The highs and lows of Aquarium parenthood

I have been around aquatic animals for as long as I could remember. I still remember the feeling of Aww and Wonders when I was innocently looking at the fishes being displayed in the YumCha restaurants. I remember for the longest time that one of my relatives would have a HUGE fish tank with funky colours on it and remember the water condensation on the glass panels as the weather start to rain.

From those feelings and memories, I fostered them for the longest time, only really started being an Aquatic parent myself about 4 years ago. I have linked my discord that has a channel that has a collection of animal photos that I took, called "your little support", the link will be here for my discord.

My first group of children were the Guppies in a stylist 20 Litre tank with only 1 small air sponge filter. It was a tough gig since I didn't really have it at home and was only told to feed and change their water once a fortnight. At the time when the fishes would die off, one by one, at a rapid pace, I would remember a big feeling of dread and helplessness as I was not sure why they were dying off so fast. At the time, I was blessed with some fortune and was able to manage to keep buying the fish and consistently monitor them, without knowing what I was looking out for. When I would make the trips to the fish store, I learnt to communicate problems to the store owners and eventually other hobbyists to trade knowledge on how to most optimally care for the fish that you have. The next thing I know, I was committed to this journey.

Goldfish

My first at-home aquatic babies were the Goldfish. I still keep them at the very moment. I have gone through a lot with these babies, lost a lot of them and have changed a lot of things with them. Initially, I kept them in a long 2-metre bookshelf fish tank that was not optimal for their growth and I would have them outdoors, which as experienced fish hobbyists would know, it is a tall order to maintain this tank. It was 4 hours, every fortnight, cleaning algae and changing water. I would be another 4 hours every month cleaning out the filter for the tank. Every attempt to put plants with the babies had resulted in all of them melting away from the constant fish abuse and uprooting. Eventually, I rehome these babies into a 4-foot regular fish tank that was indoor and it had made a world of difference. I don't have to clean them as often thanks to the 4 extra filters you can see in the picture above and there are fewer of them in one tank now, which changes their overall personality and frequency of cleaning. There were many heartbreaks with these guys, especially losing some from the original batch that I had 3 years ago, very recently due to my own recklessness. I eventually forgave myself but losing your babies does hurt regardless. So far that had been my Goldfish experience.

Nano Shrimps

The shrimp tank was one of my hardest challenges yet one of the most well-paid-off projects. The tank that I have currently is a 90cm cube tank, that house approx 40+ shrimps, both Cherry Shrimps (Neocaridina davidi) and Crystal Shrimp/Bee Shrimps (Caridina cantonensis). They are in a fully dense, planted tank, heater, 2 small filters, and 1 medium air sponge filter and I feed them with Almond tree leaf + Feeding stick once every 3 weeks. I change their water once every 2 months and their TDS rises to approx 30TDS every week. They cohabitate with the bladder snails and Ramhorn snails which is always an interesting sight to see.

My journey started with a small 30cm cube tank, no heater, tiny sponge filter and it was summer. Let's just say, I came home on a hot day from work, to discover cooked shrimps that I never ordered. The water was approx 34C from memory, about 5L had evaporated and my room had the smell of death. I was very devastated on this day, it took me a while to clean up the bloody murder. Once the mess was cleared, I, immediately went to the shop and bought the 90cm cube tank and I have not looked back since.

Betta Fish

This is one of the more sad ones, in the picture above, you can see PB at her peak. She eventually became blind from an illness called diamond eye which I failed to detect and treat early enough. She is now only at best, performing at half of her usual capacity. Due to my success with the Shrimp tank, I have grown a big ego. Sadly, this ego had taken not just PB maximum capability of life, but also some of my Goldfish which I mentioned earlier. PB serves as a reminder to me that you can not optimise everything in life, especially something you love. I told my partner this and she giggled. I attempted to make PB tank so that I do not have to change water AT ALL and AUTOMATED her feeding. With this mistake, a life had to pay a price, I still feel sad about it to this day. I have grown now to cherish love and be involved in every moment with my loved ones.

Axolotl

Of course, to round off the story, I have Penny here to hi-five all of you who have made it this far. The Axolotl story is the one that I am the proudest of so far, and includes ACTIVELY, one of the most demanding maintenance regimes I have with all of my aquatic babies. Axolotl requires cold (14C - 24C), brackish water (water that is in between salty and fresh) with perfect Nitrate cycle parameters. Axolotl being APEX predator, yes, they have successfully captured both mine and my partner's heart, they are the PICKEST eaters. They will only eat nightcrawler worms and not any other big worm variant. They can eat slugs but I have yet to try that on my babies and not snails because they can be choked and die. They can eat bloodworms (one of the most expensive aquatic food) but it is not nutritious enough for them. They are nocturnal creatures so they love to hide and be active at a time when you are fast asleep. Lastly, if they are very very active, you will start having heart palpitations as you start wondering about a million things that could go wrong with them, OR, they just need to do a poo in fashion.

Axolotl is one of the few pets I have actually named every single one that I have owned so far and of them, I can tell you a story of one. But, this blog is already 1000+ words so I will keep it short. I have owned 6 so far, 1 female named Krypto as she had gold speckles and decided to lay eggs when I was on holiday, I traded her in when I found out. 5 boys, the 2 that had passed are Hiro and Ringo, they were a heartbreak and a half. 3 others are named in the photos, Olive, Tiff and Penny.

That sums up my story so far of being an aquatic parent. Thank you for going through the rollercoaster with me.