Saturday, May 8, 2010

AH-HA MOMENT

Not only do I love birds, I love fish too. Especially Beta's. I don't like birds inside the house, but I love watching them right outside my window. We love watching the Beta swimming around in his little tank close to the dining room table. When I put him in the tank over a year ago I also stuck a Peace Lily in the tank. Several people told me it wouldn't grow because they can't take all the water. Well, silly me. Did I listen? Of course not. I just cleaned all the dirt off and stuck it in the tank. To date I've had to pull it out and cut the roots twice. And in fact it has new growth, under water as well. I got the brilliant (or maybe not so brilliant) idea to buy another Beta and put him in my office. We enjoy watching the other one so much at dinner, I was sure this little guy would bring great enjoyment to me in my office. I found a small 1.5 gallon tank for my new guy. This one has an overhead light, so I knew another Peace Lily might not work. As I shopped at Home Depot for paint, I wandered out to the garden section and found "water plants". And they were on sale. I found the perfect plant. A Fragrant Water Lily. When I looked inside, I realized why they were on sale. They were dead. Well, maybe not completely. I stopped at the pet store and picked out a beautiful blue Beta. I already had the tank ready. The only thing I needed to do was drop the dead lily into the water and secure it and then drop in Bob. As soon as the water lily hit the water all kinds of moss and black stuff circulated into the new, clean water. That was the minute the Ah-Ha moment slapped me in the head. Why didn't I clean it first? After about a half hour of running water into the tank, and scrubbing all the crud that had already accumulated on the sides of the tank, not to mention the filter, I started all over with clean water. Plant and Bob are in the tank, doing well. The water is still yellow! My next book might be a "How NOT to prepare a fish tank for a Beta."

8 comments:

Karen Lange said...

Maybe you should write that book:) You never know, there are all kinds of books out there.
Have a good weekend!
Blessings,
Karen

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Thanks Karen. Bob is having a great time in his new tank even if it is a little YELLOW! Ha ha
Have a great weekend too!
Hugs and Blessings
Katt

Susan J. Reinhardt said...

Hi Katt -

I loved it that you named the Beta, "Bob." :)

I could see this being a children's book: Bob the Beta or Bob's Water Lily Adventure.

Blessings,
Susan

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

We moved Grams into assisted living. She has a sweet little apartment on the 2nd floor that has no stove; she eats lunch and supper in the dining room. Anyway, this robin keeps trying to get in through her window. Scratches at the glass, wings flapping. I think it can see its reflection in the glass and maybe thinks ... I'm not actually sure. But somewhere in all this is a story. Maybe we both need to wrote whatever it is that we're supposed to write? Hmm. I'm not sure. LOL

Thanks for sharing this, Katt. You always get me thinking, and that's probably a good thing. LOL

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Susan, how about Bob the Blue Beta? ha ha. He's having a great time btw! Hugs, Katt

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Joy, I'm glad Grams is in assisted living. The story about the Robin is very interesting. I'm thinking we should put our heads together???? birds---fish----I think I feel a story coming on!!!!Hugs Katt

Carol J. Garvin said...

I've never had fish... not even when our children were young. But robins? Did you happen to catch their antics at our place last May? (http://wp.me/phaYw-b7) We have the pictures of owls taped on our windows again this year after a robin finally dive-bombed the window and killed himself last week. No robins have challenged the paper owls since then, but we have a tiny chickadee who flutters near the glass and occasionally hooks his wee talons into the screens. I don't know what goes on in their little bird brains! Fish would be easier to cope with. ;)

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Carol, I love to watch the birds outside. I am amazed at how mean some of them are. I watched a male cardinal chase away all the other birds from the feeder the other day. The kids had different types of fish, but love Beta's, the Japanese fighting fish. How do I know that? We put two of them in the same tank--not pretty.
Hope you are having a wonderful Mother's Day my sweet friend.
Hugs
Katt