Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Tragedy

TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE NEWS!! Today, I slept in. I made it to work by 9 (usually here at 7:30) and fed the remaining hatchlings some shrimp. All was well in the world. I thought I would write a little note on my blog today saying that I am going home tomorrow. There was a delicious Christmas brunch and I had a good talk with Roger. But now... tragedy has struck. It started almost immediately after brunch, about four hours ago. We saw that one of our large cuttlefish had died. He ate this morning, looked very healthy, and then suddenly, dead. We looked around and saw that at least four others were dead, both hatchlings and juveniles. Then we saw that almost all of them looked pretty bad and were violently jetting water through their gills--something was wrong. The hypothesis at this point was that there was something bad in the water. The thing is, we have two separate tanks on two different loops of water for just that reason. But this was across the board, no discrimination between loops, tanks, or cuttlefish, just mass destruction. Which made us think maybe it was something in the food. But whatever killed them was acute--the time between when they looked bad and when they died was minimal, suggesting that it couldn't be food. Our vet believes that it is the water quality, and she is the top of her field, so I am inclined to believe her. It's been very perplexing, and disheartening. Four of my experimental animals are dead, meaning that I will now have to run all my trials over again--which is definitely a bummer, but nothing compared to the fact that at least 20 animals are dead. We have changed the water and they are looking a little better, but some of the larger ones are still dying. I really hope they begin to thrive again soon, otherwise...well, you can guess. It's so sad to watch them--I've really become attached. My little cuttles!!! Please LIVE!! There is ink everywhere.... Needless to say, it has been a very busy day and everyone is running around. What a hectic last day before vacation!
On another note, at least the people from the New York Times came yesterday... And, no, Mom, I will not be featured in the New York Times! Although, I did talk about my experiments!

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