Friday Friends - Update on Lucy and the Monkey

Here is a recent phorograph of Lucy and her monkey. One arm has been torn off and the stuffing is out of his head, the result of an impromptu surgery. (Lucy wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.)

Thank You, Misaki

Special thanks to Misaki, the wonderful Alaskan Malamute who gave me this awesome award:

On behalf of my angelfish, I'm to tell you seven things you may not know already:

(1) Angelfish mate for life. When our mate dies, the surviving mate often dies of a broken heart.

(2) Angelfish can live to be ten years old with the proper care.

(3) Some of my angelfish are ten inches tall but none are more than half an inch thick.

(4) During mating season, they lay hundreds of eggs, sometimes just two weeks apart. This can continue for several months.

(5) Angelfish are exceptional parents. (At right: Stevie Fishnick with one of her babies.)

(6) The first three things angelfish think when encountering something new: (a) Can I eat it? (b) Can it eat me? (c) Can I have sex with it?

(7) When angelfish hatch, they are not much larger than a pinhead. It takes about ten weeks for their bodies to approach the size of a quarter.

Thank you, Misaki, for an awesome award!



Success in the Koi Angelfish Honeymoon Suite

While the babies continue to thrive in Lindsay Buckingfish's and Stevie Fishnick's maternity ward, the koi angels, Robert Redfish and Susan Saranfish, have laid hundreds of eggs in their honeymoon suite. This is the first time they've laid eggs outside the community tank.

The eggs were laid on the vertical, smooth side of the arch toward the back of the tank. I believe they chose that location partly due to its privacy from nosy people like me. The koi angels are much shyer than Lindsay and Stevie.

If all goes well, the eggs will hatch within another day or two and the parents will place them elsewhere on the arch or on the leaves nearby, where they'll dangle by their heads until they are strong enough to pop off and swim.

Since this is the first time they've gotten this far without predators in the tank, they might not be completely successful at raising new angels the first time around. But it's been my experience that if I leave them in this tank, they will continue to try every couple of weeks until they master the art of sex and parenting.

Baby Angels Swimming

The babies popped their heads off the amazon leaf sometime during the night, and this morning when I checked on them they were swimming all over the 20-gallon tank they share with momma Stevie Fishnick and papa Lindsay Buckingfish. There are two snails in the tank that will keep the glass clean but they are not able to swim, so the babies are safe from them.



Angelfish Squirmers

Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick have been at it again. Just two weeks after their last clutch, they have laid one of the largest clutches ever. There must have been more than 300 eggs!

They hatched yesterday and the parents dutifully carried each one (yes, each one individually!) to a new amazon leaf they cleaned just for their new babies. They will hang from that leaf by their little heads until they are strong enough to swim.

Here's the video. You can see them squirming by their little heads while they grow!



Friday Friends - Lucy and the Blanket

Now that winter is officially gone and summer is here, I've been washing and putting away blankets and heavy comforters.

I washed one blanket and set it on the stairs so I could take it upstairs the next time I was going to the second floor anyway (why put myself through extra exercise?)

Lucy, the Jack Russell-Basset Hound mix, spied the blanket on the steps and tried to protect us from it. Notice how she starts to run away when she thinks the blanket has begun to move!



Friday Friends - Lazy, Rainy Day

While I was busy cleaning my fish tanks (all seven of them) the dogs decided to spend their morning just getting some R&R.

Pictured here are Simone, the collie;

Lucy, the Jack Russell-Basset Hound mix (asleep on the top of the couch; she thinks she's also part cat and part monkey);

And Eddie, the Jack Russell (with the tri-colored head.)