Hot Boyfriend Blog

Here's the latest on the aquarium front:

The needle fish had to go.  It only ate the Rosies, but the other fish were all cowering and hiding.  Things relaxed quite a bit when we took him out.  The pet store took him back, so hopefully he is still okay.  There was one Rosie left that he hadn't gotten to eat yet.  We decided to keep her and have named her Snack.

Below are some new fish, and some other aqua-citizens I failed to mention in earlier posts.

This is our Pictus Catfish, Snidely Whiplash.  His whiskers were all curled up and sad when we had the ick! breakout, but he seems fine now.  He's mostly shy and hides, but he is also hyper so he comes out every now and then and does about 300 frantic laps around the aquarium in 3 seconds.  I don't clean my gravel since I have plants, so this kind of stirs up a mess sometimes.  He gets along with most of the fish okay, but Abisnail freaks out when he is accidently bumped during Snidely's shenanigans.  Crabigail also gets frustrated at Snidely and does his threatening karate poses until he calms down.
These are two of the three red Mickey Mouse (tm) moons.  You can see Mickey Mouse's head trapped sideways in their tails.  These are live bearing fish which I usually avoid (guppies are the ghetto-est fish in my opinion), but PQ likes them and their markings are kind of interesting.  I think we have two females and one male, so there's a good possibility these fish will multiply.
This is Froggy II.  He's not nearly as dead as Froggy I is.  Hopefully he'll stay that way.  He likes frozen fish food like blood worms and brine shrimp.  The other fish - especially the angelfish - gobble up the frozen food very quickly.  Hopefully Froggy II will manage to scavange a few crumbs for himself and not starve.
This is not a fish, but a big head I found at the pet store.  It is in keeping with my "no decorations will match" theme.  I think it will look better once it gets covered in mossy algae.

Maybe I've gone a little overboard; PQ thinks I'm bonkers; but I am obsessed with my aquarium.  Yesterday I went out and bought a CO2 system that will allow the plants to flourish.  It was expensive, but you gotta have it if you want your flora to be beautiful.  I also bought a frog and some Cardinal Tetras while I was at Aqua World.  PQ was with me, however, and would not let me buy any more plants until I at least get the CO2 system set up.

It's getting bad.  This blog is being taken over and PQ says I should limit my aquarium posts and do at least one non-aquarium post for every aquarium post.  Whatever.  I can quit any time I want - I just choose to continue with this little hobby.

I'll have lots more pictures and posts of the aquarium soon!

HB

You never think it can happen to you, but when it does, you just move on.  We have had sickness and a casualty in the HB/PQ Aquarium.  I have been a little lax on aquarium updates lately, but our cool friend Abby picked some new aqua-citizens out for us on a recent trip to Aqua World. So, without further ado, let me update you on the latest additions to the aquariumhold:

First up is a crab named Crabigail. Chosen by Abby.
This is Froggy!  He is a Spotted African Frog.  Abby's choice as well.	Unfortunately, Froggy succombed to his illness before I was able to get a picture.
Abisnail is a mystery snail - oooooh, mysterious!  She is of the albino variety (I think) since her body is pinkish and her shell is dark - although it's hard to tell since it's covered with moss.  Another Abby choice
Plucky is a Plecostamus.  He was actually gotten because algae was starting to grow on the aquarium glass.  He's done a passable job of cleaning the aquarium, but he needs to get bigger and eat more or we might have to get him a friend.
And last is a bunch of plants. Aquarium is now lush and green with flora.
[UPDATE] I almost forgot the new Silver Angelfish, HiHo.  She is not a ho.  That is just her name.  She has this funky corkscrew thing going on with one of her pelvic fins.

Now for the badness.  Froggy has succombed to a mysterious illness and is no longer with us.  It happened quickly.  The night before, he was fine and swimming around the aquarium quite happily - or so we thought.  The next morning he was lying on his back unmoving at the bottom of the aquarium.  The funeral was attended only by me since PQ was too upset to get out of bed.  SWOOSH! and it was done.  Bye bye froggy.  Ye shall probably be replaced, but shan't be forgotten.

Badness Part 2: Yes there's more.  An epic-proportion plague breakout of ick! (always put an exclamation point after ick!) has infected the aquarium-hold.  I bucketed out about a third of the water and replaced it.  Then I put some blue medicine in the tank that's supposed to cure ick! within 3 days.  After 3 days, most of the fish look ick! free....except for....the clown loaches.  Laugh clowns laugh, although ye may be muerte by morn.  I may have to do another 3-day treatment or get some kind of individual dip for the clown loaches.  Hopefully they will make it.  I am putting my hopes in Flying Spaghetti Monster's capable hands.  Pray for us all.

[UPDATE] Although Froggy will never be with us again, the sad Clown Loaches are much better.  I first tried this ick! medicine that's supposed to cure it in three days.  All the fish except for the sad Clown Loaches seemed to be ick free.  The clowns were still spotty and sad, however, and one was even laying on its side.  I googled ick! and found a site, Aquaria Central, that had lots of good advice.  They said to add lots of salt to the water and turn the temperature up.  I did.  By the next day, the clowns were much better and today they look completely cleared up and might be somewhat happier (although they are still sad clowns by nature). 

 HB

 

 New fish!

This first picture is a pretty Guarami of some sort.  Very pretty.
Here's another of the red Guarami.
Here's a blue Guarami we got the same day.  We actually got two of them, but one didn't make it through the night. We exchanged it for....
...THIS! A needle fish.  Needle fish are special and need live food.  So we got....
...some of these.  These are called Rosies and are only 12 cents each.  We bought five of them, but one of them has disappeared.  We suspect the needle fish (see above). Poor rosies.
We also got some Clown Loaches.  They are catfish of some sort and stay mostly at the bottom.  I can't tell them apart yet so I'm not sure if both of them are represented here or if I just snapped three shots of the same one.
I'm not sure why they are called clown loaches.  They weren't that funny.
Here's  a couple pictures of our gold angelfish I mentioned in the last post.  It's fins are insanely long.
I think one of his pelvic fins (the long skinny ones at the bottom front) might be broken.  He doesn't seem to care though.

The aquarium is finally set up! 60 gallons bitchez! Here are some awesome pictures of it and our new fish.

Here's a picture of the whole aquarium.  Note the subtle irony of the parthenon next to a castle.  It's so subtle that I'm not sure what it means.  Also note the cheesy plastic plants.  They will be replaced by real ones after the aquarium is more established (and we have more money).  The gray-brown thing sticking up is a piece of driftwood.  It throws the whole scale of the landscape off - which is completely intentional.
These are two of the three angel fish.  They are veil angels so they have more flowy fins.  The dark one is a marble angel.  The gray one is a smoke angel and the third one (not pictured) is a gold angel fish with really really long fins.  They're a little stuck up, but they're pretty.
Here are some red fin tetras or something. We purchased five of them.  I think they're kind of plain, but PQ likes them and they are good hardy fish to get an aquarium started.  The aquarium guy also said they will get deeper in color as they mature.

 

So we're up to eight fish so far.  More fish and plants (even live ones maybe) to come.

HB