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On the wall of the Children's museum in the toddler play room, there's a quote from someone famous about parenting. It says: "Having children teaches you how much patience *you* have." Every time I looked at that, I thought: "Not a whole hell of a lot."
What is true for me in parenting, is true for me with my fish as well. So I'm working on redesigning the tank upstairs in order to make it a happy home for a school of tetra. Right now, I've set up the filter system (I broke down and bought a canister, over-the-top one), and the heater. When I was a PetCo, I purchased some black stone gravel and a set of large, black stones. Tetra, according to the research I've done, like black/dark substrate. I guess the back waters of the Amazon, where many of them are from, is heavily planted and dark and cavernous. Underneath the gravel, I put in a thin layer of "Florite" substrate, which is supposed to be especially designed for planted tanks, as it has all sort of yummy essential nutrients mixed in somehow.
I put in a couple of the moneywort plants that the goldfish uprooted, but I currently have no grow light for them or CO2 (although I could move that up any time). Since we also ran out of cat food today, I'm hoping to get to Petsmart today and see what they have in terms of lights -- what I really need is one that attaches to the outside of the tank, since the hood light system is completely broken and unusable (I actually removed all the light hardware from the hood over the weekend.) The cheap clip-on I found in Foster & Smith gets terrible reviews from on-line purchasers. It has a tendency to arrive broken, no less, so despite the fact that it's only a thirty dollar investment, it's not much of an investment if we can't use it AT ALL. So, I'm back to the drawing board on the light situation. All the other nifty gooseneck aquarium lights cost in the hundreds of dollars.
I also really want a faux mangrove root for the tetra to hide under. I found one in Foster & Smith, but since we're not ordering the light, I thought I'd try to find a local replacement for that as well. I may have to break down and go somewhere that really specalizes in fish, but I've been reluctant to go to somewhere like World of Fish because we don't really have a lot of extra cash right now thanks to taxes and I know that if I walk in there I'll want to leave with a million dollars worth of plants and equipment.
In other non-fishy news, Tate's new book ROMANCING THE DEAD came out yesterday (offically -- many of you have probaby already seen it in stores. Bookscan reported sales as early as the last week in April.) I was pretty crazy as her yesterday, as I participated in a blog roll contest with a number of other paranormal authors. Tate has also been invited to "chat" on the Berkley/Jove/Ace "Writer's Space." Personally, I find those kind of "live" chats really hard to particpate in, but I do plan on giving it the college try, and if any of you want to stop by (it's tomorrow night), the details about it are on Tate's blog.
Also, I've finished reading Brian Michael Bendis' Secret Invasion #1, and... I might actually suffer a brain anurism if I try to comment on it. All I can say is, if the people who came off the ship are the REAL heroes (and they appear to be), then I may stop reading Marvel all together.
What is true for me in parenting, is true for me with my fish as well. So I'm working on redesigning the tank upstairs in order to make it a happy home for a school of tetra. Right now, I've set up the filter system (I broke down and bought a canister, over-the-top one), and the heater. When I was a PetCo, I purchased some black stone gravel and a set of large, black stones. Tetra, according to the research I've done, like black/dark substrate. I guess the back waters of the Amazon, where many of them are from, is heavily planted and dark and cavernous. Underneath the gravel, I put in a thin layer of "Florite" substrate, which is supposed to be especially designed for planted tanks, as it has all sort of yummy essential nutrients mixed in somehow.
I put in a couple of the moneywort plants that the goldfish uprooted, but I currently have no grow light for them or CO2 (although I could move that up any time). Since we also ran out of cat food today, I'm hoping to get to Petsmart today and see what they have in terms of lights -- what I really need is one that attaches to the outside of the tank, since the hood light system is completely broken and unusable (I actually removed all the light hardware from the hood over the weekend.) The cheap clip-on I found in Foster & Smith gets terrible reviews from on-line purchasers. It has a tendency to arrive broken, no less, so despite the fact that it's only a thirty dollar investment, it's not much of an investment if we can't use it AT ALL. So, I'm back to the drawing board on the light situation. All the other nifty gooseneck aquarium lights cost in the hundreds of dollars.
I also really want a faux mangrove root for the tetra to hide under. I found one in Foster & Smith, but since we're not ordering the light, I thought I'd try to find a local replacement for that as well. I may have to break down and go somewhere that really specalizes in fish, but I've been reluctant to go to somewhere like World of Fish because we don't really have a lot of extra cash right now thanks to taxes and I know that if I walk in there I'll want to leave with a million dollars worth of plants and equipment.
In other non-fishy news, Tate's new book ROMANCING THE DEAD came out yesterday (offically -- many of you have probaby already seen it in stores. Bookscan reported sales as early as the last week in April.) I was pretty crazy as her yesterday, as I participated in a blog roll contest with a number of other paranormal authors. Tate has also been invited to "chat" on the Berkley/Jove/Ace "Writer's Space." Personally, I find those kind of "live" chats really hard to particpate in, but I do plan on giving it the college try, and if any of you want to stop by (it's tomorrow night), the details about it are on Tate's blog.
Also, I've finished reading Brian Michael Bendis' Secret Invasion #1, and... I might actually suffer a brain anurism if I try to comment on it. All I can say is, if the people who came off the ship are the REAL heroes (and they appear to be), then I may stop reading Marvel all together.