Feeding His Habit

When you get your first job there is usually something you are hoping to save up and buy.  In Lance's case, it's all about FISH.

His fist purchase was a new rod and reel, for fishing with his friend Nick.  Nick and his family even met us at Dick's to pick it out (Nick fishes professionally, so he knows a bit more than Lance).  Since Lance didn't care about appearances, he was able to get a great deal on a rod and a non-matching yet high performance reel.  Nick and Lance try to go fishing once a week, when life and the weather allows.  It's nice to have someone to share the excitement of the catch, but they are both rather quiet, so they can enjoy the peace together as well.

Better than television.

Next, was the big purchase; a 75 gallon fish tank.  We looked with him at a number of options available on Craigslist but decided on a floor model at a box store that was only a little more than the used ones and could be returned if it leaked.  Getting this tank to where it is now has taken a lot of work.  So much that I am giving Lance a credit in "Freshwater Aquatics" on his transcript for the amount of time he has spent researching and learning about every aspect of all things fish; from substrates, to equipment, to the chemistry of water (pH, nitrate, nitrites, hardness what drives them, etc), to needs and growing habits of various plants, lighting requirements (LED, Florescent, types of light waves), how plants impact different fish, how different fish impact each other, the chemistry of the tank and the plants.

He has also learned how to recover from failure, to talk to experts in the field and to ask for refunds and assistance as needed from store owners.

The 75 gallon is currently home to: 5 Panda Catfish, 5 Kuhli Loaches, 9 Danios (various kinds), 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Clown Pleco,  2 Nerite Snails and 1 Siamese Algae Eater.

Then a friend at work was moving and gave him a 33 gallon hex tank, with a canister filter (different technology to learn and try out).  This tank took some work.  It had to be cleaned, resealed (by dad) and per me, the base painted before it came into the house.  He wanted to experiment with this tank being a fully planted tank with dirt substrate.  He only got this tank up and running in last few weeks ago, so its still a work in progress.  For instance, today he swapped out the intact and outtake pipes to improve water flow.  Other than the plants the only residents currently are 3 Honey Gouramis and Red cherry shrimp.

Lance, not wanting to leave Jared out, knowing how much he missed Captain, bought one more tank (on craigslist this time) a ten gallon tank for Jared to have a beta fish he named "Spectrum".  Lance has become quite the fanatic about appropriate tank sizes, please don't tell him you keep your beta in a fish bowl, ten gallons is the minimum they need.  Spectrum does have two small Nerite snail buddies (Slo and Mo), to keep the algae in check (because Nerite snails don't have antennae for Spectrum to attack).

That's it for aquariums, Chris will not allow them on the second floor and we are out of room on the first floor but I'm sure he'll keep improving the ones he has, its a regular part time job maintaining them, both in time and money.

P.S.  Dogs don't get the fish thing but the cats well....they definitely had a fish issue at first.  Thankfully, they went back to watching the birds at the bird feeder through the window.