August 14. 2021 Another episode of Tales
from the Tank –
Hi, I am Comet and I am a Blood Parrot Fish.
I am a Cichlid fish and I live in a large glass box of water. I sometimes take
a nap in the afternoon and hide near the spongy thing which spews out bubbles
which supposedly helps to encourage the oxygen to move into the water. I was
minding my own business and all of a sudden there was a large shadow outside of
the tank. The Mom walked near the tank
and dropped a big giant water bubble bag into the top of my tank. What on earth is going on? There is a large bag floating in my water.
Why oh why is this happening? Should I go
see what this is all about or should I stay in my nice hiding spot here near
the spongy thing?
Oh no, the top of the bag fell over and
there seems to be something inside the bag.
It looks like a swirling bit of dinner.
Oh, oh I hope she brought me some fresh food. This pellet food into the
tank everyday are so boring. I just swim up to them and gulp the pellets
down. Oh wow! What is going on here? The Mom is putting my
water inside the bag. Now she waited a
bit. The Sophia person was looking into my tank seemingly very excited. I
wonder what is going on. Oh, oh my
goodness! I am getting some food. Here I go, I am going to jump up and grab it
before another fish around here gets my dinner!
Here goes nothing! Up, up, and away! I think I am going to get it. Just one large morsel of fresh
yumminess! What! What? How did I miss that fresh fish? Where is my dinner? I was sure they brought me a fresh fish to
eat. I think it got away. I am going to
look around for a bit. Oh, there it is! What is that? What kind of fish has a mouth that attaches
to the glass. What on earth is that
weird fellow? I heard the mom person
tell the Sophia person that she got her a Bristle Nose Plecostomus (AKA Pleco).
I am not sure if I should eat it or not. They say it looks like a tiny catfish.
It is by far the smallest fish I have ever seen, if it is in fact a fish. Sophia was convinced I ate the fish but I
totally missed it when I jumped up to get it.
I guess I have a new tankmate now. The mom said it will eat the algae and
help clean the tank That’s good because I don’t like to eat green vegetation. It is happily swimming around watching me and
sucking on the gravel and the tank glass.
How odd to be attached by the mouth to the tank side. I guess I will leave it alone for now. It
doesn’t seem to want to play or compete with me for dinner so I won’t pester it
for now.
A few hours later… I have been looking
all around my tank for the Pleco. It seems to have disappeared. Did I eat it?
I am not sure. It was here and now it is nowhere to be found.
Tales from the Tank
Hi, my name is Comet and I am Blood
Parrot Cichlid. As of yesterday, I had a new tankmate but it seems to be
nowhere to be found. I don’t think I ate it, but maybe I buried it in the
substrate. I like to dig and pick up rocks in my mouth and move them around
like a human rearranging furniture. I hope
I didn’t bury it alive. How horrible would that be? It was a Bristle Nose pleco
and they like to clean the tank so I don’t think it will get in my way at all. In fact, it would be nice to have a live-in
housekeeper. This place gets pretty
nasty with green algae when my owner leaves the light on too long. I heard the mom say that she put the light on
a timer to prevent the light from being on too long.. I am not sure what that
means but suddenly my light is coming on at a certain time each day and goes
off at sleepy time. I suspect that is
the culprit, the timer is now deciding when it’s day and night in my tank.
Comet signing off for now. Just keep swimming.
August 16, 2021 Tales from the Tank
Hi, my name is Comet and I am a blood parrot
Cichlid and this is my tank. Yesterday I
mentioned I had a new tankmate a housekeeper, per se. The mom brought it to Sophia and called it a Bristle
Nose Plecostamos. It likes to attach
itself to the back wall of the tank like a picture hanging on the wall with its
suction mouth. It’s cute and funny how it happily wiggles it’s tail as it moves
along. LOL! It’s so funny looking but
cool that it cleans my home.
Something weird happened late yesterday
afternoon. There was a bit of commotion
outside the tank and then suddenly lots of bubble bags filled with water
appeared in the top of my tank. I was
feeling curious and came out of my hiding space behind the spongy thing. Then,
I quickly retreated back as the mom put these bags into my tank. I am not sure what was going on here. There were bright colors and what I thought
were rocks but they seemed to be ever so slowly moving, creeping. I just
cautiously sat behind my spongy thing watching.
About a half hour later when the mom said the fish were acclimated, she opened
the tops of the bags. I am still unsure
of what was going on, but I watched from the safety of the spongy filter thing.
The mom told the Sophia person that although our tank seems very stable on water
parameters with the addition of new tankmates, we will need to watch to see if
we have any spikes due to something called Bio-load. Whoa! That’s some big fancy words. The mom
said we should be okay based on the fact that this filter has biological,
mechanical, and chemical filtration and she has maximized the efficiency of the
filter to work at optimum capacity. Whatever
all that mumbo jumbo means is fine with me. She shared that with Sophia so she
could understand the hodge podge of chemistry and tank husbandry required to keep
me and my new pals safe.
Anyway, the bags were opened a short
while later and the mom put some of my water into their bags. She also built this weird contraption she called
it a breeder net/acclimation box. She put it into my tank. She said she has
used these before when introducing new fishy friends to a tank to let the current
resident fish acclimate or get friendly with their new environment and the old
inhabitants to not feel as threatened by the newbies.
This gives everyone a chance to look around and
feel comfortable in their new surrounding without the added stress of being
nipped at. The problem with us fish is we don’t like change. If a newbie is
added to our tank we tend to nip at it a bit just to let it know who is boss.
It is my tank so I tell it in fish language that I am at the top of the fish hierarchy
here. I am the grand marshal and I rule
the tank. With the netting in place I
can’t hurt the others but still show them I am here and ready to whip them into
shape if they start invading my territory.
So, she carefully removed the brightly colored rocks with a foot and some
super bright glowing neon colored splashes of color she called tetras. I am wondering if I ask Sophia if I can get
some shades down here. Those new Glofish Tetra fish she brought in here are
just too bright and some sunglasses just might help me to not be blinded by their
brightness. Maybe she could lend me a
spare set of her swimming goggles that are tinted for the sun. The future is so
bright I have to wear shades.
front wall.
Then, she opened another bag and took a
greenish colored snail and called it a Nerite Snail. Sophia exuberantly exclaimed
that she will need to name these strange almost alien-like fellows.
dudes out of the bag and placed them in the tank ever so gently. She called them rabbit snails. What? I don’t believe Rabbits are supposed to be in
a tank. What’s up doc? Was heard all around the room. I sure hope they aren’t
really rabbits. The mom stated that it isn’t a rabbit at all, but rather a
snail also scientifically known as a gastropod of the invertebrates referred to
as phylum Mollusca. The rabbit snail poked it’s tiny head out, and it’s face,
no kidding, looks a bit like a rabbit head shape. Whoever heard of that? There are two in here now. There cone shaped
shells are very unusual and colorful. One’s body is bright yellow.
The other is somewhat of a charcoal
shade of grayish. You can see a bitof dark gray peeking out of the cone shaped shell here.
Lastly,
she took the fish net and got another
friend out of the bag and placed it gently into the netting box. It was a pure White
/ Platinum Parrot. It is a tiny baby compared to me so hopefully I won’t have
to show it who is boss. I think it’ll know.
It began swimming around with the tetras. They seemed to be playing as I watched
from behind my spongy filter thing. I slowly emerged and swam around the
netting asking why they were there. I want to know why but they just swam over
and looked me in the eyes pleading with me to let them stay.
The Glofish tetras are neon pink, neon
yellow/green, and a silvery blue. They are not naturally occurring fish in the
wild.
They are man-made and by that I mean man-altered. They have been
engineered and are rather new to the hobby. I believe they came into fashion
around 2017 but may have been created as early as 2001. In fact, true aquarist tend to not care for
genetically modified brightly colored fish like me as a hybrid or my new pals with
neon colors.
These fish are injected
with a substance taken from corals or jellyfish that make them brightly glow
and therefore making them more enticing to the customer who happens to wander
into the aquarium side of a pet store. People
just can’t help themselves wanting a beautiful glowing fish or several for
their freshwater tank.
On
the other hand, while Blood Red Parrot Cichlid is a hybrid, we are a cross between
two species of fish which makes us attractive to the customers when they come
to buy. Stores like them because people like Sophia insist we are super cute with
our smiling face. Blood Parrots mouths are actually deformed from cross-breeding
but luckily for us we look like we are smiling.
People can’t resist a smiling animal. So, with that being said the
Glofish are also genetically modified
to glow but they are still similar in needs
to their original ancestors. So, when I
say Tetra Glofish, they are a tetra with water parameters and food required for
a Tetra fish. Glofish come in several
varieties including tetras, danios, tiger barbs, sharks, and bettas. Sophia chose tetras because they are a fuller
looking colorful fish and are very docile community fish to come and live with
me. I think she likes the bright colors and her mom said she can’t have a saltwater
tank until she learns the basics of running an aquarium. Saltwater tanks involve a lot more detailed
chemistry than even a freshwater tank.
So Sophia can learn the basics and if she is still interested in a saltwater
reed aquarium she can look into that in the future someday. The colorful freshwater fish are a good
learning process for her. It also helps her understand why learning chemistry
is so important.
So there you have it. I have new tankmates
whom my human specifically told me I should not eat. They told me they brought friends to me but not
for dinner. I am not sure I wanted friends,
but I was a bit lonely in this big old box of water all by myself. I am feeling more social now that I have
tankmates, the 3 Glofish Tetras, 1 White Polar Parrot, a Bristlenose
Plecostamos, two Rabbits snails, a Nerite snail, and a Golden Mystery
Snail. That seems like a lot but they
are all tiny for now. Sophia was told by
her mom that by adding more than one fish at a time in this case would be better
so I would not torture one new guy to death. Most of the time it is recommended
to add fish slowly like one every two weeks.
Why two weeks, well, that is how long you should quarantine them in the
hospital tank. That is especially important
when buying the more expensive species of fish. I think I might like having some pals and am
swimming around with them a lot today. This
is Comet signing off for now so I can go play with my new tankmates. TTFN!
