The Tank Gang

We finally decided something about the fish tank. Figuring out exactly why things will never run perfectly is not realistic. We have embraced the green algae and given up trying to get a completely clear tank. Two things led to this decision:

1. No matter how much research and analyzing we did, nothing seemed to be able to get rid of algae without killing the fish.

2. Since we gave up on the algae a few weeks ago, our one remaining fish was happy and alive, breaking a record in this house - alive two months after our purchase.

One conclusion we made, although based on nothing other than our observations, is that guppies seem to die in our aquarium. Katie, the longest living fish referred to earlier, is the only non-guppy we have ever had. So after Katie survived the algae-tank for several weeks alone, we decided to go ahead and try more fish. This time we decided to work toward stocking the tank, so we decided we would purchase three new fish. And the only rule - no guppies.

Of course that rule went out the window when Sam, who treats picking out his fish like a life and death decision, only liked guppies so we finally relented and let him get a guppy. Naming these fish took several days as well, but finally three new names were chosen. Sam named his guppy "Mickey," Ben named the bright orange one "Fred," and Maria named the large blue/orange striped fish "Splatter." I know the picture is fuzzy, that's just the algae haze you're looking through. Mickey is light orange fish in top picture, Fred is bright orange in same picture, and Splatter is the larger fish in the bottom picture.

We've had the fish almost a week and so far, so good. Although Fred seems to be the tank bully, chasing a nipping at the others, I think we may have taken care of that problem by feeding them more often. Time will tell.

CORRECTION: Apparently Melanie, a fish that dies right before Christmas, was also not a guppy, Maria reminded me. So we've killed several guppies and one fish that was not a guppy.