Fishes and Lobsters and Babies

Now tell me this isn't a pretty.

So I have acquired this addiction now. Apparently Quazi at work isn't enough. There's a good friend of mine that gave me a 10 gallon tank with a stand and fixin's about a year ago now. I have had so much fun with this tank. At first, with the chaos that was going on in my life, this was a sense of relaxation watching them float around and such. Now, I have learned so much since then and I can't believe how gullible I was.

There are so many things that have to be taken into account. The water need to be treated, yes. The fish need to adjust to the water temperature at least an hour before being added. that's the kids stuff. (or at least stuff I've known since I was a kid)

Now the newer things. Of course we all know there are aggressive fish and docile fish. This is the docile tank. This means death is not 'supposed' to happen in this tank. (riiiiight....)

This tank has guppies, mollies, glass cats (a fav), ghost shrimp, two plecos, feather fins, and albino bottom feeder and several babies. I had to add a bigger castle because my pleco out grew the other one and got stuck in it.

We have two bala sharks in our tank. They aren't as aggressive as one might think. However, they like tubaflex worms and freeze dried shrimp.

Plecos: They like the dark. Grow huge. And come to find out, they don't just need to eat the algae of the side of the tanks, they also need a few algae pellets to supplement this diet. Oh how my pleco loves these and he'll actually come out into the daylight to nurse on them. It's so funny.

Glass cats: Community fish so they need to have more than just flake food. Who knew? They also like brine shrimp and water fleas. (ewwwww.....) I love these little guys 'cause they are see through and have long whiskers. Like to have plants to hide in and are generally docile fish. However, are susceptible to disease and don't react well to high meds. Cut them in half when adding to be nice to the fish. They also get melancholy.

Feather fins are beautiful and docile. You need at least three together and also work well in a semi aggressive tank. I like when they parade for the opposite sex and expand their fins to the fullest of color.

Now, the things you need to be careful of:
Temperature of the tank. Have a thermostat and use it. Let the water get to the temperature necessary before adding fish and preferable let the water sit for at least a week. This allows time for the necessary (see that word.....i mean it) bacteria growth to sustain the fish.

There are things called ammonia levels which become nitrate levels (both deadly to fish) which become nitrite levels. When these balance out, it's time to add the fish, yet to maintain a healthy tank, these need to be monitored weekly.

These are best kept at good levels by partial water changes done on a weekly basis. I do this by siphoning the gravel to remove any ick cysts (see below) and waste products (which produce the ammonia and nitrates).

After adding adding lights to this (and a hood cause the last frog got loose), it's amazing how welcoming this is. And pretty too.

Believe it or not, tropical fish need salt to maintain a healthy level. I couldn't believe it.....um...hello! This is a tropical, fresh water tank. not salt water. Little did I know, salt water means LOTS of salt. Tropical tanks need approximately a table spoon of salt per 5 gallons of water. I did this at first very sparingly for fear of death. (i don't handle dead fish well). The aquarium salt dissolves almost instantly and believe it or not, the fish did better afterwards and it help against ick.

Ick is a nasty parasite that attaches itself to the fish and after a couple of days drops to the bottom of the tank encrusted over to produce 1,024 copies of itself that will break loose and attack the other fish. (EEEEKK!) This is the time to kill it. Raise the temperature, treat the water, add salt and remove the carbonated filter. 25% water changes, siphon the gravel and pray. (been down this road......not kind) Note: Get snails. They love the crusties on the bottom of the tank. side note: Lobsters eat snails.

So I go to my mecca, the pet store, and get an albino snail. It's a good snail. Hubby and I get to talking about putting together a larger tank of aggressive fish. We'd like to get a salt water tank also but there are some other priorities that need to be put in order first. Like a place to put it.

This is one of the betas we have named Raine. I put him in the semi-aggressive tank.

We go on a shopping spree. 30 gallon tank. Red and white rocks. Fake plants. A stand. fish. stuff. We totally disobeyed all the right things to do. Course at that time we had no idea what they were or that they existed.

Here we go. While I filter water for the tank through a Brita filter, he and our youngest daughter put together the stand. We chose a wooden book case from wally world and together they worked on it. I was washing rocks, filtering water and getting things put together. (it's so funny, there's a 90lb weight limit. Figure a gallon of water weighs over 3lbs. Multiplied times 30 plus the weight of the tank, the gravel and we are a disaster waiting to happen......lol)

We get the water at the right temp, remove the chlorine, add ick stuff, start the thermostat and filter, float the fishes on the top. Oh we were so excited. This one has bala sharks, feather fins, tiger tetras, albino tetras, 5 ghost shrimp, a blue lobster, and some other fish I don't remember what they are called.

Oh......this is probably our favorite addition to the tank. he has so much personality. Makes us think of the lobsters off Nemo....hey..hey..hey.....

It's so pretty. we count the ghost shrimp daily because they are mainly for the lobster to eat but it seems they run pretty quick. We had a snail in here too, but one day I got a message from my family in a meeting that the lobster was eating the snail. I guess escargot was on the menu. Two days later, he molted and there were two blue lobsters in the tank. that was cool! now he can't get under his rock and has to live behind it. Apparently they do this ever 3 or so weeks. Cool.

Each day we have so much fun feeding them and watching them eat. One shrimp carried eggs for a couple of weeks. The sharks make funny noises when they eat. We hatched some brine shrimp, in which I then found the reason I ever read only to feed them to fish was because they only live about 24 hours.

Tonight I put one of the betas in there and have been watching how he does. so far he's been good and beautiful. I get so much enjoyment watching my family watching the tank. Mr. Man and I will sit and talk about the fish, the lobster and all that goes on. This was an excellent addition to our family.

When we have more room and a place to put it, we're getting a salt water tank. We've already started doing the research and picking out what we want to put in it. I so enjoy when we do things together. Being the sappy female in which I am, every time I pass the big tank I refresh the memories of my family working together to get it up and running. Mental pictures of my son with his face pressed against the tank yelling about the lobster. The kids all bent over peering at the ghost shrimp. These are the memories I will carry for the rest of my life. These are the things that make me sigh with satisfaction.