Did you know?

I have an aquarium in my kitchen. Not everyone can say that. It was a Christmas present from The Man of the Place about 8 or 9 years ago.

You can see the knife block to the right of the fishies that proves that this aquarium is sited in a kitchen. Well, now that I think about it, it doesn't prove that the aquarium is in the kitchen it only proves that when this photo was taken, a knife block was in the shot. However, if you look back at older photos that were taken in the kitchen, you will see that all kitchen based photograpsh have the same faux granite work surfaces. I just realized that you can sort of see my reflection in the aquarium glass. I am wearing my blue cloud and stars pyjamas. (early morning blogging going on here)

I gave the glass a wipe yesterday. I can see my little fish much better now. I also cleaned out the filter and changed a bit of the water. Change the water in thirds and it improves the water quality (nitrogen content) and doesn't shock the fish with all new water.

I have about nine Cardinal Tetras and two little catfish. If you want to take a photo of your fish and they prefer to hide in the luxuriant plant growth, I suggest that you add a little food into the aquarium. They will abandon the comforts of the plants and come out to eat.

I got these particular fish, the Cardinal Tetra as they are pretty and non-agressive. I have had other fish but had problems with big fish eating the smaller ones. So I gave away the big mean fish only to discover that the smaller ones were breeding too often (Guppies). It was all a horrid mess.

Now I've come to a nice balance. No fish eat the others and they're not breeding themselves into overcrowded conditions.

I have always liked having an aquarium. I can't remember what year I got my first one, but I sure remember its arrival. Christmas morning 197?. We were living in NE Minneapolis and I got this big 20 gallon beauty. I filled it with everything my little bits of pocket money could afford. I learned how to treat common diseases by putting in drops that turn the water blue. No, it wasn't food colouring. I even learned the latin names for the aquarium plants.

It was with my interest in my aquarium that I had my first experience of talking about something that other people didn't understand. I was babysitting for somebody one Friday night. I have long since forgotten who they were. The parents were talking to me and giving me my instructions before they went out and I was going on and on about my aquarium, interjecting the names of the plants and names of the fish. I was excited because the babysitting money I was going to earn that night was going to fund some new gadget or better specimen of fish. It dawned on me as I was rattling on that they didn't know what I was talking about and I was being humoured. It was there in that NE Minneapolis living room that I learned that not everybody is interested in the same things.