Archives: We are the biggest dorks known to man

Mickey Mouse Platy

~~ Originally posted as a Facebook Note on January 23, 2010 ~~

 

We picked up a myriad of new fish for the tanks in the last couple of days.

First, let me back up a little bit. The whole foray into becoming fish people started in late August when I figured a small tank in Jocelyn's room would make a great night-light. (Turns out I was right.) Then my dear friend Amy told me she had a 55-gallon tank she would GIVE me. And everything that went with it. At first I turned her down, but the more I thought about it, the more appealing the offer was, especially if she wasn't going to be using it. (And truth be told, it is so much better for the tank/filter/etc. to be used rather than just sitting in storage.) So we added the big mamma jamma tank to the living room decor.
  Originally, we just bought a few fish. Two female bettas (one blue and one red), two cory catfish and a plecostomus for the big tank downstairs and a beautiful blue male betta and a plecostomus for Jocelyn's tank.

Fast-forward to last week. In the time since we got the tanks set up, I managed to kill one plecostomus, one of the female bettas, and the male betta contracted a variety of diseases that couldn't be cured so we put him out of his misery a la the freezer.

Orange platy

You might think that we would give up on fish at that point. Nope. You know me ... full steam ahead on the challenge.

So I went to PetSmart yesterday and bought a beautiful calico fantail goldfish for Jocelyn's tank. And I picked up a few Platys (or Platties - depends on where you look online), a pregnant dalmation molly and some tetras.

Jocelyn's poor goldfish was stressed beyond belief. It was hiding, it wouldn't eat, it was awful. So what do I do? I decide this goldfish needs a friend. So off we go to the pet store today to get it a friend. (Which we did, and which did help it come out of its shell a little bit, although the additional plants I added to the tank might have helped with that too.) Beyond that, Scott was a little upset I got fish without him, so we picked up a fish for him - an incandescent shark catfish and I got another Mickey Mouse platy because, well, it's cool.

The guy at IncrediPet asked me if I had named the fish. I really hadn't given it much thought. So, over the course of the day, we managed to figure out names for all the fish.

Phineas and Ferb - the two goldfish in Jocelyn's room. The orange and black one (that is quite social, ironically enough) is Phineas and the shy calico one is Ferb.

Walt and Disney - the two Mickey Mouse Platys. The white one is Walt because I know for a fact that one is male. I haven't had the chance to figure out what the blue one is, so Disney works for it because, well, it can go either way.

Alpha - the red female betta, left from the original batch of fish. She was the first!

Candace and Perry the Platy - the two orange and black platys. One is female and one is male, so it works pretty well.
  Rorshach - the dalmation molly. Enough said. If it's spelled wrong, oh well ... you still got it. (And yes, Scott's the one that came up with that genius name, I can't take credit for that one at all.)

Argon, Xenon, Neon, Hydrogen and Raydon - the tetras. (Yes, you edumacated folks, those would be the noble gases. And yes, I spelled Radon wrong on purpose.)

Demish and Boogish - the two cory catfish ... named after Demon and Booger, our two cats.

Bruce - the shark. Fish are friends!

And drumroll please, because Scott named the remaining plecostomus Lawyer ... because it's a bottom-feeder. (Autumn, please don't kill me. I swear, it was all him.)

That, my friends, is why we're the biggest dorks in the world. But you know, we're also the people with a dog named Oscar Wylde Intentions, so would you expect anything less of us?

Oh, and for added fun, we got a new tank decoration - it's a big castle, looks a bit like Hogwarts. (Alas, it's not sitting in the gravel quite right, so I joke that there was an earthquake. I'm going to let the fish get acclimated and reduce their stress before I go screwing with the tank - as it was, I already did a water change and rearranged the tank on them today.)