last night after i changed the fish tank water, i noticed the heater had some small cracks in it. they didn't look too bad but i knew it wasn't good. it was too late to go to a pet store to buy a new one. i decided to leave it there and buy one immediately after work the next day. this morning i took a look at the tank before i left to work and the heater looked like hell. i knew i had to take it out immediately. i had just gotten out of the shower and my skin was covered in lotion. i didn't want the lotion to disturb the water chemistry so i tried to pull out the heater so that it would slide gently from the suction cups it's attached to. no way was that going to work! i tried then to ease it out of the suction cups. that's when he heater fully cracked and bits of glass and other horrible things fell to the bottom. i quickly grabbed a net and tried to scoop up the glass. i threw the glass, net, and heater into the bucket i use for water changes. i put my hand in the tank and tried to get the rest of the pieces. there was a tiny piece of glass whose reflective shine i saw once but i just could not find it. i was afraid a fish might hurt himself on it. i tried and tried but could not find it. the water temperature was 72 F. the fish are happiest and healthiest at 80 F so i try to keep the water at that temperature. just yesterday the heat wave ended and it's actually cold now. i was running late for work so i turned on the tank lamp to give them some warmth, any warmth that i could. when i got to work i told my supervisor what happened and that i needed to leave on an errand so that i could buy a new heater and save the fish from freezing to death.

when i began this fish experience, the first fish i got was one of those "here's a fish kit for you with a betta" things. it was practically a wide drinking glass, no heater, etc. that was a very strong-willed betta (ardeth bey I). it was fucking winter and cold. it started to seem a little funny and i tried to read everything i could find on the net about betta health. every night after work i would buy a new fish medicine and try it out. then things got really bad really fast. the fish developed a fur coat. that's the best way that i can explain it. it looked pretty bad. that's when i freaked out and bought a proper tank with a heater, etc. but it was too late to save his life. he only spent 1-2 days in the nice tank. i didn't want another catastrophe like that to happen again, which is why i didn't want the fish to go a whole day without a heater. i'm anxious to go home to see how they're doing.

looking back, i can see the mistakes i've made that led to the heater cracking. i've read that cheap heaters only last about a year but i definitely took tank care shortcuts that caused the cracks. this just underlines two points: (1) it pays to do a task right the first time and not in haste; (2) one learns from experience.