Many Many Things!

Well, many many things have happened today alone. Prepare yourselves, because most of it is negative. First things first, dear Augustus has passed away.

Here's the story:
So, I was at a camp all week. My family was taking care of my fish. When I got back, everything seemed ok, but I noticed Augustus wasn't around. My mom told me that she'd seen him last night when she fed them. After looking all around the tank, I began to worry. I knew he wasn't alive. If you remember how I found Poseidon dead, this should sound familiar. I saw a small whisp of what looked like fish bones with rotting skin. Accepting this as his dead body, I buried it. Gravestone and all. As returned to my tank, I was shocked to find another, fuller corpse. This one was defiantly Augustus. Feeling foolish, I went back (with my dear cousin) and dug up the false corpse (which was probably just some algae) and replaced it with the true one.

The false corpse

The false corpse

Augustus was a wonderful fish. He was friendly and accepting to everyone. His tail shimmered with every color imaginable and couldn't have been more beautiful. He will be missed.

Just to add to the pile of bad news, Socrates isn't moving. I'm not saying he's dead, he's just not moving. I keep telling myself this is another false alarm, and he's just sleeping, but I don't know. He's sucked into his shell and looks pale. I'm trusting that what I read about water snails when they die (that they stink) is true...

I also let Aphrodite out of confinement. I guess it's up to you whether that's good or bad. She was sure happy about it, swimming all over the place! I'm glad to see her happy, but also worried about my guppies.
 

Aphrodite enjoying all the new space

To make things worse, I'm leaving on a trip TOMORROW until August 7th, which means I won't be able to monitor or take care of my tank! I'm so worried about what I'll find when I return.

As far as good news, I cleaned my tank! YAY! It was so dirty and gross!

Lastly, tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Tutankhamen's death. As one of the original fish, he will always have a place in my heart. We remember him tomorrow as a great fish who loved many.

Pectoral Fins?

With all the recent new guppies, I thought I'd bring up the subject of pectoral fins..... guppies have them! Yes, yes, it's true. They are transparent, which explains why we have all lived in the dark all this time. Without them, guppies wouldn't be able to swim! (If you have no idea what pectoral fins are, they're like little fish arm-fins.... Tutankhamen has so kindly modeled his below for your visual enjoyment.) So yes, now you know.

One other thing I want to point out is I have discovered a way to clarify old pictures of fish such as Hercules, Napoleon, and Sharkbait, so be sure to check out the new pictures in the Fish Name Photo Gallery (Identification) tab above. Sharkbait's picture was so blurry that I just got a picture from the internet of what his species of fish looks like, though it's not really him :)

The good news and the bad news.....

Athena

The Orange Athena

In loving Memory of Tut

May he rest in Peace.

Best Friends Forever.

The Startling remains of My dear Posiden

Life in the ancient fish tank has been crazy since my last post. I have terrible terrible TERRIBLE news and some fantastic news. I suppose I'll go in chronological order. So I guess I'm starting with some good news. I finally named the new guy!!! I just started calling him Tiberious because it just felt right. He has been growing but is still much smaller than Xerxes. He adds so much to the tank. Next comes some dreadful and painful news. I have been avoiding posting for a whole week because my mind hasn't healed quite yet. There has been a death. I never thought it would happen...... Tutankhamen has passed. He has always been the everlasting life of the tank and now he is gone. I discovered him in the late hours of Sunday, July 29th and he was thereafter buried early the next morning. He will be missed deeply. My cousin and I had a beautiful funeral and burial service for him. Two days later I left for camp, leaving the maintenance/feeding to them for four days. I returned on Friday and everything was fine.... or so I thought. I noticed that Posiden was nowhere to be seen. I dismissed it, thinking he must have been hiding in a corner or something. Later that day, I noticed something floating around in the water. At first, it looked like a piece of algae or something. But as I looked closer I realized something very appalling. It was not algae, it was the remains of my dear Posiden. How could I tell? His bones were still visible. It was a truly horrid sight and with forever haunt my memory. I buried the small  chewed-up carcass next to his buddy, Tut. Over the next day, I noticed how lonely Eiosepa appeared without his chums. He kept trying to befriend the Pachus' and Ahmen-Ra, but he didn't really "fit in". This made me even more upset, so I brought him home a new friend! Introducing....... Athena: Goddess of wisdom and war! They were instant buddies! I was about to buy another one that was red, blue, orange, and yellow and then name it Hatchepsut, but I decided it was too soon. During all this time Aphrodite had been patiently waiting in her cage. I decided she had served enough "jail time" and let her free. She was very glad! Her "cell" was also filthy. Well, that's all I can fit in one post, so please enjoy my pictures! It was very stressful to photograph Athena. I finally got a perfect picute of her, but she turned orange!!! I just added most of my attempts (orange included).

Just to Catch you Up....

Sorry I haven't been keeping you up to date lately. The summer has kept me really busy! Pachus has literally disappeared! He's nowhere to be found. I've cleaned the tank several times since he went missing, and still no sign of him. During all of this time,  Tut has been ill. It started with his fins rotting away, and a large yellow-orange spot growing on his fin. Then he was surface resting. I tried to help him up with the net, but he would immediately sink back to the bottom. I began to fear that he would die, so I did some research. I considered various diseases that fit his symptoms, and came to the conclusion that it was a parasite. I treated him for a couple weeks and, gladly, he is swimming again! I truly hope he makes a full recovery soon! I haven't noticed any new nips from Aphrodite, but Poseidon and Sepa's fins are not growing back! I have been treating them with different medicines, and still no improvement. Well, I guess I'll just have to wait. I've made two or three water changes since my last post. During one of these changes, I accidentally bumped into Zeus with my gravel vacuum, and boy did I startle him! He leaped an inch or two out of the tank before splashing back in. It scared me! A different time, I was putting the decorations back in. I was picked up some gravel to move, and instead grabbed Xerxes for a whole three seconds! It was a shocking, yet almost delightful experience, but it doesn't seem to me that he enjoyed the experience. He totally spazzed out! I must say, it was rather amusing to watch him recover for the next five minutes. Speaking of decorations, I got   a whole box of freshwater supplies from my uncle, who is starting a saltwater aquarium. I'm covered for the next five years! He even has a large filter and gravel if I ever can afford to upgrade tanks! One of my lightbulbs burned out, so my tank is only half lit... I was about to replace it, but I decided to leave it for a week or two. I kind of like it that way. I just hope they don't turn into vampire fish!! Well, I'm about to leave on a two week vacation, so we'll see how my fish do. Don't worry we'll hire somebody to feed them. I be sure to write about it when I get back.

Be sure to check out all new pictures of the fish in the "Fish Name Photo Gallery" tab!

What a scare!!!

The other night, I was making my way up to my room, as I looked into my fish tank, I noticed that two fish were missing: Tutankhamen and Eiosepa. I frantically looked around until I noticed two limp brown bodies atop the Pantheon's roof. I immediately fell to the ground and started crying. So many had died! As my mom heard me crying, she came up into my room. I told her what happened through my sobs. She looked inside. "I don't see any dead fish...", I replied "They're there. Look on the roof," "There are no dead fish on the roof." "What???". I sat up and to my amazement saw both Eiosepa and Tut swimming happily around the tank as if nothing had happened. "They're alive? They're ALIVE!!!"I don't no if I was just really tired, or they came back to life... but what a miracle!!!

These are my top 5 favorite photos from my fish photoshoot:

It all started.....

I never had a life long dream of having an aqaurium. It just happened. My dear fish came to me on October 31st, 2011. I sat for hours, watching them, until I could see which names fit their personality. The first fish were Zeus (Pleco), Xerxes (Albino Corydoras catfish), Tutankhamen (guppy), Napoleon (guppy), Hercules (glofish), Ahmen Ra (glofish), Sharkbait (glofish), and three neon tetras who are collectively known as Pachus. (they were really hard to tell apart.) by my birthday, I added many decorations which follow the mostly ancient theme (if you haven't noticed). Over the many months, I have lost, as well as gained new fish. Filters have broken, thermonmeters have cracked, but I'm still going. I have noticed all (well, almost all) the fish who have passed have been the ones without ancient names. I am now careful to name every new fish an ancient name, to prevent this curse from falling upon them. I suppose now is the best time to tell you who I have lost, and who is new. Pachus 1 was the first to die, then Napoleon, then Hercules, and then (last week) Sharkbait. I gained Posiden and Eiosepa (both guppies), and today I went out and welcomed two new (and quite exotic, for my tank) fish: Caligula and Aphrodite (lace catfish and mixed fruit tetra). They all make me soooooo happy and I want to give you more info ASAP, but I can't let it all out in one post! Notice the "photo gallary" tab above, if you want to put a face to the names.....