“Yo ho ho and a bottle of — uh oh, too much rum! The cap’n wrecked the ship!”
My aquarium shipwreck ornament arrived last night. I love it a lot!
It arrived at about 6:30, so I brought the box in and unboxed it.
Then I removed a couple of existing ornaments. The castle was the largest one, and stubborn Moby Dick refused to leave it for a solid hour until he opted to relinquish it in favor of water again.
(Plecos can live out of water for up to 24 hours, but I stressed for the entire time that I had the castle precariously balanced over the open aquarium hood, waiting for him to evict himself so I could check to see if he was up in the turret to “fan” baby plecos, as daddy plecos do. Luckily, there were no eggs or babies beyond him in the turret, so I didn’t risk their lives by keeping the ornament out of the water as long as I had to.)
CURIOUSITY ABOUNDS
As soon as I settled the two pieces of the shipwreck into the gravel, plecos started swarming all over it, as did some of the other species, checking it out. It was then that I realized “Maybe fish enjoy a change of scenery, too…” I have often wondered what these species’ ranges are in the wild and if I’m keeping them in too-small digs to keep them happy.
My tank is 55 gallons, the largest size that my den can accommodate near the door, and the fish are reproducing in it like nobody’s business, so that indicates to me that their conditions are sufficient to keep them happy (and horny, apparently). They’re all community tank species, so there is no aggression among them. Even the plecos get along without fighting (which is reportedly unusual).
NEWEST LIVE ADDITIONS
This morning I added four angelfish — two striped ones about four to five months old, and two black ones, half their ages. They’re hanging out in the floating foliage near the top of the tank, mostly.
I also added two teensy weensy aquatic African clawed frogs because I suppose the one I’ve had in there forever might enjoy some companionship. (I can’t get images of them right now because they’re in hiding and they’re so small you might not be able to see them anyway!) I should have gotten four to six neon tetras, too, because I only have two of those swimming around and they feel better in schools, but I can get those later.
In Other News
I’m in correspondence with the new owner of DeForest Kelley’s 1968 Thunderbird (I won’t divulge his name right now except to say that his first name is Jim). He is restoring the “Bird” to its former like-new condition (the condition in which De sold it in 1991). Jim has been taking before-and-after pictures and keeping me abreast of the project.
If Jim will agree to it, I will do a follow-up EVER NEW and have him on as a guest to share his journey. There have been some mighty strange “coincidences” accompanying his journey, so much so that we’re beginning to think De may be orchestrating some things to confirm that Jim is the right owner for the car and to be sure he gets everything right as he proceeds to restore it. Really intriguing stuff! Stay tuned for that!
