Pop. Tire
So there are many things that have occurred in my tank since I last spoke of them. I figured that you were all dying to be updated on the drama that is my fishtank, so here you go.
The Party Tank
Jillian's mommy found a tank at a garage sale for $10 over Christmas break and Jillian gave it to me. It is another 10 gallon, it is taller than my other one and it came with a under gravel filter, a light, crushed coral, a magnetic scraper. It rocks. I call it the party tank because when the fluorescent light is turned on, it flashes a few times before it stays lit. Jillian said that it looked like my fish were having a rave. The front two corners are also curved, so that everything looks funny through them. The fish seem to like that.
Fire
Rainbow and the party tank went to Florida with me and while we were there we picked up a new fishy. A Fire Dwarf Gourami. I was a little afraid when I put him in because of Rainbow's aggressive behavior toward Emerald (resulting in her untimely death). When I put Fire in Rainbow did indeed begin to nip at him. Fire didn't seem to care too much. After further observation we determined why. Fire is stupid. Really stupid. I believe that it is a result of inbreeding. Dwarf Gouramis are normally mixed red and blue, and they have to be bred for a solid color like Fire is. So Fire happily swam up and down in the corner while Rainbow tried desperately to assert himself. It was funny. Rainbow's strategy eventually became to hide from the stupid fish. At all costs. Everything was good. I thought that it would work out. When I got back to school there was much homework. Much homework. So I didn't notice until wed. night that Rainbow's fins weren't looking so good (this was about the fourth hour of the physics marathon). Thurs night I set up the party tank and transferred Fire into it. Fri. morning Rainbow died. I think that what happened was that Rainbow stressed himself out over the new fish and trying to hide from the stupidity. His fins got a little ripped up. Then Fire, being the bright one that he is, caught sight of those trailing fins and decided they would be fun to play with. Whatever happened, there was definite nipping on the part of Fire. I hold him responsible. He will not be with us much longer.
The Snail
Before spring break the Zoology class was studying mollusks and I asked Dr. Hartzell if I could have one of the apple snails when they were finished. He said I could. When we got back from spring break we discovered that everything that was in the tank had to all appearances died. But there was one little snail that was still stuck to the side of the tank. Elisabeth said that if it had suction, it was alive still. So I got a little specimen jar and brought him back to my room. I wasn't entirely certain that it was alive, but I scraped a little of the algae off the side of my tank and put it in for him. I don't think that he ate it. But he did crawl up onto the side of the jar. Later when I picked it up to look for signs of life he fell off. We did this three times over the course of two days. The third time I decided that it must not be random motion and that he really was alive, but very weak. So I put him in the big tank. The next time I looked he was halfway across the tank and happily gorging himself on the overgrowth of algae my tank had acquired. I think that Dr. Hartzell might have starved the rest to death. So The Snail is still happily eating and appears quite strong and healthy from what I can tell.
The tadpoles
Jillian and Aaron caught a pair of mating frogs last week and have been keeping them. They gave me some of the eggs for Rainbow and Fire to eat. Fire nibbled on them a bit, so when I transferred him I put the eggs with him. I then forgot all about them with the drama of Rainbow's demise. So last night at about 2:00 am I discovered 9-10 little tadpole merrily frolicking about the party tank. They are happily eating the algae off the rocks I put in there and so far none appear to have died. Fire doesn't seem to care about them so I guess I'll raise them up into froggies and then set them free. I think that if I tried to set them free now that they would die from the transfer, the cold, or the predators.
Tire
In general I avoid buying fish a Wal-mart just because of the poor health and myriad of diseases that they can have. But today I saw a fishy that was just so cute and so sad that I had to save him. Especially because all that my one tank has right now is a snail and that is sad to me. He is a Peacock or Tire Tread Eel. He's so sweet. I love him already. He's buried his little self in the gravel and all you can see is his little tail and his nosie sticking out. He's about three or four inches long right now. He's going to have lots and lots of fun playing and digging in my aquatic soil. At Wal-mart he and his brothers didn't have anything to play in. It was very sad. One of his brothers was laying on his side and looked like he would die any minute. Poor little thing. But I rescued Tire and he will be happy and cute and play and play. And I will post about him.
