The Happenings of Asuka's Bleachy Aquarium

[Asuka Was Here]

Okay, first of all, no, I do not have an aquarium full of bleach, kthx. I have an aquarium full of fish. Which are bleach-free. However, every fish in my aquarium is named after a blach character, item, or bleach-related word (with the exception of my sister's betta, Humphrey, who I did not have the option of naming. Humphrey is currently leeching off of my aquarium space and being a terrorist. Not the kinda that blows up stuff, of course; I mean the kinda that chases around and torments everyone else in the aquarium).

Anyway, to the point: I feel like ranting about my bleach-named fish. A lot. I thought about posting this on the Bleach board, but decided that it was really too unrelated to justify doing so. So I'm putting it on the off-topic board. Because I can. Ignore this if you detest fish or Bleach!Crack. Because that is what I have decided my fish are for: Bleach crack speculations and ranting about (in a proud, motherly sort of way).

If you have any comments about anything I write, questions, or anything related to this to say, please feel free to do so. I love to hear comments.

That said, I have a few things to say before I start off:

1 - I am a nutcase when it comes to fish. Keeping fish is not just a hobby, it is an art, at least to me, and I am very dedicated to caring for my little scaly pets. I am also a nutcase about anime. These are my two passions in life, and while they rarely have anything to do with each other, I am crazy about both.

2 - I have found few things in life to be as rewarding, self-satisfying, and enjoyable as keeping a freshwater aquarium. I'm not talking about a fishbowl with a betta (which is a practice I don't approve of, by the way; just because you can stuff a betta into a half-pint puddle of water doesn't mean you should), I'm referring to an actual, medium to large-sized aquarium full of quality tropical fish. They are incredibly relaxing, incredibly beautiful, and, if taken care of properly, can live for years and become almost like loyal friends. Indeed, if you keep some of the more intelligent species of fish, they will eventually grow to know your face (if only because the sight of said face usually means 'food'). If you have the time and effort to devote to keeping and maintaining a proper aquarium, I highly reccomend you try it out. It's worth it, in my opinion.

3 - If you have an aquarium of your own that you have problems with, or want to set one up for the first time, I would love to try and offer my assistance with any questions you may have. I'm not an expert, but I do have a good decade of fishkeeping experience under my belt, and I can generally help out the clueless or the inexperienced. My specialties are angelfish and livebearing fishes, but I have also kept a wide variety of small fish (tetras, danios, barbs, etc.), a few discus, corydoras catfish, the occasional sunfish, and general freshwater fishkeeping. I have never kept a salthingyer aquarium, so I cannot help you there.

4 - This is my own little mini aquarium journal. Please ignore it if you don't care. If I get any comments saying things like "fish are stupid," I may be forced to harm you, ban you, or otherwise punish you as I see fit. I don't mind what some people would call 'stupid questions,' but I do mind stupid, immature comments.
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That said, here's my first postish type thing:
1/30/06
I suppose since this is my first post on the topic, I should tell you abit about the fish in my aquarium. Right now, my tank consists of my two corydoras catfish, Rukia and Yoruichi; my betta, Shyunpo; my sister's betta, Humphrey; and my angelfish, Shuuhei, Yumichika, and Byakuya. The two bettas, of course, are separated by plastic walls (they live in overhanging betta traps) so that they do not murder each other. They love to flare up their fins, turn dark colors, open their gill covers, and generally act 'indimidating' when they catch sight of each other. They're too dense to realize that they're separated. Of the two, Huphrey is smaller - he's a white and purple crowntail betta, absolutely stunning in coloration and finnage. Shyunpo is much larger, but he's a rather boring reddish color and has a malformed caudal fin. I felt sorry for him in the pet store, all mopey and sad-looking, so I brought him home. I have no intentions of breeding him, so I don't care about his fin deformity.
Rukia is a psychotic spazzcase of a green cory. Seriously. The fish does nothing but zip back and forth across the middle of the tank at speeds only a catfish could maintain. Yoruichi, who I just got today, is a spotted cory, and is far more docile. Which is nice, because I need something that'll clean my tank without driving every other fish insane.
My angelfish, though, are the focus of the tank. Right now I have three, but I plan on buying six or eight total and raising them together.
The biggest, Shuuhei, lives up to his punk namesake. He's the biggest of the three, at about quarter-size, and is a mixed-breed angelfish - a mutt, but a nice-looking mutt with good coloring and a nice eye that shows signs that it will redden as he grows (red eyes being very desireable in angelfish). He (and I call him a he because I don't know his gender...he could very well be female for all I know) is the dominant angelfish in the tank (angelfish, being cichlids, establish a pecking order within the tank). Yumichika is smaller, at nickel-size, but is a very fiesty leopard angelfish with beautiful, if a bit flamboyant, spotting. Yumi is the beta at the moment, but he thinks he's the alpha, and will nip at Shuuhei if there's something in it for him (like food. Fish are very motivated by food). He's even nibbled from time to time on Humphrey's fins, and Humphrey is big, scary, and could probably kill Yumi if he really wanted. Of course, I can't figure out if that's because he's aggressive, or simply because he thinks the ridges of Humphrey's fins are worms.
Byakuya, the smallest, and the most timid, is a blach ghost angelfish. He tends to poke around in the back by the plant, but swims around plenty. Even though he's the omega of the bunch, I don't worry about him because he hasn't yet shown any signs of the problems that the bottom-of-the-totem-pole sometimes experience. He's still actively interested in pursuing food (and eats it), he has his fins wide open and swims about; he just tends to avoid the others because they sometimes nip him.

Right now, I've turned Humphrey the Terrorist Betta (seriously. He's vicious. Not as dangerous as Shyunpo, who is actually fast enough to catch and hurt an angelfish - which is why he's confined - but he likes to make sure his space is clear of intruders. Normally I wouldn't have considered turning Huphrey the Terrorist (that's his official title, by the way) loose on the aquarium, even if he can't catch anyone, but I needed his overhanging betta-house to hold Byakuya, who's currently got a mild case of ick. I'm treating the whole tank with a wide-spectrum medication, just in case, but I wanted to keep Bya-chan away from the other fishies so no one would harass him. Actually, Byakuya's fins are clearing up; if all goes well, he'll be back in the main aquarium in a day or two and Humphrey the Terrorist will be back behind ... er... plastic.
...I suppose, actually, that it's not perfectly fair to be calling Humphrey the Terrorist a terrorist (never mind the political incorrectness... nothing's politically correct these days), because all male bettas are aggressive, but if you've seen the way he attacks his food, or flares up to intimidate Shyunpo, you'd understand why we call him that. He's vicious. He just can't actually catch anything to work out his visciousness on, so he attacks his food instead. But if he ever got ahold of a small, slow fish, I'd fear for that fish's life. Although, if he got into a fight with Shyunpo, he'd probably lose, because Shyunpo's twice his size. But Shyunpo's another betta, so he doesn't count.

Well, that's all I have to say for today. I'll be back soon, guaranteed, to torture you some more with the happenings of my aquarium. ^.^

[Vulpes]

And we'll love to hear it. +^_^+
Also, as a suggestion, maybe other names that were considered for your fishies and why they're named what they are?

[Asuka Was Here]

Naming. That's an interesting idea. Although, for the most part, I employed the "keep sifting through names until your sister doesn't bat you over the head with whatever she's reading" technique. Yoruichi is a catfish, anyone who knows Bleach will understand why I chose that name. Shyunpo was for the iron - bettas are such slow, mopey fish that I figured it would be funny to name one after the notorious "flash step." Sort of like naming a turtle Speedy.

ANyway, today:
2/5/06
Byakuya's made a full recovery, and is now swimming about freely. He has also seemed to discover a new agressive side that did not exist before he was confined. He's now established dominace over Yumichika, at least, who used to bully him around. Also, Humphrey the Terrorist has been relocated back to his terrorist-box, and is not very happy about it. Actually, it's hard to tell if he's just mad that he's stuck in a box, or if he's actually getting sick. I'll have to keep an eye on him. However, he has returned to working out his terrorist-agressions on his food. I pity those flakes. Really.
I bought two new swordplants the other day (those would be plants of the genus Echinodorus, if you care). One's a plain old regular Amazon sword, and the other's a compact sword - a denser, shorter version of it's standard cousin. The other plant I have is a rosette sword, which has slightly different leaves. The rosette and the compact swords have buds, so when they get big enough, I'll cut them off and plant them on their own. I'd also like to pick up a few other plants for my tank, but I'm not sure what I want yet. Of the aquarium bulbs I've planted, two have started growing. The onion plant, which actually isn't very arractive (kinda looks like some aquatic variation of a chive plant, sans flowers), and the barclaya, which I really want to grow bigger because it's red foliage will make a nice addition. However, seeing as neither one has sprouts over an inch long... I'll probably be waiting for quite awhile. -.-'
In other news, Rukia is still a psycho catfish, but she's calmed down a bit since I added Yoru to the tank. Since corydoras school loosely (although they're more likely to school with the same species of cory...), they mostly follow each other around and perform their clean up duties. Occasionally, though, Rukia zips off to spazz around the tank, leaving Yoruichi... confused, mostly. Actually, Rukia likes to swim right under the angelfish for some reason. Weird fish.
I also have half a mind to go buy an algae eater, because the catfish don't do much about algae, and there's a bit of it accumulating on the rocks It's not a huge problem right now, but if it gets worse, I might go out and buy something.

My father is also dead set on buying a few nice discus, which I wouldn't mind, but I'm trying to keep my tank angels-only. Small angels like mine can get along with medium to large-sized discus, but I'd rather stick them in their own tank. So, if Dad finds anything he likes enough to buy (I'm certainly not paying for a quality discus; I don't have that kind of money to spare)

Sometime soon, I'll try and get a few photos of my fish to post, but I don't think they'll be very clear - I'm a bad photographer as is, and fish are particularly hard to photograph. I'll see what I can go.

[Asuka Was Here]

2/11/05
I've noticed an interesting change in Bya-chan's (Byakuya's) behavior. Even though he used to be the lowest on the proverbial totem pole of the aquarium, ever since he recovered from having ick, he's become a lot more agressive - and he's pushed Yumichika below him on said totem pole. He even attacked Shuuhei yesterday, but that didn't get very far. Shuuhei, is, after all, significantly larger and a bit on the agressive side himself.
Bya-chan has also taken to nibbling at my arm whenever I put it in the aquarium to re-secure a plant or something. He usually tries to nibble the little hairs off (maybe they look like worms?), but yesterday he viciously attacked a freckle. Bizarre little critters, my fish are. You'd think after the first six attempts, he'd figure out it wasn't edible.

Meanwhile, Rukia and Yoruichi are happily continuing their semi-schooling catfishy business. Bya-chan and Yumichika have discovered that when the catfish start milling around a particular point, there's usually food there, so they've been watching them. However, they have yet to find a way to get them out of the way of the food.

Humphrey the Terrorist has readjusted to his Terrorist-box fairly well. He and Shyunpo still entertain each other. Sort of. Life as a betta must be boring.

Oh, and I finally took a semi-decent picture of my fishies!

The bigger one is Shuuhei, the smaller is Bya-chan. The photo caught them at a bit of an odd angle, they're both a bit rounder and less longish than they look in the picture (especially Shuu-chan), and Shuuhei's eye is a little more orangey than that in real life, but it came out nice and crisp and clear, so I figured I'd share it. I'll see if I can get more photos like this one ^.^ But at a better angle. I'd like to do my fishies justice in their photos.

[Asuka Was Here]

At this point, I should have made several posts concerning my fishies, but I've been busy. So, I'll try to sum it all up in this post. The last week or so have been BUSY.

a.) I set up another 29-gallon aquarium. No clue what's going to eventually end up in there, but it'll probably be some sort of new world cichlid. Probably more angels. I'm fond of angels.

b.) I bought three new angels at a store in Stamford. Nice, healthy, privately-owned shop. Absolutely GORGEOUS discus there, actually, but they were out of my price range. Anyway, the angels I bought: a gold marble named Rangiku, who is very striking, if not beautiful, and will likely grow into a breeding-quality fish, and two dime-sized black angels named Jyuushirou and Toushirou (Toushirou's the smaller and a veil-fin, Jyuushirou is bigger and standard-fin, but they are siblings), collectively "the Shirou-chans" They're absolutely adorable, healthy and active, and perhaps a little too inquisitive. Toushirou has an odd obsession with popping bubbles on the surface of the water. I can't figure out if he thinks they're food, or if he just wants to play. Probably the former.

c.) Asuka has purchased two pairs of Endler's Livebearers and is now proceeding to try and breed them. Mind you, they're not all that different from guppies (I first mistook them for wild guppies, actually), and one of the females is very gravid, so I should have some babies, and soon. I've got them in the otherwise-empty new 29-galllon, but I'm probably going to set up a ten-gallon planted breeding tank for them - frankly, they get lost in the 29. They're too small to eat their own babies unles they're literally brand newly born (and even then they'll have trouble), so I'll just put masses of plants in their tank and let them go crazy. They're pretty rare, and they sell for a decent price considering how easy they are to care for and breed, so I may try and make a few spare bucks off of selling them to local pet stores.

d.) I am very woeful and worried because Shyunpo is ill. Potentially lethally ill. He has Pop Eye (not the sailor man, you blockheads!), and a bad case of it to boot, in his right eye. I have him quarantined and medicated, but it's not looking good for him. If he does survive, and that's a big if, he'll probably lose sight in that eye - or lose the eye altogether.

e.) I cannot photograph fish to save my life. This is a proven fact. However, I do have this picture of my whole aquarium:

The plantings have changed a lot since I took this, but tthat's the basic setup. You can also sort of see some of my fish (of which there are also more today - This was before I bought the Shiro-chans and Rangiku). The dark betta is Shyunpo, the lighter-colored one to his left is Humphrey the Terrorist. The angelfish staring out from in front of the driftwood is Shuuhei, and Bya-chan is a bit below the bettas. I can't find Rukia, Yoruichi, or Yumichika in the picture, but they're there, somwhere.

f.) I have a new catfish, who was purchased for the new 29-gallon but is currently schooling around with Yoruichi and Rukia. He's an albino corydoras, and I've named him Ichimaru.

g.) My dear brother (who is six years old and usually occumpied with coming up with creative new ways of killing me - methinks he has some anger issues) has decided that he wants to get fish, too. Hence, I now have three psychotic blue veil danios named Fred, Ned, and Ed zipping around my angel tank until he can get his own aquarium. -.-' This irks me. It irks me quite a bit. I think it somewhat irks my angels, too, but they're so preoccupied with angelfishy things (i.e. eating, begging for food, establishing heirarchies so that hey know who gets to eat the food first, and chasing bubbles) that I can't really tell. It's not that I dislike danios; I just dislike danios in my angelfish tank.

[Asuka Was Here]

I just bought angels.

really BIG angels. As in, adult, breeding size angelfish that dwarf the others. The Shiro-chans are barely bigger than their eyeballs o.0 Which some people would consider me insane for doing, but when angels differ that greatly in size, the odds of them picking on the little guys is slim to none because they don't even see them as a threat.
...on the other hand, Byakuya's first move was, of course, to bite them o.0 Their tails are bigger than Byakuya, and he bites them. And they run. I give Byakuya's reign of terror two days before they new angels give him a good nip on the nose to make him go away. Frankly, he deserves it.

Anyway, the two new ones, a gold pearlscale and a silver pearl scale, Ise and Kyouraku, respectively, seem to have acclimated well to their new environment. At the very least, they're swimming around happily. They're very docile, but not timid. And they have absolutely gorgeous fins.

In other news, I have a sort-of decent picture of my Endler's, which I will post soon if I remember.