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! =)
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