The Cat

In the first week of July, 1997, I picked out a domestic long-haired cat named Nicholas. His age was estimated to be 3.5-4.5 years (call it 4), and I felt kind of weird renaming a full-grown cat, so the name stuck.

The Fish

Also in the first week of July, 1997, I picked out an 80-gallon aquarium (for the curious, it is 48" long, 20" tall, and 18" from front to back), a nice oak stand, 100 pounds of gravel, a light, and a filter system. All told, it cost about $1000.

Besides the fish that are pictured here, I've also got a plecostamus catfish that's about 1' long (up from about 2.5" when I bought him). I've got a couple of pictures of him, but they didn't turn out very well.

(Spotted) Fire Eel (mastacembelus erythrotaenia)

My second aquarium addition, purchased 7/11/1997, was a fire eel. He was 9.5" long and cost me $30. He's now over 2' long. I feed him frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms out of a little plastic cup. Thankfully, he has learned to come to the top so I don't have to stick my arm all the way to the bottom of the tank anymore.

Clown Loaches (botia macracanthus)

Clown loaches are friendly little guys which are notoriously difficult to keep alive. I killed off my first batch of five ($7 ea), purchased on 7/12/1997, with nasty stuff from my water heater. I finagled the pet store into replacing two of them (the first two that died) on 7/14/1997, and I bought another three ($7 ea) on 7/19/1997. You have to have at least 3-4 of them or they fight constantly. They had one bout with "ick," but I treated them and they've been fine ever since, except for one that I know was killed by the clown knife and another one that has disappeared. They ranged from 1-1.25" when I bought them, and they're about 2.5-3.5" long now.

They hide a lot, so it's difficult to get good pictures. I haven't gotten a very good picture of more than one of them at the same time, yet. They share the space under the driftwood with the eel, so he's visible in all of these shots.

Clown Knife (notopterus chitala)

I purchased a clown knife 9/1/1997 for $8. He was 4" long. He is now about 18" long, give or take. He eats TetraCichlid (formerly DoroMin) food sticks, although he is not a cichlid. I also occasionally drop in feeder minnows for him (pictures of THAT will come later). So far he's killed two other fish (besides feeders): a pangasius catfish (the first fish I purchased) and a clown loach.

Cichlids: Green Severum and Geophagus Jurapari

I can't remember exactly when I got the cichlids. They were both about 4" long when I got them. The Green Severum is about 7" long now. They're also visible in the background of some of the other pictures.

They called the lighter one a Geophagus ("dirt-eater") Jurapari when I bought it at Pet'smart, but you can read for yourself at the Jurapari Project that this name is obsolete. I'm not exactly what species the one I had falls into. I say "had" because I found him floating belly-up in the aquarium on May 5, 2001. He had suffered from a bit of the hole-in-the-head disease for quite some time, but I hadn't notice anything else unusual. He was 8" from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail when he died. I'd had him for at least three years, and he was the first fish to die in my tank in many months.


Nathan
natemanz@lycos.com