it starts with something simple. something small. just one betta...
Yeah, mine started with a Betta. I've actually wanted fish off and on for quite a few years but my dad always said no (Why, I have no idea. It's not as if they shed hair around the house, or bark, or... And we had dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, horses, cattle, goats, sheep, rabbits, and guinea fowl already, so I don't know what difference a few fish would have made. But anyway...). When I was about seven we did have a few little goldfish for a short while.
Just before I came back to college this year I bought a Betta. He's a lovely blue and red "mix". After seeing a signature that said someone had a Betta (or other fish), named "Spiderman", I started calling him my Spiderman fish. I'm partial to the movie "Spiderman", because my boyfriend and I went to see it on our first date
Then I got another Betta, which died shortly after, for some reason. No, wait, I think I have that backwards. Darn it, I can't remember. Oh well. After I got to school and into my dorm room, I got another Betta - a red one.
A few weeks later my mom came to visit and thought it would be fun for me to have an aquarium. I agreed. She bought me a five gallon MiniBow, gravel, a decoration, and plants (plastic). She also got me another Betta (a blue one, with red front, long fins). I got the tank set up, waited the 24 hours recommended in the instructions that came with the tank, and went and got fish. I got a pleco, three mollies, and five tetras. Oh yeah, and two ghost shrimp. Being that the fish came from Wal-Mart, many of them died. I got replacements (they died w/in 72 hours of me getting them, so Wal-Mart replaced them free). One of the replacements I got had ich, and I didn't catch that before I brought him home and put him in my tank
The ich spread, of course. The RHD (Residence Hall Director) is a fish person (she has numerous aquariums in her room) confirmed my suspicion that my fish had ich and gave me medicine, along with instructions for using it. Thanks, Molly!
With the exception of the pleco, all of the fish ended up dieing sooner or later. I took down my tank, after temporarily relocating the pleco and the shrimps, cleaned it well, and set it back up. I put the pleco and ghost shrimps back in, and a few days later got my platies. One of the platies died from the ich. Otherwise, all the rest are still with me. They're the ones I've been doing ich treatment for and the reason I got my 10 gallon (someplace to keep them while I cleaned the MiniBow and let it sit for a few days to kill the ich - hopefully) and my one gallon (which now houses a Betta).
Once my aquariums are cycled, I want to get a few more platies, I think. I think I want more aquariums, but my dorm room isn't very big, and having to move them is going to be a pain come winter break and summer break. I do want to either get a couple of one gallon tanks for my other two Bettas or get a two gallon MiniBow with the divider and put 'em in there. Or I might just put one in my ten gallon and one in my five gallon. So many choices
I love sitting and looking at my aquariums. It's so relaxing. My five gallon tank is on the desk that I do my homework at (when my boyfriend's computer isn't occupying the desk), so I can do homework and watch my fish (yes, I get homework done that way!).
My dear boyfriend has taken this all quite well. He realizes I have a fish addiction and has accepted the fact we will probably have numerous aquariums, in addition to a herd of dairy goats and other assorted critters. He's a good guy
Pamela
aka Lizard
aka GoatGirl
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