Buddah Fish

We have had a goldfish in a small 3 gallon tank Mike had for a little over 6 months. We originally had two but one died.

So a friend recently offered us his 10 gallon tank as they were upgrading to a larger one.

We went to Petsmart on Sunday and were ready to buy an Oscar, which is this cool african cichlid that is very expressive...well as expressive as a fish can be I guess. They act a bit like a puppy in that they come right up to the top of the tank and you can even pet them.

I have always wanted an Oscar,, actually a Tiger Oscar. When I was younger my boyfriend had one and it was a cool pet for a fish.

But the Oscar isn't a nice fish. Not to the other fish who he lives with. In fact he is a bit of a cannibal in that he eats goldfish when he gets larger.

And speaking of getting larger - they said he would too big for the 10 gallon tank within three months. And he will kill or bully any other fish in the tank while growing.

We were also told to get the tank set up first and let it sit for a day or so. So Sunday Mike set up the tank and tonight we bought our first fish. Since we were told we really should have a 55 gallon tank for an oscar we switched our plan.

Did you know it's best to only start with one or two fish in the beginning. That with a new tank you can actually kill off most of your fish if you full stock it in the beginning. Something about the 'cycle' of the water chemistry. They STRONGLY recommend you start with just one or maybe two if the fish are very slim bodied.

So we got Buddah fish tonight instead - a Dalmation Molly. A Molly isn't a slim bodied fish, so hence just one to begin with. He is a boy and if we want to can get girls later and they can have live offspring.

The reason we are calling him Buddah is we have found that the fish tank is a relaxing center to our living room. And since he won't be spreading mayhem and carnage like the Oscar would have, it seemed like a good moniker. And also I found a small White Buddah at thrift store this week and it looks really cool in the tank with our black and white fish.

If we do decide to get him some gal friends we can call them Karma and Peace and Harmony as three females are recommended so he doesn't pester the one to death. So one male, three females and maybe a bunch of babies darting around.

Yeah sure, sounds real harmonious.