Aquarium update

First off, I would like to state the obvious, that owning an aquarium reduces stress (at least while not maintianing it or breaking it) and is ordained by God himself…

So, I was cycling sand in our huge sterilite tub to replace our gravel once UnkleSam got out here in July. Once the sand was (in theory) ready and cycled, I was going to make him put it in the tank for a day or two and then we were going to buy a purple goby because they’re a: so ugly they’re cute, and b: they’re cool.

Well, I had a massive Algae bloom because my timers weren’t set right, so I had to break everything down and scrub the algae off of the tank. Otherwise I basically would have killed my fish because of rising toxin levels in the tank. So, that’s what I did. But I took the time to replace the rocks with the sand, and below is the result:

Allow me to introduce some of the tankmates.

Let’s first start off with our figurehead, Silver Angelfish Nikolai: (Pterophyllum scalare)
He’s pretty. Pretty dumb. Pretty Concerned with begging for food. And Pretty unaware that he is by far the biggest fish in the tank with the ability to beat the crap out of his tankmates. I suppose this is a really good thing, but I kind of figured Angelfish would be ballsier. (P.S. Sorry about the grainy pictures, I’m still figuring out how to take good pictures of the water without the noise dithering it…)

To complement Nickolai is Blue Gourami Rasputin (Trichogaster trichopterus) :

Always lurking in his little cave, and wanting to mate all the time. Yep, Rasputin is definitely the unhindered ruler of this little aquatic village. Coming out to “haze” every fish that has arrived in the tank since he was little, Rasputin calls the shots. If my tank had a Mafia, he’d be the Don.

Possibly my favorite fish is Kobe: (Gobioides broussonnetii)
Kobe is sooooo cool. He’s a Purple/Violet/Dragon Goby. Potentially evil looking, but harmlessly goofy. He’s got evil looking teeth, and is “horridly ugly” according to EK. Well, since it’s my hobby, I bought him anyway . He’s trained to eat flakes, although I have fed him frozen bloodworms as well

Here is Kobe being inspected by Rasputin and his Blue Gourami “posse” (or ragdolls, depending on his mood any given day). The Posse also includes the pink kissing gourami, but NOT the Moonlight Gourami. They’re apparently from the east side or something. Rasputin hates them, and they hate him, but my tank is large enough for it not to be a big deal. At least so far it hasn’t been.
It was Rasputin himself who later decided to kick Kobe’s ass for trying to take his hidy cave (Hence Kobe having to settle for his big sandstone, which he has since burrowed a hole under, [more pics later]…)

The “Barbie Fish” aka Cherry Barbs (Barbus titteya)

The Cherry Barbs could have one of two names: The three amigos or the three stooges. These three guys do nothing to anyone else but seem content to chase each other around the tank. Oh, and bite me every time I stick my hands or arms in the tank. Another really weird oddity of the Cherries is that they attempt to devour my elbow when I go to move around plants and such. To the point of me wondering if these jokin’ little fish with have drawn blood sans teeth. They’re practically full grown, so if this is what the Tigers end up acting like, I might bag all the barbs and take them to a fish swap or something. Actually, I’ll probably never get rid of the Cherry Barbs because they’re EK’s favorites, her “Barbie Fish” as she refers to them.

Then there are the Tiger Barbs (Barbus Tetrazona)

This little school of four tigers doesn’t really get a name. They’re pretty benign and only are resolved to trying to eat the Mystery snail, which they can’t do… At least so far.

Last and Least, I didn’t really photograph the following other fish in the tank: The Yellow Mystery Snail (Or “Royal Yellow” as Little-J calls him), The Cory Cats, Chinese Algae Eaters, Farlowellas (because they were hiding behind the castle), and the Danios. I didn’t photograph them. See previous posts for their pictures. They’re OK, but not my favorites…