One of the things I enjoyed back during my college years was having an aquarium and taking care of my fish.
I had a 20 gallon aquarium and I had many types of fish and it was one of the more calming experiences in my life.
But I decided to go against my better judgment and start incorporating sharks and catfish into my aquarium. This proved to be one of the worst decisions I made and to make a long story short, the shark (don’t remember what shark it was) but that and the catfish grew to probably 6-7 inches.
One jumped out of the tank and that was a sign…I had fish that was too big.
But the unfortunate thing was the catfish. Not only did it eat everything, it got too big, too strong and with one whap of the aquarium heater, it shattered it and electrocuted all the fish but one… the kissing gourami.
Needless to say, it was a learning experience but it was enough to lead to not having fish ever again (well, we had the occasional betta). But having to invest in so many fish, to have them eaten or electrocuted by the heater was tough.
Recently, I had to care for fish in the aquarium. Fed them daily until I saw one of the fish die. I realized that the tank didn’t have enough oxygen and possibly this would lead to the death of her fish occasionally. Also, poor filtration and so I fixed the problem, fish were happy, but introduced more fish to the aquarium.
The more I looked into the fish, I learned how much has changed in technology. While somethings are still the same, heaters are now sold as shatterproof, aquariums are much cheaper (you can get a 36-gallon for $100? That’s insane!).
But needless to say, what eventually started me getting into fish is this guy.
A male guppy with a gorgeous tail, he also is a bully.
Needless to say, I’m fully aware how guppies are like the rabbits of freshwater aquariums. How they have the “just add water” mentality that you have one male guppy and three females, you’re going to get a lot of baby guppies.
But, I’ve not seen many guppies with tails like these, but to be truthful, I never really cared to look at guppies at a pet store. That is until now, having had the big fish problem of the past, I was thinking… I don’t know…something came to my mind. What if I had this guppy mate with beautiful female guppies, would they get the same tail?
And so, here I am…. a community tank, another take of guppies and another tank of guppy fry. I’m thinking one of the female guppies I purchased was pregnant obviously. But I’m curious to see what these fry will grow up to be.
It’s something I’m trying out and will see how it works. But it’s great to get into having fish and an aquarium. Much smaller of an experience than what I had in my college years, but nevertheless, perhaps because these fish are not as expensive and less destructive, I’m enjoying it more.
We’ll see how things go!
