By My Own Hand
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FX's Fishtank
In February of 2004, inspired by an income tax refund and our son's utter delight at seeing the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we purchased a fishtank for him. This the fishtank's journal. The early entries are culled from my LiveJournal.
Eventually there will be pictures.
February
FX got a fishtank. Ok... I got a 10 gallon fishtank, which is for FX. We set it up, ran it for a day, and then went to buy plants and fish. I've kept fish on and off for the past 10 years, fairly successfully, so I know what I'm doing.
We wanted a fairly varied enviroment for babyman to look at, so we got :
- 7 neon tetras named The Dave Collective, which those who have known me for a long time will get ;)
- 1 black moor (black popeye fancy goldfish) who we named Peter Murphy. More on this later...
- 1 calico Ryukin (calico fancy goldfish), who is named Bob.
- 2 plecos named Grendel and Quasimodo. They are very tiny, maybe 2.5 inches long, and plecos grow slowly, so there is plenty of room for now :)
- 1 bottomfeeder 'shark', who is black with red fins and nose, named Icarus.
- And 1 tiny aquatic frog, named Kraken and nicknamed "seamonkey", mostly because he looks wayyyyyy more like a seamonky than a fearsome sea monster. He's only 1.5 inches long, fer hecksake. The tetras aren't even scared of him! ...
OK. The thing about Peter Murphy is ... Pete's female. How do I know? Pete and Bob are going to be parents, provided any of the eggs are fertilized and then survive the Darwinian gauntlet we have set up. So I guess she's Petra, instead. I've never had fish spawn in my tank before, at least that I've noticed, but I've never tried to get them to do it, either. I'm pretty amazed that they are doing it in a new tank. We got them 24 hours ago. They should, by all accounts, be too stressed out to even consider such a thing. Maybe I make a good fishie home. Dunno.
August
Come summer, things begin to get hinky.
Fish problems :(
EDIT: I called around to the local aquaria supply places and the one
closest to us actually takes fish who need homes. So, Petra's going to
go there. it's a huge relief.
Does anyone want a large, aggressive Black Moor goldfish? We only got
Petra in March, and she's grown to four times her original size (she's
now about 2x the size of the male who was 1.5x her size when we got them),
about 3.5 to 4 inches long fron mouth to base of her big fluffy tail.
I've never had one grow so fast before. I've also never had one eat or
attack the other fish so relentlessly. She crippled one of my tetras a
couple of months ago so I had ot put the little guy to sleep, and yesterday
she ate one whole. She's been harassing our frog (who's only an inch and
a half long) and the small male goldfish, chasing the school of tetras
(they are starting to get stressed out) and the 'shark', and she's even
been biting at the plecos. Let me say now that I hadn't wanted to get
goldfish at all for htis tank, as it was supposed to be a small fish aqaurium
for our son, but my man really wanted to get goldfish. I consented, thinking
that they'd be the first to go if we had problems. Well, I was wrong.
Removing her from the tank and finding her a new home is our only hope
of haivng a peaceful tank again. We cannot afford to purchase another
tank, or even a bowl right now, so that's not a solution. I'm at my wits'
end. If I cannot find a home for her I'll have to euthanize her to prevent
her killing or overstressing all the other fish in the tank.
September
More fish death :P
Well, actually, a "critical condition" that I didn't catch before the
other fish did, and a missing.
So, I'm euthanizing my now finless, upside-down, fancy goldfish (No more
happy cries of "bob!" from FX when he sees the tank, either. He KNOWS).
Bob apparently succumbed to his ongoing swim bladder issues and the other
residents of the tank followed nature's lead and ate his fins (and some
of his scales) off during the night, while he was cornered helpessly by
the current. He's so bady damaged he can't right himself and I have no
choice but to pop him in a coffee cup and O.D. him on anaesthetics. Sigh.
When checking the tank, I realized that one of the plecos is ... gone.
Just gone. I have a sinking feeling that he wriggled into the hollow insides
of the fake rock, got stuck, and died, as our other pleco and our shark
are darting in there and nibbling at ... something. Eurgh. I have to get
the fake rock out, get him out (while not thinking about the fact that
he may still be alive) and boil it clean again before putting it back
in.
ETA: while writing this, after three hours of trying to find that little
bastard (including picking up El Fake Rock and shaking it), he just blithely
swam out and circled the tank with the other pleco in tow. ARGH.
We will not be getting a new goldfish for this tank - it's just not big
enough. When we an afford a nice big tank, then we'll get a couple of
fancies and treat them right. I never wanted to get goldfish for this
one, and now I'm very sad to have been right about why. :(
Say a prayer for Bob, if you will. He was a pretty good fish and his life
was far too short.
October
Addtional Fish Drama and why I've never liked fish furniture
Remember this
entry? Well, my fears about a pleco getting stuck inside our Kewl
Ornamental Plastic Rock and dying were realized. I've been afraid
of this possibility since we got the damn thing. I wanted actual rocks.
Much safer.
Thursday I notice the water's a bit iffy and decide to do tank maintenance
before bed Friday. Friday, the water got stinky, a little cloudy. The
filter was clogged with guck and needed a good rinse, so I thought it
was just a water problem when I did a half water change Friday night.
By Saturday morning the water was twice as cloudy and stinky as before,
and I realized I'd only seen one pleco for a couple of days. Dread.
Did another partial water change and watched the tank and the fish a couple
of hours, just to be sure. No Quasimodo. Weird stressy behavior in the
rest of the population - like avoiding the 'rock'. Further intensification
of STINKY.
RIP Quasimodo. I should've taken that thing out ages ago.
Sigh. So. Major tank cleaning happened. Relocated fishies and frog to
a largeish pitcher of clean treated water. Washed plants and all other
tank bits thoroughly, drained tank, gravel washed in hot water, tank rinsed
and wiped out, the works. Also, after trying in vain to dislodge the OBVIOUSLY
deceased fish from the fish furniture mentioned above, I elected to pitch
it. NO WAY can I get it clean.
Redecorated the tank with a blue glass vase and a pair of resin LOTR bookends
(yes, the collectable DVD ones, but they're already damaged cos they got
dropped, plus they are LOUSY bookends - so they're safer in a fishtank)
I had handy and took the opprotunity to shift it over so you can actually
see most of it from the office again. The fish still have lurking zones,
but none that can potentially cause injury.
The remaining fishies are doing much better now, though Grendel (remaining
pleco) was none too happy about the situation to begin with and then he
had to suffer the indignity of being hand-caught, so he's a bit stressed
and didn't want to eat.
I've convinced my man to swear off fish furniture here on out. Nothing
hollow or animated in the tank for ever and ever. Here's hoping for reduced
Fish Drama in future.
New pump
Bought a newer, bigger pump, as all the drama had fairly well overwhelmed the old one and no amount of cleaning made work properly. Resolved to buy a couple more small community fish and some new plants when we had 20 or so spare dollars.
November
Had a bit of extra cash, and we were down on fish. Bought FX six new fish and two new plants. The new denizens are:
- Spot: 3 rather flamboyant orange and black male guppies. Together they are almost one fish.
- 3 skirted tetras, named Hans, Franz, and Klaus (after two totally unrelated comedy routines). They have personality to spare.
We also have two big fluffy plants for the fish to enjoy, and all have settled in comfortably. FX again has pretty fish to look at. All is again well.