More Fish Tales

Okay, we went into this whole fish ownership thing with me believing that all you had to do to keep fish alive was feed them and keep the water clean. When we purchased this fish tank in June, I thought we had spent the most money we would need to spend on the initial setup, and all it would involve from here on out was restocking the fish food pantry. Wrong....

We purchased this tank, with help from our kids from their "fish fund" they had been saving up and immediately realized we needed decorations to make the tank look realistic. I am not sure what is realistic about fish swimming in circles all day in a 16 gallon tank, but I was as equally excited as my kids about making it look beautiful. So, we purchased gravel, a glow in the dark corral type piece (in case they need a night light), some fake plants and a very large rock piece which I do really love. However, this rock needed a pump so that bubbles would come out of the top of it. I guess there are many rocks in the sea that actually have bubbles coming from them? But, I liked it and it adds to the atmosphere. Of course, extra tubing was also required to make it fit.

So tank, decorations, and pump in hand we set up the tank, filled it, and soon added our first five fish, followed by three more the next week.

I have now learned that it is necessary to own a vacuum to suck up all the stuff that the filter did not get up from the bottom of the tank. This process also involves a large bucket and usually some amount of water that has been spilled onto my carpet.

Then, when several fish died, including our two favorite dalmatian fish, we learned our chemical levels were all out of whack so it would be necessary to "upgrade" our filter. Apparently, the filter that originally came with our tank was only suitable if you were never going to actually put any fish into the tank.

Next came the need to purchase a chemical testing kit. I had been assured that this could be done for free by taking a water sample to our local pet store and having them test it on the spot. However, I guess it is more fun to get to play with test tubes, so we now have a test kit.

Then, two weeks ago, we discovered that one of our fish had babies. We found one little speck of a fish still alive at the bottom of the tank, but think mom may have dined on the rest of them. How sad!! This one we were not able to save, but a week later, discovered another tiny baby. Now, I have to add that we knowingly purchased three females and one male to see if they would have babies, thinking this would be educational and fun to follow. A couple of weeks after purchasing them, we started to noticed the females had put on some "padding" shall we say. One of our females looks like she could pop open at any moment. Of course, the male is swimming happily around, skinny as a rail. (Isn't that just how it is!!!)

So, I came home one night this week from my accountability group to discover that we now have a nursery floating in the top of the tank, which housed the largest female at the top, and the still tiny baby in the bottom. Who knew!!! I also began to look closely and noticed an algae eater that had not been there earlier that day. Would you believe all three of my kids denied having been to Pet Smart that night with their dad??? And we wonder why I had a lying issue with one of them yesterday?

I have now resigned myself to the fact that we need a line item in our budget labeled fish and that I would do well just to rearrange my furniture so that our fish tank can be viewed from every seating position. I do believe the people at Pet Smart have probably handed my husband a store key so that he can just come in and get what he needs anytime. And I am quite sure there are many more fish "necessities" that I have yet to hear about. But I do have to admit, it has been fun watching them and watching the excitement of all of our family as we see changes to them each day. And I love the peaceful sound of trickling water coming from our sparkling, new super filter!!

(After posting, we found three more baby fish in our tank this morning...two were added two the nursery. We lost site of the third. Did I mention these fish give birth to live babies, and can have 20-100 every couple of months?? Yea, I think next time we'll call all male. But it is cool!)