April 01, 2008

Our Family Has A New Addition

Here's a very warm welcome to the latest additions to the family!

Our New Pets

Yep, Tim and I are now proud "parents" of 8 fishes. We actually wanted a dog, but due to our current living conditions, that's out of the question. So for now, we're contented with our little swimmers.

Fishes sure are expensive here, to own or even to eat. A guppy would normally cost me around RM2 back in Malaysia, but it's AUD4 here. Eight fishes cost us almost AUD30. Crazy or not, you say?

Our New Pets 2

For now, there are two yellow guppies, one spotty guppy (I call it that just because it has spots; I'm sure it's not what it really is), two hi fin swordtails, two zebra danios and a sucker catfish. Our sucker catfish is just about the most active sucker I've ever come across. The little fella darts around the aquarium very often, rather than just plaster its mouth to the glass.

I have a strong feeling we also purchased a pregnant hi fin swordtail. Her belly is pretty big compared to the male, and is always in one corner by the plants. I read that fishes often eat their fry. Euuuw.

Our New Pets 3

Anyways, we bought hardy fishes, so they should last us for a while. The problem is that we seriously overfeed the fish. When I wake up, I feed the fish. When Tim wakes up, he also feeds the fish. In the afternoon, when I'm bored, I feed the fish. When Tim returns home from work, he feeds the fish, just for the heck of it. Plus I've got a tank of greedy lil' buggers, so they'll eat whenever they can.

It's no wonder there's a whole lotta shit at the bottom of the tank.

9 comments:

beetrice said...

You spent RM2 on a guppy HERE? So mad...I don't pay more than RM1 for mine!! :O

And yes, you're crazy for spending AUD30 on tiny fish...but I've spent more than that (converted!) on my own 'fish playground', so I'm in the same mad boat lor.. :D

Mummy said...

Well... at least you won't be complaining about any sleepless nights and don't have to change nappies. You won't be chasing your tails off someone, and not configure the looks of every sharp corner of your furniture, making your house look like some lego house.

"Sushi" anyone? :)

L B said...

Ornamental fish in the home is so so so therapeutic!! I used to keep a huge one a long long time ago.. So much pleasure.. Then, no more time!

Kyels said...

Fishes; not really inclined w/them. I still prefer dogs. Looking at your fishes it reminds me of the fishes that my grandma used to rear.

:D

Trinity said...

I have guppies and guppies babies!! A lot! :-D

PabloPabla said...

Woops! I read the latter post before this. Now I know what you've put in. Okay...if you want healthy fish, just feed them once a day. Just once. You and Tim might have to "oh pay som" over it but feeding more than once will increase the "shitload" and decrease lifespan. Serious! And if you are going to feed them once a day, make sure it's a stingy feed. These fellas can go 2 to 3 days without feeding...unlike dogs.

As for the Zebras, they will look great when you buy a school of them (at least 10). Then you can see them swimming in a school. Magnificient!

I can go on and on talking about them fishes :D

Tine said...

Beetrice: Ha? Serious? Where you bought your guppies lah? You mean they hiked up the price of guppies in Penang? How can?!

Your fish playground is like a hundred times more canggih than mine leh :P

Mummy: Dahlink, these ain't sushi. These are ikan bilis :P

LB: Yeah, I highly agree. I love the sound of the water pump, and I can just watch the fishes over and over. I've got a crazy one who loves nipping at the rest of the fish.

Kyels: Hahahaha, good Lord, I hope I haven't turned all grandma on ya ;) I love dogs too, unfortunately am not able to rear one just yet.

Trinity: Oooh do you separate your fry from the guppies? Or do they end up as guppy food? *gulp*

Pablo: Thanks for the tips! I so agree, we've been really overfeeding them. Well, after reading your comment, we've now changed our feeding times to just one. Greedy tykes.

As for Zebras, would it be alright to keep so many in a 4-gallon tank ah?

PabloPabla said...

Yes, absolutely no prob keeping a school of them in that tank. I would suggest solely keeping a school of zebras or neon tetras. It looks better than having a couple of different fishes in a tank. More "focused" :D

By the way, if you want them to look really good, feed them blood worms rather than flakes. Quality feed produces quality looking fish :D

Tine said...

Pablo: Thanks! I've been wanting to feed them blood worms, but Tim's like "aiya, why waste money?" MEN! Tsk tsk :p

Anyways, would like to ask you something actually, about neon tetras. The aquarium shop owner was telling us that we need to have a fluorescent lamp at the top of the aquarium to keep tropical fishes. If we want to rear tetras, we'd need to have the lamp, which we don't at the moment. What say you? Is it really needed? Bear in mind that winter will be here in a couple of months. Thanks :)