Update on Goldfish and Bettas
My newest goldfish, Annie and Reggie (who I've started to call "the Twins" since they're exactly the same size), moved into the 55-gallon tank with Benny and Maggie last night. They had been in the 10-gallon quarantine tank for many weeks now, and, despite coming from the dreaded Wal-Mart, they seem totally healthy (and psycho, hungry, friendly, etc.) I scooped up Annie first in an old AquaDine pail and poured her into the big tank. Reggie was a bit harder to catch, but I eventually managed to transfer him the same way.
They were both terrified at first, partly because they suddenly found themselves in a new, huge tank, and partly because the fish who were already there were huuuuuuuge. Annie was the most freaked out, but Reggie was skittish, too. When Benny first saw Annie he bolted away and ran into the filter pipe, but he soon realized it was just another fish and pretty much lost interest. He's had Maggie all along so he's not lonely, so new fish aren't a big deal to him.
Maggie, however, has seemed kind of bored with only big ol' Benny for company. When she realized that there were two new playmates in the tank she started following them around, trying to make friends. Unfortunately at the time the Twins were still too scared of her to socialize.
It was hilarious. It was like:
MAGGIE: OMG HI! Who are you? I'm Maggie! Let's be friends!! :D
REGGIE: AAAH, GIANT RYUKIN!!! D:
MAGGIE: Hi! Can we be friends? Where are you going? :D
ANNIE: EEEEEK! GIANT RYUKIN!!! D:
Bwahaha! I laughed so hard! Poor Maggie just innocently kept following the little ones around, and they were wiggling as fast as they could to avoid her. XD
Today they have apparently decided that Maggie isn't too terrifying, but they're still a bit shy with her. They don't flee in terror when she's nearby, though, which is good! Heehee... They've mostly been staying out of Benny's way, and Benny doesn't seem to really notice that they're around. The Twins have spent most of the afternoon bottomfeeding. They didn't have gravel in their quarantine tank, so I suppose it's a treat for them to do. Feeding time last night was about an hour after they moved into the 55-gallon, and it was the first time Annie really came out from behind the plants to go around in the open. Ah, food, ever the way to a goldfish's heart. ;)
On one hand I'm sorry that they aren't in the 10-gallon tank anymore because they were SO insane and friendly in there, frantically running into each other and the glass to greet anyone who came near. Now that they're in the big tank the dynamic has changed and right now they're still really skittish so they don't come over to say hello at all. However, I know they'll adjust and will be friendly again, just probably not quite as hyper/psycho as they were, since they have more to do and other fish to interact with. And a 10-gallon tank isn't nearly big enough for them in the long term, either, of course. With frequent water changes they'd have been fine in there for months yet, but they really did need more room to swoop and swim.
Speaking of water changes, my siphon broke just as I was finishing the 55-gallon yesterday afternoon. Ack! It's a Python brand system that screws directly onto the kitchen sink's faucet, eliminating the need for buckets, and I can't maintain my tanks without it. This is the second one I've had in the almost ten years that I've had fish, so they last quite a few years, but they're not cheap to replace. Somewhere in the $75 neighborhood. I tried to get the apparatus back together with duct tape but it still leaked too much to use. Phooey. So I have to go shopping for a new siphon ASAP.
Meanwhile, I got new bettas last Friday. Lily, the white female betta who had lived on the end table between the TV and the recliner in the living room since right around Easter 2010, passed on a few weeks ago. Female bettas tend to be shorter-lived than the males, and the males only live around 2 years, so...yeah. I felt sad to lose her but it wasn't unexpected. (Pierre, my current kitchen fishie, is very old, too, but so far he's hanging in there.) I went to PetCo and picked out another female betta, a little whitish-pink one with a pinkish-red tail. She seemed healthy when I bought her and brought her home, but within a few hours she kind of went comatose on me. She just hung at the water line, not reacting to anything I said or did. She never ate a bite of food, and after six days she died. I never got a chance to know her, so I didn't grieve, exactly, but I did feel kind of like a failure because there wasn't anything I could do for her. At first I thought maybe something I had put in the tank as a decoration was making her sick, but aside from a tiny terracotta flower pot that had been in my fish-decoration-drawer for a couple years everything in there was either brand-new, or hand-me-down from Lily. So it was just one of those things, I guess. I had named my short-lived little girl Petunia, since that's the name of Lily's sister in Harry Potter, and I had a history of naming female bettas after flowers.
So it was back to the fish stores to find another betta. I happened to look at Petsmart first just because we were on that side of the highway (PetCo and Petsmart are right across the interstate from each other, out by the mall.) I quickly fell in love with a tiny, light pink female with aqua fins...and a young male with a pastel pink/purple body and darker purple fins. >_< Unable to decide between them, and seeing that 1.5-gallon desktop aquarium kits were on sale for $19...I got them both.
A very active and friendly Penelope is now swimming amid fake plants and Greek columns in a 1.5-gallon tank on my computer desk, and Scooter made himself right at home in Lily's old tank on the end table, blowing a bubble nest the very first night he was here. ^_^
It probably won't be too long before old Pierre leaves us, at which time these two can each upgrade a tank size and the 1.5-gallon tank can go into storage for the next time I meet a betta that I just can't live without. ;)
Thus I find myself the caretaker of TEN fish for the first time ever: Pierre, Scooter and Penelope the bettas, and Benny, Maggie, Shelley, Louie, Polly, Annie and Reggie the goldfish. 0_o
They were both terrified at first, partly because they suddenly found themselves in a new, huge tank, and partly because the fish who were already there were huuuuuuuge. Annie was the most freaked out, but Reggie was skittish, too. When Benny first saw Annie he bolted away and ran into the filter pipe, but he soon realized it was just another fish and pretty much lost interest. He's had Maggie all along so he's not lonely, so new fish aren't a big deal to him.
Maggie, however, has seemed kind of bored with only big ol' Benny for company. When she realized that there were two new playmates in the tank she started following them around, trying to make friends. Unfortunately at the time the Twins were still too scared of her to socialize.
It was hilarious. It was like:
MAGGIE: OMG HI! Who are you? I'm Maggie! Let's be friends!! :D
REGGIE: AAAH, GIANT RYUKIN!!! D:
MAGGIE: Hi! Can we be friends? Where are you going? :D
ANNIE: EEEEEK! GIANT RYUKIN!!! D:
Bwahaha! I laughed so hard! Poor Maggie just innocently kept following the little ones around, and they were wiggling as fast as they could to avoid her. XD
Today they have apparently decided that Maggie isn't too terrifying, but they're still a bit shy with her. They don't flee in terror when she's nearby, though, which is good! Heehee... They've mostly been staying out of Benny's way, and Benny doesn't seem to really notice that they're around. The Twins have spent most of the afternoon bottomfeeding. They didn't have gravel in their quarantine tank, so I suppose it's a treat for them to do. Feeding time last night was about an hour after they moved into the 55-gallon, and it was the first time Annie really came out from behind the plants to go around in the open. Ah, food, ever the way to a goldfish's heart. ;)
On one hand I'm sorry that they aren't in the 10-gallon tank anymore because they were SO insane and friendly in there, frantically running into each other and the glass to greet anyone who came near. Now that they're in the big tank the dynamic has changed and right now they're still really skittish so they don't come over to say hello at all. However, I know they'll adjust and will be friendly again, just probably not quite as hyper/psycho as they were, since they have more to do and other fish to interact with. And a 10-gallon tank isn't nearly big enough for them in the long term, either, of course. With frequent water changes they'd have been fine in there for months yet, but they really did need more room to swoop and swim.
Speaking of water changes, my siphon broke just as I was finishing the 55-gallon yesterday afternoon. Ack! It's a Python brand system that screws directly onto the kitchen sink's faucet, eliminating the need for buckets, and I can't maintain my tanks without it. This is the second one I've had in the almost ten years that I've had fish, so they last quite a few years, but they're not cheap to replace. Somewhere in the $75 neighborhood. I tried to get the apparatus back together with duct tape but it still leaked too much to use. Phooey. So I have to go shopping for a new siphon ASAP.
Meanwhile, I got new bettas last Friday. Lily, the white female betta who had lived on the end table between the TV and the recliner in the living room since right around Easter 2010, passed on a few weeks ago. Female bettas tend to be shorter-lived than the males, and the males only live around 2 years, so...yeah. I felt sad to lose her but it wasn't unexpected. (Pierre, my current kitchen fishie, is very old, too, but so far he's hanging in there.) I went to PetCo and picked out another female betta, a little whitish-pink one with a pinkish-red tail. She seemed healthy when I bought her and brought her home, but within a few hours she kind of went comatose on me. She just hung at the water line, not reacting to anything I said or did. She never ate a bite of food, and after six days she died. I never got a chance to know her, so I didn't grieve, exactly, but I did feel kind of like a failure because there wasn't anything I could do for her. At first I thought maybe something I had put in the tank as a decoration was making her sick, but aside from a tiny terracotta flower pot that had been in my fish-decoration-drawer for a couple years everything in there was either brand-new, or hand-me-down from Lily. So it was just one of those things, I guess. I had named my short-lived little girl Petunia, since that's the name of Lily's sister in Harry Potter, and I had a history of naming female bettas after flowers.
So it was back to the fish stores to find another betta. I happened to look at Petsmart first just because we were on that side of the highway (PetCo and Petsmart are right across the interstate from each other, out by the mall.) I quickly fell in love with a tiny, light pink female with aqua fins...and a young male with a pastel pink/purple body and darker purple fins. >_< Unable to decide between them, and seeing that 1.5-gallon desktop aquarium kits were on sale for $19...I got them both.
A very active and friendly Penelope is now swimming amid fake plants and Greek columns in a 1.5-gallon tank on my computer desk, and Scooter made himself right at home in Lily's old tank on the end table, blowing a bubble nest the very first night he was here. ^_^
It probably won't be too long before old Pierre leaves us, at which time these two can each upgrade a tank size and the 1.5-gallon tank can go into storage for the next time I meet a betta that I just can't live without. ;)
Thus I find myself the caretaker of TEN fish for the first time ever: Pierre, Scooter and Penelope the bettas, and Benny, Maggie, Shelley, Louie, Polly, Annie and Reggie the goldfish. 0_o