Birthday Fish

For Cash's birthday I set up a fish tank in his room. We started with a cylinder tank that changed colors and a Betta fish. I didn't really like this tank.. you couldn't see in it too well and the changing colors wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. I left it up for a night, the next morning I checked the tank... Betta fish dead. To quote Chelsea Handler, "That's what I call a.. Whoopsie". I emptied the tank and dried it all out.. and returned it to the store. I exchanged it for a much better, much more normal tank. After I got the tank set up, we let it run for a few days before buying more fish. Diego and I picked out some fish, and I kid you not.. we had a fish die every day for the next 4 days! What the heck! I've had fish all my life, I know how to run a fish tank. I'm not sure what the deal was. Anyhow, I returned the dead fish (yes! they made me take all the fish in!) for new ones.. and so far so good! We got Balloon Mollies; some speckled, some solid. We also have the Black Skirt Tetra that survived our first purchase.

I think we got a Mama Molly.

I've read up on pregnant mollies and it says they have babies in 28 days.

Not sure if she is actually pregnant or just a "balloon" molly.

I've been watching her like a hawk though!

Specs & TJ..

..are getting huge!! TJ has lost just about all of his black coloring.. he still has a bit on his tail fins, but not much. Here is the picture I last posted and then the current pictures below.

Specs has a big body and little fins..

Todd Jr. looks like a totally different fish!

Life in the Fish Bowl

Since I last reported on the fish bowl. White fish died. The new orange fish with black fins.. died. Specs was all by his lonesome. I noticed he was getting bigger and seemed to be do just fine.. so I figured it was time to give him a buddy. Insert TJ aka Todd Jr. Please excuse the name.. that was a something put together by Diego and Brad. I prefer TJ. Specs and TJ are bffs! TJ is also orange with black fins..

Orange Fish

I cleaned the fish tank last Tuesday and all seemed to be fine. Saturday night, I turned the light out as I do every night.. and Sunday morning when I fed them, I turned the light on and the tank seemed to be super cloudy. There was no reason for this.. and it did make me wonder what had happened.. but the fish seemed to be fine so I rinsed off the filter and hoped it would clear up. Yesterday when I got home from work..the tank was still cloudy and I noticed that my biggest fish.. the orange one.. did not seem to be swimming around. He was laying on the bottom (which he always does) but this time, he seemed to be tilted and I know that's never a good sign. I checked to make sure he was still breathing and he was.. but it was very labored. I checked the other fish (the white one) and he seemed to be ok, swimming around like normal. About an hour later, I checked back.. and the white fish was up side down on the bottom!! I was like.. F!!K! all my fish are going to die! As soon as I said that, the white one popped up and swam away like normal.. I started to panic and took both fish out.. and separated them into 2 different pitchers. A little while later, my orange fish quit breathing :( I'm pretty sad, but I've had him for 3 years.. so he had a nice long life for a fish I think. I left the white fish in the pitcher over night and he was still alive this morning. Diego is cleaning out the tank as we speak. Hopefully my white fish makes it! I feel bad that he is the only fish and the tank now, so I might go buy him a friend or 2. Tonight I will be burring Orange Fish next to his friend.. Black fish.

R.I.P Murphy

Last night, we lost of member of our family :(

Murphy passed away during a routine tank cleaning.

I've had Murphy since 2004.. so, he had a pretty lengthy life for a fish. We could tell his health was fading fast, so I'm glad he is no longer suffering. The tank just won't be the same.

Here is a picture of him in his healthier days. (the black one)

#22 - Another Fish Tank Cleaning..

Only this time.. with a Make Over! I bought some new gravel, and vibrant new plants. The tank was definitely getting boring so, I decided to add some life to it by adding color!

#22 - Clean the Fish Tank

Let me just start out by saying.. I ♥ my fish.. but they are the dirtiest fish on the planet. To me, cleaning their tank is one of the biggest hassles! I always seem to put it off as long as possible.. by the time I clean it, it usually looks something like this:




Sooo.. Yucky! Poor Fish..
I'm sure they hate swimming in a pitcher for an hour but I'm also sure that they love coming back home to this:



Ahhh.. Much Better!

I've kept these 3 fish alive for 3 whole years! and I need to be better about keeping their quality of life up to par! I'm a bad fish mom!