Tough as Nails Damsels!

[Fish]

I was up at my brother in laws for thanksgiving and I noticed that his 30gal saltwater aquarium was in pretty pathetic shape. The sides were encrusted with algae and the water level was down about 4 inches due to evaporation. The lights were off but all of the other equipment was running. I unplugged the heater and filter but turned the lights on to see if he had any equipment that I could take for my tank.
I almost fell over backwards when I saw a blue damsel peek out at me from behind his cheesey underwater castle. As I watched, a second blue and a three stripe also came out. I checked the salininty and found that it was off the scale (1.030+) ! I quickly turned the equipment on, fed them, and began to slowly add fresh water over the next few days.
My brother in-law turned down my offer to buy the tank (I don't have a use for it but I didn't want him to be able to put any other animals through such inhumane treatment).
I came away from there hoping that he finds a new hobby but I also came away with an increased respect for these tenacious little fish.
- Chad

[EmilyB]

Yikes Get your sister to steal them - he'll never notice....

[Fish]

Wife's sister, and you're right... he wouldn't even notice.
It made me look at how I am caring for my Scotts Damsel. It is my only fish and it lives in a system with 40gal of water, 50lbs live rock, chaeto fuge, and a 7gal water change every 10 days. I use a tdi meter to check my ro/di water and a refractometer to maintain salinity. It was unsettling to see someone who didn't really care about the environment he was providing and makes me wonder just how many people out there are doing the same thing. I've heard a couple of horror stories about people bringing a "nemo fish" home and dropping it into their freshwater aquarium .