Tonight I was messing with the lighting of the tank and it reminded me of an acclimation incident with this fish. I was too ashamed to tell this story when I first got the lion, but now I'll come clean since it appears I didn't kill him.
It was a tight squeeze, but I drip acclimated the lion in a gallon water pitcher. Dripped it full a couple of times, poured it out, everything going as normal. This tank is on a countertop and I have bar stools pulled up to the tank. The stools are the type have backs to them and wrap around to the front. So the pitcher is sitting on one of these stools during acclimation.
I was ready to add the lion to the tank, when I moved the light fixture out of the way to open the glass top. Next thing I know, I hear a loud POP and am showered in the face and eyes with glass and powder. A 48" bulb had fallen out of the fixture and onto the back of the stool. It exploded and the powder and glass that didn't end up in my eyes ended up in the little gallon pitcher containing the lion.
I stood there stunned, my eyes burning like crazy. I didn't know what to do. I can't reach in and grab the fish, but it needs out of the chemical and glass hell ASAP. I consider pouring it in the tank. Bad idea, I'll never get the glass out and the chemicals could nuke it. I don't have a net big enough for the lion. My eyes! I can't pour out the pitcher in the sink...I don't have a way to get the lion out of the sink. Bathtub? Too far!
So my bright idea is to pour the pitcher out ONTO THE CARPET and push the lion into a bucket with an algae brush. Once I made that decision the lion went from pitcher to carpet to bucket to tank in about a second and a half.
Maybe that's the key to getting a "blood red volitan."
