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