Fish Decision

[lagilman]

I'm going to wait at least four months before making a decision about an actual tropical tank.

I may get a goldfish or three to test the waters before then, however.

And yes, I did just say that. My brain seems to be set on pun this week. Sorry.


(I blame this renewed fascination with fish, btw, on the submersible trip we took while on vacation. I was having flashbacks to my dad's tropical tank, which was filled with goruami and black mollies and other silver- and red- and green-flicking fins and tails of various lacy bits. And the occasional shark, natch, because what's a tank without a shark? This was also where we discovered that rock and roll played at teenager levels kills tropical fish. Really. Catfish, on the other hand, can live through everything. Must've been Delta catfish.)

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The cats, when consulted about all this, had mixed options. Boomer was all for it. Pandora, as expected, thought adding another thing to the household that would take attention away from Her was a Bad Thing*. She's consistent, my princess is...


* the S.O. is acceptable because he gives her due homage, apparently.

Comments

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Goldfish are boring and dirty. (though my mother likes them, and they are rather hard to kill.) Get a couple of cardinal or neon tetras. I adore them. They're little bright flickers of light and always cheerful.

[lagilman]

All sorts of goldfish to play with -- not just the carnival/fair prize kinds. Although the fancier sort do tend to catch ick as easily as the expensive tropicals.


(and remember, if you pay enough money, 'goldfish' get to be called 'koi'!)

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I know, my mom has a whole collection of them. And I'll admit the silver-and-gold ones are rather pretty.

[wrathchylde.livejournal.com]

I had a beta for a while (he died a few months back) - I liked him because he was pretty easy to take care of, but I had a fish to look at ... I haven't replaced him yet, though. Still debating.

What on earth are those things on your icon? They're adorable, whatever they are.

[lagilman]

What on earth are those things on your icon? They're adorable, whatever they are.


meerkats (suricata suricattus), huddling on a heated tile in the zoo, during a cold snap. Someone sent me the photo -- can't remember who, or what zoo, alas...

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

The baby Meerkittens are adorable. Once, when I was at the Chester Zoo, I happened to be at the Meecat pen at feeding time. Voracious little critters!

About fish. I had a largish tank for a few years. Takes a while to stablize the population. My I suggest guppies? Fancy ones are quite beautiful. Be sure to have lots of floating greenery for the babies to hide in. I had a series of goldfish at first. None of them lasted more than a week. If you do get one be sure you get it from a really reputable fish store. Also, age the water. too many additives that really don't help the fish at all.

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I friend of mine has a salt water tank and oh lordy, the colorful fish he has streaking through that water sparle like gems. So pretty, my precious.

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

We've got a Siamese Fighting Fish (named Harry Rainbow Loner, since no one name obtained enough votes from the family). He lives alone, as his kind prefer, in a small tank in our kitchen, and he's outlived all of our previous fish. I think we've had him for about a year and a half. Not as nice as a multi-gallon tank of brightly colored tropicals, but we're feeling accomplishment enough in not having offed him yet that expanding our collection doesn't seem too urgent.

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

The big problem with goldfish is that they exude an oil that requires you to replace the water in the bowl/tank much more often than you would with most tropical fish.

I've had both (though not at the same time).

In grad school I set up a tank on my desk and bought a very large gold fish that I named Gordon Bower, after a rather brilliant cognitive psychologist who had a reputation for sitting in the audience at research conferences and, during the Q&A session, calmly askin the one question that brought the presenter's entire research project crashing down. I'm not exaggerating, I'd seen him do it. So I bought the fish and set him up in my office, and I practiced my conference presentations in front of him. He was unimpressed and routinely spat gravel at me as I spoke.