Here we go...
Before going onward to fishiness - seriously. How sad is it that I have to use the Help to look up how to make an LJ-cut every single goddamned time I do one? I swear.
Anway, I has fishies.
In order to get everything covered, we go back several months: I was down to my original Black Moor and the Pearlscale from my second pair of fish, two of the four I'd intended to be my babies. For my birthday, my sister purchased the lovely little Ryukin who looked a lot like the one I'd had pass away. I started him up in the quarantine tank, so everything was going well.
(There's the new Ryukin!)
(Note all the algae. It's ugly, but all the reliable goldfish books recommend leaving it alone. My little guys love nibbling on it, so I put up with the uglies.)
A couple of days before he was slated to move to the main tank (after a month's quarantine), I drove up to visit my parents. My mum and I were doing a bit of shopping and she wanted to go to PetSmart. While there, I saw an Oranda in their large fish tank who was absolutely gorgeous.
I was in love with his (her? - eh, I'll stick to male pronouns) colour, finnage, wiggly personality, everything. I'd actually been thinking of purchasing a goldfish or two from a breeder via the internet, so the $25 price tag wasn't particularly concerning to me. Still - I had a fish already in the quarantine tank. I was already considering some fish from the website. The Oranda was much bigger than my other fish. I didn't need to haul a fish over an hour in the car. It just didn't seem like the best idea. With heart full of regret, I left the shop and drove home.
Then I drove my ass back up the following day and bought me a goddamn fish.
This fish does not bloody stay still, and the lighting in the quarantine tank is crap. Sadly, this means crap photos.
Around that time, I also started transitioning to a bare-bottom tank - with the exception of shiny jewels. I swear, I thought I'd done a lot of reading before I started up, but as time went on, I realized how much more I needed to learn. Apparently sand is a fairly crappy substrate for goldfish (which I'd originally only put in because I wanted to get some loaches, before electing to go strictly goldfish) and the small gravel becomes a problem as they get bigger.
(Part-way through the process.)
Getting all the sand out proved to be the biggest problem. I used a small bowl to scoop out gravel & sand, then dumped the mixture into a strainer that was partially submersed in a bucket of water. That let me sift the sand out of the gravel to separate the two. Afterward, I'd pour the water off the top of the bucket, then scoop the sand into a separate bucket for storage. A lot of sand floated away from me, so I had to suction the rest up with each tank cleaning. It was an enormous pain, but I eventually got there.
All that time, I never really found myself using the names I'd picked. After having two fish die, the name scheme just seemed too...broken. I was getting new fish and I was out of theme-names I really liked. As much as it felt wrong to change names, I knew it was what I wanted to do. The Ryukin is Rosencrantz, the Moor is Guildenstern. The Pearlscale is Falstaff. The new Oranda became Oberon.
Oberon might have the right idea by not staying still for photographs. He looks much better in action, anyway.
Well, the month of quarantine went by without problems. Oberon was ready to move in to the main tank.
Oberon & co..
Initially, he flattened out at the bottom and looked really stressed, but within about 15-20 minutes he was swimming around, exploring the tank...and pestering Falstaff. I was a little worried, but everything seemed OK that night. The following morning, I left for work with the hope that my little guys would sort out all their issues and get along.
Come lunch time, I came home to find Falstaff hiding away at the opposite end of the tank, but apparently active. I was running late and in a bit of a rush, so I took that as a good sign and ate my lunch. Only a few minutes before I had to leave, he finally turned around and swam the other way...
Oberon is an asshole.
Falstaff has one eye. One eye.
Oberon got his ass booted back into quarantine. The worst part? I had to get back to work, so I couldn't even move him until that night. I was so worried I'd come home to find Falstaff entirely eyeless, but he'd apparently learned how to avoid any further eye-suckage.
So there we are.
Falstaff does great with one eye. He's a real trooper. Aside from occasional episodes of floating oddly - which improves with some delicious green peaness - he's a hardy little fellow. His pearls are coming in really nicely.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are doing pretty well, also. Neither of them photograph very well, though. I'm still struggling to find a way to get decent shots of either of them.
Guildenstern's been worrying me for the past few days. He's developed an odd tattered edge to his dorsal & caudal fins, which you can see a bit of in the above image. The water parameters test out fine and nobody else has the issue. I never see anyone picking on him, so I'm not sure what to make of it. He still acts like his normal self, anyway, so I keep working on the water in the hopes he'll get better. He's had a few little fin-splits in the past and they've always healed.
Oberon is still in the quarantine tank. I bought a new tank just for him, but it's turning out to be something of a project, which I'll go into later. Sadly, this means he's all alone in the little tank, but he seems pretty good about it all. I'm really hoping to get him some better living quarters soon. Even if he is an eye-sucky jerk, he's still gorgeous and he's a really fun fish. I hand feed him and he sucks on my fingers while I clean the tank. He's just...hungry.
So that's all I've got to say about fish for the moment.
Sort of tucked in at the bottom, but I've been toying with the idea of making a fairly serious post. I'm not sure if the internet's the best place to put it out there, especially as it's something I've never talked about with anyone, but I just feel like I need to get it off my chest and into words. I'll probably sleep on it another night or two, but maybe. So I apologize in advance if I go and get serious and crap.
Well...that's all for now. I needs me some sleep.
Anway, I has fishies.
In order to get everything covered, we go back several months: I was down to my original Black Moor and the Pearlscale from my second pair of fish, two of the four I'd intended to be my babies. For my birthday, my sister purchased the lovely little Ryukin who looked a lot like the one I'd had pass away. I started him up in the quarantine tank, so everything was going well.
(There's the new Ryukin!)
(Note all the algae. It's ugly, but all the reliable goldfish books recommend leaving it alone. My little guys love nibbling on it, so I put up with the uglies.)
A couple of days before he was slated to move to the main tank (after a month's quarantine), I drove up to visit my parents. My mum and I were doing a bit of shopping and she wanted to go to PetSmart. While there, I saw an Oranda in their large fish tank who was absolutely gorgeous.
I was in love with his (her? - eh, I'll stick to male pronouns) colour, finnage, wiggly personality, everything. I'd actually been thinking of purchasing a goldfish or two from a breeder via the internet, so the $25 price tag wasn't particularly concerning to me. Still - I had a fish already in the quarantine tank. I was already considering some fish from the website. The Oranda was much bigger than my other fish. I didn't need to haul a fish over an hour in the car. It just didn't seem like the best idea. With heart full of regret, I left the shop and drove home.
Then I drove my ass back up the following day and bought me a goddamn fish.
This fish does not bloody stay still, and the lighting in the quarantine tank is crap. Sadly, this means crap photos.
Around that time, I also started transitioning to a bare-bottom tank - with the exception of shiny jewels. I swear, I thought I'd done a lot of reading before I started up, but as time went on, I realized how much more I needed to learn. Apparently sand is a fairly crappy substrate for goldfish (which I'd originally only put in because I wanted to get some loaches, before electing to go strictly goldfish) and the small gravel becomes a problem as they get bigger.
(Part-way through the process.)
Getting all the sand out proved to be the biggest problem. I used a small bowl to scoop out gravel & sand, then dumped the mixture into a strainer that was partially submersed in a bucket of water. That let me sift the sand out of the gravel to separate the two. Afterward, I'd pour the water off the top of the bucket, then scoop the sand into a separate bucket for storage. A lot of sand floated away from me, so I had to suction the rest up with each tank cleaning. It was an enormous pain, but I eventually got there.
All that time, I never really found myself using the names I'd picked. After having two fish die, the name scheme just seemed too...broken. I was getting new fish and I was out of theme-names I really liked. As much as it felt wrong to change names, I knew it was what I wanted to do. The Ryukin is Rosencrantz, the Moor is Guildenstern. The Pearlscale is Falstaff. The new Oranda became Oberon.
Oberon might have the right idea by not staying still for photographs. He looks much better in action, anyway.
Well, the month of quarantine went by without problems. Oberon was ready to move in to the main tank.
Oberon & co..
Initially, he flattened out at the bottom and looked really stressed, but within about 15-20 minutes he was swimming around, exploring the tank...and pestering Falstaff. I was a little worried, but everything seemed OK that night. The following morning, I left for work with the hope that my little guys would sort out all their issues and get along.
Come lunch time, I came home to find Falstaff hiding away at the opposite end of the tank, but apparently active. I was running late and in a bit of a rush, so I took that as a good sign and ate my lunch. Only a few minutes before I had to leave, he finally turned around and swam the other way...
Oberon is an asshole.
Falstaff has one eye. One eye.
Oberon got his ass booted back into quarantine. The worst part? I had to get back to work, so I couldn't even move him until that night. I was so worried I'd come home to find Falstaff entirely eyeless, but he'd apparently learned how to avoid any further eye-suckage.
So there we are.
Falstaff does great with one eye. He's a real trooper. Aside from occasional episodes of floating oddly - which improves with some delicious green peaness - he's a hardy little fellow. His pearls are coming in really nicely.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are doing pretty well, also. Neither of them photograph very well, though. I'm still struggling to find a way to get decent shots of either of them.
Guildenstern's been worrying me for the past few days. He's developed an odd tattered edge to his dorsal & caudal fins, which you can see a bit of in the above image. The water parameters test out fine and nobody else has the issue. I never see anyone picking on him, so I'm not sure what to make of it. He still acts like his normal self, anyway, so I keep working on the water in the hopes he'll get better. He's had a few little fin-splits in the past and they've always healed.
Oberon is still in the quarantine tank. I bought a new tank just for him, but it's turning out to be something of a project, which I'll go into later. Sadly, this means he's all alone in the little tank, but he seems pretty good about it all. I'm really hoping to get him some better living quarters soon. Even if he is an eye-sucky jerk, he's still gorgeous and he's a really fun fish. I hand feed him and he sucks on my fingers while I clean the tank. He's just...hungry.
So that's all I've got to say about fish for the moment.
Sort of tucked in at the bottom, but I've been toying with the idea of making a fairly serious post. I'm not sure if the internet's the best place to put it out there, especially as it's something I've never talked about with anyone, but I just feel like I need to get it off my chest and into words. I'll probably sleep on it another night or two, but maybe. So I apologize in advance if I go and get serious and crap.
Well...that's all for now. I needs me some sleep.