Yabby vs Fishtank Filter....

Hi all!

Mr Pinchy Pants has been a busy boy. The freshly cleaned tank of just 2 weeks is almost completely redecorated to his tastes....New "hills" and "caverns" are appearing daily, Rara is getting stronger by the day, you would think that he thinks the new filter is an excercise machine for him (it's like a fish version of the swim spa)...

Pinchy Pants figured out that he  can still fit his ever growing ass into the sunken ship, if he digs around the outside and pushes numerous objects around to get to the biggest opening, and I am pretty sure this is his new man cave, which most likely means that he is growing and will shed soon....he's eating like a horse too.

I have decided I need to get more scorpions, because all the crickets are going to die the rate Sweetpea is going...a week and a half and he has eaten one lol.

You may be asking what does all this blabber have to do with the title of this post? Well, nothing really. But I will now tell you what happened...

I get up for work at around 5:45 most mornings. So as you can imagine, the last thing I am thinking about before I got to work is what Mr Pinchy Pants is up to. So, this morning, nothing un usual, didn't check the tank.

I finish work at around 3:35 everyday, get home around 3:50, take up my usual spot on the couch (which the tank is now next to) and relax for a bit....I did that today...looked in the tank... no Mr Pinchy Pants.
Now don't get me wrong, I know he can't escape, my tank has a lid. So where the hell was he? I looked in the ship...not there, I thought he may have dug himself a cave along the back of the tank, nothing.
Next minute I look up. Here is Mr Pinchy Pants, in between the wall of the tank and the filter. He wasn't moving.... I automatically think, "Is he dead? What the hell is he doing?" So, I gently tap the side of the tank. Thank God, he's alive. So I think "I will open the lid." Because usually when I do that he freaks out and gets back in his cave....he didnt move.

So I am thinking, " Am I game enough to stick my hand in there and move the filter, see if he's stuck?" the dilemma being, if he is just being lazy and wants to stay there, he will lunge at me and I will most likely get clawed....so I take a deep breath, and stick my hand in.

The wally had gotten a couple of his legs stuck in the side of the filter. I am so not grabbing him to get them out. So I gently shake the filter from side to side (really gently, as the filter is suction-cupped to the side of the tank anyway, so it was more like tilting it from side to side) and he is free. Acting like nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, I am wracked with guilt.. How long has he been stuck in there? Is he hurt?  Has he been stuck in that filter since last night? Why don't I check on him in the mornings?

But he is fine, no missing appendages, no limping. But I decided to move the filter a little further from the corner of the tank in case he decides to climb up there again, at least he won't get far enough up there to get his legs caught.
On that note, that is about it from me tonight guys!
Peace out :)

RaRa lives!!!!

Good news readers!!! Rara is a totally new fish today! Swimming around like he owns the tank! And is teaching himself to ride in slipstream currents thanks to the new filter Ash bought for the tank today!

Mr Pinchy Pants has been busy redorating all day, and has somehow moved an ornament twice his size to cover up a hole in the fake ship he has decided is his new hangout. Also, he has worked out how to climb the air tubes like gym ropes (you know those ropes the PE teacher would hang off the roof and make you climb? That's how he climbs the tubes, am a little worried that he is going to puncture them...)

And as for Sweetpea, my new pet scorpion, well I forgot that this time of year is spent by scorpions hiding out and not eating much :/ which means the container full of crickets in my loungeroom will soon become a container of dead crickets, unless I can convince someone to take me out on the weekend to catch some more scorpions ( I wonder what my AWESOME brother in law is doing? :))

After drastically sleeping in this morning and subsequently being late (if it wasnt for my mother in law calling me, i wouldnt have gotten up at all), I have come to the realisation that my dodgy phone is in desperate need of replacing and am praying that taxtime comes sooner rather than later, on top of a phone, my laptopasaurus is on it's last legs, i need a new fridge and i am supposed to be getting my first car....i am hoping like hell that I get all my tax back :/

Ok gang, that's about it from me tonight, Rara is formula 1 racing around the tank, Mr Pinchy Pants is moving rocks around and I am drinking Sleepytime tea and listen to crickets chirp.....night!

Murder...and new beginnings...

Dear followers,
Tonight I type with a heavy heart, Mr Pinchy Pants assassinated Zebbie today :( and as I type this he is trying to figure out how to climb the glass to grab hold of Rara... you see, for some reason, my ph kit for my fish tank doesnt seem to level out the ph like it's supposed to, knowing this I went to the pet shop here this arfternoon to get tablets to drop in to rectify the problem. But, by then it was too late. I had noticed this morning that both my fish were looking a little worse for wear and when I got home, Zebbie was belly up and missing parts.

Now I am looking into my tank and cant find Rara at all....Mr Pinchy Pants is still trying to scale the glass...I have just found Rara cowering behind one of my fake plants (he's been up near the top of the tank all day).

On a lighter note, I am pleased to announce that after months of whinging, my other half took me out bush today to find some pet scorpions, when Ash and I first met he had some and I fell in love.
We only found one, he's medium sized and I have named him Sweetpea, he is currently getting used to his new digs, complete with a witchety grub we found out with him and a cricket ( i bought crickets from the pet shop today too). There will be photos to come when the little fella gets used to his new home and comes out from under the rock he is under...

So, just a short blog tonight my friends, and I can tell you I write this with Sweetpea's container full of food chirping at me and the knowledge that by morning, Rara will have almost certainly come to a very pinchy end....and surprise surprise, Mr Pinchy Pants is moving rocks around on the bottom of the tank.
Night all

Extreme Makeover: Mr Pinchy Pants Edition...

So a few weeks ago the filter in my fishtank (excuse the language) shat the tin and each passing day has meant me procrastinating about cleaning the tank. My main excuse was that it needed to be a weekend and I would need my other half to come and take Mr Pinchy Pants out of the tank (because I am a big wuss).

I am pleased to announce that today was the day! My fiance spent the whole afternoon cleaning the tank, I mean he took absolutely everything out of the tank, including the stones, handwashed absolutely everything and lovingly set everything back into it, much better than I ever could. He stood there for a while smoothing out the stones and placing all my ornaments in. I am so appreciative for the HOURS it took.... I did also remind him not to be too podantic about it, because as we know, Mr Pinchy Pants is quite the interior designer and not 1 hour into being in the freshly cleaned tank he started moving stones around...

I have taken pictures but I have to get to a computer that doesn't have a coronary everytime I put my memory card in it, can't wait to post them for you guys.

I am going to change things up a bit tonight and introduce a couple of my other pets, who are all as individual and wacky as Mr Pinchy Pants, and are all capable of shenanigans of their own.

I have already told you guys about Zebbie and Rara, my extremely tough, fairly overweight zebra fish, who live with Mr Pinchy Pants and give me endless enjoyment as they taunt Mr Pinchy Pants and have competitions with each other as to who can swim closer to him... the bubbles in my tank tonight were pushing bits of Mr Pinchy Pants' peas up to the top of the tank and floating around, and just like Dory out of Finding Nemo, Zebbie would grab that pea everytime, realise what it was and spit it back out. I swear he did it 5 or 6 times before he swam off and got distracted by something else...

Sitting here now watching them ( I also moved the location of the tank today so I can pretty much look at it and type without having to turn my head 180 degrees exorcism style), even though Pinchy Pants has peas on the bottom of the tank, he is adamant on trying to scale the side of the tank for the outer casings floating on the surface (that to be honest I cannot be bothered fishing out, meh, I'll do it tomorrow!)

My mind is ultimately filled with thoughts of , "what the hell will the yabby move and pull out by the time I get up in the morning", and, "is the stand I have my tank on stable enough in case one of the illegal immigrants I am harbouring at the moment jumps on it in the middle of the night (the whole illegal immigrants thing is a story for another time)"

Gah, well, that's enough for tonight guys. See u next time :)

Mr Pinchy Pants: The Interior Designer...

I was pretty disappointed with my first ever blog, to be honest. So, here I go, with number 2.

Mr Pinchy Pants has settled in rather well, I have had him for a couple of months now, he has grown from about the size of a Lip Smackers lip balm to the size of a...(here i am looking around my flat for something that is roughly the same size, 10 minutes later...) well, lets just say he's a lot bigger than that now lol. He has gone from eating 2 peas a day to eating about 15, on top of the fish food he cleans up that Zebbie and RaRa don't eat... and when he sheds he digs himself a little cave, whether it is under my skulls, or under the big sunken ship in the bottom of my tank and disappears, sometimes for a week or so. Gives the poor fish some peace.

I know when he is about to shed, because he will fill in his old "cave", which usually entails him burying half my tank ornaments, and then makes himself a new cave, at which time he buries more of my tank ornaments. I am trying to get more pictures of my tank to post for you guys but I only have my phone (which is crap) apparently my dinosaur laptop cannot comprehend my memory card from my camera....it's too much to handle and my laptop protests by freezing and then subsequently turns itself off..... (note to self: guess who is getting a new computer of ANY description at tax time :) I am thinking maybe a tablet? Suggestions anyone? I don't want to spend a fortune lol).

So anyway, back to Mr Pinchy Pants..... on any given day I can turn to the tank and here he will be, carting the stones off the bottom of the tank from one place to another, one by one, until he builds himself his new little man cave.... (another quick question fellow yabby owners, where the hell does their shedded shell go?! I saw his first one he shed and they all seem to vanish. Do they break down over time or is he just burying them in the rocks?)

As I turn to the tank right now, I can tell you he has pulled one of the fake plants out and it is floating around the top of the tank....I just fed him so there are peas in various stages of becoming waterlogged and sinking (btw, you should see Mr Pinchy Pants either a) trying the climb the glass when they don't sink and/or b) trying to jump off the sunken ship to catch peas lol), he has a pea in each claw, plus one he's holding onto with his feeders ( I don't know if that is the technical term for them, but they are the little arms he shovels food into his mouth with).  Any day now I expect to get home to him having cut the pump hose with his claws ha ha, it is bound to happen.

I have just discovered his new cave and I am a little bit worried that he hasn't left enough support for the pirate skulls it is under :S (Guess who's other half is coming over on the weekend to get the yabby out of the tank so I can fix it before he crushes himself to death?) Mr Pinchy Pants has literally taken all the rocks away from under this thing to the glass bottom.... and now I will be worrying about waking up to him having killed himself with a giant pirate skull bubble thingy ( am I getting good with all these technical words or what?!).

Ok, I am starting to babble a bit now, so I will finish up. I have been thinking that aside from blogging about Mr Pinchy Pants Shenanigans, I will also include my zebra fish Zebbie and RaRa and also friends and family's pets who are particularly hilarious. Please feel free to let me know any suggestions, advice or thoughts you all have, thanks for wasting a few minutes of your life on me waffling on!

First Ever Blog....How Mr Pinchy Pants came to be my pet....

Ok, here goes, I have typed this thing 3 times already and deleted it all because I don't know where to start.... I live in a small town called Ararat in Rural Victoria. I had knocked off work this particular day and was pottering around my flat, waiting for my other half to knock off work (he comes over for a coffee as soon as he finishes work everyday). This particular day he walks in with a water bottle. I didnt think anything of it until he says he found a baby yabby on the road in front of a pub in one of the various little towns in our district. Do I want it? At first I was thinking, "what the hell do I want a yabby for?!" but, he was cute and tiny (smaller than the length of my thumb), so I decided to chuck him in my fish tank with my 2 zebra fish, Zebbie and RaRa.... He settled right in, getting to know his new home and climbing the various sunken ships and things that lived at the bottom of the tank....I had no idea what he ate, or if I needed to do anything in particular for him, but noticed after a couple of days that he was eating the fish food I was putting in the tank and left it at that. So, what to name the little guy ( I actually don't know what it is, if you determine gender the same way you work out what a scorpion is, it's a boy)? My 14 year old brother came over and I showed him. He was fascinated... this little yabby was climbing onto and into the sunken ship in the tank, jumping at the fish if they swam by, flying backwards at the slightest movement..... he looked so funny and full of mischief we both couldnt help but to smile at him. My brother turns to me and says, " I wanna call him Mr Pinchy Pants." and it stuck. After about 3 weeks of feeding him fish food and watching him clean the tank like the little shrimp on Finding Nemo, I was discussing with a family friend that I had a pet yabby and had no idea whether he had some nutritional requirements I had to fill, i knew that you used meat to catch yabbies, but not that they didnt actually eat meat.... and this friend said to feed him frozen peas! So, that is how it came about, a yabby, who was found on a road in front of a pub, his name is Mr Pinchy Pants and he eats peas......