Tag Archives: fish

05.14.13

Our neighbors have to wonder about us.  There are probably quite a few with binoculars by the window waiting to uncover our secrets.  Pretty sure they are disappointed when they realize how boring we are.

I would imagine many of them see the glow coming from our dining room and believe we are growing illegal substances.  I am surprised we’ve never been bombarded with questions of why our house glows all the time, but then again they are probably more concerned with why we haven’t cut our grass all week.  It’s a jungle out there.

I can only imagine what people think when they see the flashing lights of a thunderstorm.  Professional photographers?  Rookie Ravers?  Epileptic Research Association?  Weather Manipulators?  Bingo.

When we set up our 210 gallon reef tank, we splurged on AI Sols (fancy LED lights) to help trick the fishies into thinking they were really out in the wild.  They have moon cycles, customizable color spectrums, and the best part is a pretty realistic thunderstorm.

This video isn’t full of suspense and excitement but if you want to add your own thunder sounds or bust out your rain beads, feel free.  Christina says, “Humming the Jaws Theme followed by The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow really gets the fish excited”.  She always has to put her two five cents in.

The video doesn’t do this feature justice because it really lights up the whole house.  Particularly frightening when you wake up at midnight and are knocked over by blinding lights.

So if you ever decide to stop by and visit us, please don’t be alarmed.  We are just trying to trick our fish into thinking they are in Hawaii.

Aqua Illumination (the light folks) are not paying our bills.  Just thought you all would like to see a unique part of our life, as indoor weather manipulators.

Written by Christina and Tim
01.03.13

Our new Kole Tang...

Posted by Christina // 3 Replies

We have a new little neighbor in our tank these days. coon He is seriously the sweetest fish.
He blended right in with our existing fish like he was Mr. Rogers or something.  Maybe he whistles, or maybe he brought a peace-offering.

I wish more of our fish would blend that seamlessly.

We waited a while to name thing little guy, he had a pretty bad case of ich.
Now that we have had the pleasure of knowing him for a couple of weeks we have decided that he needs an official name.  Barring any “fish bragging curses” we have declared our Kole Tang’s name to be ‘Coon’.

Don’t get all fussy, there are no double meanings there.  It’s just the whole ring-around-his-eyes thing and the I-am-really-sneaky-hiding-behind-these-rocks-we-can-pretend-are-trash-cans thing.

Well, that and this.

What can I say…sometimes I am hopelessly literal.

Written by Christina and Tim
10.02.12

We knew that if we drove straight home from the East Coast we would be seriously depressed…in a car….together….for sixteen hours.
That was if there wasn’t any traffic.
We also knew that Chicago was only a six hour drive (five if your name is Tim).

So we added Chicago to our trip.  That cut the depressing drive down by ten whole hours, because we were excited for Chicago for most the way home. Since we couldn’t catch a Cards-v-Cubs game, we went to the obvious vacation destination. Boy oh boy did our cameras get a workout.  Hope you like photos! It goes without saying that we had a blast.
But I will say it anyway….we had a blast. We walked right into a show in their main tank.  Where do I apply for that job?
I of course oogled the decor.   Ummmm hi, where do you all shop?
I got caught oogling a lot that day…. What can I say, I have a real weakness for sharks.  Check it. I mean, how do you not love them.
I am totally serious about having a shark tank too.
Luckily, I know where to stock up on sharks. Yes, they had real shark eggs.  I have video of them wriggling that I will share later this week.

There was another baby.  The baby Beluga was born about a month ago.
Say “hi”

 

That is my dolphin imitation.   It seemed like the theme of the day was large and in charge.
Everything was huge. I know these aren’t the best pictures, unless you are into glare and fuzziness.
The point is look at the size of these monsters. For some reason, this reminded me of Harry Potter.  So I ran….fast.       Yes, that sea lion was the highlight of my trip.
He knew where the food was, so he would swim three laps then splash out to get some chow.
Everytime he got out I clapped like a….well, sea lion.

My second best friend was this little feller. He was convinced that the rubber duckie was his people.
More convinced that this duck was his BFF forever and ever.

Then there were the jellies.  Oh the jellies.      

It was what I want heaven to be…and has me convinced our next tank should be a jellyfish tank.   That there is the general gist of our aquarium trip…minus about 450 pictures.
Shutter happy people, that’s for sure.

We were not happy to leave Chicago, since that meant our trip was pretty much over.
But we are so glad to be home….planning the next one!

Written by Christina and Tim
09.07.12

Our fish wishlist....

Posted by Christina // 1 Reply

The next tank we are putting in is going to be a fish only tank.

Here are some of the fishies that are on our wish list.  We would need a huge tank since some of these fish get aggressive…but we are totally fine with that.  The bigger the better, right?

And now onto the so-ugly-they-are-cute list…..

Just in case you hadn’t noticed…all of the fish on our wish list can be found and bought at LiveAquaria.com.

We are not promoting Live Aquaria, that just happened to be the site we were on when we decided to make a fish dream-team.  But if they wanna pay our bills, we are so down with that!

Most of the above are fish that we can’t put in our current tank.  Either because they are not reef safe, or they are aggressive, or we are too poor to afford them right now.  Our corals and current fish family mean too much to us to take the risk and buy these fishies up.

We can dream….and hopefully by throwing it out on the internet we might actually have put a fire in our pants to get a fish only tank.

Written by Christina and Tim
08.07.12

You know how I always say I need a reality show?

Oh you don’t…..well I do.

Sometimes, things happen to me and I just can’t even fathom the serendipity of it all.

We bought Dori a solid week ago.  Let her get adjusted, beefed her up a little, treated her with garlic to keep her healthy.  Waited to write our “new fish” post until we were absolutely-positivly sure that she would live a long and healthy life.

We even kept put her in a tank with only a shrimp and hermit so that she would be safe.

Today I wrote this post.

Today I came home to a hermit crab eating the remains of my Dori.

We did everything right.  The water is perfect.  No one is picking on her.  She’s been eating like a champ.  Looked healthy as an ox-fish.  Got more attention than all of our other fish combined and believe me they are jealous.

She was our baby fish….and now she is gone.

I couldn’t make this up if I tried, nor would I want to.  Tonight I will be drowning in ice cream yelping WHY.

I cursed my baby fish, and although I considered not letting you all in on our little tragedy.  You have to take the good with the bad, and in this hobby, death is a part of life.

I just wish it wasn’t.

And why today.

And why that fish.

Ok that is all.

RIP little Dori….I’ll miss you.

Written by Christina and Tim