Aquarium City!

 So... Goldie the goldfish lived about a month and a half with us before he finally crossed the rainbow bridge for fish.    With that change, we thought we'd shift gears in our current 10 gallon tank and purchase a number of tropical fish.    Eric even considered getting a larger tank so he could have a tank where he'd raise shrimp and have snails, having quite the ecosystem all around for all of the fish.   (The idea would be that he'd raise shrimp to be bottom feeders and clean the bottoms of the tanks and then also to be used in a food chain heirarchy to feed other tanked fish.)  

He started watching YouTube videos up the wazoo (in typical OCD fashion) and he learned a LOT about having fish, raising fish, what fish are good tank mates, best ways to clean tanks, water changes/refreshes - you name it!

As it happened, I had to go to the dentist to have a tooth checked.  I'd always gotten a kick out of his huge tank that he had in his reception area at the office.  That visit, I learned that the dentist was moving into a brand new space with two other dentists.  Assuming he may not be able to take the fish or aquarium with them (and assuming they wouldn't be going home with him), I asked him what he planned to do with the set-up.  He said he really didn't know.  I told him if he was planning to get rid of it, Eric might be interested.  He perked up and told me that we could HAVE it!  That was a Thursday.  By Saturday, we had plans to go retrieve the 100-gallon tank, 100 gallons of water, and what we now counted as 17 fish.

Thankfully, Connor was able to come with us to help.  We drove two vehicles to town and started the process.  I had bought a ton of buckets with lids, knowing we'd be bringing gallons of fish water home with us.   When we arrived, Doc showed us everything he was giving us - it was a LOT more than we'd even anticipated!  He had a second 25-gallon aquarium, heaters, filters, food, test kits, cleaning tools, extra light bulbs, bubblers, tubes, siphons, plus the 100-gallon s-curve tank, mongo super duper filtration system, stand, aquarium decor, etc.  It was a LOAD.   

When we got home, Eric and Connor lugged most of the heavy stuff (I had a bad shoulder and such so I wasn't able to lug as much as I would have liked to).  It was a huge chore.  Connor had to leave for work right away, so Eric and I started the process of going through all of the boxes (both vehicles and Eric's truck bed had been FULL to the BRIM!).  At one point, we couldn't even walk through the living room or kitchen - it was such a mess!  

Then, it was tank-cleaning time.  Ugh.  But, it had to be done.  I cleaned the tank while Eric continued to sort.  And, he also used the new 25-gallon tank as a temporary home for our new critters.

At one point, Ramsey told me, "Our house is starting to look like a pet store!".  Yup, agreed little buddy.

We have goldfish, a really cool clown loach (the black, white, and orange striped guy), two different catfish (the polka-dot guy and the one with long horizontal stripes), a small school of "silver dollars" (South American natives, closely related to pirahna and pacu), and three bluish-colored Gouramis.

We noticed that the bottom-feeding catfish were very antisocial and strange; they like to keep to themselves.

Exhausted, we continued into the late hours of the night!

Then, finally, voila!  The tank was refilled and Eric placed the fish back in their permanent home and gave them some food.

Mr. Antisocial #1 and #2 both hang out inside the treasure chest and hideouts, not often seen unless it's completely dark.

The rest of the fish "play" and have personalities!  The golfish are especially playful and happy.

With the fish being such beggers, they are fun to feed.   Ramsey finds it fun to stick his fingers in the water and let the fish "bite" him.  

When they are fed the algae chips/wafers, the fish go nuts!  They actually think it's fun to play with the wafer and toss it around, almost like they're playing a game of soccer.   Ramsey calls it "Where's the Wafer?".   Of course when I try to get it all on video, it doesn't exactly go well.  I got a little bit of it captured.

After we got the big tank settled, we knew we had to get the other tanks settled.  Therefore, we played "musical tanks".  Or, as my Dad would have called it "The Welcome Wagon" - as in, "welcome to this new spot!" - but that was in regards to when we used to move furniture in the house on the ranch about once a week - to keep things interesting.   Er... That was off-topic!

The 10-gallon tank that was stitting on the table in the dining room was moved to the kitchen counter.  Then, the 25-gallon tank was moved to the spot in the dining room.    All of the floating shelves in the dining room had to be removed, holes puttied and painted, with shelves being installed at about six inches higher.  That was fun.  :-/

Finally, we had to get enough fish for all of the tanks.   We purchased more guppies, a loach, some corydoras (regulars and albino) for the medium tank and added cardinal tetras, red racer snails, and shrimp to the small tank. 

Small tank on the kitchen counter:

cardinal tetras

a shrimp is lurking on the small rocks.

The medium tank in the eating area:

The guppies are SO HARD to get pictures of..... the corydoras and loach too; they're so fast!

Update:  We now have baby guppies.  I'm sure we'll have many more to come, as we have 7 females and a male - three more females currently have rather large tummies.