Hello! I'm back into fishies..

**FishTales** · 02-22-2013, 09:11 PM

Over the years we've mostly cattered to Lake Malawi cichlids. But, I gave away the setup, traveled and life moved on. We came back to our home state permantly and my hubby ventured back into fish, but my passion was gone for them. When I heard my sister wanted her go at it, I gave her our fish (pleco and don't remember the rest) and closed down the tank to use as my daughters hamster castle... I know I know... well, my sister bought a beautuful mission style stand and 29g tank. She stocked it with a tiger barb, koi colored angelfish and killed everything else but my pleco, lol. 2 kids later, and the tank was handed over to me. I groaned as my husband clapped in excitement. The angel was missing fins from the barb and at night I heard the pleco having a go at it. Nothing in the tank was interactive or compatible (except for the pleco)! Angelfish is hiding in the corner, the barb was dominating and the pleco didn't care to be stared at *groan*. As my hubby traveled around for his job, (shame me if you will) I left the perameters on the tank unchecked and uncleaned. Woke up to a dead barb and a dead 6 year old pleco (who was quite beautiful). Boo! My 8 year old daughter was very excited about a replacement (I was not). We decided to make it a learning tool. We have ventured into breeding Mollies and Swordtails. We are teaching our daughter about water chemistry as well! I don't know if it was the sparkle in my daughters eyes as she marveled at the pregnant fish, but my passion has suddenly snapped back and I have totally taken over :) Although 2 fish needlessly died, it seemed to solve all my angels problems. I am happy to say he is out of hiding and begging with the livebearers. He doesn't seem to notice he's twice there size either ha. His fins are growing back (who would have known he had orange tipped fins?) and he's stolen my heart.

Now all I need is great people from the forum to help keep the fry alive when they come. A learning experience for the whole family!