littleprince

I have two cats, a dog, and a tank full of fish that I absolutely adore and love to spoil. My spend more money on food/treats/toys for my animals than I do for myself. I wish I could have a larger tank but as I live in a second floor condo that is not really an option. <br />
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I currently have a 65 gallon tall tank. It is a planted fresh water tank with 1 shubunkin, 1 black moor, 1 red cap oranda, and 3 gold dojo loaches. They are all in the range of 3 inches right now. I have never kept fish before so am in the process of learning so much about them. My tank is planted with a lot of cabomba in the back left corner. There's a very large piece of driftwood in the center right with some contortion val planted around it. There's a small cave for my ghost shrimp and dojos to hide in and a large rock structure in the back right corner that creates empty space behind it for fish to hide. I have two filters hooked up to it until I can afford one really good one. I have a 50 gallon bio wheel filter and a 20 gallon standard HOB power filter. There's an air stone in each back corner. The tank has fine gravel in the back and sand in the front. The tank is kept at room temperature, usually 68-72. My fish typically eat TetraColor sinking goldfish granules, small ramshorn snails, live black worms, frozen daphnia, peas, zucchini, and various freeze dried foods. They also enjoy eating the ghost shrimp, algae off of the drift wood, and nibbling on the plants when it has been too long (in their terms) between feedings. <br />
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My fish are all named after some of my favorite characters from literature. <br />
The Black moor is named Little Prince from the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. <br />
The Shubunkin is named Ponter Boddit from the book series Hominds, Humans, Hybrids by Robert J. Sawyer.<br />
The Oranda is named Alcee Arobin from the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin (so named because he looks like he's wearing a Frenchman's hat because the red spot is set to the side of his head.<br />
The dojos are: Edna Pontelier, named from The Awakening, as well. Eliza Doolittle named from Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Brandy Alexander named from Invisible MOnsters by Chuck Palahniuk. <br />
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Things to note about my fish: The dojos don't really care for pellets. They much prefer the black worms and ghost shrimp. The dojos are also very protective of their food sources. They will scavenge for food with other dojo tank mates but if one of the goldfish or shrimp come anywhere near the food that they are near they will lay on the food until the intruder leaves them alone. The goldfish will eat anything that I put into the tank. I never had any problems with the goldfish eating the plants (as is a usual concern) until I added the oranda. Alcee likes to dive deep into the plants and munch his way out. <br />
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I have dealt with various fish diseases in the relatively short time I've been keeping fish. I had two koi die from rapid temperature change when I put them into their new tank. This was my own fault for not researching the fish ahead of time and not knowing that fish needed to have a cycled tank. Thus I have had to do a fish-in cycle. I lost a large comet goldfish to a serious case of swim bladder. My black moor is currently recovering (very well) from a fungal infection. So far, though, all other fish are in great health. The dojos are incredibly hardy fish and the shubunkin has yet to be sick at all, though I could tell that he's come close a few times. <br />
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Wish me luck!<br />
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p.s. I am very grateful for the resources on the internet concerning fish, especially this forum and the following web site: http/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/fresh.htm

Spoiling my animals.

Just keep swimming.