fell off a couple wagons, or, how to set up a 2.5 gallon aquarium tank
it's been a bad week for dealing with past addictions--machinarium got me hooked bad. now i've been jonesing for more point-and-click... grim fandango looks promising. yeah i could try it out, just to taste. i can stop anytime i want.
i quit fishkeeping a decade ago, thought i'd kicked the habit for good. but when the kids went on a field trip to bio research, those sneaky so-and-sos handed out free goldfish. free goldfish! now i could've been a pragmatic parent and flushed the things down the toilet right away; or a typical parent and bought a cheap fishbowl with plastic mermaid and hot pink "plants" and overfed the fish until they drowned in their own excrement; but oh no. once an aquarist always an aquarist. first we kept them in a punch bowl for a few days (100% water changes everyday, but not straight from the faucet, you let the water breathe for a day or so to reach room temp and release its chlorine).
then i bought the smallest tank available (P190, pencil in photo for scale) , and splurged a bit on an external overhanging filter with powerhead, cause we didn't have those in my day (P650). a corner filter/air pump combo would've been more practical at around P300.
next was some gravel (P30--should've just gone to the construction site down the road but i was feeling lazy). rinsed--no soap!--and boiled.
i wanted a dark substrate so i had my volunteer assistants pick out as many of the light-colored stones as their attention spans could tolerate:
half-filled the tank and put in a couple of live plants (goldfish eat plants but what the hey):
then i put the tank in its designated corner in the office, filled it, plugged in the filter and lamp (P150 at the palengke, more presentable ones can be bought at the pet shop for P350).
add fish, turn everything on, feed a few flakes twice a day for six days a week, change 25-30% of the water every week, and enjoy!
the filter pump had more kick than i'd expected and there's a faster current in there than i'd like, but the goldfish seem to be taking it well, and it'll be perfect for the danios i plan to replace them with once they get too big. YES NEW FISH MORE PLANTS GRAVEL CLEANER ALGAE WIPE PH TEST KIT DRIFTWOOD BUY BUY BUT NOT A PESO GOES TO BIO RESEARCH, SA AKIN ANG HULING HALAKHAK, HA HA HA
this morning we noticed one of the fish was missing. after a fruitless search of the surrounding area we initially concluded that it had jumped out of the tank during the night and had been totally consumed by ants.
just then it leaped out of the overhead filter and back into the tank.
somehow it had swum up the downspout like a salmon going up a waterfall. well done little shubunkin! it cowered for several minutes at the foot of one of the plants, looking all, 'what the hell just happened?!'
i quit fishkeeping a decade ago, thought i'd kicked the habit for good. but when the kids went on a field trip to bio research, those sneaky so-and-sos handed out free goldfish. free goldfish! now i could've been a pragmatic parent and flushed the things down the toilet right away; or a typical parent and bought a cheap fishbowl with plastic mermaid and hot pink "plants" and overfed the fish until they drowned in their own excrement; but oh no. once an aquarist always an aquarist. first we kept them in a punch bowl for a few days (100% water changes everyday, but not straight from the faucet, you let the water breathe for a day or so to reach room temp and release its chlorine).
then i bought the smallest tank available (P190, pencil in photo for scale) , and splurged a bit on an external overhanging filter with powerhead, cause we didn't have those in my day (P650). a corner filter/air pump combo would've been more practical at around P300.
next was some gravel (P30--should've just gone to the construction site down the road but i was feeling lazy). rinsed--no soap!--and boiled.
i wanted a dark substrate so i had my volunteer assistants pick out as many of the light-colored stones as their attention spans could tolerate:
half-filled the tank and put in a couple of live plants (goldfish eat plants but what the hey):
then i put the tank in its designated corner in the office, filled it, plugged in the filter and lamp (P150 at the palengke, more presentable ones can be bought at the pet shop for P350).
add fish, turn everything on, feed a few flakes twice a day for six days a week, change 25-30% of the water every week, and enjoy!
the filter pump had more kick than i'd expected and there's a faster current in there than i'd like, but the goldfish seem to be taking it well, and it'll be perfect for the danios i plan to replace them with once they get too big. YES NEW FISH MORE PLANTS GRAVEL CLEANER ALGAE WIPE PH TEST KIT DRIFTWOOD BUY BUY BUT NOT A PESO GOES TO BIO RESEARCH, SA AKIN ANG HULING HALAKHAK, HA HA HA
this morning we noticed one of the fish was missing. after a fruitless search of the surrounding area we initially concluded that it had jumped out of the tank during the night and had been totally consumed by ants.
just then it leaped out of the overhead filter and back into the tank.
somehow it had swum up the downspout like a salmon going up a waterfall. well done little shubunkin! it cowered for several minutes at the foot of one of the plants, looking all, 'what the hell just happened?!'
then i bought the smallest tank available
ReplyDeleteakala ko yung punch bowl. haha.
...
wow, parang recipe lang yung ginawa. :D
according to the movie Bigfish, the potential size of a goldfish will depend on the size of its habitat. so the larger the size of its habitat, the larger the fish becomes. the smaller the size of the habitat, uhh, the fish will still increase in its size but not that big. haha the movie is not about fish.
wala lang.
:)
Hahahaha!! Parang ang saya naman mag-alaga ng isda nyan :)
ReplyDeleteAt kawawa naman yung goldfish na napunta sa filter.... buti na lang less than 2 seconds lang ang memory ng isda, kung hindi, traumatized goldfish ang labas nya hahaha!!
Ay isa pa palang natutunan ko, goldfish turns white pag walang ilaw hehehe
six days a week lang sila kakain?
ReplyDeletebuti na lang hindi ako goldfish!
- lucy
Maybe that fish who explored the overhead filter is really named Nemo :D
ReplyDeleteMachinarium got me hooked too...
ReplyDeletethe fish went Nemo :)
@leroy,
ReplyDeleteoo totoo yun, pero up to a point lang. these fish will outgrow this tank.
@albert,
masaya talaga mag-alaga ng isda. a competent aquarist is part biologist, part botanist, part chemist and part plumber.
@miko,
oo nga, di ko naisipan yun! may bansag na siya ngayon.
@lucy,
kung flakes and pagkain mo araw-araw baka humingi ka rin ng break.
@dj,
ReplyDeletenatapos mo na ba? napikon ka ba dun sa 'bird on a wire" puzzle?
di pa nga e. dun na ko sa top ng tower. tinigil ko muna. di na ko nagiging productive. hehehe...
ReplyDeletemmm i know what that's like :/
ReplyDelete