Well, the parental “caring for the kids’ pets” thing has begun.
We are trying to start a small (!) aquarium at the house.
Three years in a row now, Brett has won a goldfish at the city fair, and the previous 2 years had met with crushing failure; the fish never lasted the weekend.
This year, Kristi and I decided things were going to be different. So, we started with the “feeder” goldfish Brett won, and bought it a tank/filter/chemicals/food.
It died after 2 days.
We picked up a pair of guppies and a cleaner snail.
The guppies were both dead within 24 hours.
At this point, I decided that I needed to understand what was going on in the water in my kitchen before I put any more fish into the Death Soup.
I learned about “New Tank Syndrome” and “cycling” the tank, and learned that having fish in the tank was an important part of the equation.
So I picked up a “black” (looks more stripey to me) Tetra, and let it start making ammonia (long story, look up “cycling fish tank” if you care).
So far, The Fish With No Name has lasted nearly a week. If he makes it to Wednesday, he’ll get a name. If he makes it to Hallowe’en, I’ll put up a photo. I just don’t need the kind of pressure that keeping a photo around will cause.
The little Tetra is very zippy. And he’s doing OK (or seems to be) although he doesn’t seem to like the food we’re providing.
The snail has been a real trooper through all of this, which is nice.
I’m not sure I’m in love with the idea of fishkeeping. But I look forward to seeing whether I can figure this out.
You know, for purely scientific purposes.
Yeah.