The New Hobbit Hole

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I would never accuse you of being a sneak-post-spammer!

Lord knows, we have enough of them! Not thinking of any folks in particular of course.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Maybe I'll look for a store that does just fish and go from there.

Well we have g'nad thread-killer, and now we have Corin goldfish-killer!

If you go to one of those places that sell a lot of fish, and talk to somebody who has experience, they should steer you right. By the way, you didn't have one of those round bowls, with the relatively small opening at the top, did you? Those things are for Betas and other air breathers only!

[HairOfTheDog]

Goldfish are air breathers... so are guppies! - That is why they don't need aeration.

[HairOfTheDog]

I think.....

[Corin Stormhands]

Your compassion moves me...

When I worked at DC, my boss kept goldfish in her office. She gave two to her assistant, a friend of mine.

One of them committed suicide (jumped from the bowl and landed on the window sill). So we got a sympathy card. And of course the sentiments were much the same as those expressed above.

The boss was the last to sign it, she wrote. "I see nothing funny about the loss of a pet. I'm sorry. Love..."

We behaved for a good long while after that.

[Sam Cree]

I'm hoping you finish. Why don't you let us read a chapter or two, when you get them into some kind of shape, like JenB did?

It's kind of exciting that we have writers on this thread, IMO.

[Corin Stormhands]

Our fish bowl looks like this (currently without the fish). It's flat on both sides with a round opening at the top:

[Corin Stormhands]

It's kind of exciting that we have writers on this thread, IMO.

Well, I'm hoping y'all will be around to critique my work before I try sending it off to a publisher. But I've got a LOT of work to do.

[JenB]

Hi there.... how are you? I'm thinking about cracking open my Fantasy Epic and see if my heroes will behave. Actually the problem is that the hero doesn't seem capable of saving the world, and the heroine is perhaps too competent, and I can't seem to get any sort of love scene right. I do, however, have a pretty decent fight scene between the hero and the creature he thought was his brother...

Oh, it's been a long day. Worked hard, came home, helped out, so it's me-time. I'm thinking Llangryn's a good place to spend it... Llangryn is my fantasy country, I'm going for the "Celtic" feel.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Our fish bowl looks like this

From what I understand, while this is pretty, it is hard on the fish, since there are fewer square inches of air surface. 'They' say that it is always better to stick to the longer-type rectangular tanks.

Hair, I think that the Beta naturally lives in an environment of warmer, dirtier water, and breathes much more air than the goldfish. I think a lot of fish swallow some air for their organ which uses air as a way of staying sufficiently bouyant, and do not use much, if any, of it for respiration.

[HairOfTheDog]

A bowl that size in proportion to the fish (especially with two in there) should probably have a daily change of half the water, and a complete flushing of the rocks a couple times a week. I am gonna guess it is the ammonia that is killing them... Their poo settles down in the rocks and decomposes and raises the levels of ammonia and other septic toxins quick. I would also never fill it as full as the example there... you want to have as much surface area exposed to the air as possible to keep re-oxyginating it. fill it about 3/4 full.

[HairOfTheDog]

We will get this guy goldfish certified yet!

[JenB]

Hmm. Plants are much lower maintenance!

[HairOfTheDog]

LOL! Oh I don't know about that.... Fish I can do... Plants I kill.

[HairOfTheDog]

And the rocks are too deep in that example. To much stagnant space down there for anoxic septic "stuff" (love my scientific terms?) to happen in. The shallower the rocks, the more the water will circulate through it and less chemistry happens down there.

[Overtaxed]

the more the water will circulate

Sounds like he needs a real tank with pumps and plants and things.

[Sam Cree]

I'm hoping all you guys do let us get to see your work as it takes shape. Even if you keep it secret until you publish, it will still be exciting.

We had tropical fish for awhile. There's a reasonably complicated process of setting up the "ecology" of the aquarium. After that, though, it was pretty simple, we had a good filter and vacuumed the tank once a week (which involved actually changing a fair amount of the water). The weekly vacuuming kept the water so clear that people sometimes thought it was salt water. Always used well water to avoid the chemicals in most city water. Temperature is important too.

Have a saltwater tank now, it's pretty much more difficult. Killed alot of fish before we hit on a system.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes, I think we may have to send him in that direction.

[Overtaxed]

BTW, what do you do about algae?

[HairOfTheDog]

Tropical fish and a complete tank system is much simpler than fishbowls once the tank is established. Even my two big bala sharks are not as dirty as two goldfish, but the filtration system moderates the chemistry of the water, and weekly vacuuming removes the gunk in the rocks that creates all the bad toxins, and empties out some water for the fresh to be added.

Salt water is a challenge I would like to try sometime. I have been attracted in the past to the idea of setting up a native Puget Sound tank, with things I can gather myself, rather than a tropical tank. The challenge would be keeping the water cool enough, as Puget Sound is a cool 58 degrees.