I'm just a novice at this, but it has been interesting all the same. We got this underway 7 months ago and I am hooked on this now! I hope to move from goldfish to tropicals when our current fish die or are given away (the children are currently attached to them.) We just have a 5-gal. and a 10-gal. aquarium, but it has been really fun, and not too hard getting started or too expensive, though you do have to factor in over $100 for the necessary start-up supplies.
My children won 5 goldfish (the ultra cheap feeder fish) at a neighborhood pool party last year, and we already had the empty 5-gal from the year before when we made some mistakes purchasing tropical fish from the grocery store (!) with no idea what we were doing and they died quickly. After the fish were in the 5-gal, one died right away (Goldie was her name and very much beloved by DD7), so we were down to four. That week I bought the 10-gal tank for DD9's room since we needed more room for the fish and I knew she'd take good care of it. Two fish stayed in the 5 gallon (Leopard and Squeak) and two were moved to the 10 -gal (Behemoth and Percy). What was cool was they were marked with lots of black when we got them and over the first few weeks they got golder, which I learned was a sign of health (black smudge disease is what they had from being in a crowded store tank.)
With guidance from Jack's Aquarium store, we added 1 cory catfish and 1 dwarf plecostomus (bottom- and algae-eaters) to the 5 gal. and we added 2 cories and 1 dwarf pleco to the 10-gal. We are soon going to move the 2 goldfish from the 5 gal to the 10 gal and then make the 5 gallon suitable for tropicals, yay! We'll just put something like 3 guppies in there because they stay small, are colorful, and I've heard are fun to watch. We'll get all one sex, though, unless advised differently. Eventually we'd love to have tropical fish in both tanks, and even maybe get a large tank, like 35-55 gallons. DD9 can't wait to have pink (white) kissing gouramis. :)
Here's some pics, even though they can't compare to tropicals for beauty. I really like seeing them in the kitchen, though I can see how it might turn some people off. ;)
5-gal in kitchen (this is August, 1 month into it; fish are bigger now)
you can barely see the pleco bottom center (December, fish are yet bigger now)
10 gal in DD's room (October):
the are eating freeze-dried shrimp. We just bought some big rocks and want to get more plants to add soon:
It is truly fun for the whole family![:D]
2 comments:
oh, i like the pink rocks!!!
btw- i found a stat counter for blogs that will show you detailed info on who comes to your blog and where they come from. i thought you'd mentioned wanting to find something like that. click the "be nosey and check my stats" link on my blog to see how it works.
also, try and get some pics of the bottom feeder things. my friends had one that grew to be the size of a lake erie perch! scared the crap out of me!!!!
Yeah, DD9 loves pink sparkly things, too! I meant to write (and will try to edit) that the pleco in the 10-gal. is also a DWARF--so no freaky, ugly fish here!
Maybe I'll do a counter someday, but for now I can't imagine very many are hitting my blog! I know you can come across it by accident, but to deliberatly revisit? Nah. I haven't told anyone about it but you--I'm getting even more busy here so I may post even less soon. :( But it's GOOD "busy" stuff like working on regular Fitness (for pregnant babes), closer Money mgt to save better for college, more whole-food cooking breakfast,lunch and dinner--OK, do you hate me for all my goody-goodiness?! ;-) And I've just started heading up a "newspaper" project with my DDs and a neighbor boy. That one I want to blog about sometime! :)
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