Laowai

I cannot tell you how glad I am for our newest family members – Bea's fish. 

Bea completely excels at fish care. We first bought the aquarium in September and she has become an expert since then. She has taught me so much about the personalities of each of her four species of fish. She has found some great fish shops in the area and if you go with her she can tell you the names of every fish she sees. 

Here's a list of Bea's fish. She has five Zebra Danios, four Cory Catfish, One Betta (in his own tank), six Glowlite Tetras (not to be confused with Glofish) and a few species of snails that snuck in on plants. Her favorites are her Cory catfish because they are very chilled out and funny looking little guys. They feed on the bottom and they always look busy with their barbels moving along the sand. 

We got the second (tank for her Betta) in October when we found it along the side of the road (who can resist). Her Betta got fin rot – it's a common problem. She worked hard, learned a lot and and successfully treated him over a several weeks.

Bea has started a web site all about aquarium fish. It's a big project to she has been working on it now and then. If you want to check it out it's called Fish Encyclopedia. I linked all her fish to the pages she created on Fish Encyclopedia above.

I love to walk by Bea's room and see the tanks glowing at night. I often pop in during the day to gaze at the fish – we all do – and it's very relaxing.

Feeding time is also fun to watch. She first drops some flake food in for the Zebra Danios (they are the most aggressive fish in her tank). Then she hand feeds some flake food to the Glowlite Tetras. They are comfortable enough to come right up and take the food out of her fingers. If she doesn't hand feed the Tetras the greedy Zebras will snatch up all the food. And it also works well because the Zebras are a bit too skittish to take the food from her hand. Last of all the Cory Catfish get a little wafer of food that falls to the bottom of the tank. The fish know the routine and you can see them perking up when she comes to the aquarium. And then they are all crazy, zooming around while they get fed. The Cory Catfish nibble at their wafer but sometime the other fish get interested too and they will grab the wafer and carry it across the aquarium like they are running down a field with a football. 

The betta, in his own tank, usually gets fed last. He comes right over to where she is standing and excitedly takes his little pellets. She says he has a personality like a dog. I go into her room and watch the whole scene some mornings – it's like feeding time at the zoo. We sit and she tells me more about the fish or about her plans for future fish.

She really hates it when I call her fish pandemic pets but we did get them during the pandemic. And I think they have been a welcome addition when she can't do activities she would normally focus on in non-pandemic times. I try not to get too grumpy when there are buckets and nets and other tank cleaning stuff left in my bathroom. And I try to manage her expectations when she tells me about her plans for more more more. She plans to turn her 10 gallon quarantine tank into a shrimp tank. I really do love her fish!