Fishes!

Did I tell you I got a fish tank? I don't think I did. Let me tell you about it.

When you start a freshwater aquarium with tropical fish, you need some equipment. In my case the tank, hood, filter, and heater were given to me by a family member who recently upgraded to a ten gallon tank. That meant I needed enough tank decorations to fill my new little five gallon apartment addition.

I bought white stones and some fake plants as well as some black granite rocks about the size of my fist with white and gold veins. I read that they might cause a problem because the gold was some type of metal and it would rust in the tank, but I didn't pay too much attention. I also bought a small air-pump and an aerator which I placed under the gravel.

After running the tank for three days to make sure everything was working properly I made my first attempt at purchasing fish. I bought three tiger barbs and a swordtail. After having the swordtail for a few days I decided it needed a friend, so I bought another. Now there are two things to know about new aquariums: one, you should have one inch of fish length per gallon of water and two, a tank "cycles" when you first set it up. During the cycling period, bacteria build up in the water forming what's known as a biological filter. This bio-filter is what breaks down fish waste as well as the bi-products of that process. Without it, your tank will need constant cleaning and your fish will have short life spans. With it you'll need less chemicals, fewer water changes, and your fish will live happier lives.

Shortly after being added to the tank, the second swordtail started growing fungus on its mouth. This is called cotton-mouth and requires treatment. The medicine I added to the tank turned the water neon green (think anti-freeze). To this day, the air-pump hose is stained green. In any case, the fish slowly started to get better, I eventually added more activated carbon to the tank to remove the green color, and after having the water checked at the local fish store thought everything was good. I was wrong.

The second swordtail died shortly after I finished its treatment. I purchased another one that ended up dying the same night. At this point I figured the first swordtail wasn't meant to have a friend. Within a week though the remaining swordtail began developing suicidal tendencies. I'd hear splashing noises and look in the tank to see the fish shoot out of the filter stream. He was jumping up it like a salmon spawning. Bad news.

After a few "upstream" trips the fish had managed to mangle his fins to the point where swimming was tough. He passed away a short while after.

Lets return to the tiger barbs. They seemed to be doing well, swimming around and enjoying life. More water checks at the fish store showed that the tank was mid-cycle and doing well. Good signs. I had read online that tiger barbs can be aggressive and mean. I hadn't noticed that. Yet.

Within a week of being the only fish in the tank, two of the tiger barbs began attacking the third. The tore his dorsal fin almost completely off, ate most of his tail fin, and chewed up his other fins. I added some stress coat to the tank to help strengthen him, but the other fish kept up their attacks. I tried removing one from the tank, but upon introducing it back the first thing it would do is take a bite out of the injured fish. I started to get more and more upset. Finally after a long time of watching the poor fish get picked on I got fed up and gave one of the aggressive tiger barbs a ride down the neverending porcelain whirlpool. Within hours the second tiger barb began attacking the injured fish all by itself. It went for a trip of its own. I was down to one fish.

To start the rebuilding effort, I bought a little cat fish. He was and still is my favorite. He pokes around munching things that fall to the bottom, minding his own business and sleeping a lot. My kind of guy. The remaining tiger brab started to grow back his fins. To fill the place up I bought three leopard spotted danios. They're very fast and animated. Fun to watch.

Things had been going well for a while and then two weeks ago I noticed a brown slime start to take over. It got worse and worse until I finally had to take the tank apart and clean everything. I replaced the metal veined rocks with a fake plastic log and added some more fake vegitation. Very traumatizing for the fish, but the tank is much cleaner and the inhabitants look happier.

That's my fish story. Right now I everything seems to be going well. The fish come to the top of the tank to see me when I feed them and they swim back and forth for me to watch. The tank building process has been complicated, but quite rewarding. I'd recommend it. Hell, maybe I'll even upgrade soon, and you can have my five!