Hi everyone!!!
My fish addiction came like a shock wave...I had no idea what hit me until it was too late. By then I knew what ph level was, filtration...the full shabang.
It started with those lovely fish...the siamese fighting fish. Just a little fish here and there. When one died, I always immediately got another to replace.
I began to fall in love with the breed, and got a beautiful male named PRINCE. He lived 6 years (surprisingly) on my pitiful fish-keeping skillz, then died when I decided rashly to put doll furniture in his bowl. Beware of dangerous paint on stuff...anyways. I then got a new male...a beautiful light pink fellow. He was christened GABRIEL after the angel of course. But somehow I kept calling him PRINCE.
PRINCE/GABRIEL was the first betta I ever used to spawn. Big mistake. I knew virtually nothing about this, only that I wanted alot of bettas that looked like him. So I got a female named ROSIE. They spawned in a 1/2 gallon plastic container. Ugh. I feel sorry for them looking back on it.
Of course, I never removed the male, just the female, and of course, he ate all the eggs. So I spawned them again. And again. And again. Every time the eggs failed. So I got the big ol' ten gallon, set it up on my desk, and went professional. Got the heater, the air stone, but no filter (argh!). They spawned. They got eaten. I got frustrated, and resolved to let the poor animals live out their dramatic life in peace. So, I got COMET, a beautiful guy with a burgundy head and an iridescent body and dark fins...I'll post a pic of him once I figure out how lol. I still have him now as a matter of fact heehee. And I got CUPID, the female. I still have her as well. They spawned. The babies were not eaten, as I removed the male. But...I fed them a crude infusoria, leading to their doom. Uneaten food accumulated, and not one fry survived. With four bettas on hand and no fry and Mom pestering me to "kick some out", I surrendered PRINCE/GABRIEL and ROSIE to my piano teacher, who went on vacation during the winter. Her power went out, and long story short they froze to death quite tragically. I gave up on the whole breeding betta thing and looked into a different strain of "scaley munchkins" (as my Mom calls them, I don’t know why). So, being the unknowing and naive little fish keeper I was, I went to Petsmart and picked out a beautiful Fantail. She was alert, adorable, and always hungry. She was orange with a white belly and full of character. (Despite what some say, I think fish all have their own personalities.) She was named PENELOPE. I made the ten gallon tank her new home, and she seemed perfectly happy. She had an air stone and gravel, silk plants and food. But something was missing. She needed some friends.
So off to Walmart we went, and bought 4 feeder fish! They were named FRESHWATER PEARL, SPOT, FRECKLES, and ZIP. Mom was afraid PENELOPE would consume them, but they began to follow her around like she was their mother
It was adorable. But the next day FRESHWATER PEARL was found dead...she had strangled herself in the base of a false plant. I had grown attatched to her, and went to Petsmart again to get an identical fish that was white with blue eyes (hence the name). I came home with two fish, FRESHWATER PEARL the ll and MO.
Feeder fish must be quarantined before put into the main tank. I learned that the hard way.
The first fish disease I encountered was Ich. When I noticed that all my fish, including PENELOPE, appeared to be sprinkled with salt, I went straight to the best fish consultant I could find - the internet. So, I treated the water with 3 tablespoons of sea salt. The Ich was gone in a few days, but FRESHWATER PEARL the ll was destroyed for the good of all - she had the worst case of it and had to be put down. (Mom's idea, she suggested she have a painless death in the Porcelain Waterslide as she lovingly calls the toilet bowl.) But As always, when a disease hits the fish bully each other. They were getting so vicious with PENELOPE. When I took FRECKLES back to Walmart and told the keeper there that "he wasn't getting along with the other fish", he looked at me like I was crazy. To him, it was just another feeder fish, but I cried myself to sleep that night. So SPOT, MO and ZIP were isolated in a glass jar. SPOT died a few days later, so only my little orange feeder ZIP and my black and orange feeder MO (named for his mustache marking) was left.
So there they were, ZIP, MO and PENELOPE. Then disaster struck again. I looked into the tank to find MO spiraling around like a missile headed for earth - and about to explode. Not literally heehee that was just a metaphor. So I took him out, and he floated on his side at the surface and died a few minutes later.
The next morning, I looked into the tank again only to find PENELOPE floating...UPSIDEDOWN! I knew there was a problem so again, I googled "upsidedown goldfish" and found out it was Swimbladder Disorder. Oh great. But fortunately, a de-thawed frozen pea set her rightsideup again and happy as a clam.
I bought OPAL at a tiny fish store in a strip-mall. That little fish had more personality in her pectoral fin than most have in their whole bodies, from their gills to their tails. She would lunge at my finger during feeding time, and swim around it in circles as if saying, "Hey! Time for food! Hurry up!"
For some reason, I took the notion to get some guppies. I was fascinated with their colorful tails, and the best fact - that they took literally no effort to breed. So I purchased FINE & DANDY, and MERRY & PIPPIN. My generous mother forked out 16 bucks and we drove home with four more fish.
Let's take a step back and look at the tank setup. One air stone, several fake plants, some gravel, ZIP, PENELOPE, and four guppies. Not to mention only a 100% water change once a month (which I now see is not a good idea). It's no wonder that a little more than a month ago, my beloved PENELOPE passed away from Ammonia poisoning. For those of you that don't know, Ammonia is the byproduct of accumulated waste and uneaten food. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her and isolated her in a glass jar. I carried her around with me everywhere that day because I knew that death was knocking on her door. I cried over her, and my tears plopped into her jar. She stared up at me with her scared eyes saying, "What's happening to me? Why do I feel so sick?" She floated sideways at the surface and let out a gasp every so often as her sign of life, but when I left the room and returned she wasn't breathing anymore. She was buried in a paper lunch bag under the flowering plum tree bush, but a few weeks later my cat Rusty dug her up so we had to dispose of her.
At this time Mom had so kindly gone to the store to pick up a broad spectrum antibiotic, and I called her and between my sobs told of PENELOPE'S fate. When she asked if I wanted her to pick up another fish while she was there, I couldn't bring myself to say yes. PENELOPE was my baby, and my best fishy friend I'd ever had. I know this sounds pathetic, but those of you who know what it's like to loose your pet know what I'm talking about.
Some time later, when I was at that small tropical fish store, I saw a beautiful Pompom goldfish. Her body was brown and her scales were tipped with gold. She had only one pompom on her nose because some jerk fish had bit it off, so nobody wanted her. She was priced at 15 dollars, but the manager brought it down to 9 because she had been there so long. She had a humongous flowing tail and a pert little face, and we brought her out of the store and for once I didn't miss PENELOPE so much. I named her ELSIE because I had just finished the book Elsie Dinsmore, but when I got home my sister insisted on calling her Amber because she looked so much like it. So she was named ELSIE AMBER.
One day I took her outside in a glass fishbowl for a photoshoot, and noticed her scales were starting to be raised. But I convinced myself it was just a trick of the light, and resumed photographing. The next day I looked into the tank and discovered she looked like a pinecone! So of course, I isolated her and googled "pinecone goldfish". It turns out she overheated, so I put an ice pack in her bowl to cool her down and added a high concentration of salt. But still no improvement. She was bleeding like crazy, and her whole abdomen was swollen and red. Her gills were red and her mouth was red and her tummy was red and she was swimming crookedly. At one point she flipped over but then resumed her correct swimming position. She wouldn't eat, she only lay there motionless aside from her gasping gills. It had been many days, and she showed no improvement. I prayed for her every night to get better, but finally my Mom put her foot down and said it was wrong to make her suffer, so she was placed in the freezer as a euthanization and buried in the backyard. I loved ELSIE AMBER almost as much as I had loved PENELOPE in the short time I had with her.
So now I was down to four guppies, ZIP, and OPAL. MERRY, the blue female guppy, had her first batch of baby guppies in a 3 way breeder trap I had bought when she was isolated there for being mean to OPAL. DANDY, a pink cobra male, was in with her for the same crime, and when I noticed four tiny fry at the bottom of the trap I removed him immediately. MERRY gave birth to 16, and was then returned to the main tank. Perhaps she was a bit hormonal, and she became the ringleader of the rest of the guppies and formed a kind of "gang". They began to plot how they would torment the unfortunate OPAL until they began tearing at her fins and smashing her into the wall. Obviously that was NOT allowed, so they were all sentenced to a time-out in a fish bowl. ZIP started that behavior as well as soon as the rest were out, so he was imprisoned with the rest.
My fish addiction came like a shock wave...I had no idea what hit me until it was too late. By then I knew what ph level was, filtration...the full shabang.
It started with those lovely fish...the siamese fighting fish. Just a little fish here and there. When one died, I always immediately got another to replace.
I began to fall in love with the breed, and got a beautiful male named PRINCE. He lived 6 years (surprisingly) on my pitiful fish-keeping skillz, then died when I decided rashly to put doll furniture in his bowl. Beware of dangerous paint on stuff...anyways. I then got a new male...a beautiful light pink fellow. He was christened GABRIEL after the angel of course. But somehow I kept calling him PRINCE.
PRINCE/GABRIEL was the first betta I ever used to spawn. Big mistake. I knew virtually nothing about this, only that I wanted alot of bettas that looked like him. So I got a female named ROSIE. They spawned in a 1/2 gallon plastic container. Ugh. I feel sorry for them looking back on it.
Of course, I never removed the male, just the female, and of course, he ate all the eggs. So I spawned them again. And again. And again. Every time the eggs failed. So I got the big ol' ten gallon, set it up on my desk, and went professional. Got the heater, the air stone, but no filter (argh!). They spawned. They got eaten. I got frustrated, and resolved to let the poor animals live out their dramatic life in peace. So, I got COMET, a beautiful guy with a burgundy head and an iridescent body and dark fins...I'll post a pic of him once I figure out how lol. I still have him now as a matter of fact heehee. And I got CUPID, the female. I still have her as well. They spawned. The babies were not eaten, as I removed the male. But...I fed them a crude infusoria, leading to their doom. Uneaten food accumulated, and not one fry survived. With four bettas on hand and no fry and Mom pestering me to "kick some out", I surrendered PRINCE/GABRIEL and ROSIE to my piano teacher, who went on vacation during the winter. Her power went out, and long story short they froze to death quite tragically. I gave up on the whole breeding betta thing and looked into a different strain of "scaley munchkins" (as my Mom calls them, I don’t know why). So, being the unknowing and naive little fish keeper I was, I went to Petsmart and picked out a beautiful Fantail. She was alert, adorable, and always hungry. She was orange with a white belly and full of character. (Despite what some say, I think fish all have their own personalities.) She was named PENELOPE. I made the ten gallon tank her new home, and she seemed perfectly happy. She had an air stone and gravel, silk plants and food. But something was missing. She needed some friends.
So off to Walmart we went, and bought 4 feeder fish! They were named FRESHWATER PEARL, SPOT, FRECKLES, and ZIP. Mom was afraid PENELOPE would consume them, but they began to follow her around like she was their mother
It was adorable. But the next day FRESHWATER PEARL was found dead...she had strangled herself in the base of a false plant. I had grown attatched to her, and went to Petsmart again to get an identical fish that was white with blue eyes (hence the name). I came home with two fish, FRESHWATER PEARL the ll and MO. Feeder fish must be quarantined before put into the main tank. I learned that the hard way.
The first fish disease I encountered was Ich. When I noticed that all my fish, including PENELOPE, appeared to be sprinkled with salt, I went straight to the best fish consultant I could find - the internet. So, I treated the water with 3 tablespoons of sea salt. The Ich was gone in a few days, but FRESHWATER PEARL the ll was destroyed for the good of all - she had the worst case of it and had to be put down. (Mom's idea, she suggested she have a painless death in the Porcelain Waterslide as she lovingly calls the toilet bowl.) But As always, when a disease hits the fish bully each other. They were getting so vicious with PENELOPE. When I took FRECKLES back to Walmart and told the keeper there that "he wasn't getting along with the other fish", he looked at me like I was crazy. To him, it was just another feeder fish, but I cried myself to sleep that night. So SPOT, MO and ZIP were isolated in a glass jar. SPOT died a few days later, so only my little orange feeder ZIP and my black and orange feeder MO (named for his mustache marking) was left.
So there they were, ZIP, MO and PENELOPE. Then disaster struck again. I looked into the tank to find MO spiraling around like a missile headed for earth - and about to explode. Not literally heehee that was just a metaphor. So I took him out, and he floated on his side at the surface and died a few minutes later.
The next morning, I looked into the tank again only to find PENELOPE floating...UPSIDEDOWN! I knew there was a problem so again, I googled "upsidedown goldfish" and found out it was Swimbladder Disorder. Oh great. But fortunately, a de-thawed frozen pea set her rightsideup again and happy as a clam.
I bought OPAL at a tiny fish store in a strip-mall. That little fish had more personality in her pectoral fin than most have in their whole bodies, from their gills to their tails. She would lunge at my finger during feeding time, and swim around it in circles as if saying, "Hey! Time for food! Hurry up!"
For some reason, I took the notion to get some guppies. I was fascinated with their colorful tails, and the best fact - that they took literally no effort to breed. So I purchased FINE & DANDY, and MERRY & PIPPIN. My generous mother forked out 16 bucks and we drove home with four more fish.
Let's take a step back and look at the tank setup. One air stone, several fake plants, some gravel, ZIP, PENELOPE, and four guppies. Not to mention only a 100% water change once a month (which I now see is not a good idea). It's no wonder that a little more than a month ago, my beloved PENELOPE passed away from Ammonia poisoning. For those of you that don't know, Ammonia is the byproduct of accumulated waste and uneaten food. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her and isolated her in a glass jar. I carried her around with me everywhere that day because I knew that death was knocking on her door. I cried over her, and my tears plopped into her jar. She stared up at me with her scared eyes saying, "What's happening to me? Why do I feel so sick?" She floated sideways at the surface and let out a gasp every so often as her sign of life, but when I left the room and returned she wasn't breathing anymore. She was buried in a paper lunch bag under the flowering plum tree bush, but a few weeks later my cat Rusty dug her up so we had to dispose of her.
At this time Mom had so kindly gone to the store to pick up a broad spectrum antibiotic, and I called her and between my sobs told of PENELOPE'S fate. When she asked if I wanted her to pick up another fish while she was there, I couldn't bring myself to say yes. PENELOPE was my baby, and my best fishy friend I'd ever had. I know this sounds pathetic, but those of you who know what it's like to loose your pet know what I'm talking about.
Some time later, when I was at that small tropical fish store, I saw a beautiful Pompom goldfish. Her body was brown and her scales were tipped with gold. She had only one pompom on her nose because some jerk fish had bit it off, so nobody wanted her. She was priced at 15 dollars, but the manager brought it down to 9 because she had been there so long. She had a humongous flowing tail and a pert little face, and we brought her out of the store and for once I didn't miss PENELOPE so much. I named her ELSIE because I had just finished the book Elsie Dinsmore, but when I got home my sister insisted on calling her Amber because she looked so much like it. So she was named ELSIE AMBER.
One day I took her outside in a glass fishbowl for a photoshoot, and noticed her scales were starting to be raised. But I convinced myself it was just a trick of the light, and resumed photographing. The next day I looked into the tank and discovered she looked like a pinecone! So of course, I isolated her and googled "pinecone goldfish". It turns out she overheated, so I put an ice pack in her bowl to cool her down and added a high concentration of salt. But still no improvement. She was bleeding like crazy, and her whole abdomen was swollen and red. Her gills were red and her mouth was red and her tummy was red and she was swimming crookedly. At one point she flipped over but then resumed her correct swimming position. She wouldn't eat, she only lay there motionless aside from her gasping gills. It had been many days, and she showed no improvement. I prayed for her every night to get better, but finally my Mom put her foot down and said it was wrong to make her suffer, so she was placed in the freezer as a euthanization and buried in the backyard. I loved ELSIE AMBER almost as much as I had loved PENELOPE in the short time I had with her.
So now I was down to four guppies, ZIP, and OPAL. MERRY, the blue female guppy, had her first batch of baby guppies in a 3 way breeder trap I had bought when she was isolated there for being mean to OPAL. DANDY, a pink cobra male, was in with her for the same crime, and when I noticed four tiny fry at the bottom of the trap I removed him immediately. MERRY gave birth to 16, and was then returned to the main tank. Perhaps she was a bit hormonal, and she became the ringleader of the rest of the guppies and formed a kind of "gang". They began to plot how they would torment the unfortunate OPAL until they began tearing at her fins and smashing her into the wall. Obviously that was NOT allowed, so they were all sentenced to a time-out in a fish bowl. ZIP started that behavior as well as soon as the rest were out, so he was imprisoned with the rest.