About 2 months ago my son Eric called me and said he thought he would like to set up an aquarium. When he was young I used to have 9 tanks. Aquariums can be a very, very addictive habit(If you don't believe me, just ask Jim Clubb). I know because I started with one small cichlid tank and a bowl with a male betta, which eventually evolved into 52 bowls of male bettas and 4 tanks for spawning, an asian biome aquarium, an african aquarium, a freshwater aquarium, a Florida brackish species aquarium, and an aquarium for raising tadpole which Eric and I used to go "on safari" to collect as well as bass and bluegill fingerlings for the Florida aquarium. I reminded him that aquariums can become a monster and it is almost impossible to have "just one." I don't even go into aquarium stores any more, because I know I am weak. He said "I just want to set one up anyway", so I wished him luck and good times.
About two weeks later he called in distress. It seems the expensive fish he bought and put in his new tank had died within a couple of days. I ask him, "what water did you use?" He replied, "water from the tap." I replied, "do you remember all the jugs of water I used to carry up the steps in the condominium for my aquariums?" He replied, "oh yeah, that's right." I asked, "do you remember I used to buy 10 cent feeder goldfish and guppies to put in a brand new tank, and in a couple of day's most of them would be dead, then I would do a 1/4 water change and start adding good fish?" He replied, "oh yeah, I forgot that, why did you do that anyway?" I explained, "new aquariums are toxic, and need to be "cycled" through a biological process to establish beneficial bacterial colonies, called the nitrification process, do you remember now?" "Oh yeah, now I remember", he said.
Early this morning, Eric sent me this video below, along with this excited message:
Pops, about 3 weeks ago I got a female pink convict cichlid for the male I have and he has been courting and fighting everyone and finally it has paid off. The female had about 20-30 pink convict babies last night and the male is not letting anyone near them. I had to catch the male albino cichlid in the tank, because they were going to kill each other. Now I have to set up another tank for when they get older, yaa. Check this video out of the male and female fending off the other fish from the babes.
Eric,
"FINALLY IT HAS PAID OFF!!!!" "NOW I HAVE TO SET UP ANOTHER TANK, YAA!!!!!" LOL Congratulations. I think I would be very justified in saying I told you so. But I won't, because I didn't like it when my father told me that. Keep my phone number close by in case it get's out of hand, and you need intervention. Aquariums are a tough monkey to get off your back. LOL
Love you,
Pops
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1 comment:
hey pops a little back history the male pink is one of the fish that died he is the only surviver of the 4 that i got i got 1 pink and 2 albino s and a regular convict and the pink is the only one that survived i literary had him in my hand ready to flush him with the other ones when he started to flop around i then took him and put him back in the tank with filtered and bio ready water and he sank to the bottom and started flopping around after about an hour of that he finally started swimming right and he is now producing babes its crazy how the animal kingdom works one minute you are dead getting ready to be flushed down a toilet and 4 months later he is making babes human beings suck some times i watch my fish for about an hour every day even longer on my days off and they fascinate me everyday i see now why you loved to just watch the cats and elephants play and create dominance and families
love
eric
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