Home is where your tank is

One of the biggest disappointments about not getting the job at JPL that I wanted is that it meant I wasn't going to get my own appartment yet. I had plans for it. Foremost among them...fishtanks. Lots and lots of fish tanks. Big ones. Like 100+ gallons. I have most of them planned out about what I want in them. But alas, the best layed schemes of mice and men.

To help alleviate my dilema, I set up the 29 gallon tank I had at home. At least its bigger than the 10 gallon one which I had in Boston, by roughly 2.9 times. You can see it above. The fish are mostly all hiding in it, so here they are up close and personal (see, I have friends here. And they can breath underwater. None of my Boston friends could...)

This is my Convict. She is the only remaining survivor of the original tank. My mother took care of her while I was in Boston. Kind of a funny storry...while I was home for last Thanksgiving I had turned the filter off because it was making a lot of noise. I forgot to turn it back on again before I left. My mother was never good at finding fish, so she didn't see her in the tank, and since I had turned off the filter she assumed that the fish had died and stopped taking care of her. So when I returned this summer I found the tank with only about 25% of the water left in it (rest evaporated) and it in a quite nasty state. Mom says the fish died. So I go to start cleaning it up, and low and behold I see her within about 10 seconds. She must have been living off the plants for food and depending on them to filter the water for her. I dont see how people can claim its hard to keep fish...if this little one can survive with absolute complete neglect for months, I think its pretty hard to kill off fish. Most peoples problem is that they put in way too much food which just rots and poisons the water. Adding live plants also clearly helps.

This is my parrot fish, one of the new arrivals after I cleaned up the tank. Like the convict, it is a cichlid. Cichlids are a family of fish that are found in Africa and in South America. They are usually pretty aggressive, so are not considered a "novice" fish because they will often fight. That means you need to be careful what fish you put in the tank because they will just kill all of the pansy non-aggressive fish. The parrot fish is a bit unique because it is actually a hybrid fish. I dont remember what it is a mix of though. They are kind of like mules, where they are bred from two different species and cannot produce fertile young themselves. He's darn cute though.

This is my firemouth, another kind of cichlid. He's got that really cool flame colored spot on his throat, hence the name. This is actually my second firemouth since setting up the tank. The first one died when he got himself stuck in a weird crevasse in the piece of driftwood I keep as decoration. He got himself wedged in there really good and I guess he couldnt get himself back out again. It took me like 10 minutes with a pair of tweezers to pull his carcass out by the tail. No one ever claimed that fish were smart.

This is my plecostomus. He spends most of his day hiding (and is very good at it). He is not only beautiful, but is very important because he keeps my tank sparkling clean by eating all the algae that tries to grow in there. Now I know what you are thinking, "Hey, but dont those things get huge?!?! It wont like it in a 29 gallon tank." Well when did you become the fish expert? Huh? If you most know, I have taken that into account. He will be most happy in the bigger aquarium that I will have in my own apartment by the time he gets that big. Right now he has plenty of room. I got one that was just big enough that the other fish wouldn't pick on it. They grow pretty slowly, so I have plenty of time.


I know by this point you are at the edge of your seat thinking "Wow, your new tank is great, but what about the 10 gallon one we all know and love from Boston?" Well not to worry. I gave the fish I had in there to my sister's boyfriend to take care of. Its a great system because he knows how to take care of fish, and he has extra incentive to make sure it lives a long and fulfilling life because I'm sure he wants to avoid any vindictive disapproval from his girlfriend's family :-). Anyway, I coundn't waste a perfectly good tank so I set that one up too and put it on my desk. I got a pair of baby clown loaches in there, one of which can be seen here. Clown loaches are great. My favorite freshwater fish. I know, I know. You are thinking "But wait! those will get way to big for a 10 gallon tank. Geez. Everybody's a fish expert. Yes they will, but I will move them before that happens. They are too small to survive with those brutes picking on them in the 29 gallon tank right now, and if you recall I plan to have multiple larger tanks in the not so distant future. I assure you they will have good lives with plenty of room to swim. For right now I also got a couple of tiger barbs in there to keep them company, but no one really cares too much about them. Look 'em up online if you want to see what one looks like. You really need to learn to do things on your own anyway.

Well, there you have it. They are my little friends. Now I must go feed them.