Earthquakes and GSP's

[cobra1713]

yea that earthquake had me scared too, i had just left my house and was driving down the pass when i got a call asking if i was still at home and if my fishtanks were ok? i asked why and they said we just had the earthquake...i was like well im 45 minutes from home so i hope they made it theres not much i can do now if they didnt.

so i waited for the the next person to get home, was suppose to be about 30 minutes so i didnt worry...she got help up at work so i didnt know until about 2:30 if my tanks were ok and luckily they were all fine.

i was mostly worried about my GSP tank, its on an old wall-unit stand kinda thing and not the most stable stand, not to mention i re-sililconed the tank myself but seems like i didnt do to bad a job lol

[julianchan]

Glad your tanks are ok...I am really worried about "The Big One" now.....

[groovitudedude]

"The big one"? How big is it?

[julianchan]

Depends on what you refer to......if its that..then no....it might be a lightswitch....if you are referring to the other, than they reckon a 6.7 or higher in the next 30 years....probably less time.

[recombinantrider]

Just got a 5.0 quake about 2 hours ago. I freaked out and ran to get cover My second instinct was to grab my camera from the bed and hold it in my arms.
The next thing I noticed, my fugu Sushi was freaking out in the water. I had to tell her that it's ok. Man, LA is scary.

[yunachin]

Oh goodness! I hope that everyone is all right. I worry about you guys over there.

[julianchan]

Just called my room mate...my tank is still standing...phew

[marksrush]

I think I read that some buildings in earthquake-prone areas have a system of sliding horizontal teflon plates or pads at the base that allow slippage between them. Supposedly the idea is that it lets the building stay stationary while the ground beneath it moves. Too bad they don't make smaller versions for heavy/large objects in the home, at least not that I know of.

It's probably not realistic to do this, but you could suspend smaller tanks from the ceiling joists with heavy chain and a solid, rigid base. It would reduce a lot of movement of the tank during a quake, wouldn't it?

Oh wait - nix that idea. All it would take is for someone to bump into it to create disaster.

[julianchan]

its not too bad an idea, a small embellishment maybe.....using the ceiling chains just as a support to make sure the tank does not fall....

Then again, if a quake is big enough, I guess there is nothing you can really do.

[Christemo]

Sorry, but I just have the image of a puffer running into a doorway.

[julianchan]

haha, funny!

[recombinantrider]

standing at the doorways, on their little tail fins!

[yunachin]

How do the fish react when there is an earthquake? Do they get stressed for a couple days or just for a couple hours?

[recombinantrider]

I've only been through earthquakes at home with my fish twice. The GSP didn't care at all. The fugu was freaked out for maybe 10 minutes each time--just thrashing the water and smashing her face against the glass, while the belly remained white (I've never actually seen her with a dark belly though). She'd then calm down as if nothing had happened pretty quickly.

[yunachin]

I wonder how fish would react in the wild...