More Fish

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And here are two of our sunburst wag platies with a gold twin bar platy in between them.

Fish

Click on picture to enlarge.

It is REALLY hard to get a good picture of the aquarium! If I use the flash, there is reflection in the glass. If I don't use the flash, it's too dark - the shutter speed has to be so slow that the fish are blurry because they're always moving. So this picture isn't very good - but it was the best I could do. I cropped it to show a close up of some of our newer fish. Two of the angel fish are near the top (one in the center, the other over to the left) and the smaller fish that are somewhat schooled together on the right are the harlequin rasboras. You can also see one of the cherry barbs just to the right of the plants (just below the center), and near the bottom is the tail fin of the plecostomus (he is facing down on the back glass behind the heater - his favorite hiding place).

New Fish

I was in Oklahoma City on Thursday, so my last stop was at PetSmart for fish. I bought 3 angel fish, 3 sunburst wag platies, and 4 harlequin rasboras. They're all alive so far! Last time I brought fish home, 2 of them didn't make it. One was my own fault - we really wanted an angel fish, and PetSmart only had 2. They were just staying near the top, not swimming around very much. I asked the clerk if they were healthy, and she said yes, angel fish just like to stay around the airflow. I knew better, but I bought one anyway. The fish didn't make it through the night. So this time, I looked them over very carefully. The clerk who waited on me this time was much more knowledgeable - and he picked out the ones that looked the healthiest for me. The other fish that didn't make it last time was a rasbora - it was the smallest one, and one of our gambusia nibbled on its tail. It only lasted a couple of days before it died. So this time I told the clerk I wanted the larger fish, with the idea they would be healthier. It seemed to work. We now have:

2 gold twinbar platies
3 sunburst wag platies
3 cherry barbs
1 red velvet swordtail
1 plecostomus (who has done a remarkable job cleaning up the algae in the tank)
2 green cory catfish
6 harlequin rasbora
3 angel fish
5 gambusia (we removed the one who nibbled on the rasbora)

It's looking so much better with all these fish. We've still got room for some more - just haven't decided for sure what else to add. But we're both enjoying having the aquarium - I'm really glad I talked DH into it.

Aquarium Update

We received the replacement sealing gasket for our aquarium filter today. We installed it into the filter, and hooray! the filter doesn't leak anymore!! Neither my DH nor I were completely convinced that this would fix the problem, but it did. We also bought 7 fish for the aquarium on Monday - 3 gold twinbar platys, 3 cherry barbs, and 1 red velvet swordtail. I'm looking forward to getting a lot more fish, but it takes about 6 weeks for a filter to operate at maximum efficiency, so I guess I'll just have to be patient (never my strong suit!).

Aquarium

Our new aquarium stand came in on Thursday. We were going to pick it up that evening after going out to dinner, but it started to pour while we ate. We had to wait until Friday to pick it up, since it was going into the open back of our pick up. When the manager called to let us know it had come in, she said, "I checked it over to be sure it was, um, in good condition, and it is." I had to laugh at that; she didn't seem to want to say anything about the mice (see post from August 7 if you don't know what I'm talking about).

We got it set up yesterday and the external filter leaked. We've had it for a LONG time, which means it wouldn't be under warranty anymore. We're pretty sure that it just needs a new sealing gasket, so I ordered one online. We also have an under gravel filter, so we were able to put a few fish in it this morning.

Here is what it looks like so far; sorry for the flash reflection.

New Aquarium

We had a very unusual thing happen to us today. Last week, we ordered a 55 gallon aquarium, hood, and stand from Petco. They called us today to tell us that they had come in, so we headed out to pick them up. DH noticed while loading the stand that the box was torn, and he considered opening the box right then and there, but for some reason he didn't. We brought it all home, and DH and DS brought them inside. DH opened the box, and the stand looked filthy and had a bad smell. DH and DS moved the box out to the garage so that it could air out, and when they took the stand out of the box, they found MICE in it! Not just one mouse, but LOTS of mice, both alive and dead. I am SO GLAD they didn't take it out of the box inside!!!

Needless to say, we took the box back to Petco after I called them to let them know. Two clerks carried it in and took it out back. When one of them came back inside, she apologized for the whole fiasco and admitted that when she was first told that we were bringing the stand back because of a mouse in it, she kind of wondered why. But after seeing it, she COMPLETELY understood. And by the way, we could have handled one mouse.

Petco is ordering us a new stand.