hmm. do you like tropical fish?
Turns out I love tropical fish. Turns out I have gone from being giddy in love with a fat Lab whose weight ranged between 85 and 110 pounds to being in love with a half-ounce Killer Dwarf Frog.
Today while my husband was distracted doing a search, destroy and clean-up mission on our son’s room (Toys Per Square Inch: Six) I went ahead and bought a 20-gallon fish tank to combine all the little aquatic beasts who are now housed in two separate puny little five-gallon tanks. I’m still waiting for the water to heat up, it’s taking hours. Then I can move ’em in. There is a mix of live and fake plants, a nice big rock, a plastic hamster and plastic pirates, small shiny rocks and marbles, a castle, a mermaid, a turtle and a frog. Uh, ceramic.
I may have to add some taller stuff and a fake ship and a plastic skull. I am nothing if not classy when it comes to decorating the tank.
(Vixen, I know. I know I know I know. It is not the 300-gallon salt water tank that belongs in the living room. But it will have to do.) (Also we have all these new guppies. Nine are left, plus the mom.) (Thank you, Funsize, for the tips.)
I’m going to leave the frog alone in his tank upstairs until the guppies get a little bigger. I anticipate many froggy backflips, cuz he’s a little anti-social, that boy. A week or two, then in he goes. Survival of the fittest, I’m sorry, and I’ll be cleaning just one tank a week. Michigan J. seems pretty terrified of the black-skirt tetras, so maybe they’ll keep him in line. You know, I still miss my dog. I miss him every day, several times. Sometimes more than several. And we’re still set on no more pups. I can’t take the heartbreak again. The fish are good because they’re entertaining, do not need to be walked, and don’t really care if the kids forget to feed them. I am not getting attached to them the way I did the dog, see? That is just a-OK with me.
Plus, they don’t do the puppy dog eyes. The frog tries but you know what — he’s a frog, not a dog. (I love you, dear dear Wacky Dog. No one will ever replace you in my heart.)
Yeah. And we gave one of the five-gallon tanks (along with heat, pump, fish net, food, and water conditioning drops) to our super-nice neighbors who live across the street. Their two-year-old needs a starter tank, doncha think?
Yeah, I thought so, too.
, 
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Your setup sounds awesome. I wanna see pictures!
September 28th, 2008 | #
P.S. You don’t have to clean the tank weekly if you don’t want to. You can go up to a month if you just siphon out 20% of the water (with a water siphon- it looks like a big hose with a tub attached to one end) if you have one, and then change the carbon filter. It’ll probably take you about 30 minutes to do it. If you have algae use a razor blade (if your tank is glass) and cut down on the time your lights are on to reduce algae growth.
September 28th, 2008 | #
See I want to put a mermaid, a castle and some pirate bones in our tank. That is why Fishboy has it padlocked. All I can do is tap on the glass and name them.
Ne(&)mo, Dory, Ruby, Chevy, Mr. Limpet and the shrimpies say HI. I supposed Spike might way Hi too, but he (according to Fishboy) was eating the anemone!!!! And he has been banned to the tank under the tank until a good home (away from anemones?) can be found for him. Hmmph.
October 1st, 2008 | #