo time (I don’t have many, sorry)

Current day Charlie (believe me.... his color, mouth, everything looks AWFUL, but it is 20 times better than 4-5 days ago when it all went bad)

Here is current-day Bucket in same tank, with the one remaining Min-Maxi Nem

Here is artist formally known as Charlie Bucket. First pic was him on top of a powerhead just chillin’ like Robert Zimmerman

Here is a post-split Charlie:

And here is what bucket looked like just after the split, and a little later.

And I can’t be sure what one this is:

So, the moral of the story is....... well, I guess there isn’t one.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

There might be a moral to the story but it was still a good story! CHEERS Charlie and Bucket!

 

[EMeyer]

MY RBTA has done something similar... twice he's wandered into the powerhead and chopped himself into pieces. Each time, one piece survives and grows to full size. And then does it again!

Life without a brain is apparently pretty rough.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Do they try to eat carpets very often? I wasn’t expecting that!