Uh, oh!

I forgot to feed the fish this morning. If you know about my gardening skills (or lack therof) this would come of no suprise. It also ranks up there with why I don't pay the bills. I have a lot on my mind, so little things like feeding the fish are on the bottom of the list. Seth told me a couple of days ago that feeding would be my responsibility. This came after a few days of me asking him if he had fed the fish, to find out if I should feed them. So that was it, it's now my responsibility. I'm really going to work at this.

When I got home from work I went to check my e-mail on the computer in the den. It happens to be right next to the fish tank. I didn't notice anything at that point because the light was off. Seth doesn't turn the light on and leave it, the water is a tad bit cloudy and he just thinks it looks horrible. This is my area too, and we've already had a few discussions about getting something to take care of that. Anyway, back to the original subject. I went about my normal stuff after checking my e-mail, making lunch, dealing with whiny, fussy, sleepy kids. I got Rylie down for a nap, and in the process, I made myself rather tired. So I decided to take a little nap too. (I can blame it on being up at 6 am, and then working in the 90 degree heat, inside a vehicle that's actually 10 degrees hotter than outside, even with the fan blowing.) I woke up from my nap, and went to check my e-mail again. This time I decided to turn on the light. There was a dead crab laying almost upside down a the bottom of the tank. I said "Uh-oh! This crab doesn't look so good." Seth proceded to fill me in on the fact that the angelfish had been chasing him around all day. So it was labeled a homicide and determined that the murderer was the angelfish.

I must say that it was probably my fault. I know forgetting one time isn't going to starve them enough to prey on the others, but I have a feeling it was just overall underfeeding. I thought I was feeding them enough because it seemed like I was putting tons of food in there, but after inspecting the fins of the angelfish, it looks like he's not the only one that's hungry. This is actually our second fatality in the tank. The first was the little tiny plecostemus that the lady in the store insisted would ne the right size when full grown. I should have listened to my gut and gotten a bigger one. She promised that if I got the bigger one it would outgrow my tank. Well, better to outgrow the tank in a few years than get eaten by the bigger fish (or crabs). I'm really going to try to remember to feed these little guys. Maybe I'll check into some kind of automatic fish feeder.....

The new fish tank

We've been talking about getting a fish tank for Hunter since before his birthday(yeah, a couple of months is a long time to think). The other day when I went to pick them up from daycare he spent 20 mins looking at the fish and crabs in the tank that they have out in the front room. That made up my mind, so I went this weekend and picked out one for him. I started out planning to spend less than $100. I was way off. When I started looking at smaller tanks it seemed like you were spending more money than big ones (cost per gallon-wise). So I wound up with a 29 gallon tank (with a kit), and a mission style stand. I only bought some gravel to get it set up. Monday I went and let Hunter pick out some fish. We got a ropefish(Hunter calls it his snake) an angelfish, and a betta. I also let him pick out a decoration, which was a skeleton (pirate).
Today we needed some better housing for the ropefish and also better food, since he doesn't seem to like the flakes that came in the sample packets. Since we were going to the pet store we picked up a few more fish to add to our tank. 3 tiger barbs and 2 crabs and a plecostemos. They have a 14 day return policy if the fish don't happen to be compatible. There are also some new plants to keep things interesting.
Hopefully we'll be able to keep all of the fish healthy and happy.