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feeling: bored
listening to: nothing
I am bored! Bored bored bored!
Sorry, it just feels nice to be able to say that after midterms and exams and scheduling and housing contract and fish water param problems and etc. Not that I'm done with all that, by the way. I should be cleaning the tanks right now, and I'm meeting with my advisor Tuesday hoping he can save my pathetic scholarly soul from the flames of eternal senior-dom.
I'm trying to convince my parents to get a fish tank. I have made it a goal to get them to get a fish tank. Not just to facilitate my growing obsession, either. Dad WANTS one. He wants a big monstrous one, anywhere from 65 to 225 gallons. I would LOVE to live under the same roof as a tank that huge. But there's no way we could afford it. *sigh* He says a 65 would be the best seal, comparatively pricing, but still quite pricey. Pushing $100 just for the tank alone, never mind substrate, decor, plants, filtering, aeration, heating, lighting, and of course, fish.
But the biggest problem is, dad says he's too lazy to upkeep a tank. Of course I reminded him that I, the Supreme Queen of Slugdom, have TWO tanks, and if he gets a big one he'll have a lot less maintenance to do than I do, because he could cycle it. Once a tank is cycled and fully stocked, pretty much all the owner has to do is change 10-20% of the water weekly or biweekly and toss in food every day. Whereas I have to do 100% weekly changes on both my tanks because they're too small to cycle.
Anyway... actually, dad's 'laziness' isn't the biggest problem. Mom is the biggest problem. Mom is the epitome of pessimist. There is NO bright side with her. Unless, of course, she's telling ME to look on the bright side when I don't want to do something she wants me to do... but that's different, hey? But, no... she wouldn't mind having a nice pretty tank either... she's just under the impression that she'd have to set aside an hour plus every day to maintain it, or something. Plus she seems to think she doesn't have the time. I felt it wisest not to inform her that she's at home ALL day EVERY day ALL year round.
So yeah. Mom doesn't want to be stuck with the responsibility of keeping a tank. Even though there wouldn't BE much responsibility on her part. And because mom thinks she doesn't want a tank, dad absolutely refuses to even consider getting one. What mom doesn't want, mom doesn't get. Number one rule in our home. :P
Keeping all that in mind, here is the plan I came up with. I told my parents to get a 20 gallon tank - not so big as to be hard to maintain, but not so small as to be limited to too small an amount of pretty fishies. Anyway, to be more specific, I told them to get that 20g at the beginning of this summer. I said to also get substrate, some plantage, decor, filtration, aeration, and heating, but no fish yet. I then said to give me control of the tank for the first month or so, and that I would do all the cycling work. Because a fishless cycle requires pure household ammonia in place of fish, it takes a bit longer, but you don't risk losing any fish early on to huge ammonia and nitrite levels. Sooo, then I told them that once I was finished cycling the tank, they were to buy a betta and 2 or 3 otos (bottom-dwelling algae eaters), plus whatever other kinds of fish they wanted as long as they were compatible with otos and a betta. Pretty big range there. Anyway, see, from that point on the tank would be fully stocked and fully cycled. Which means from that point on, the only necessary maintenance would be biweekly 20% changes and daily feeding. Does that sound so difficult?
Of course, they had their complaints. What about algae? What about scummy calcium waterlines left by evaporation? What about when fish die? I told them the otos would take care of the algae, and that proper, regular maintenance would keep algae and calcium deposits from turning up anyway. I also told them to look for symptoms BEFORE fish die so I can use my meds to help them. And finally (or not so finally), I told them that I would do all the 20% water changes when their times rolled around, most likely when I came home on the weekends. That way ALL they would have to do is feed them. Really, does that sound so hard?
But... arrrrrgh... there is NO getting through to these people. They are under the solid impression that I am crazy. The real problem is that when they had a tank 15-odd years ago, it was a huge chore because they didn't know what they were doing. The tank was sorely overstocked - dad said they liked to keep about 5-10 each of bottom dwellers, middle dwellers, and surface dwellers. That's like, at least TRIPLE the recommended stocking capacity, which is 1 gallon per inch of fish. I'm positive that THAT was the major reason why they had problems with algae, calcium deposits, and fish suddenly dying. That and they just didn't know what they were doing. But I've spent the past year, nearly, learning all the info I can cram into my brain about freshwater fishkeeping, especially bettas, and I could take care of the hard stuff for them. I told them I'd be glad to, because I know they both want a tank... they just don't think they can handle the maintenance. So if *I* handled the maintenance, what would be the problem?
*end fish rant*
Did I mention I'm bored?
comment! (0)
dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 2/07/2003 09:31:00 PM
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