My Wife Is An Enabler.

So my wife jokingly refers to my cars and my fish tanks as my "addictions" since I am always wanting to get or do this or that. So of course, after we got our 55gal a few years ago she said no more tanks. Then I brought home a 185G and she said she'd leave me if I got another tank. Then last month we got a 125G for our son's room. Today while I was at work she sent me these pictures...

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Then I came home and took these...

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The rectangle is a 55, and the corner unit is estimated between 45 and 55. She got them for free because they leak, the guy was just throwing them out. He said they were resealed about 2 years ago but started leaking again. Looking at the silicone beads on the seams they don't look too skillfully done. I got a tube of silicone sealer and I am going to redo them again, and hopefully have better luck.

Probably the worst part of the whole thing is I already know what I want to do with the one. I want to take the corner one and plant it really heavily with swords and other leafy plants, then put a betta in there, and maybe some other small fish.


The other will probably go to our daughter's room, but I am not sure what I will put in it. Maybe just stock it with fish that we breed in the others. What are good fish for a baby to take care of?

 

For a baby to take care of or watch? For a baby I think large, bright, slow-moving fish are the way to go. How about fancy goldfish?

 

My kids and kids I see at stores seem to love glofish, bettas, "sucker" fish and as Aquaphobia said, anything with bright colors and slow moving.

 

Well yes, it would be more watching than caring at this stage. I like to use the tanks to start teaching responsibility though, so as she gets a little older some of the burden will be moved to her.

With our son's (3 years old) tank he helps me clean it and change the water by holding the siphon hose, and doing the glass sweeper. I actually have to hide the glass cleaner because he begs me to use it if he sees it. And he is responsible for feeding them. I portion the food, but he puts it in. We actually got into a fight the other day because I fed his fish and he was mad at me.

 

With our son's (3 years old) tank he helps me clean it and change the water by holding the siphon hose, and doing the glass sweeper. I actually have to hide the glass cleaner because he begs me to use it if he sees it. And he is responsible for feeding them. I portion the food, but he puts it in. We actually got into a fight the other day because I fed his fish and he was mad at me.

Your son's off to a good start

 

It seems that multiple tank syndrum is contagious.

 

I read articles about experts saying watching aquariums improves mental health, the routine of caring for fish and other aquarium animals and plants promotes health. There are some scholarly articles on the human animal bond and the relation to health and well-being.

 

I can believe that. We have had fish for years, in fact my pleco is my oldest pet, beating out the rabbit, the dogs, and both kids by multiple years. We have had tanks running when both kids were born, and both of my kids have hit all the early development milestones early, and I spent time just sitting watching the fish with both of them since birth. We have to be careful with the baby at fish stores because she tries to jump out of the cart and into the tanks.

My goal for the kids is to have good sized tanks that they take care of while they live at home, and can then take with them when they move out if they want.

 

More tanks is better than a lot of fish in one tank.

 

My wife is a tank blocker...lucky you.

IMO, keep it simpler with the little ones. I like the fancy goldfish idea too

 

So lucky! My husband kicked up a stink about me getting a 10 gallon for a while because we'll have to move it when we move in 2-4 years. But he told me I can have the biggest tank we can find when we own our own house so I'll forgive him... lol

 

He should just be glad it wasn't a bigger tank (40 gallons+, 10 gallon tanks are pretty easy to move(depending on how far y'all are moving)

 

He should just be glad it wasn't a bigger tank (40 gallons+, 10 gallon tanks are pretty easy to move(depending on how far y'all are moving)

I wanted a 20-45 but I talked him into a 10 later this year. For now I'm going to keep bettas. I want a 200+ so badly! But he said not until we have our own house!

 

I have to agree with your husband on that one. I love my 185, but I bought it when we had no plans to move, ever. Then 9 months after I got it up and running we moved. Having a tank that large that had to be accommodated as part of the move, not just spacially but structurally caused us to have to pass on several houses that we really liked.

Having a large tank adds a lot of other factors to buying a house. There was one house we liked that I passed on because of the fish tank. It was an old farm house, nice yard, in ground pool, well within our price range. But the floor joists in the main part of the house would not have held the tank, and the basement was a dirt floor, and only 3ft deep, so bracing would have been an issue. The added-on living room was built right onto the ground, and inspection of the floor joists was difficult. I believe it may have held, if the tank was laid across the joists rather than along them, but that would have blocked doors.

There was another house we looked at that we really like, and again well within our price range, but the floor plan was so claustrophobic that there was no place in that house large enough to put the tank.

I still wish we could have gotten the first place we looked at. There was a load-bearing wall between the kitchen and living room that had a window almost exactly the size of the tank in it. I could have knocked out the portion below the window and put it right there over a basement wall. That place needed about 3 months and $20-40K of work (including removal of black mold from the basement and removal of snakes from the attic) to be ready to move into though, and my wife was pregnant and commuting 70 miles one way to her new job.

 

So today some lady dressed up like one of my dogs brought my a present from some guy named Grainger. I don't know anyone named Grainger, but it had these inside.

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