Once the tank was filled, we needed to wait 24 hours before adding fish. So the next evening we found ourselves at the local pet store ready to purchase fish. Now the "New Tank Setup" takes fish that you don't really care about - they just need to "poop" up the tank so to speak - and six was the limit. It's all that stuff about nitrites/nitrates, PH, and CO2 in the water...No one told me I was going to need a degree in chemistry!
Our initial purchase were little bitty tetras, two yellow with red tails and four that are grey with a red stripe on their body. Now, they are just like kids, all they do is eat, poop up the tank and sleep. (I have no idea if fish really sleep..i just made that part up :-). But you're not supposed to become attached to them so that when you're ready to graduate to more fish - you can flush these. Sounds rather inhumane and Terry has already mentioned to friends there is no way I'll be able to flush the little suckers.
It's been about three weeks now and we ran out to the pet store just the other night because I was sure we could get just a couple more little bitty fish for this huge tank. But nope, the PH levels were "just starting to increase" and I definitely need to give it the full six to eight weeks. Needless to say....things have slowed down a bit on the fish tank for now while we wait for the water to get "ripe". I have to say the little buggers know when it's time to eat - they can be little pigs!
In the meanwhile....we gravitated to Matt's room and decided that his 10 gallon tank could use some sprucing up. So off we go to purchase "bubblers". I love bubblers and apparently so do goldfish since they seem to like to sit in the bubble stream and get massages. Oh...if I was only a goldfish.
Wait...on second thought, nah I'm glad I'm not. I don't like "poopy" water.
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