So, I know I haven't written for a while, and I need to catch up, but I was thinking about my betta today, and it made me very sad.
I finally got Luau the F8, and he makes me happy to see his smiling little face and wiggly little butt, but I find myself sad sometimes when I see him. Makes me miss Freddy even more, and I was hoping that puffers would fill that void. Luau did, to a certain extent, but I do miss having a betta around. Freddy had an enormous amount of personality, and really, if it wasn't for Freddy, I would have never found puffers in the first place. Someone on TPF posted up a picture he found of a dragon betta on aquabid (never knew about that place until I saw his post) and it was of a beautiful betta, black, blue, red and silver. I really would like to get another tank for a betta, but I am afraid that asking for another 10g aquarium, would be pushing the envelope with my BF. As much as I love my fish, I love him even more, so I will wait (impatiently, haha) until we have our own home. I did put the stuff on an Amazon wishlist, but it's for the future.
I was raised around fish and other pets. I was raised to love all of God's creatures, even the nasty, slimy creepy crawly ones, haha. People may wonder why I still lament the loss of my fish, and I wonder that myself sometimes, but really, I loved Freddy just as I would love my dogs. Losing Freddy, was like losing one of my pups, but on a slightly lesser scale. I was devastated when I realized that I had to euthanize Freddy, but I was able to move on and go on with my life. That wouldn't be so easy with Lady or Taz. It doesn't mean that I loved him any less, it just means that I cope with things different ways...I guess.
Every time I see Luau, I love him terribly, after almost losing him (will talk about this in a next post), he just makes me burst with happiness, and it makes me impatient for my GSP. But it also makes me sad. What prompted this post was how sad I got when looking at him about 20 minutes ago. I guess I am not over Freddy as much as I hoped I was. One day soon, I will get another betta and a tank, and this time, I will do it the right way, and hope that dropsy doesn't come and visit us again.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
As a student at SJSU
I have to admit, as a current student attending SJSU, I am pretty nervous concerning the circumstances surrounding the campus and all the homicides at this point in time. Maybe I just have never taken notice before, or maybe I was sheltered at Gavilan, but I am borderline afraid of SJSU's campus and surrounding areas at this point in time. It makes me nervous to walk alone on the streets, although other people are around. It makes me nervous to pass places where people can jump out and hide. I need to be better about carrying my knife, but then the fear of what might happen if someone realizes that I have it on me. Mace or pepper spray, is next on my list.
I was in the elevator with a group of kids last May. Two of those kids got off on the 5th floor, only to be shot repeadedly as soon as they got into their car. Were they together? I was told yes. Was she married? I was told no, but she was going though a very nasty breakup. At the end of the day, none of it matters. Two people were shot and killed, and one of them was killed due to the circumstances.
October 8th, 2011, a 21 year old male, and 20 year old female were shot in his apartment, execution style, and because the police shot their only suspect days later, no one knows why they were shot. Oh, they have ideas, just nothing other that just that: ideas. Again, the 20 year old was shot because she was there, again, due to circumstances.
To add to this depressing list, there have also been a handful of sexual assaults on campus.
"A female student told police she was sitting on a bench sometime between 9:30 and 10 a.m. outside the administration building, located at Seventh and San Fernando streets, when a man walked up and offered her a cigarette, Noriega said. The man then lured her into an outcove in the nearby Engineering building and
groped her, Noriega said. The woman got away on foot, although the man tried to stop her from leaving, Noriega said.
The woman hopped onto a Valley Transportation Authority bus and took it to the end of the line at Snell Avenue and Capitol Expressway, Noriega said. The man followed her onto the bus but got off at an unknown stop."
This is one of several. There was another man that also attempted to sexually assault someone in the Baccardo Business Center, where my classes are held everyday.
I don't know if I am just more attuned to these instances because of my situation (being enrolled as a current student and whatnot), or if they are just happening more often than normal. My vote, as are most of the students and staff, is for the latter of the two. Also, looking at it from an analytical point of view, alot of these victims were due to circumstances. I am not afraid to die, but I would strongly prefer not to die in horrible pain or unimaginable fear. Me, like all these others, have lives that are waiting for me to get home eveyday. I would like to see where my road takes me, but I know that if something is meant to be, there is nothing that I can do to stop it. All I can do at this point is to be aware of my surroundings, take necessary precautions, and not take unnecessary risks. All I can hope at this point is that things get marginally better, and that San Jose's "dirty water" doesn't spill on to campus all that much. And hope that even more so, I won't become a victim of circumstance.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Continued from the last post...
So, hopefully you all who are reading my posts, got thru the first one. It was kind of long and I apologized, but before I get to my journal for fish keeping, I have to recap what lead me here in the first place. At least to my disorganized but OCD mind, I have to. Helps me keep things in perspective, and on the straight and narrow.
So, I left you last time with me deciding to stock my 5 gallon. And I didn't get a betta. As I was getting closer and closer to getting a puffer, I was also getting more and more nervous. I decided that I was going to put a Dwarf Puffer in my old betta tank. The tank was cycled, it had lots of decorations, and, I told myself, what better practice for getting a F8, than getting a Dwarf puffer (DP)? So we went to the LFS that night, and I picked out the most wiggly, happiest seeming one in the tank. We took him home, and put him in the tank, and I was talking to Denzil about a name. Jokingly, I suggested that we call him "PZ the pee wee" or PZ for short, as a joke to Denzil because at work, they call him "DZ." Eventually, the name stuck, and we (me mostly, Denzil enjoys him, but I get stupid with all my animals, aquatic or otherwise) were in love with him
After doing more reading on puffers, I noticed that PZ was super skinny, and not puffer looking at all. After asking around on the forum, I was advised to treat for internal parasites (IPs). Boy, that was a PITA (if you don't know that acronym, go google it, I won't spell it out). I didn't have the funds to buy Prazipro, a really expensive, but great treatment for IPs in puffers. So, I had to go out and be on the hunt for Jungle Tank buddies, the parasite clear. Now, instead of treating the water (like you do with Prazipro) you have to treat the food with the medications, and get it into the puffer. This is a royal PITA, as DPs are notoriously picky about their food (so I found out in the process and later after asking around on the forum for advice). AND I didn't mention this before, but I was also treating for ICH on PZ. This whole process was very stressful, but a great learning experience. After about 2 weeks or so (I can't remember the exact length of time now, I just know that if felt like YEARS), I was finally done treating for both Ich and IPs, and finally, PZ started to fill out and look like a puffer. After (s)he filled out and became more active, I was learning more about puffers. This is where he becomes a she. I believe, and I am not sure, as no one has confirmed this on the forum as of yet, PZ is a girl because of the markings. She doesn't have eye wrinkles, or stripes; she has spots.
--New tank--
So, after PZ is healthy, I am at Petco looking at fish stuff, and I noticed that they are having a sale on fish tanks (ft). It's $1 per gallon. Therefore a 10 gallon ft is only $10. After discussing it with Denzil, he said that I could get it to put PZ in it. Only thing I don't have is a nice filter, but I do have an old one, one that came with the 20 gallon tank (it was a nice filter, but it didn't have much in the way for bio media, but it's a perfect back up). So I set up the 10 gallon with the gravel, the plants,decorations and the water from the 5 gallon, and I transferred PZ over. Boy, she really enjoyed the extra space. It was also easier keeping the tank clean. It wasn't so small and the waste didn't build up as fast. So I had this set up for a couple of weeks, until I finally had some money saved up to buy fish tank decorations, and a new filter for PZ's tank (Amazon is a wonderful thing). So I buy the decorations for the 20 gallon, and some extra for the 10 gallon, and a new filter for PZ. Long story short, when swapping the filters on the 10 gallon, I didn't put enough of the biomedia over to the new filter (or what was supposed to be the biomedia in the old didn't have much of the bacteria), so PZ's tank started to cycle again..../facepalm (for those of you who play WoW, you should understand the /action.) So for the time being, I moved PZ into the 20 gallon and I am currently waiting for PZ's tank to recycle.
Today, on 10/13/2011 I tested the water, and I had excellent water parameters and I looked at the dreaded cleaning task before me. On TPF, the Queen Bee, Pufferpunk, suggested that I use 20% bleach and let me decorations and what not sit in the mixture overnight. Being relatively new, I worry about using any kinds of harsh chemicals around my fish. From what little I knew when I was a kid, that was a huge no-no, so it goes against the grain. Having said this, let me talk a minute about these people I have found on TPF.
The Puffer Fourm:
In my last sentence, in no way, shape or form was I not agreeing with the advice Pufferpunk gave. She has been keeping fish, puffers in particular, for many many years. I value her advice and everyone else's advice on there. I personally just don't feel comfortable around bleach, fish stuff or no fish stuff. Also, if I had bleach, I would have probably used it, once I looked in to it a bit more. However, I had a big enough pot, and water is always available, so I boiled instead. Anyways, back on topic. TPF has been a blessing. In no way can I describe the value it has proven to be a member of this forum. I have learned more about fish/puffer keeping in the last 3 months, than I have learned in my entire life, and all the information has been invaluable. Two members that I feel like I should mention is Xrayjeeper and sevenyearnight. These two members, along with everyone else have been super nice and helpful. I can mention so many others, J-P, Pufftastic, RTR, xvCody, Flutter, Reaperpilot and Bertie83 just to name a few off the top of my head. These people on this forum know what they are talking about, and are very good fish keepers. I wouldn't have an empty 60 gallon fish tank just waiting for a GSP without them. They have given me the disease MTS or multi tank syndrome. (I think that's what they call it, LOL). I went from having one 5 gallon fish tank, to currently, 4 tanks all together (thanks Xray). First I only wanted an F8, but then Freddy passed, so I got PZ. Then I just had to have a GSP (you would understand if you saw their unbelievably cute, adorable faces). Thank God Denzil loves the look the beautifully put together fish tanks add to our little cozy home.
With that little schpeal said, I finally, and I might add, in a fit of anger, attacked the algae in PZ's tank with a vengeance today. I scrubbed everything, and dipped it in boiling water instead of bleach. I hope that this works. We will see. Now I just have to catch tiny little PZ and put her in her home, once the water warms up.
My fit of anger mentioned above was due to circumstances in my life that was out of my hands. Unfortunately, when you love someone very much and care for their well being, it's very distressing to see them make the wrong decisions. However, I know that if she never makes the wrong decisions and doesn't learn for herself, she will keep on doing the same stupid mistake over and over again. I just wish she had learned the first time. I was willing to help out the first time, but due to tough love, she's on her own the second time. I can't uproot my life to go through drama again. I have enough drama of my own to keep up with. I don't need to add someone else's drama to my plate as well.
So PZ's water parameters are damn near perfect, so now I need to wait for the temp to stabilize and move her over. In the mean time, I have contacted Pufftastic to see about getting Luau shipped to me so I can introduce him into his tank which is cycled, warm and ready for him. I am really excited, and I feel good that she asked me if I wanted to adopt him since his tank mate is being a bit of a booger. It made me feel good about my puffer keeping skills, at least it is making me more confident.
Aside from that, I finally got my two dumb ghost shrimp out of my snail tank. I had a healthy snail population growing and now all I have are empty snail shells =( I need to restock and do a water change on the snail tank. Hopefully, it will kick start them in to breeding again. =)
Now that I have caught up on the history with my fish keeping experience, hopefully my blogs will be shorter. I am sure I can find stuff to write about however. I pushed these two out super fast so I can start my fish journal. Hope you enjoyed reading my experiences, maybe it will help others. Who knows. Until next time all, have a good one!
So, I left you last time with me deciding to stock my 5 gallon. And I didn't get a betta. As I was getting closer and closer to getting a puffer, I was also getting more and more nervous. I decided that I was going to put a Dwarf Puffer in my old betta tank. The tank was cycled, it had lots of decorations, and, I told myself, what better practice for getting a F8, than getting a Dwarf puffer (DP)? So we went to the LFS that night, and I picked out the most wiggly, happiest seeming one in the tank. We took him home, and put him in the tank, and I was talking to Denzil about a name. Jokingly, I suggested that we call him "PZ the pee wee" or PZ for short, as a joke to Denzil because at work, they call him "DZ." Eventually, the name stuck, and we (me mostly, Denzil enjoys him, but I get stupid with all my animals, aquatic or otherwise) were in love with him
After doing more reading on puffers, I noticed that PZ was super skinny, and not puffer looking at all. After asking around on the forum, I was advised to treat for internal parasites (IPs). Boy, that was a PITA (if you don't know that acronym, go google it, I won't spell it out). I didn't have the funds to buy Prazipro, a really expensive, but great treatment for IPs in puffers. So, I had to go out and be on the hunt for Jungle Tank buddies, the parasite clear. Now, instead of treating the water (like you do with Prazipro) you have to treat the food with the medications, and get it into the puffer. This is a royal PITA, as DPs are notoriously picky about their food (so I found out in the process and later after asking around on the forum for advice). AND I didn't mention this before, but I was also treating for ICH on PZ. This whole process was very stressful, but a great learning experience. After about 2 weeks or so (I can't remember the exact length of time now, I just know that if felt like YEARS), I was finally done treating for both Ich and IPs, and finally, PZ started to fill out and look like a puffer. After (s)he filled out and became more active, I was learning more about puffers. This is where he becomes a she. I believe, and I am not sure, as no one has confirmed this on the forum as of yet, PZ is a girl because of the markings. She doesn't have eye wrinkles, or stripes; she has spots.
--New tank--
So, after PZ is healthy, I am at Petco looking at fish stuff, and I noticed that they are having a sale on fish tanks (ft). It's $1 per gallon. Therefore a 10 gallon ft is only $10. After discussing it with Denzil, he said that I could get it to put PZ in it. Only thing I don't have is a nice filter, but I do have an old one, one that came with the 20 gallon tank (it was a nice filter, but it didn't have much in the way for bio media, but it's a perfect back up). So I set up the 10 gallon with the gravel, the plants,decorations and the water from the 5 gallon, and I transferred PZ over. Boy, she really enjoyed the extra space. It was also easier keeping the tank clean. It wasn't so small and the waste didn't build up as fast. So I had this set up for a couple of weeks, until I finally had some money saved up to buy fish tank decorations, and a new filter for PZ's tank (Amazon is a wonderful thing). So I buy the decorations for the 20 gallon, and some extra for the 10 gallon, and a new filter for PZ. Long story short, when swapping the filters on the 10 gallon, I didn't put enough of the biomedia over to the new filter (or what was supposed to be the biomedia in the old didn't have much of the bacteria), so PZ's tank started to cycle again..../facepalm (for those of you who play WoW, you should understand the /action.) So for the time being, I moved PZ into the 20 gallon and I am currently waiting for PZ's tank to recycle.
Today, on 10/13/2011 I tested the water, and I had excellent water parameters and I looked at the dreaded cleaning task before me. On TPF, the Queen Bee, Pufferpunk, suggested that I use 20% bleach and let me decorations and what not sit in the mixture overnight. Being relatively new, I worry about using any kinds of harsh chemicals around my fish. From what little I knew when I was a kid, that was a huge no-no, so it goes against the grain. Having said this, let me talk a minute about these people I have found on TPF.
The Puffer Fourm:
In my last sentence, in no way, shape or form was I not agreeing with the advice Pufferpunk gave. She has been keeping fish, puffers in particular, for many many years. I value her advice and everyone else's advice on there. I personally just don't feel comfortable around bleach, fish stuff or no fish stuff. Also, if I had bleach, I would have probably used it, once I looked in to it a bit more. However, I had a big enough pot, and water is always available, so I boiled instead. Anyways, back on topic. TPF has been a blessing. In no way can I describe the value it has proven to be a member of this forum. I have learned more about fish/puffer keeping in the last 3 months, than I have learned in my entire life, and all the information has been invaluable. Two members that I feel like I should mention is Xrayjeeper and sevenyearnight. These two members, along with everyone else have been super nice and helpful. I can mention so many others, J-P, Pufftastic, RTR, xvCody, Flutter, Reaperpilot and Bertie83 just to name a few off the top of my head. These people on this forum know what they are talking about, and are very good fish keepers. I wouldn't have an empty 60 gallon fish tank just waiting for a GSP without them. They have given me the disease MTS or multi tank syndrome. (I think that's what they call it, LOL). I went from having one 5 gallon fish tank, to currently, 4 tanks all together (thanks Xray). First I only wanted an F8, but then Freddy passed, so I got PZ. Then I just had to have a GSP (you would understand if you saw their unbelievably cute, adorable faces). Thank God Denzil loves the look the beautifully put together fish tanks add to our little cozy home.
With that little schpeal said, I finally, and I might add, in a fit of anger, attacked the algae in PZ's tank with a vengeance today. I scrubbed everything, and dipped it in boiling water instead of bleach. I hope that this works. We will see. Now I just have to catch tiny little PZ and put her in her home, once the water warms up.
My fit of anger mentioned above was due to circumstances in my life that was out of my hands. Unfortunately, when you love someone very much and care for their well being, it's very distressing to see them make the wrong decisions. However, I know that if she never makes the wrong decisions and doesn't learn for herself, she will keep on doing the same stupid mistake over and over again. I just wish she had learned the first time. I was willing to help out the first time, but due to tough love, she's on her own the second time. I can't uproot my life to go through drama again. I have enough drama of my own to keep up with. I don't need to add someone else's drama to my plate as well.
So PZ's water parameters are damn near perfect, so now I need to wait for the temp to stabilize and move her over. In the mean time, I have contacted Pufftastic to see about getting Luau shipped to me so I can introduce him into his tank which is cycled, warm and ready for him. I am really excited, and I feel good that she asked me if I wanted to adopt him since his tank mate is being a bit of a booger. It made me feel good about my puffer keeping skills, at least it is making me more confident.
Aside from that, I finally got my two dumb ghost shrimp out of my snail tank. I had a healthy snail population growing and now all I have are empty snail shells =( I need to restock and do a water change on the snail tank. Hopefully, it will kick start them in to breeding again. =)
Now that I have caught up on the history with my fish keeping experience, hopefully my blogs will be shorter. I am sure I can find stuff to write about however. I pushed these two out super fast so I can start my fish journal. Hope you enjoyed reading my experiences, maybe it will help others. Who knows. Until next time all, have a good one!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
My first blog ever.
So, I decided to start writing blogs. I hope to "eeemprove my eeenglish," (if anyone gets that reference) my grammar, and also keep a fish journal for myself and others when I link stuff to the forum. I am not sure how consistent I will be, or how often I will post, but hopefully, it's more often than not. So no grammar jokes or spelling corrections please. I know, I am working on it.
One of the biggest reasons I wanted to start, aside from all the technical stuff, is because of this new hobby that I have just recently gotten in to. I started to keep fish-- and not just any fish; I started to keep puffers.
I love fish, and I have always had a fascination with them since I was little. I remember once that I had a goldfish in a bowl on my night stand that mom and dad let me keep. I also remember wearing a colorful, striped long sleeve shirt on and picking up the fish, because it fascinated me. I remember the shirt because my mom knew I had picked up the fish because the shirt was wet. I also got into trouble because I tried to fib about it....
When Denzil and I moved into our first apartment together, one of the girls at work thought it would be awesome to get a "desk buddy." That desk buddy happened to be a betta. I thought that was a great idea, so I went out and got one too. I went to Petsmart with her, and grabbed a betta, a small tank and the necessities for him (or so I thought). On an impulse, while in the middle of reading the Harry Potter series again (like 9th time) I named the fish Freddy. And that is how Freddy the betta was introduced into my life.
I took him to work, and kept him fed and in clean water. He also was much more active when I was around. When school started, I wasn't there to feed him everyday, and after finding out there was someone at work (whom I couldn't stand....at ALL, I'm sure my coworkers can relate) was over feeding Freddy, I took him home and made him apart of our growing little family. I got him a 1 gallon tank, with a filter (so I didn't have to do water changes every other day) and to give him a bit more space. Well, Freddy had such personality, that I fell in love with him. I wanted to get him a bigger tank, and not knowing any better, I got him a 5 gallon Aqueon blue bow front aquarium. He was very happy. He greeted us every day, begged for food (in which he was quite proficient at) and you could tell he was happiest when Denzil and I were around. I know, it sounds really stupid. But finally, after wanting something more from a fish than just pretty colors, I had a fish that recognized me, was happy to see me, and seemingly loved me as much as I loved him. It was perfect.
After several happy months, Freddy's attitude seemed to change. He grew more listless, and looked more sad every day. I couldn't understand it. I thought he needed friends. So, stupidly enough, I went to Petsmart, and talked to someone who told me what tank mates that I could put in with Freddy. I decided on a guppy, a ghost shrimp, a an African Dwarf frog. I thought that this would help Freddy get out of his melancholy. I was so wrong. Freddy almost became named "Dexter." He started with the ghost shrimp, and picked off the tank mates one at a time. Not only that, he was so mad at me, he didn't dance in his tank when he saw me at all. Okay, so lesson learned. He still didn't act any better though. And it worried me. Well, after a couple months of not even thinking about it, I didn't worry about it. I did, but I didn't, as weird as it sounds. I had other stuff requiring my immediate attention, and as long as Freddy kept making his bubble nests, I knew he was doing good.
The day finally came that I noticed that Freddy stopped making these big, beautiful bubble nests. He also didn't move much at all. I also noticed that his once sleek belly, was HUGE and bulging. I went to the local fish store (LFS) and they told me that it was either dropsy or he was over fed. The lady told me though, that if it was dropsy, I was better off to euthanize him humanely, since dropsy caused a slow, long, drawn out death. Dropsy is a bacterial infection that effects a fish's kidneys, and causes a fish with scales to "pine cone." This means that the fish's scales stick out vertically from their body making them look like a pine cone. She sold me some meds, told me to treat the tank, and hope for the best. So treat and hope and pray I did. The day it came to do a water change, I lifted off the tank top, and looked down at my beautiful, blue betta. His scales had started to stick out. I was devastated. This means that I had to stick a bowl of water in the freezer, wait for it to start to ice over, then put him in there and "put him to sleep." The sudden change of water causes shock and organ failure in a fish. It was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do. It was heartbreaking.
Several days after this happened, I wanted to go to the LFS and look for another betta. Maybe. I just wanted to look to see what else was out there. We spent a good hour looking around, and nothing really caught my eye immediately. I keep looking and kept looking, and then suddenly, this small tank with all these fish were all of the sudden looking at me and wiggling. "What cute faces they have!" I thought to myself. So I read the tank and it said "Figure 8 Puffers" (F8) and "Green Spotted Puffers" (GSP). Even though I loved their faces, I kept looking around wanting something more colorful.
I went home that night empty handed, mulling over what I had seen that day. The more I thought about it, the more that the idea of puffers had caught my imagination. The next morning, I woke up and hurried to my computer. I immediately started to do research on the F8 and GSP. The GSP requires marine water (salt water or SW) conditions when full grown, and at least 45 gallons of water to be healthy, the F8 however, was fresh water (FW), but eventually needed brackish water (BW) to be healthy and live into their teens. Always eventually wanting a SW tank, I was intrigued at the idea of BW. It would be a great start to acclimate myself to the intense requirements of keeping a SW tank. After just getting a 20 gallon tank from a coworker from my stint at Ace, I was ready to forage into my new hobby. I just needed to do more research on these little guys before I did anything. That's how I found The Puffer Forum.
I joined the Puffer forum (TPF) and created a new topic ready to get any and all information about these little guys. I soon found out, however, that it might be months before I got my first one. I found out that puffers were a scale-less fish, and that they were super sensitive to the conditions of the water. In order for them to survive, I needed to have a tank that was "cycled." This means that I had to set up the tank, add a source of ammonia to the tank, and let the tank just sit there and run while the beneficial bacteria was establishing itself. This could take months! I was super disappointed, but I still wanted to learn and do things the right way, so I cleaned up the tank, bought the substrate, filled it up half way, and let it run. My ammonia source was the substrate that I put in. I got a bag of "live sand" which is supposed to "instant cycle" a tank with all the good bacteria in it. However, after asking around on the forum, I knew that these bags of "live sand" were nothing but bags of dead bacteria, and tons of ammonia (the bad stuff). However, I still liked the way it looked. I never had anything but the ordinary gravel as substrate, so having the crushed coral was intriguing. In hindsight, as I needed a source of ammonia to "fish-less cycle a tank," the ammonia in the tank turned out to be a blessing. It helped start the cycle in the tank for sure.
So the tank ran for a few months, and in those months, I hmmmed and hawwed about what decorations I wanted in the tank. After much discussion, with little help from Denzil (since he wasn't all that into it) we decided on a marine theme. All the decorations and plants that I wanted, though, were quite expensive all together. So I had to wait to save up money before I did anything. In the mean time however, I decided to get a little dwarf puffer for my 5 gallon.
I guess I will conclude this all here, or else I will loose your interest (if I haven't already). I will have more fish and life blogs to come, so keep a look out! I will pick up where I left off in my next one! =)
One of the biggest reasons I wanted to start, aside from all the technical stuff, is because of this new hobby that I have just recently gotten in to. I started to keep fish-- and not just any fish; I started to keep puffers.
I love fish, and I have always had a fascination with them since I was little. I remember once that I had a goldfish in a bowl on my night stand that mom and dad let me keep. I also remember wearing a colorful, striped long sleeve shirt on and picking up the fish, because it fascinated me. I remember the shirt because my mom knew I had picked up the fish because the shirt was wet. I also got into trouble because I tried to fib about it....
When Denzil and I moved into our first apartment together, one of the girls at work thought it would be awesome to get a "desk buddy." That desk buddy happened to be a betta. I thought that was a great idea, so I went out and got one too. I went to Petsmart with her, and grabbed a betta, a small tank and the necessities for him (or so I thought). On an impulse, while in the middle of reading the Harry Potter series again (like 9th time) I named the fish Freddy. And that is how Freddy the betta was introduced into my life.
I took him to work, and kept him fed and in clean water. He also was much more active when I was around. When school started, I wasn't there to feed him everyday, and after finding out there was someone at work (whom I couldn't stand....at ALL, I'm sure my coworkers can relate) was over feeding Freddy, I took him home and made him apart of our growing little family. I got him a 1 gallon tank, with a filter (so I didn't have to do water changes every other day) and to give him a bit more space. Well, Freddy had such personality, that I fell in love with him. I wanted to get him a bigger tank, and not knowing any better, I got him a 5 gallon Aqueon blue bow front aquarium. He was very happy. He greeted us every day, begged for food (in which he was quite proficient at) and you could tell he was happiest when Denzil and I were around. I know, it sounds really stupid. But finally, after wanting something more from a fish than just pretty colors, I had a fish that recognized me, was happy to see me, and seemingly loved me as much as I loved him. It was perfect.
After several happy months, Freddy's attitude seemed to change. He grew more listless, and looked more sad every day. I couldn't understand it. I thought he needed friends. So, stupidly enough, I went to Petsmart, and talked to someone who told me what tank mates that I could put in with Freddy. I decided on a guppy, a ghost shrimp, a an African Dwarf frog. I thought that this would help Freddy get out of his melancholy. I was so wrong. Freddy almost became named "Dexter." He started with the ghost shrimp, and picked off the tank mates one at a time. Not only that, he was so mad at me, he didn't dance in his tank when he saw me at all. Okay, so lesson learned. He still didn't act any better though. And it worried me. Well, after a couple months of not even thinking about it, I didn't worry about it. I did, but I didn't, as weird as it sounds. I had other stuff requiring my immediate attention, and as long as Freddy kept making his bubble nests, I knew he was doing good.
The day finally came that I noticed that Freddy stopped making these big, beautiful bubble nests. He also didn't move much at all. I also noticed that his once sleek belly, was HUGE and bulging. I went to the local fish store (LFS) and they told me that it was either dropsy or he was over fed. The lady told me though, that if it was dropsy, I was better off to euthanize him humanely, since dropsy caused a slow, long, drawn out death. Dropsy is a bacterial infection that effects a fish's kidneys, and causes a fish with scales to "pine cone." This means that the fish's scales stick out vertically from their body making them look like a pine cone. She sold me some meds, told me to treat the tank, and hope for the best. So treat and hope and pray I did. The day it came to do a water change, I lifted off the tank top, and looked down at my beautiful, blue betta. His scales had started to stick out. I was devastated. This means that I had to stick a bowl of water in the freezer, wait for it to start to ice over, then put him in there and "put him to sleep." The sudden change of water causes shock and organ failure in a fish. It was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do. It was heartbreaking.
Several days after this happened, I wanted to go to the LFS and look for another betta. Maybe. I just wanted to look to see what else was out there. We spent a good hour looking around, and nothing really caught my eye immediately. I keep looking and kept looking, and then suddenly, this small tank with all these fish were all of the sudden looking at me and wiggling. "What cute faces they have!" I thought to myself. So I read the tank and it said "Figure 8 Puffers" (F8) and "Green Spotted Puffers" (GSP). Even though I loved their faces, I kept looking around wanting something more colorful.
I went home that night empty handed, mulling over what I had seen that day. The more I thought about it, the more that the idea of puffers had caught my imagination. The next morning, I woke up and hurried to my computer. I immediately started to do research on the F8 and GSP. The GSP requires marine water (salt water or SW) conditions when full grown, and at least 45 gallons of water to be healthy, the F8 however, was fresh water (FW), but eventually needed brackish water (BW) to be healthy and live into their teens. Always eventually wanting a SW tank, I was intrigued at the idea of BW. It would be a great start to acclimate myself to the intense requirements of keeping a SW tank. After just getting a 20 gallon tank from a coworker from my stint at Ace, I was ready to forage into my new hobby. I just needed to do more research on these little guys before I did anything. That's how I found The Puffer Forum.
I joined the Puffer forum (TPF) and created a new topic ready to get any and all information about these little guys. I soon found out, however, that it might be months before I got my first one. I found out that puffers were a scale-less fish, and that they were super sensitive to the conditions of the water. In order for them to survive, I needed to have a tank that was "cycled." This means that I had to set up the tank, add a source of ammonia to the tank, and let the tank just sit there and run while the beneficial bacteria was establishing itself. This could take months! I was super disappointed, but I still wanted to learn and do things the right way, so I cleaned up the tank, bought the substrate, filled it up half way, and let it run. My ammonia source was the substrate that I put in. I got a bag of "live sand" which is supposed to "instant cycle" a tank with all the good bacteria in it. However, after asking around on the forum, I knew that these bags of "live sand" were nothing but bags of dead bacteria, and tons of ammonia (the bad stuff). However, I still liked the way it looked. I never had anything but the ordinary gravel as substrate, so having the crushed coral was intriguing. In hindsight, as I needed a source of ammonia to "fish-less cycle a tank," the ammonia in the tank turned out to be a blessing. It helped start the cycle in the tank for sure.
So the tank ran for a few months, and in those months, I hmmmed and hawwed about what decorations I wanted in the tank. After much discussion, with little help from Denzil (since he wasn't all that into it) we decided on a marine theme. All the decorations and plants that I wanted, though, were quite expensive all together. So I had to wait to save up money before I did anything. In the mean time however, I decided to get a little dwarf puffer for my 5 gallon.
I guess I will conclude this all here, or else I will loose your interest (if I haven't already). I will have more fish and life blogs to come, so keep a look out! I will pick up where I left off in my next one! =)
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