Presenting... fish.

[tencrush]

I have found it impossible to take pictures of my fish tank. But one fish of any species does have a tendency to look much like any other, so interwebs pictures will be used to tell the dull tale of the state of things in my now two-month-old aquarium.


We started with five gold barbs


and five zebra danios


At some point in time while the lid was off, one of the danios jumped out of the tank without us noticing. A few days later after yet another fish count, I emptied out the bookcase and found him, dead obviously, on top of WHEEL OF FORTUNE - THE GAME, right next to Vanna White's face. This was a good month after we had put the fish in the tank, so we were quite lucky not to have lost any to chemical imbalances and such, but still, jumpy fish. We made a note to pay more attention to the jumpy danios.

Then we got three corydoras


and a Chinese algae eater


The algae eater was cute, but a big mistake. He's mean and territorial, and he took up residence right in the middle of the bottom of the tank, and decided no other fish were allowed anywhere near the bottom. We placated him for a few weeks by feeding him cucumber.

Then we bought eight neon tetras

Not long afterwards, we found one tetra, dead, attached to the back of the filter where he'd been sucked in by the water intake. That was our second dead fish.

At around the same time, we got one of these

which is an apple snail. His name is Slugsy Malone, and he's a big bugger. Also very fond of cucumber.

Having lost two fish, we decided to buy three more, and we got one single fire tetra, which is a big fat tetra with a red eye and a red line along his side. There was only one of him in the shop, but I took to him, and he spent two days trying to hang with the much smaller neons. And on the third day, he was a floater. We had an inkling he had been attacked by the algae eater.

We also got two gouramis

That's a picture of a boy, but we also had a girl, who was grey. Unfortunately, the day after the tetra died, I found her, again sucked to the back of the filter. Either she had also been attacked by the algae eater, or possibly the boy had headbutted her behind the filter while attempting to mate. Either way, she was dead, and it was definitely time to remove the algae eater. (The boy is still there, and fine.)

Two days ago, we fished out

the algae eater, using a hinged glass pot and some cucumber, and dumped him into another fishtank that we bought especially for him, at great expense. It's in B's room. Despite the fact that we weren't particularly fond of this fish, we weren't about to kill it, because we thought that would set a bit of a bad example to the kids, so we wussed out and spent another fifty euros on a tank and supplies instead. Obviously, he was a bit lonely on his own, and because we used a load of bits from the big aquarium, we figured the tank would be established enough to hold another two fish. So now B has the Chinese Grumpy Bugger and two Sumatra Barbs

who are aggressive enough to not take any shit from the algae eater, hopefully. And that has pretty much filled up his little 15 litre tank. Three fish and a statue of SpongeBob.

We couldn't resist one more aquisition for our newly peaceful community tank, which was this amano shrimp

His name is, of course, Old Shrimpeyes, as a hommage to Howard Moon. He's got wee little legs and he runs around and when the other fish piss him off he jumps on top of them.


So that is how our 50 litre fish tank hit its capacity, became two fish tanks and is now well on its way to becoming three because we're probably buying a 200 litre at Christmas. We seem to have become fish people. The horror.

Comments

[bandgeek01.livejournal.com]

My dad became a fish person a few years ago. He keeps buying more and more, hehe.

And at one point when he had the Mollies in his tank there was some breeding going on and we ended up with like 3 generations of them. Eventually they died either of old age.


Nicole

[tencrush]

It is very tempting to just keep buying fish, but we're being very anal about not overstocking the tank.

[bandgeek01.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my dad doesn't overcrowd either, it's more a one dies, buy another, type thing.


Nicole

[off_coloratura]

My brother-in-law has a saltwater tank, and he buys from a place where they do returns and exchanges if the fish aren't a good fit, or even if you just want to swap them out. I don't know if they have such a thing in Amsterdam.

That said, cute fish.

[tencrush]

They probably would have taken back the algae eater, but we decided to give him a go and kept him for a month because he was kind of fun to watch. We figured it was probably too late by then, though I would have happily just given him back to the fish shop without my money back.

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

Your fishes are making me think it's really time I got my tank set up again - before we moved I had a community tank, with a lot of the same fish as you. My favourite part of fish-keeping was always that you get to create this whole world of interacting creatures - just like being God!

[tencrush]

It is quite godlike, yeah. We took out the algae eater and the whole tank calmed down, fish took up residence in places where they'd never hung out, the coydora's started schooling together, it's so weird to watch.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, I think I've had most of those fish at some point. Except a different type of algae eater that didn't seem aggressive at all (although there were mysterious fish deaths at times...hmm...) and little frogs instead of a shrimp. I've been thinking about starting up again--maybe a saltwater tank this time; it's always been the dream--but then I keep trying to remember how I hated to clean the tank.

Good luck with multiple ones!

Just stay away from any kind of fish that grows as big as its environment (and bigger)--'cause they ain't kidding!

[radiant-pip.livejournal.com]

D'oh! That "anonymous" was me. So excited to comment on fish I forgot to make a "from" selection up top.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Wheee! Oh, that takes me back, I used to have two tanks for mainly the same reasons. I only managed to jump off the fishwagon once I got no sleep at all due to loud filters and a leaky tank in my bedroom.

[elandev.livejournal.com]

We always had trouble keeping gouramis in our tank. I miss having fish, even though I'm not at home anymore but my mom stop keeping them after her last ick outbreak.

[tencrush]

The other gourami seems happy enough, but I get the feeling these flat fish are a lot more high-maintenance than the fish-shaped ones.

[radiant-pip.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had a few mean gouramis in my time. Loved the neon tetras, though. Bought LOTS of neon tetras over the years...

I also had a Betta fish (just one!) that was real pretty in the tank, but you have to keep it (and any other fish with pretty tails) away from those that like to pick at tails...and pick...and pick...

Never had much luck with Angel fish; they would often go belly-up and I eventually just gave up.

[cirrocumulus.livejournal.com]

I adore tropical fish so I actually totally loved this post, not gonna lie. I've never had neon tetras but they are such beautiful fish and I really want some today. And coreydoras are so cute too!

[tencrush]

The neons are really cool fish, they sleep about an inch from the bottom, spread out through the tank, and when you turn the light on, they rise up, slowly regain their colour and start looking for each other, and then hang out in a school for a few hours before splitting up again and doing thier own thing. The only thing is, they have magic lighting in fish shops that makes the fish light up and pop, and I have yet to work out how the fuck they do that. We've tried every light available.

[tigercheetah.livejournal.com]

It's common to lose several tropical fish within a few months of buying them, we lost nearly all our tetras within a 6 month period, they just don't seem to be as hardy as goldfish.

You're right that tropical fish can be addictive, as can guinea pigs - I know.

[tigercheetah.livejournal.com]

Oh and it's just been announced on DigitalSpy that Gareth's episode of The Bill will air in January, which is the same month that his film Sherlock Holmes comes out. Apparently his character and two others will all be part of a "lover's tiff" storyline, with the other two being the actual couple.

[venusinchains.livejournal.com]

I remember my parents keeping fish when I was a child. My favorite - an Oscar - had to be fed live goldfish. (I still blame that cannibal for my imagined psychological problems.) The Fighting Fish were close runner-ups.

It all inspired me to give it a try when I moved out, but The Cleaning Of The Tank turned out to be a deal-breaker for me - too much work. :-/ I hope you have an easier time of it than I did.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

You've got an impressively low death rate for your tanks. And fish are buggers for trying to escape we had a pair of goldfish who'd make breaks for freedom every time you lifted the lid off the tank.

[tencrush]

Yeah, we put the 10 barbs and danios in to cycle the tank about 10 days after we got the aquarium, and we fully expected to lose almost all of them in the cycling, but every single one survived, and then purely as a fluke one jumped out.

This morning, another danio was stuck, upright, to the back of the pump, I could only see the line of its belly sticking out the side. I moved the pump and he swam off. He seems fine. Stupid danios.