Fixing The Fish

oday I fixed the fish situation. I got a replacement beta, moved the pregnant guppies into a 3-way breeder, and got Caleb a nice new goldfish name Mr. Wigglesworth. Here are the pictures...

Here is the new beta. I haven't named him yet because I didn't think he was going to live very long. I moved him from his tiny little container into his new home and he... sunk. Yes, he sunk to the bottom and sat there. He sat there; I'm serious. He sat on his tail with his face looking upward. After he settled in, I fed him and he struggled, swimming vertically, to the top of the water to eat and then sunk again. My brother had a beta that did the same thing and he said it was because the fish was kept in such shallow water while in the pet store that he had to bend unnaturally to stay submerged. After being this way for so long his back was permanently deformed. I thought about taking the fish back, but knew they would kill him if I did. Since the only thing wrong with him was the swimming thing, I decided to keep him. Bad news: I saw him jumping in the bowl earlier. I will have to try to find a way to cover the opening of the bowl Good news: I saw him swimming horizontaly this evening after about 6 hours of being able to stretch out. Soon I will give him a name.

So, here is the guppy tank. It's just a little 2 gallon thing on the kitchen counter. Lemme tell ya, every time I get guppies they give me nothing but grief. Someone remind me of that next time I try to buy some. The first time I got guppies was to cycle a 30 gallon tank. I got attatched to them after a month of cycling and when it came time to put in my tropical fish, I decided to keep the guppies. They killed everything. They killed fish ten times their size. I saw a sunburst guppy bite and hold onto the eye of a powder blue gourami. The poor gourami spun around and around trying to shake the guppy. I should have flushed that little jerk right then and there, but I kept him and he eventually terrorized every fish in the tank to death. This time, I am going to end up with at least 2 tanks. One for the adults and one for the fry until they are big enough to feed to the turtle. Heartless I know, but just sing The Lion King song to yourself. If everything goes well, I might keep a male and breed them again. Comander Turt Turt loves to chase these little suckers.

Last, but certainly not least is Mr. Wigglesworth. He is definitely my favorite fish besides the emperor plecostomus in the turtle tank. We call little baby goldfish "wiggles" because of the cute wiggly way in which they swim. That is how Mr. Wigglesworth got his name; from wiggling around all cute-like. He is bigger and brighter than a guppy and so he is a lot easier for Caleb to see. He is also a lot more active and that makes him more fun to watch. Tonight when I put Caleb to bed he just rolled over onto his side and watched Mr. Wigglesworth swim around. No fussing, no crying, no complaining... just silent watching until his eyelids get heavy and he goes to sleep. I took a short video so that you can see for yourself how cute and soothing Mr. Wigglesworth is as he swims in his tank.

Love,