The Thanks We Get!

It was Monday. Spooky was quietly swimming in the aquarium. I saw him. Then I took another glance at him. Something was definitely wrong! He is a yellow-tailed blue damsel fish, but looked more "see-through" as the kids said, at the moment! Yes, he was rapidly losing his color as he skimmed the surface of the tank. I quickly noticed that the water level had depleted to the point of raising the salinity level to a dangerous place.

I quickly remedied this by adding RO water to the tank and rechecking the salt level. Then I fed Spooky. It was only a matter of an hour or so until his color returned to normal and he was swimming contentedly all over the tank. Whew! We had saved his life!

Then came Thursday. Mind you, we had carefully changed out a portion of the water earlier in the week as instructed by owners of such aquariums and workers at the pet store. All had seemed very well. The crabs and baby snail were letting us know they were thankful for the attention.

Spooky, on the other hand, decided to "give up the ghost". One minute he was swimming normally, and eating, and within ten minutes, he lay belly-up under the coral...dead! THIS IS THE THANKS WE GET!

The truth is, Spooky may have died anyway, given that we did not know how old he was in the first place, and that his previous owner stated he might not survive the move anyway. But, it is sad.

The plan now is to have the tank checked, go over the instructions on everything, and THEN get two more damsels...and try again. This time, we can know a little more about the fish, and they will come from the same tank in the store. If they survive for 2 months, we may get a clown fish to join them. But that is all our little tank can handle.

Learning about marine life, even from an aquarium, is interesting. We got to go to the homeschool class at the Science Center last week. The topic was on ocean life. They have a much bigger aquarium with sea stars, snails, live coral, and other creatures, some of which were available to touch and hold. Handsome declined that opportunity, but observed them very closely.

We are learning about the facts of life as well...the fact that life begins and ends in the animal world. That life is unpredictable...that life is delicate.

The true thanks we get is knowledge. Sometimes that comes, not just by studying books, but by trial and error also. And we get the joy of observing life...from the tiny crabs to humans...we are all wonderfully made! Enjoy!

The Crazy Fish

Swimmy is dead! Even though he was the bigger fish in the tank, he succumbed to the stress of the move. He put up a valiant fight, however, swimming vertically instead of horizontally for two days. But, alas! He eventually died and ended up with his tail stuck in the filter.

So, we went to Petco to find a replacement for a friend for Spooky. We got another blue damsel just like Spooky, only without the yellow tail. At first they seemed to be good friends and Spooky came out of hiding and swam all over the tank, seemingly delighted. We introduced the new one into the tank exactly as directed. We checked the water temperature and salt level. Everything was perfect! Until the lights went out!

There were no witnesses, no forensic evidence. So, we can only make guesses as to what happened. The man at the store had mentioned that the new one might be agressive for a few days, but did not think they would hurt each other. But, that evening we find the new one dead also. And all day today Spooky has acted more like Snoopy or Adventurer...swimming all over the tank and hardly hiding at all! So, methinks perhaps we should change Spooky's name...to something more like Shark! Or Villian or King-of-this-tank-and-don't-you-forget-it! I haven't even seen the snails or crabs all day!

So, for now, little yellow-tail blue damsel gets his or her kingdom unchallenged...but only until I get to the store to talk to the salt water aquarium specialist. THEN, he/she may get solitary confinement!

For the Love of Fish

Today we embarked on a new adventure. We bought a saltwater aquarium. I found it on Craigslist for a great price, especially considering it had two fish, a snail and several crabs in it and ALL the equipment. The guy even gave me a brief lesson on caring for the fish.

We have been studying the Ocean from Apologia's Zoology 102...and just came upon the chapter on fishes. Yes, you DO say fishes...IF you are talking about more than one KIND of fish. And of course, the ocean has too many for my mind to imagine. In fact, our aquarium has fishes..two different kinds of fish! Handsome has them named. The tiny blue one is "Spooky" because he hides in the coral. The previous owner said it is his habit and you have to coax him out by moving the coral from time to time. The larger one is "Swimmy"...I guess because that is HIS habit. The snail is "Slimy" and the crabs are "Crawly" (and Crawly Jr., the second, etc.)

It has been a fun day setting all of this up. We stopped at Petco to get them some food and look at potential tank mates for later. And we bought a black goldfish for an experiment tomorrow. Hopefully, it will survive. He is lonely in the kitchen in a glass bowl. Perhaps he too, shall get a bowl-mate!

Well, I never knew that fishes were so interesting. Other sea creatures had struck my fancy much more. But they are an amazing creation! Oh, for the love of fish!