Aquarium Journal

*The most recent news will always be at the top.

--January 2002--

Friday, January 18, 2002-I am sorry to report that Palmer, along with many other fish in Jason's beautiful tank, died of Ick, a fish disease. I'm glad he had a happy life, and I'm glad I had him while I did. I may get another puffer fish one day. They are amazing creatures! Palmer will be missed...

--July 2001--

Wednesday, July 18, 2001-Well, here's the update: I moved! I thought I would be going to school in the Fall, so did not attempt to bring either the frogs, or Palmer with me. I gave the frogs to a friend who was so totally ecstatic over adopting them from me that I felt great about the decision. I gave Palmer to my friend, Jason, who always helps me with aquaria matters. Palmer is in an absolutely huge tank. I believe it's a 180 gallon!! He sound very happy, and I think I will be leaving him there for quite a while. I do love having fish, and it's true that I'm not going to be going to school this upcoming school year. But I will be in school after that, and I don't want to deal with setting up and tearing down tanks again. For now, I'm sticking with the cats and not worrying about having any other pets. I am just glad Palmer and the frogs are in good hands, and will be well cared for.

--July 2000--

Saturday, July 30, 2000-Just a little while ago, I experienced the craziest fish happenings of my entire life. When I was seven, my red male betta jumped out of the bowl right before my very eyes, and I had to pick him up and put him back. That was freaky enough. Now listen to what happened tonight!!

I was watching t.v. with Joe, and I noticed him watching the aquarium. I looked over, too, and watched Lily pleasantly swimming up and down, like usual. Then I said, "Wait a minute, where's Palmer?" I went up close to the tank and looked and looked, but didn't see him! I laughed and said, "He's an inch and a half long! Where could he go?" I thought about this very tiny open space in the back of the hood of the aquarium, where a heater can fit. I don't have a heater there, because the water stays warm in the summer months. Just in case he'd gotten out through there, Joe and I both looked under the stand. We didn't see him.

Joe said, "Remember that gold fish that we couldn't find for a day?" I said, "Yeah, but he was dead under the wood." Joe suggested looking under the driftwood in the tank, so I lifted it up with the net. One of the plants was dying, too, so I decided to just do a water change. I took the top off, and used the new siphon filter I bought to get rid of some of the dirty water. Then I had enough space to stick my hand in. I took the plant out, and tensed up as I started digging through the gravel with my fingers, looking for Palmer. I could NOT find him. I was so worried. Finding him dead is better than having him MISSING! Where does a fish GO?? All I could think was he must have jumped out through the space where a heater can go, and then the cats must have eaten him, because how could he go very far with no water?

Still freaking out about Palmer, I threw out the old water, got new water for the tank, and got rid of the deceased ghost shrimp I'd been keeping in the spare tank. Meanwhile my cats are hovering around, looking behind the stand, etc. When I was standing in the kitchen, I thought I heard something, and I wasn't the only one. Both cats turned to look at the stand, too! Half joking, I said to Homer, "Just find him for me, will you?" Homer looked under the stand some more. I got on my stomach and looked, too. I saw Palmer! My heart sank. My poor little puffer fish was dead. I hate dealing with dead bodies, and I felt a little shaky getting the net, and sliding it under the stand to get Palmer. I pulled him out and he looked a little moist, but kind of dry, too. I thought I saw his gills move, and looked closer. I thought, "This HAS to be my own hopeful thinking. He's DEAD." But I couldn't help being hopeful. I quickly put him in the spare tank, knowing I'd have to get him out of there again soon to get rid of his body. I threw out some napkins I'd used to dry my hands and the net. I came back seconds later to look at Palmer. I could not believe what I saw!

Palmer was squiggling around, starting to move, gasping and struggling to breathe! "You're alive!" I shouted. I ran and told Joe what happened. "I found him!" I shouted. "He was under the stand, and he's ALIVE!" Joe came in to look at him with me. Joe reminded me I didn't have a biological filter in the spare tank yet, and that I had to put him back in his regular tank. That freaked me out, since that's the one he escaped from, but I knew Joe was right. Joe asked if he could put him back and I said okay. He gently netted him and put him in his regular tank. We covered it, and I put my heater in the open space. Now there is a teeny tiny space, but smaller than Palmer and smaller than the cats' paws. The question was, do puffers jump? Or did the cats pull him out with their paws? I watched Palmer a little bit, and he didn't look good. He wasn't moving his tail much as he swam. I was freaked out and kept saying, "I just hope he makes it." I sent a quick email out to the pufferfish mailing list I belong to. I came back and watched Palmer some more. I turned the light on for a little bit. His eyes were blue again... Not grey, anymore. [[shudder]] He was also moving his tail more and his fins were going really fast, like propellers on an airplane. Then I saw him flipping around over by the heater! That IS how he got out, then!! Why is he trying to leave my aquarium??? I am going to set the 20 gallon up as soon as possible, wait a few weeks for the biological filter to be set, then put him in it. No more escapes! I can't believe how much he freaked me out. Seriously! I've never been so attached to a fish before. This is a pretty amazing event, but what's even more amazing is I think he's going to live! So, should his middle name be Lucky or Kamikaze??

Friday, July 29, 2000- I had described Palmer as having a flat belly in an email on the pufferfish mailing list. One person suggested that Palmer might not be eating enough and suggested some foods Palmer might like. I went out to the store and saw the cutest dog faced puffer! If I had a marine aquarium, I would get one. Maybe one day, in the future. Something to think about, I guess. Anyway, I bought some ghost shrimp and a snail. The salesperson promptly put it all in a bag, and the dufus I am, I didn't even think to look at them. I just bought them. So I get home and I see that these freaking ghost shrimp are as long as Palmer! Oh well, I thought, They'll keep the tank clean until Palmer eats them one day. Palmer swam near them, and htey reached up and touched him with their skinny, little legs. He just swam away from them. Then he snapped at the little tiny snail I'd put in there. I was impressed. "Good for you. That's your food, all right," I told him. Then he starts chasing the ghost shrimp, who are all much faster than I would have guessed! Then he goes after one, and just didn't let up. Suddenly, Palmer snapped, and HALF a ghost shrimp was gone!! He ate it! He gobbled up the remaining bits. I was so amazed at how fast and thorough he was! The phone rang, and when I got back, which was not much longer at all, I decided to take out the remaining ghost shrimp, to put in the spare tank. I only found two! And the snail is also gone!! He ate 2 ghost shrimp and a snail in a very short amount of time, and boy was his belly round after that! I guess he was hungry. I tried to keep the ghost shrimp alive, but they died. At least I know he likes them! I've told a lot of my friends, and now so many people are saying they want to come over and watch the next time I feed him live ghost shrimp! It is pretty amazing to watch him hunt. Better than t.v.!

Thursday, July 27, 2000-SO much has happened!! First of all, I had up to 9 baby mollies! I thought they were doing well, but apparently not. Today, I lost my very last baby. It makes me sad. I was hoping this last one would make it. I had started calling it Baby. Goodbye, Baby.

The second thing is, I am SO glad I didn't get a second puffer. Here's what happened... Last night, I decided to visit some more puffer sites. I came across a picture and said, "Wow that looks exactly like Palmer!" My next statement was, "Hey, that's not a dwarf puffer!" I then visited a few dwarf puffer sites and found a few more Green Spotted puffer sites, and yes, that's right, Palmer is a Green Spotted Puffer! At least, this is the conclusion I've come to. My boyfriend, Joe, was looking at pictures with me. While looking at the dwarf pictures, I said hopefully, "Well he kind of looks like this," and Joe pointed out, "No, the bodies are different." He was right! Palmer has a flat white belly, and a fat tail, not the spotted body, pudgy, round belly and skinny tails of the dwarfs. This also means that he'll need brackish water, not freshwater, and he'll be 6 - 8 inches full grown instead of two! Oh my gosh! In one week, I've become so attached to him. I LOVE my fish! There's no way I can return him.

I guess I'll have to keep that 20 gallon! I hope he's happy in there. I plan to put a betta fish and maybe some dwarf frogs in the 6 gallon. There's a hole for the heater in the 6 gallon, where Palmer and Lily are now. I don't want any froggies climbing out of there! So since no one is in the critter keeper anymore where the babies used to be,  :-(  , I can put some frogs in there. Mostly, I just need to patient and do things one thing at a time. I don't know how soon I should move Palmer. But first things first: I have to make sure that stand that the 20 is on is very stable, or else we could have problems. My other update is that a lot of my sea monkeys died. I am somewhat discouraged, even though it is totally ironic to have pets that are the same animal as the frozen stuff I feed to my puffer fish. But anyway... I think I'll go watch Palmer and Lily for a while now, and make sure they're fine. I did a water change tonight, which was cool. Lily almost ate out of my hand! I felt her mouth on my finger!! Very cool... I also discovered many chewed through leaves on my plants. Lily's new nickname is Pest! ;-) More later....

Thursday, July 20, 2000- Last night, Gunther died. I was really sad. As I said goodbye, I thanked her for all the babies. I'll miss her a lot. She was a sweet fish.

Today, I called the store I was expecting the puffers to be at and he told me they didn't have any, but offered to order some for me. I guess they weren't expecting any afterall, or something. So when I got home, I looked up fish stores on the internet, calling everyone, and asking if they had these dwarf puffers. Finally, for the heck of it, I called a store close by and asked them. They said yes!! So I went down there and watched all these crazy spotted fish swimming so fast all over the place. I picked out a smaller one, hoping he'd get along with Lily. When he handed me the bag, I just started beaming and couldn't stop! I was so excited!!! I couldn't believe how happy I was to have this fish. I spent 20 minutes floating him in the tank, and 20 minutes putting tank water into his bag, then his bag water into the tank. I wanted him to be well acclimated. When I went to pour him into the aquarium, I wasn't careful enough, and him and a ton of water went into the bucket beside my stand!! I was freaking out, but got him with the net and put him in the aquarium. He swam all over the place so fast, but finally settled down. Lily was looking at him. I saw him turn and swim really fast at her. Poor Lily froze and flared her little tiny underbelly fins, as if to say, "Woaahh!" He looked like he was smiling at her, but when she freaked out, he backed off. Then she kept following him around the tank, trying to put her mouth on him, and stuff! What a crazy girl! It's fun to watch them interact. I sat watching them for a long time. It's just so relaxing. It's unbelievable how happy I am to have this sweet puffer fish. He's great! I also decided to name him Palmer, after a contemporary philosopher that I really like. Hooray! I have Palmer!!

Wednesday, July 19, 2000 - The fry are 2 days old and doing great. They are fun to watch. I keep counting them to make sure they're all there! I can't believe how small they are. I'll have to take pictures soon. I am also eagerly awaiting the arrival of puffer fish at the fish store near me. Two weeks ago, I saw one at PetCo in Washington, and I totally fell in love with it. I have been researching them ever since, and found that there are many different kinds. The type I want are dwarf puffers, called Green Pea Puffers, and I am so excited about getting them. They are the cutest fish I've ever seen. These particular puffers are freshwater and pretty docile and should only be about 2 inches long full grown. They are supposed to be in the store "sometime this week." I'll call tomorrow. I get paid tomorrow, too. How convenient! I hope they get along with the mollies. If so, maybe I can get some dwarf frogs! My 20 gallon long glass aquarium with the wood trim and open pine stand is still empty. I'm not sure what to do with it. Who knows, I may end up just setting it up again and give those little puffers even more room to play! Oh, and the sea monkeys are still doing well. Still very, very tiny! I like them!

Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - I bought a critter keeper, an air pump, some tubing, and a filter, and made a tank for the fry. I also bought food for the babies. I put them all in their new tank, fed them, and inspected my Eclipse 6. I found a LIVE baby in the filter, so I picked him up and put him in the fry tank, too. I also found several dead babies in the bottom of the filter and in the tank itself. I wish I could have helped them all, but she had those babies when I wasn't even home. At least 6 of them are alive and healthy. I like my little babies!

Monday, July 17, 2000 - ALL the feeder goldfish died. That's okay, though, because I wasn't really planning on keeping them. I bought two lyretail mollies, one black and one white. I named the white one Lily and the black one Gunther. I was watching them, and it was very relaxing. Then I saw a little piece of gravel, but it looked like it had EYES. I put the net in the tank and it started swimming! It was a baby molly! I looked at Lily and Gunther and came to the conclusion that Gunther had given birth!! So, SHE needs a new name. I couldn't believe it! I got as many out of the tank as I could find. The Eclipse filter is too strong for the baby fry, and sucks them up. I got about 5 of them out of there and into the very small aquababies container that I still had. It was really exciting!

Sunday, July 16, 2000 - The Flourite gravel I used was a little cloudy but has cleared up. I bought some plants and driftwood, and it looks really cool! The driftwood makes a little cave. I'm sure all my fish will love this.

Saturday, July 15, 2000 - I got a new aquarium! I bought a 6 gallon Eclipse from my friend. He had it running at his house, then emptied it and brought it right over. I set it up with gravel and water before the biowheel dried out so that I could keep the biological filter alive in my new setup. I bought some feeder goldfish, too, and put them in the tank.

Friday, July 14, 2000 - I hatched the sea monkey eggs. You can actually see these little white dots swimming around. It's so great!

Thursday, July 13, 2000 - I bought sea monkeys!! I am so excited. I've never had them before! I know they are only brine shrimp, but it looked cool and was only $7. So what the heck, right? I think it's fun!

--November '99--

Right now, my tank is completely empty. I am sorry to report that my sweet little fish, Claire, has gone on to Fishy Heaven. She will be missed.

I decided to take the opportunity to "remodel" the aquarium, since I have no more fish. I was having huge snail problems, and wanted to change the look of my gravel. I also wanted to create a tank that would be ideal for many plants.

I bought some iron-nutrient gravel called Flourite, which I will use. I also plan on getting light colored, natural gravel. I want to get many beautiful plants for my tank! I have seen several planted tanks, and I really like the look of live plants a lot. It will be my own aquatic garden, and I look forward to making it beautiful.

As for animals, I know I want one male betta fish. I also love cherry barbs and tetras, and plan to get some of those. I also definitely want African Dwarf Frogs! I think I will get three!

To read more about African Dwarf Frogs, check out this site!