The aquarist

We really had been thinking of getting an aquarium. But with our neighbour giving us theirs, absolutely free, that became a reality. They can't keep up with the maintenance, so they say. At any rate, I'm very thankful indeed. I know that the Jebo aquarium is about a grand and if you consider all the accessories (filter, ornaments, aeration), that would really amount to something.

For the uniniatiated like me, setting up an equarium may seem straight-forward: pour the water in and let the fishes swim their hearts out. It's a good thing Abraham (a friend of mine who is crazy about aquarium) help me set it up, which took us a whole Saturday and considerable amount of beer. He knows that a crash-course wouldn't suffice so he lend me encyclopedias on aquarium fishes and maintenance as well.

To test out the water quality after a week, a bought a shoal of rose barbs and a couple of tiger barbs. I wouldn't have bought the latter if I knew that they are quite aggressive. They are fin nibblers and chivy other inhabitants, specially those with long colorful fins. But I fret not. The way to distract those tigers from their uncalled for behaviour is to keep them in shoal... so I purchased more.