Fish Talk

Our family is fish obsessed. We've taken to sitting in front of the new fish tank about as often as we sit in front of the television. It's fascinating to have this little ecosystem in our very own den. Who knew it would be this entertaining?

My husband and my older daughter, Camryn, like to fish watch more than anyone. Several times this week I've seen them like this, engrossed in conversation about our new wards.



I think it's awesome. I love to hear them chatting outside my office door (which is where the tank is...) Camryn soaks up everything her dad has to teach her about the fish, and she's taken to Googling stuff about fish on her own time. I think she's more invested in this tank than her daddy is. She's even developed some fish-like tendencies:



I've been swept up into the whole fish world myself. I stop and stare at the tank several times a day. I have chastised Camryn for getting too emotional when we lose a fish, but yesterday I found myself overreacting when Big Red (our Betta) was stuck in the pump. His gorgeous fantail had gotten caught and I didn't notice until it was almost too late. He swam away once we released him from the pump's suction, but he was dead when we returned from church last night. Poor fella. I was a little sad. He was the one I watched the most (I even gave him his name!)

We bought 3 preggo Guppies at PetSmart on Friday night, and this morning one of them had babies. Camryn was so excited! We were keeping the moms-to-be in a maternity net so the other fish wouldn't eat the babies, but we released them this morning after the first one gave birth. The two moms that have yet to give birth would eat the other's guppies, so they had to move out. The babies are still in the net, and the other two preggos will have to give birth and try to protect their fry from the other fish. Hey, it's the survival of the fittest (and we don't need 50 guppies in the tank!)

Here are our newest additions:



The other fishies are already very interested in what's swimming around in the maternity net. It's like seeing a bunch of untouchable pizza slices and hamburgers.



We got two new Neon Tetras to replace our dead Nick Jonas. We've renamed the group the Jackson 5 ("Who's that?" my kids said. Can you believe?!? Well... maybe it's better that they not know that cute little lead singer became an alleged pedophile...)



This is one of our Silver Dollar fish. We have two of them, but they haven't been named (mainly because we can't tell them apart...) These guys are my favorite, but I think they hide from me. They're never around when I want to see them. I have to sneak up on them. I'm amazed this one stayed still for a picture.



Those Silver Dollars like to eat the smallest of our new Ghost Shrimp that hubby picked up today. The bad thing about the fish dying is that they have to be returned so we can get our money back, and that prompts another round of fish and equipment purchases. Hence the new shrimp in the tank. Why shrimp? Well, I was told they help keep the tank clean by eating the algae. They were a must have, he said.



These are our Dwarf Garamis. We have one that has a small dorsal fin (we call her Miley Cyrus) and another with a larger dorsal fin that we call Hannah Montana.





This is one of our angel fish, appropriately named Angel. The angel fish are fun to watch, because although they're schoolers (they swim together) they do like to nip at one another.



Another (unnamed) Angel Fish:



We also picked up some new Zebra fish and some algae eating fish (I call those scumsuckers), which are way too fast to be photographed. They zip all over the tank and make things interesting. It's really cool to see the scumsuckers stuck to the glass of the tank. They're like little vacuum cleaners.

Are you bored yet?