(no subject)

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

During this time of year, in a city with so many colleges, it's not unusual to see houses with a bunch of old household items and busted up furniture outside waiting to be taken away by trash collectors.

I often enjoy briefly going through these piles to see if there are any goodies. (Last year I found a size 14 pair of rollerblades!) I noticed that my neighbors were throwing away a mini-fridge, an old sofa, a book shelf, and a fish tank.

That would be cool and all, if it weren't for the fact that the fish tank still had fish living in it.

I checked the house, and nobody was living there. I left it for a few hours, to see if, perhaps, someone was coming to pick it up. No go. Plus, we live in a neighborhood with plenty of outdoor cats, and the tank had no cover.

So, I took in the fish, but I realized that I don't have any fish food, and that all of the pet stores are closed. I don't know how long they've been out there, and I'm pretty sure that I'd be damn hungry if I were in their position. So, two questions:

What common, household foods can I put in the tank? I have bits of bread, and all sorts of spices, and even some cheese... but I don't know what fish eat!

Secondly, the water level is getting pretty low... is there something that I can do about that? Will tap water kill the fish? Is it ok if I use my Britta?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, they're not anything special. Just your garden variety cheap pet fish. And one cool black sucker fish.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[larksdream]

Poor fish!

They won't die if you don't feed them for a while, and in fact if they're in a small volume of water you probably don't want leftover food & increased waste production anyway. On Tuesday head down to Animal Spirit on Mass Ave and pick up some fish food (it's really cheap).

Tap water isn't safe for them, because it has chlorine and / or chloramine in it. Chloramine is the big baddie here. Your Brita filter removes chlorine but not chloramine, and while chlorine will evaporate if you let the water sit in a bowl or tub for about 24 hours before adding it to the tank, chloramine won't. A quick search on Somerville water doesn't get me any solid info, so to be on the safe side I would assume Somerville does use chloramine like most cities do these days. So, no on the tap water.

If you know someone who keeps tropical fish they should have a dechlorinator on hand; otherwise, you can get some at the pet store on Tuesday.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't a charcoal filter take chloramine out?

[larksdream]

As far as I know, no; it's less "grabbable" than chlorine and the little charcoal filters in a Brita don't really get that much time to filter the water. (They also, for example, don't remove fluoride.)

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

A quick Google for charcoal and chloramine gave snippets like:

- There are three approaches to eliminate chloramines and to prepare water for haemodialysis: (i) activated charcoal; (ii)

- Chloramine Removal from drinking water using activated carbon

- Contrary, water that had passed a charcoal filter or a mixed bed deionizer contained no measureable chloramines

- They say activated charcoal will remove most of the chloramines

Charcoal is good for volatile organics, but I wouldn't expect it to take flourides out any more than I'd expect it to desalinate the water.

[larksdream]

Can you actually find a page where Pur or Brita says that their home filters (tap or pitcher) remove chloramine? I can't, though both list lead and chlorine and Pur lists a bunch of other stuff as well.

I suppose someone who really cared could call them. :)