We recently invested in an aquariam set-up. Not, one, but two. And by invested, I mean spent obscene amounts of money on. But we saved because we bought it from someone else, rather than new.
One of the tanks was for my oldest last birthday. We thought it would be fun to have a tank in his room so he could watch fish while he goes to sleep. He likes it, as do we. His is a small tank, 20 gallons. It's just big enough to be annoying when changing water, but not so big that it bites to haul buckets up and down the steps.
The other tank is the focal piece when you walk in our front door. Registering in a 75 gallons, it has taken us some time to get set-up and find the various types of fish we want. The smaller tank had been set-up first, mainly with community fish. The larger tank has semi-aggressive fish and the Mob.
We have two catfish, both of which have names that make their species readily identifiable, but neither of which I can remember. Let's just call them The Boss and His Minion.
The Boss is a large-ish cat who prefers to come out only during the night and when no one is watching. He has taken residence in the local castle. I fear that one day he will be too big to leave and starvation will occur. His Minion, a small cat with long whiskers, pops out of the castle frequently and checks on the status of the tank and make sure that everyone is paying their respects to The Boss.
I can always tell when The Boss has been out. Plants are moved, Spongebob has been roughed up, and my blue rock river has flooded his banks. He also has the plecostomus under his wing, er, fin. Most days the plecostomus is inside the castle too, rather than doing his job of sucking the sides of the tank.
The whole situation thoroughly pisses my husband off. See, he used to have another Boss fish, entrusted to another care-taker. The whereabouts of this fish are unknown, hence the replacement. Instead of being the friendly, greet you at the door type, ours is a Mob Boss.
On the whole, I like the fish. Often, visitors will find me parked on one of the kids' chairs, watching the large tank in the front room. Sometimes, I'll have a kid or dog on my lap. Mostly, I'm left to watch the fish alone.
Better than swimming with them.
