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Sep. 16th, 2007 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prismakaosI love my fishies. They are cool, and try to eat my hand when I'm picking snails out of the tank, which really freaks me out to the point of me shrieking at them. I honestly believe that the snails think that I'm runing a den of iniquity just for them, since they keep breeding. Today's snail count that i pulled out of my tank was upwards of 50. One tank really doesn't need this many snails.
On the other hand, it's kind of good, since they're a "canary" for knowing when I should change my filter. The worse off my filter is, the more algae there is in the tank. The more algae there is in the tank, the more visible snails there are. As a result, the more snails I see, the more I need to change my filter.
I did a 50% water change today, which went a lot more smoothly than the last time I did it. I didn't actually have any help this time, so I feel all accomplished and everything. I tried scrubbing down the things in my tank, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference, so I just ran them under hot water.
The three males in my tank have very distinctive personalities. First, there's Mars, who's the dominant male. He's biggest, and his tact towards the females is to chase them around the tank, demonstrating how much prettier his dorsal fin is. It reminds me very much of Ares' posturing in the Greek Mythos, especially when he's morphed into his Roman equivalent and has the centurion ruff.
Jupiter is a little smaller, and he has stripes on his tail. Originally, when he was silver and black spotted, he had an enormous black spot on him - something like the Great Red Spot, but black - hence the name. Since then, he's turned black. (Actually, all the males went from being silver to turning completely black. Go figure.) His tact with females is to stalk them and then launch himself on them when they least expect it. Watching him stalk has got to be one of the funniest things to see. He listerally *lurks*. Again, going back to the Greek/Roman roots, where Zeus used to trick females into sleeping with him. Jupiter is a lot more devious than Mars, but seems to get lucky less often.
Pluto's a different case altogether. He's definitely the smallest and until recently, seemed to have no interest in any of the other fish. I joked that he was waiting for his Persephone. Anyway, now he's halfheartedly going after the females, but he seems a lot more concerned about his territory, and will often attach Mars and Jupiter if they get too close to him. Linking it to mythology is a bit of a stretch, but Hades used to be very concerned with his Underworld, and rarely let anything out of his realm. I keep hoping he'll end up with Alpha Centauri, who's the smallest and (I think) prettiest girl in the tank. She's all silver and light and quite small.
I still can't separate out many of the females. For a while, I knew who Alpha Centauri, Venus, Earth, and Saturn were, but I think I've confused them again. It's difficult because their size, stripes, and spots keep changing on me. I have no idea what happened to Saturn, since the distinctive tail stripe has disappeared. I can recognize Alpha Centauri, because she's so different, and Venus half the time. I've christened one Earth, who has a continent shaped splotch on her side, but I don't know how long that's going to stick around. I also kind of think she used to be named Saturn.
Anyway, I have pictures on my camera of my tank, so eventually, I'll post them. When I get around to it. I'm really bad with this whole posting pictures thing.
My plan this weekend was to clean my apartment and Get Organized. I even had a thought of taking a "before" picture and then an "after" picture and posting them here. Unsurprisingly, this didn't really happen much. I did spend about 4 hours on Saturday going through old mail and separating out Important Things from Bills and then putting them into a file box. So, now I have an empty box (because I'd been stashing my mail there) and a paper bag full of old envelopes. Dear god, so much paper everywhere. I have Thoughts on how to reorganize my entire apartment, especially given the lack of media storage solutions I have right now.
I also really want a pycnopodia. Hand Cthulu (or Deep One spawn) for the win.
Motto for the Snail Den of Iniquity: We do it slowly.
On the other hand, it's kind of good, since they're a "canary" for knowing when I should change my filter. The worse off my filter is, the more algae there is in the tank. The more algae there is in the tank, the more visible snails there are. As a result, the more snails I see, the more I need to change my filter.
I did a 50% water change today, which went a lot more smoothly than the last time I did it. I didn't actually have any help this time, so I feel all accomplished and everything. I tried scrubbing down the things in my tank, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference, so I just ran them under hot water.
The three males in my tank have very distinctive personalities. First, there's Mars, who's the dominant male. He's biggest, and his tact towards the females is to chase them around the tank, demonstrating how much prettier his dorsal fin is. It reminds me very much of Ares' posturing in the Greek Mythos, especially when he's morphed into his Roman equivalent and has the centurion ruff.
Jupiter is a little smaller, and he has stripes on his tail. Originally, when he was silver and black spotted, he had an enormous black spot on him - something like the Great Red Spot, but black - hence the name. Since then, he's turned black. (Actually, all the males went from being silver to turning completely black. Go figure.) His tact with females is to stalk them and then launch himself on them when they least expect it. Watching him stalk has got to be one of the funniest things to see. He listerally *lurks*. Again, going back to the Greek/Roman roots, where Zeus used to trick females into sleeping with him. Jupiter is a lot more devious than Mars, but seems to get lucky less often.
Pluto's a different case altogether. He's definitely the smallest and until recently, seemed to have no interest in any of the other fish. I joked that he was waiting for his Persephone. Anyway, now he's halfheartedly going after the females, but he seems a lot more concerned about his territory, and will often attach Mars and Jupiter if they get too close to him. Linking it to mythology is a bit of a stretch, but Hades used to be very concerned with his Underworld, and rarely let anything out of his realm. I keep hoping he'll end up with Alpha Centauri, who's the smallest and (I think) prettiest girl in the tank. She's all silver and light and quite small.
I still can't separate out many of the females. For a while, I knew who Alpha Centauri, Venus, Earth, and Saturn were, but I think I've confused them again. It's difficult because their size, stripes, and spots keep changing on me. I have no idea what happened to Saturn, since the distinctive tail stripe has disappeared. I can recognize Alpha Centauri, because she's so different, and Venus half the time. I've christened one Earth, who has a continent shaped splotch on her side, but I don't know how long that's going to stick around. I also kind of think she used to be named Saturn.
Anyway, I have pictures on my camera of my tank, so eventually, I'll post them. When I get around to it. I'm really bad with this whole posting pictures thing.
My plan this weekend was to clean my apartment and Get Organized. I even had a thought of taking a "before" picture and then an "after" picture and posting them here. Unsurprisingly, this didn't really happen much. I did spend about 4 hours on Saturday going through old mail and separating out Important Things from Bills and then putting them into a file box. So, now I have an empty box (because I'd been stashing my mail there) and a paper bag full of old envelopes. Dear god, so much paper everywhere. I have Thoughts on how to reorganize my entire apartment, especially given the lack of media storage solutions I have right now.
I also really want a pycnopodia. Hand Cthulu (or Deep One spawn) for the win.
Motto for the Snail Den of Iniquity: We do it slowly.
