Fish

Last weekend we fulfilled one of Bill's dreams, as well as a frequent request of our kids'... We purchased fish. Bill used birthday money to buy an aquarium a couple of weeks ago, and then of course we had to find the right spot for it, put in the rocks and ornaments and finally add the water, water-conditioners, filter and heater. We left it fishless for about a week to allow the water to become habitable by the fish.

The Saturday trip to Petco was an exciting one. Bill wanted each of us to pick out a fish. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy! Our fish tank is only a 10 gallon and can't hold too many fish, especially big ones. So we limited the full grown fish size to 2-3 inches. Then of course we had the dilemma of which fish gets along with which fish, and which fish must have companions of the same breed... Here is what we ended up with:

Bill's Blue Dwarf Gourami ("Neo"):

My Betta fish ("Sophie"):

Amy's Platy fish ("Goldie"):

Nathan's Silver Molly ("Whitey"):

One of Alex's Blood-finned Tetra fish ("Wicky", "Pappa", and "Cutie" - he got three because these have to have friends)
(the picture is blurry because they are very quick!)

Full view of aquarium:


We've learned a lot in the few days we've had these fish. First, though we knew that Betta fish do not like other Betta fish, and they also do not like to share a tank with other long-finned or otherwise "beautiful" fish (obviously very conceded fish). But what we also learned that the so-called "expert" at Petco forgot to tell us was that Gouramis and Bettas do not get along. Sophie did not like Neo at all, and would often flare its gills at him. What a sight! They were often trying to intimidate one another, though I never noticed them doing any harm to each other. But sadly, they were both about to face an even bigger threat. Neo was the first to start getting this weird discoloration on his body starting at his tail. The dark spot grew bigger throughout the day, so Bill returned him to Petco thinking that would be the best thing. This all happened on Sunday. Then Monday morning Sophie had the same discoloration. It continued to grow and when we got home from VBS on Monday afternoon, I could tell it wasn't looking well. By the end of the day, Sophie had died.

Obviously, our fish experience had a rough start, and unfortunately continues to be challenging. We tested the water last night and found that the ammonia level was high, which is very bad for the fish. So we treated the water and this morning all seemed fine... until I noticed that now the remaining fish have Ich (a nasty parasitic disease!). This condition will kill them if we don't treat the tank immediately and for a period of about two weeks. So now we're doing that and hoping we can save the remainder of our fish.

The biggest thing I've learned so far about fish is that maintaining them is not going to be easy!