Anyone want to play a game of "scientist" or "a game of 'help me or the eel dies!'"?
When I moved into my new apartment it was decorated by discarded bits of the roommate I was replacing. Old dirty fishtanks, dead potted plants, large bags of sand, a bedroom with a distinct the-socks-have-taken-over-run-for-your-life-funk, but perhaps the most interesting to me (other than the headless white tiger sculpture) was the man-made lake he left in the living room.
Basically, it's a 30 gallon tank that's been converted to a biosphere (bio-cube?...eh you know what I mean). When I moved the entire tank wall was covered with a dark dark green super-thick algea. Everyone thought the old roommate gave the fish inside of it away when he gave his other fish away. The old roommie was a marine biologist of sorts, always coming home with some new animal in a bucket. This lake was made of all different things he had found, from snails to plants to guppies...to the eel.
I call it an eel, because I don't know any better. It's about 8 inches long, slightly devious looking in it's swimming style, and I totally think its' the coolest, smartest fish I've ever meet.
When I moved in the tank hadn't been paid anymind for two weeks. Nothing inside had been fed. We were all really surprised when I started to scrap the algea to find the old roomie had forgotten about "the lake" entirely. Leaving it to die.
Now that I've named everything in it (including all 30 guppies...which are now down to 1) I really need to find out how to properly take care of Emilio, Knife-fight, Larry, Balki, Mytwodads, and The Guppy That Made a Pact With the Devil.
Can any of you identify these fish? They are all freshwater. I need to get me some books to find out how to care for them, but it's hard when I don't know what kind of fish they are. (I didn't get a good picture of Knife-fight the knifefish, particularly because I am pretty sure what kind of fish he is. Also, he's crazy fast!)
Here's Emilio the Maybe-an-Eel-io...
He loves the camera.
Emilio showing off a little tail (he's about eight inches long total, with little spikey fins down his whole back, which makes me think he's probably not an eel)
I think he wants to be a movie star. He would have been great in Jaws Four: The One With Without that Pesky "Plot" Thing
Larry and Balki are not amused...
The Headless Tiger guards the Lake.
I'm super worried because Emilio doesn't seem to be eating anything I've tried, and is getting more and more lethargic. Also they don't have any sort of a filter, and I'm not sure how often to change the water, etc, the water is SUPER murky at this point. Also also, there is an ridiculous number of snails in the lake. I don't know what I should do about them. Also also also I think Mytwodads is secretly plotting to kill me...maybe because I gave him such a crappy name...
EDIT: Wait! I think I just figured out what Emilio is!