new fish.

Our aquarium is starting to come along! We've bought our first two batches of fish and, while it's only been a few hours since the second batch went in, all of the fish are alive and haven't tried to eat each other (yet).

We bought four blonde guppies on 7/21 (originally $3.29 but on sale for $2.63!) that look like this:

 

 According to Petsmart, here's what we've learned about them:

• Diet: Flake, Frozen, Freeze-dried
• Maximum size: 1.5"
• Water temperature: 72-82° F
• Swimming level: Top (I had no idea that there was a within-tank swimming level preference)
• Experience level: Beginner 
• Tank Setup: 5+ gallons, densely planted

 Nathan got to put in his first fish which made me a little nervous, but he was so proud of himself to be able to help!

Tonight, we added four more fish to the tank called Black Mollies (originally $2.19 each but on sale for $1.75 each!) that look like this:

Again, according to Petsmart, their vital facts include:

• Diet: Flake, Frozen, Freeze-dried
• Maximum size: 3"
• Water temperature: 72-82° F
• Swimming level: Middle
• Experience level: Beginner
• Tank Setup: 10+ gallons, moderately planted

After putting these into the tank tonight, Nate was very excited and kept screaming "ta-da!" - of course with a bag and mouthful of popcorn

So the adventure in aquarium life continues. Chris is really into doing all the research, Nate wants to feed them constantly, and I alternate between dreading cleaning the tank and enjoying the sound of the water. As we add more fish/plants/anything else, I plan on documenting the information here so that we don't accidentally buy incompatible fish -- how exactly would you explain that to a nearly three year old?