Tribute to a fish

Last week my algea eater died. He was around 5 months old.(Not my algae eater but he looked just like this one.)

I wish I had named him so I could refer to him as something other than 'that algea eater' but boys don't name fish (we name cars). What can I say, I'll miss the way he sucked on the glass, the rocks, the wood, the plants, the gravel, the air tubes and the heater (ouch! guess he wasn't that bright a fish...). Always with that...sucking... bobbing movement (like someone being electrocuted whilst simultaneously trying to iron a shirt).

I notice he is gone whenever I look at my fish tank because I guess I sort of miss the little guy (also the algae is starting to build up a bit everywhere).

So here's to you

...Mr A. Eater.

I hope that you are happily sucking away at something, considerably more pleasant than what my humble tank had to offer, in your new home where ever it may be (seriously, where do dead fish go?)

1st prize candidate for stupidest pet award

I'd like to nominate my colony of guppies for this award.

Today I saw one of the larger fish taking a dump in the water at the top of the tank. Okay this is understandable, there isn't a toilet in there... But that's not the point. On the way to floor of the tank this turd was eaten and spat out by six other fish. SIX! I only have eight fish in the tank and one of them created the poo.

So basically I have one guppy that knows the difference between the brightly coloured fish flakes I feed them (twice a day at exactly the same times) and its own long brown excrement.

Honestly! I now have reason to believe that my guppies are less intelligent than a gem-squash (I mean have you ever seen any gem-squashes eating their own faecal matter...well, if they could, they wouldn't, so there).

BLeuYUCK!

Maybe they need more oxygen in their water or something. I'm a little concerned.

Anyway from this day forth I will refer to people that have fallen off the bottom of the stupid scale (and Rihanna) as 'guppies'. Why? because there isn't a word to describe these extreme levels of annoying idiot behaviour yet.

Why a Fishtank?

People spend so much time, effort and money on fishtanks.
I know, I have three...

I still can't quite put my finger on why though. Sure they are nice to look at but when I think about it, I probably spend more time on maintenance than I do on actually watching fish.

When I get around to looking at my fish tank (or 'phish tank' as spell check would prefer I typed it...) I realise how bored the fish must be (guess I'll swim to that spot over there now. I wonder if it's any different compared to the last time I was over there? OOoo look it's my baby I think I feel like eating the fruits of my loins again...)

So I had brought it upon myself to try make life a bit more interesting for my fish (in hopes that they would become more interesting to watch).
For instance, I decided to try make one puny male guppy very VERY happy by giving him an exclusive harem of 16 females. It was fun to watch him displaying his tiny dorsal fin and short tail thoughout the day only to constantly be rejected by all the females.

After a number of enrichment efforts I always end up in the same situation though. I suppose you can't blame something that lives in a 1m squared universe for being predictable.

There must be some GOOD reason to explain why we keep fish in tanks. Perhaps I'll stumble across it one day.

Something to do with human nature I guess...

EEbEE