Due to a little bump in my income, I'm letting myself get some small luxuries. I got a Sonicare toothbrush, because my dental hygienist sort of flipped out at me last week. After she scrubbed me down, she asked, "do you feel the clean difference?" And I ran my tongue over my teeth and said, "no." I guess this means my teeth are extra gritty. Because of this, I have to give extra care to my teeth. I've got mild peridontitis, which means the bones holding my teeth in are being nibbled away. Bleh.
In more entertaining news, my dentist said that my remaining baby tooth is the sort of thing a dentist is lucky to see once in a lifetime.

And, I got a new camera. My old one's ten years old, and though cutting edge for its time, is kind of clunky. My new one is relatively cheap (a hundred bucks) but I hear it's a good brand, and it's surely better than my old one.

So behind the cut, I give you my first pictures with the new camera.
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And in one of those "dear god, how could I be so stupid" moments, I discovered that the filter intake on my aquarium was completely clogged with muck. How long has it been this way? How many fish could I have saved if I caught it earlier?
And dammit, how do I get the thing back on straight so it doesn't rattle?

Dutifully, I did a 10% water change every day, but it turned out I didn't have to do it for a week, as the pH is already up to tap water level. And indeed, Lord Yeti the killifish has chilled, and the tetras are no longer scared shitless. (They were swimming tilted to side, every one of them. It freaked me out.) No more eyes have been lost.

I continue to love the female. She nibbles my finger when I stick it in. :-)

I've wanted a centerpiece fish for my tank for a while now. I decided a pair of rams was a good option. But when I was looking at a blue ram (a loverly fish, if I may say) this even more beautiful fish swam by. "What's that?" It was a chocolate killifish. I adore csinman's golden wonder killi, but I didn't want one since dangit, I want to be different. (We both have tetras, a small pleco, and otos) But no, this guy was just too pretty to pass up. They came as a pair, male and female. As flashy as the male is, I really love the female. She's tiny and blandly brown save some white marks on her fins. She hovers at the top and doesn't do much else. She's discreet, smart and ladylike. Meanwhile, her husband's kind of a blustering idiot. Cannot find food when it's floating around his head.
He's been really restless since I got him home. To my dismay, he damaged one of my tetras. Mind you, this now makes the tetra cooler in my eyes, but it's not a fate I'd wish on anyone. The owner of the fish store gave me a polite lecture when I asked if I could return them. Even though my ammonia and nitrates are at zero, my pH is really low, and apparently this means there's a bunch of rotten sludge under my gravel, and quite possibly, this pH imbalance is pissing off my killifish. So I have hope, because I just might get through this, even though I have shame, because my tank is sludgy.

I learned cool stuff, too, like that the good bacteria colonies form in 3/4 inch circles along the glass, at 3/4 inch intervals, and if you run your finger along them, it should feel clean, and not greasy.

Lord Yeti* the killifish seems to have chilled a little, even without water changes, so maybe he's adjusting.

*Shut up, it's my co-worker's fault.

My frog likes to hover in the tank, going up and down, side to side along the glass. Today, for some reason, she has decided to do this in the same corner as the plecostemus' algae pellet. I don't know why she can't do it in another corner.

My new snail is also nibbling at the pellet. Satan the plecostemus has no problem shoving smail aside, but I think it's irritating him. Snail plus a frog that keeps ignorantly bouncing up and down on his head? He's one pissed pleco. He waits until the frog's in the corner, then charge out from his boglog lair and slam into the frog, pinning her in the corner. I don't imagine she'll be too badly hurt, but I'm sad she's too stupid to find a different corner.

The otos are out! The otos are out! I never see those sneaky little buggers. The lights are off in the fishtank at the moment, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I have a one-eyed shrimp!

Black Neon #3 died last night. He was swimming around frantically, his body angled up. San figured out that he was sinking and trying desperately to stay afloat. Since he was the only one hurting, I suspect he was injured by the other tetras. The Glolights are growing up and getting very aggressive towards each other, getting their pecking order down.

My pufferfish died.
:-(
I'm not sure when it happened. Probably last night. I don't remember feeding the fish, but that doesn't mean anything. I might have missed him Sunday and/or Monday night because I've been getting home late, and if I do that, the fish are asleep for their feedings. I do remember not seeing him this morning. Did I feed him something bad? He was all swollen up.

So now I've got a five gallon tank full of snails.

Well now I know exactly how much my pufferfish can eat. I accidentally stuck too many bloodworms in his tank (I usually give him 2-3, and this time he got like 5-6) and now the greedy little bugger's swimming around with a bit of worm sticking out of his mouth because he's stuffed to the brim, and the worm's too long for him to barf up.