I am on strike today. I’m not doing nothing. (Double negative, take that English grammar.) Fair warning: below is a personal post rambling about my fish tanks. No book information whatsoever.
Last Christmas Kid 2 gifted me a 10 gallon fish tank. It’s been 30 years since I had one, so I was a bit dubious about it, but I read up on fish keeping, watched some videos, and set it up.
I wanted a planted tank, so I got some plants and some rocks and let it cycle. Look, my anubia is trying to flower.
And a tiny shrimp.
Shortly after, while I was deciding what I wanted to put into my tank, Kid 2 called with a report that she was in Petsmart and there was a male beta fish that had to be rescued from his confinement in a tiny jar.
The sad beta was purchased and name Blaze in hopes that he would one day feel better and be his beautiful self.
Blaze is a very lazy betta. He is well fed. He has a lot of leaves to lay on and a little plastic hammock to sleep in.
Shortly after Blaze arrived, I had gotten another tank because I wanted to have neocaridinia shrimp. I put a few of them in Blaze’s tank to help with algae. Bettas are predators, but I thought they were too large for him to hunt. The shrimps had promptly decided that this environment was great for spawning.
Blaze is so lazy, that he doesn’t even chase after tiny baby shrimp. He is so lazy that it took me 10 minutes to get the video below because he just could not be bothered to swim. But I persevered.
It’s been 8 months now. Behold, Blaze, the most beautiful fish in the universe.
I mentioned that I have gotten the second tank. For my shrimp. You can see how Blaze’s tank is a beautiful, orderly underwater spot? That’s because at some point I realized that I needed to actually aquascape and redid it. The shrimp tank is still in its original form.
This is Shrimperton.
It is a lawless place filled with probably about 80 shrimp at this point. I’ve made every mistake I could: I overplanted, I planted without a plan, I bought random shrimp colors and put them all together, which means they are crossbreeding and slowly turning brown… I am giving shrimp away at this point, because they keep spawning. You do not want to see what happens when they get broccoli.
I am going to remake Shrimperton. I am going to buy a bigger tank, I am going to figure out how to set it up, and yeah. I just have complete decision paralysis when it comes to figuring out how to set it up. I keep looking at pretty videos and changing my mind. Meanwhile, my shrimp are multiplying.
Do you keep fish?
But does Blaze dance to ease your soul?
First!
#jazzfins!!!
😄🤗
Thank you for sharing, Ilona! Blaze is gorgeous and seems quite proud of his tail (and rightfully so!). 🤩
Shrimperton🤣 We made the same mistake with turtles. Have fun whatever you decide to do
thank you for sharing
Blaze is beautiful
No fish tank for me, thank you, too much work. I tried it once when my children were little and my oldest (three years old,) turned up the heat for the tank and cooked them all. That was my last attempt. Poor things, good that I’m out of it I guess!
Fish tanks are very pretty, but I can’t shake the memory of holding a 60 gallon tank from toppling over while half nekked in the middle of the night during the Northridge earthquake of ’94.
I love the balance you have of chaos and control with your two fishy environments. They will be the best cared for fish in the region!
the last pet fish I had, I “won” it at the county fair. this was decades ago. I put it in a large glass mug. my cat spent her days staring at the mug and swiping her paw into the water. no worries, the fish survived the swipes and eventually died a natural fish death.
You have peeked my curiosity about the effects of broccoli. We had fish when I was a kid, and they included guppies. An ever increasing number of guppies.
oh, the childhood memories.. as long as I had a few tiger barbs, no babies of any other species survived for more than five miliseconds 😀
and we definitely want to see the broccoli massacre! it’s halloween soon…
My roommate in college had a fish tank with a variety of fish in it. It was great for insomnia – I would sit in the recliner in the dark listening to the bubbler and looking at the blue glow of the tank light….zzzzzz
Good luck with the Shrimperton tank redo!
In my youth I worked at a large pet store in Cambridge. I learned a lot about fish, reptiles, birds, and various mammals. I did have several fish tanks in my life. The one I enjoyed the most was guppies and live plants, low stress. I too would save a beta when one of those sad lonely dudes in a cup called to me. I can’t remember ever seeing one as pretty as yours.
I love your tanks. Obviously, so do the shrimp.
Blaze is beautiful! Wow. My nephew has a huge fish tank and I feed his betas and catfish when he is on vacation. I find myself just standing there watching them, so mesmerizing and restful. I think every doctor’s office should have a tank And definitely Dentists need one!
An Oranda goldfish named Ed and mystery snails! The snails are very cool to watch, come in a bunch of colors. I was told that conditions had to be pretty perfect for them to breed, and unlikely to happen, HA! Baby snails everywhere all the time. Luckily Ed eats what fits in Ed’s mouth, so no overpopulation just a chonky goldfish.
I love your spirit so much! And Blaze and your tanks are awesome
Yes, I do, platies. I too went with a living landscape. Blaze is gorgeous. I like your wild tank
My cats are fascinated. They love to cozy up to the warm tank and take a nap.
WOW, your beta is really beautiful. I’ve never seen one with that kind of tail. I applaud your tank and how his laziness made him so very pretty. and the shrimp. That’s great. I had a tank when I was a kid and hated cleaning it with the passion of 1000 suns. Hated it. With all my heart. Yuck.
Shrimperton. That sounds like a name of a town in a future short story or book.
Blaze is beautiful. Love the music that went with Blaze as he’s escaping into the foliage.
Good luck with the ever expanding shrimp population and the tank they’re in.
Blaze is beautiful and lucky to have been rescued. Shrimp are funny little things. As I was reading about Shrimperton, I remembered Declan’s discussion with George. 😳
Blaze is beautiful!
Jazz fins!
I had a tank in middle school until I Windexed the exterior and caused the demise of my fish. Alas.
We sort of keep fish in our cattle tanks. We have put trout in there, catfish, crappie and I think now gold fish (these are contained, not river fed tanks and very large.) The hawks figured out there were trout in them and sat on the edge until the trout wandered close to the surface. Gulp and gone. The catfish got quite large. Huge, in fact. But some type of bird figured out the catfish also come to the top now and then. The catfish were plucked from the tank and picked clean. Catfish have very weird skeletons and it took us a while to determine that the catfish skeletons were not, in fact, chupacabra. Or sand demons. Or some kind of land shark/ferret cross left in the sand to threaten the cattle. So I’m not sure if we keep fish or not. We sometimes HAVE fish. We sometimes have skeletons.
I really want some beta I adore them but right now I have 6 kids, 2 bunnies and too many plants. maybe when my kids are older.
can I has shrimp? I have cherries but how cool would it be to have shrimp fromy favorite author duo 🤣🤣🤣. I have room for more!
I know several people have said #jazzfins, but the beta fish shoild be filmed woth doothing music ! I would buy that video! 🎏🐟
also if you need to slow down the reproduction of the shrimp you can lower the temp!
When they get broccoli, so they make deathane gas and explode, lol? (That’s a references to Peaches in Montague and Strong series by Orlando Bloom)
Orlando Sanchez, not Bloom! I don’t know what happened because I was picturing the hellhound but Legolas just typed out of my fingers…)