Something Fishy

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that there would soon be news on the new critters to keep me company in the studio...


I've always loved all animals, fish included.  My childhood was full of critters of all shapes and sizes and for a while I had a 10 gallon aquarium in my room.  My mom had a few 55-gallon aquariums and even for a brief period, a 135 gallon one!  Some of my childhood stories about animals include fish stories.

Later on, once I was out on my own, I almost always had a Betta fish or two, but no more aquariums.
That is until the era of the "Fish Room".  For a while, I had converted a spare bedroom into a fish room and I started breeding Bettas, Guppies, and some Cichlids too.

Betta spawning tanks

Grow out tanks and cups

Betta males

I had a great time with my fish room.  Sadly, it was around this time that my life went off the rails and so then my fish days were no more.  I found homes for the fish, sold/gave away most of my equipment, and that was the end of the Fish Room.

In the time since, I've had Bettas here and there, including more recently "Mr. Fish", who lived for an astounding 5 years.  My last Betta boy found a home with some friends of our when we made the Great Move.

Jeff knows I like having a little fishy friend or two around and so shortly after we got here, he bought me a Dwarf Puffer Fish.  I named her Momo, which a friend told me is Japanese for "peach".

I've been on the lookout for a fish tank and ended up finding one for sale just a few days ago.  It was a complete setup, including a few fish.  We bought it and then I had to decide where to put it!  I wanted to have my new little friends in the studio with me and so I decided to put them on a shelf next to my desk.  I had some concerns about the shelf holding the weight, so I ended up using the center (structural) shelf and laying another shelf on top of it for extra support.

The fish included with the tank ended up being a little bachelor group of young male guppies.

Here they are in their traveling conditions from when we bought them, with low water in the tank.  I think they'll look good there:

A closer look.

I took several closeup pictures, trying to capture the fish themselves, but they are quick little buggers and this was the best I could do.

We stopped at a local store on the way home with them, to pick up food and water conditioner.  I also picked out this cup of live plants.

They are so pretty!

Here's the food and water conditioner.  Not being able to read the packaging, I'm thankful there were guppies on the label - haha.  Actually, the girl who sold us the tank showed me her bottle of conditioner and I took a picture of it with my phone...  I then showed that picture to an employee at the store and she pointed out the bottle that we bought.  Yay for modern technology helping out with a language barrier!

The tank now full of water again.  Lots more room for the little guys.

Then I added the plants and turned on the filter.  Looking good!  I love that there are several pieces of sea glass on the bottom of the tank.  It is very pretty and an appropriate local touch, since we have found a bunch of it on the beaches here.

Yep, I think they will do well here, surrounded by model horses.  ;)

Another note:  Back when I was first setting up this blog, I was digging around in all of the options and found the fish gadget.  I thought it was so awesome.  It's been a part of my blog for many years now and yes, I feed them and watch them swim around a bit whenever I am looking around on here.  ;)  The gadget gives the options for all sorts of colors, but I thought the black and orange looked most realistic.  Someday I would love to have a fish pond, but for now my blog fish work for me.