Inhabited by…
Three male guppies, resplendent in their fancy tail-ness. There will eventually be several more males and possibly a female, so that Emma can watch babies grow up. There will, of course, also be at least one snail. Snails are simply too cool to leave out of an aquarium.
A friend gave Emma this seven gallon tank and lighted hood for Christmas a year ago, and I resisted setting it up for a long time. (An entire year, if fact.) I knew that if we set it up I would be the one doing the feeding and cleaning, so I was adamant that I Didn’t. Want. Fish. However, Emma has been enthralled by the fish displays in the pet store, and I finally gave in. When she and I were off island on Sunday, we got some plants and a heater and set up the tank. (I already had a filter, rocks, and gravel from the tank I had in North Carolina.) We didn’t get any fish that day, but just got the tank running and acclimating, and we planned to get the fish next Saturday because Shaun was going off island anyway for a swim meet.
We unexpectedly ended up going to the mainland again yesterday, because we needed to renew our driver’s licenses (HOW can we have been living in Washington State for five years already??!!) and Shaun needs an un-expired one before the weekend since he has to fly to Oregon on Sunday for a job interview. So we got some fish.
Despite the fact that I was dragged kicking and screaming into setting up the tank (all right, so it was my decision, but Emma guilted me into it), I’m ridiculously excited about it. I had a tank about this size in North Carolina, with some mosquito fish and snails that I got out of the creek I did my Master’s thesis research in. It lived on my desk at school until I graduated, and went with me when we moved from Wilmington to Pittsboro so that Shaun could do his PhD at UNC-Chapel Hill. The fish eventually died of old age, and when we moved to Washington I didn’t want to move an aquarium of North Carolina snails across the country, so I packed it away.
Emma and I spent about an hour last night just watching the fish. We fed them, and she thought it was just about the coolest thing ever when they darted around to suck up the bits of fish flakes. She played peek-a-boo with the yellow-tailed one when it was swimming around the plants, and she said “Hi fishie!” every time one came up to the front glass. It was so cute.
5 comments:
Wait.... hold everything!!!! I'm just about to move to Washington and y'all may be leaving Washington for Oregon????? No fair.
The guppies are cute BTW!
very cute. I'm considering a fish tank as well. I had to drag the twins away from the wall of tanks at the pet store the last time we went in there for rabbit supplies.
The picture of your fancy tailed guppies brought back memories of many a happy hour spent in front of my grandfather's fish tank. He would let my sisters and I feed them when we would go to his house and visit. He had a beautiful tank that was built into a bookcase. PS...the edging on your shawl is beautiful!
What a cutie picture!
I had guppies in college. I also made the mistake of having boy and girl guppies. Of course, then the whole dorm got in on the action and we raced to see who had the most guppies.
I'm trying to convince DH that we need cichlids :)
That picture is beautiful. It makes setting up the tank all worth it, doesn't it?
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