I was told by a loyal reader (yes, there's one) that I've been slacking on my posts--guess that means I have real work to be doing...bummer. Today it was taxes, but that has nothing to do with this blog. Except, that I have to report what I learned when I used the Turbo Tax "It's Deductible" deduction finder for donated items (remember we gave several pick-up trucks full of items to Goodwill in prep for the move): a donated automotive Dancing Hula Doll is worth $5.00; if it's considered High Quality (aren't they all???) it is worth a whopping $11.00! This begs the question of how to determine the condition of said Dancing Hula Doll? Really, I had no Hula Doll to donate, but some tire chains I needed the value of, which I couldn't find listed. Oh well.
So the real purpose of this post is to provide an update on the state of the fishies. Sucksmuch (Gyrinocheilos aymonieri) and the 10 tetras (5 Lemon, Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis, 5 Head-and-Tail Light, Hemigrammus ocellifer) were joined by some new 'terygiis (bad ichthyology slang) and some flora a few weeks ago and the tank is looking good. Unfortunately, fish move a lot. Photographing them in their "environment" is a nightmare--so I have lots of blurry pictures, but none worth posting.
We picked up 2 new sucker-dudes: a Borneo sucker (Beaufortia kweichowensis) and a clown plecostomus (Panaque maccus)--they're hard at work keeping the rocks clean and providing some entertainment. The tetras were joined by two more of their kinfolk (Hyphessobrycon colombianus)--they're a bit bigger than the others, but they don't seem to be bullying anyone and their red fins look cool. And then there are the two German Blue Rams (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)--these guys are cool. For those not in the know, these are South American Cichlids, though I'm pretty sure these have been raised in a tank somewhere, judging by their horrible feeding efficiency. The have a reputation of being kind of finicky, but these two (dudes) have settled right in and they keep us amused with their constant battle for dominance over the few hiding spaces, getting all puffy and brightly colored in an attempt to out-do one another. One of them was out to an early lead in the top-dog competition, so he's now called "Alpha." The other one, well, he's just not so smart--dumber than a sack of hammers, we're pretty sure, so he's now called "Sack of Hammers" or just "Hammers."
For flora, we picked up some Ludwigia sp. and Vallisneria spiralis neither of which seems to be doing all that well--we'll have to work on this.
We picked up 2 new sucker-dudes: a Borneo sucker (Beaufortia kweichowensis) and a clown plecostomus (Panaque maccus)--they're hard at work keeping the rocks clean and providing some entertainment. The tetras were joined by two more of their kinfolk (Hyphessobrycon colombianus)--they're a bit bigger than the others, but they don't seem to be bullying anyone and their red fins look cool. And then there are the two German Blue Rams (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)--these guys are cool. For those not in the know, these are South American Cichlids, though I'm pretty sure these have been raised in a tank somewhere, judging by their horrible feeding efficiency. The have a reputation of being kind of finicky, but these two (dudes) have settled right in and they keep us amused with their constant battle for dominance over the few hiding spaces, getting all puffy and brightly colored in an attempt to out-do one another. One of them was out to an early lead in the top-dog competition, so he's now called "Alpha." The other one, well, he's just not so smart--dumber than a sack of hammers, we're pretty sure, so he's now called "Sack of Hammers" or just "Hammers."
For flora, we picked up some Ludwigia sp. and Vallisneria spiralis neither of which seems to be doing all that well--we'll have to work on this.
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