I have wanted an aquarium for as long as I can remember. I've wanted a giant, wall sized one full of big, beautiful salt water fish. But I never, ever wanted to have to take care of such a tank.
Since moving out of the house several years ago, my son has become impassioned with fresh water fish tanks. And every time I'd visit him, I'd think about how much I wanted a tank and how much I liked his tanks and.... And well, he set me up recently.
First he brought me a tank, a bunch of rocks and some plants. I mastered setting the light timer, (it's more difficult than expected!) watched the plants grow for about a week, and yesterday, he brought me fish.
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| Pepper Corydora |
There's only one young one in the photo, but I'm now a proud mama of four Pepper Corys, or Corydoras. I just Love the name Corydora. It's so much fun to say. Anyway.... Corys are tiny, miniature catfish and mine are even smaller than normal because they are still young. They also seem to be very camera shy.
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| Emperor Tetras |
I'm also a proud mama of three Emperor Tetras. Two boys and a girl. Know how to tell the difference? The girls have green eyes and the boys have blue. They don't show up that well in the photo but in real life, there's a huge difference in their eye color. There are other ways to tell the difference, but that's the most obvious.
I was so excited to become a fish mama, I barely knit yesterday! I pretty much spent the whole day obsessing over watching them swim around and become acclimated to their new home. The tetras were so cool because they were fairly stressed when they arrived and they were almost completely clear with no color at all. Within a few hours, their stripes had shown up, they'd turned fairly purple and the gold on their fins was shining bright. And no, their colors aren't showing up well in the pictures. I have a Lot to learn about trying to take photos of fast moving fish!
Now, don't be surprised when the next thing you hear me talk about is trying to knit sweaters for my fish.
Oh, and I'd like to wish my sister and her husband a happy 44th (I think) anniversary today. They are fish parents too.
How fun! My brother took aquariology in high school and built us a fish tank. We had it for years and it was so beautiful and entertaining, too.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new arrivals!
ReplyDeleteI inherited my son's tank when he moved out many years ago and I did enjoy the fish up to the part where I had to clean it out. I was not very good at it and I am sad to say those poor fish didn't last too long in my care. I was just talking about that tank because the day of the earthquake I remember looking at in amazement trying to figure out why the water was splashing out of it for no apparent reason. Then the house began to roll....oy.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new family members! I hope they will stay healthy and that you will enjoy them for a long time.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new tank and fish. I did not know fish changed color when they were stressed.
ReplyDeleteI hope they bring you enjoyment for YEARS to come.
How fun for you. My husband always wanted a fish tank and so years ago I got him everything for Christmas. We killed tanks worth of fish before we gave up and took pity on the poor fish.
ReplyDeleteI know you won't have that issue because you have an expert in your son to get advice from. I'm looking forward to watching the family grow.
Blessings,
Betsy
My husband loves fish and aquariums. Watching fish swim and not swim but sleep, is so calming to me. Do you have a treasure chest that opens and closes?
ReplyDeleteSomething very soothing about watching a fish tank. When I lived in Northern Europe (Germany) we could get at least one Danish channel and they didn't do commercials, or maybe not as many minutes as American tv, so there would 'dead' time at the end of shows and they just switched to a camera on a fish tank they had in the studio and let it go out live. :) Something I wouldn't mind the US doing.
ReplyDeleteSweaters for fish - LOL. A tank can be so relaxing to watch (great for your blood pressure!). We had one in our house when I was growing up - one of my brothers took care of it. We had the tetras and angel fish and a bunch of other ones. Fun!!
ReplyDeleteFish tanks are so peaceful to look at. I had a smaller one when my boys were little, they did not care about it at all but I loved it, well until they died then I got very upset. Best of luck to you new Fish Mom.
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