There is a very real possibility that we will be able to see the aurora borealis/Northern Lights here in the Pacific Northwest tonight.  I’m going to be watching very closely. I have been wanting to witness a display in all its glory all my life (in real life).

 

I saw the Northern Lights here in Tacoma briefly one time during the summer a few years ago when I stayed out in the back yard in my see-through tent specifically for the purpose of seeing the phenomenon.  What happened then was a green sheen across the sky, not the rippling, curtain-like effects that people see pretty regularly in farther northern countries– Iceland, Canada, etc.

 

My hope is that I’ll see something like that tonight. I wish we could get everyone in Tacoma to turn off their lights tonight so city light pollution won’t lessen the effect, if we truly do get a rare display of the aurora borealis here.

 

It would be wonderful to see something like this tonight:

 

 

 

 

I will have my cameras at the ready in case we do get something spectacular.

 

UPDATE:  No dice. I didn’t see anything and there are no reports of anyone else in Tacoma seeing them, either.

 

In Other News

 

I went out to get more ghost shrimp yesterday for my aquarium, but didn’t find any.  I did find a gorgeous female betta which I brought home and added to the tank.  She’s very shy right now, hiding among the many plants I have in there, but when she’s less so, I will get a picture of her.  Liberating her from that tiny cup she was in was quite the experience for her, and one of my other bettas came up next to the cup to keep her company while the water in the cup (room temperature) and in the aquarium (78.8) slowly adjusted so I wouldn’t shock her when I turned her out.

Got a picture, but it doesn’t do her justice! I’ll get a “betta” one as soon as possible and replace this image.

 

As soon as I turned her out, the betta who had been keeping her company swam alongside her as she explored the tank. It was very touching to see them hanging out together, occasionally touching fins.  The home betta is almost three times her size, but the newbie accepted her companionship right away.

 

My albino pleco (a bristle nose) is getting pretty big, but it will never get as big as Aristotle (a common pleco, which can grow to 2 feet long) would have had he not jumped out of the tank several months ago and died in my trash can (in which he landed, oddly enough).  (I now have a tank cover that it would be nearly impossible to jump out of.) I have named the albino Moby Dick (after the great white whale that Captain Ahab lost his mind over) because it’s the biggest critter in the tank.

Albino plecos aren’t very pretty,  I have another pleco that is breathtakingly beautiful and another that is very plain (no markings). I will see if I can get images of both of them before I end this entry for today, but they are more shy and less often seen, so no guarantees, especially with as much foliage as I have in my tank these days (to help hide and protect the ghost shrimp).

Dang! Either my cellphone or the lights in my tank cause this greenery to look yellow.

It’s much greener than it looks here.

See the chunky African Frog swimming upside down in the foreground, almost in the center in the lower half of the image? 

I named it Gordo for obvious reasons!

 

WOO HOO! Got my prettiest pleco up close and personal just now!

 

 

This is its underbelly, and here’s a look at its sucker mouth..