Coincidence

I thought I had killed Ronald Kray.

I found an interesting moss-like weed that grows on the bottom of ponds and streams here in the Shire.  I thought it might look good on the bottom of the aquarium, so I took a small plug of it home, gave it a jolly good rinse under the tap to wash away loose soil and any greeblies in it, and planted it in the tank.  Despite my rinsing efforts and careful placement,  enough dirt came off the plug to murk up the water.  I thought I should give the system a boost of flocculant to help the filters extract the particles.

The bottle of Accuclear says it is safe for aquarium occupants, and so it is proven so far.

However, within a minute of adding it to the tank, Ronald went into convulsions and lay on his back, arched and stiff.  I gently prodded him down to the bubble end, where the filters were aerating the water, in the hopes that the flow might help him recover from whatever ailed him. The obvious thought was the chemical I had just added.

Reginald seemed unaffected, so I was thinking that somehow Ronald must have got a concentrated dose of the flocculant before it dispersed through the tank.  Then Ronald’s back split open and I watched amazed as he extricated himself from his chitinous exoskeleton.  He was moulting!  Whether this was a coincidence, or the chemical somehow triggered the moult I do not know.  I suspect the former.  When it was all over I realised that I had stood gawping and missed a great opportunity to film or photograph the event.  I hurriedly snapped a few photos.

That was interesting.

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