What a “Fishy” week! Seems as if “all things fishy” have kept me busy. I guess it’s really about time to concentrate a bit more on the fish anyway, as I would like to achieve my goal of reaching the next level of Fish Breeder in the Minnesota Aquarium Society’s “Bap Program”.
Breeder Award Program Introduction, via The Minnesota Aquarium Society website.
Breeder’s Award Program exists to encourage members of the aquarium society to breed fish and share knowledge concerning the spawning and rearing of fish. Additionally, it provides the means to recognize the achievements of society members concerning the breeding of fish, to promote an interest in and make available a wider variety of fish. Finally, BAP seeks to make more members active participants in the society.
The BAP Committee consists of the BAP Chairman, the BAP Data Keeper and additional club members as designated by the Board of Directors.
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| Everything is back to normal now. |
The week did not get off to a very good start when I was doing water changes on Monday and got distracted by a phone call. At the time I was pumping water from a 34 gallon aging barrel into a 20 gallon tank (from which I had siphoned out about 5 gallons of water), a chore that normally takes a few minutes. It was not the first time I’ve forgotten to watch the water level, but it WAS the first time I ran one of the aging barrels dry. Ugh. The shop vac, mop and emergency towels got quite a work out, but the fishroom floor was very clean by the time I was done! Because the tank I was filling was on the 3rd shelf, water ran into tanks on the 2nd and 1st shelves as well, causing them ALL to overflow. Fortunately the fish stayed away from the overflow and none of them ended up on the floor. The water ran out the fishroom door and across the basement toward the floor drain, but most of it just puddled up along the way. That is precisely the reason I built a fishroom in my basement. The tanks were originally in an upstairs bedroom – where inattention would have caused a much larger problem.
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| Two of the new Bettas are sparing with one another.. |
Two weeks earlier, I had purchased 5 new Bettas from a breeder in Thailand. They were purchased through Aquabid, and paid for with my PayPal account. The fish were shipped the next day to a transhipper in Colorado whose job it was to clear the fish (and many others) through customs, repackage the fish (fresh bags, clean water), and send them on to the buyers. I contacted the transhipper immediately to check on costs, but never heard back from her. I’ve had previous dealing with her in the past and knew that she was not real prompt in her response to emails, but 10 days later I had still not heard from her despite 4 emails inquiring about my fish. The seller in Thailand also tried to contact her, with no response.
Suddenly on Wednesday I got a phone call from her, with some excuses about “sending out an invoice” that I must not have gotten. Nope, I didn’t get it, nor did I get any response to my emails . . . I bit my tongue, she promised to ship my fish out that day, and agreed to send her the payment that evening. The fish arrived safely the following day, in good condition, and are now living in boxes on the top of one of the fishroom shelves. I’ll move the females to a tank later, but the males may stay in boxes. Because Bettas breathe air, they do not necessarily need cycled tanks. Remember the Beanie Baby boxes? Small acrylic display cases, perfect for keeping Bettas as long as the water gets changed often enough, at least 2 or 3 times a week.
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| Thanks Tiffany, I love the castle. |
And last night there was a fish club meeting. Minnesota Aquarium Society is a very active club with many members. Our meeting are well attended and we host excellent speakers from all over the country and beyond. Just recently we hosted Neale Monks from Great Britain, who spoke on Puffers and Oddballs, real favorites of mine. Last night’s speaker spoke on West African fish & aquarium plants, which was also quite interesting. I also picked up a very cool castle to put in one of my tanks. One of our club members is very talented and creates all manner of items to put in aquariums, some that are useful such as spawning caves and others just for fun.
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