[yikesjason]

Anyone not interested in reading my back story can skip to post #4 were I actually start on the 125 tank.

"I think I have a fever," I told my wife last night.
I was having a hard time sleeping in the new house. Our bedroom overlooks a busy freeway and I am not used to the sound yet, though most people say it sounds like the ocean and helps them sleep. My wife is about half way into her second pregnancy and has entered into the squirmy, loud breathing phase. But even more than those two things, I think it was the fever keeping me awake.
"I think I have aquarium fever."

I got started on fish a couple of years ago. Actually, it wasn't even fish that started it, it was a turtle. My wife thought the turtles were so cute at the duck pond down the street from our tiny basement apartment while we were in college. So being newly married and wanting to fulfill the slightest whim of my beautiful wife, I caught one of the turtles the next day and brought it home to her.

My wife was excited about the turtle! So off to PetSmart to get an aquarium for the turtle. A modest 10 gal with filter and gravel. I almost miss the days when my tank setup totaled around $20. The new turtle would never eat, so I let him go after about 2 days and bought a tank raised turtle from the local petstore. The turtle was ok, a bit stinky at times, but so was our cheap basment apartment.

Things started to get more interesting when I added a couple of gold fish and some small mosquito type fish from the local ditch. Now the starts the tail of the fish. Anyways, the tutle only lasted less then a year then got sick and died. But we still had the goldfish. They were not interesting enought though. My wife wanted a betta. So, I got my wife a betta bowl.

What happened next was really the start of my downward spiral to my current state of aquarium fever. Please do not exile me from the forum what what is to follow. Remember, I was young, nieve, and didn't know much about fish yet.

So one day I was shoping at Wal-Mart and I saw the fish display. They had some cool looking fish that kind of looked like a miniture shark. It was only like $3, so I bought one and took it home and dumped it in with the gold fish. Within a week it had little white spots and was dead. I tried a couple more times with similar results. The goldfish were the only things that were staying alive. Oh, there were some annoying little snails that wouldn't go away.

I visited the google web site and started doing some searches on fish. Holy Smokes, I am supposed to have a heater in that tank with those cool looking fish! A few dollars more and the water was significantly warmer. I was ready for any fish now. Back to Walmart for some cheap, but cool tropical fish.

Again with the little white spots and the dieing! I don't get it. The goldfish are fine and this weird looking sucker fish is still alive. I tried some fix all medicin and was able to keep the fish alive for 2 weeks by then. Oh, and my wife had found the aquatic frogs by this time and they were dying in the tank along with everything else. Once my wife saw one of the frogs had died, and the goldfish were eating it. She flipped. I was a little more careful about removing dead bodies before she got home from class after that.

About this time, I got a new tank. Some at work was trying to get rid of a 25 gal hex tank. I traded an old broken xbox I had found cleaning apartments. For Christmas that year I got some cool plastic decor items for the new tank. I had a water-wheel house, palm tree and some other odds and ends. Some more google searches and some more equipment upgrades and I was keeping an angel fish, 5 zebra danios and two plecos alive permanantly. I was starting to have fun. The fever was growing.

I stayed pretty steady with that set up for a while. I tried a few things like ghost shrimp. They were fun to watch, but they didn't last long with the angel around. I also got an electric blue lobster, creyfish. He was a favorite in the tank, but he tore the heck out of the plastic plants and the angel's fins. He also eat some other fish I tried out in that tank like neon tetras. He eventualy pulled a Houdini and disapeard one day. I could not find him at all. I eventual found the dried remains of him when we moved.

The tank was a sucess. The fish thrived. I learned a lot about aquarium mantinence and fish care. And every one loved the aquarium. Our friends named most of the fish for us. There was placostomusaurus, angel the angelfish (with a spanish pronunciation), Fred, Bob, and several other names. We also still had the original aquarium with goldfish and a pleco, as well as the betta.

I graduated with a degree in Supply Chain Management and got a good job localy while my wife finished her degree in social work. But before she could finish, I was laid off from my job and we decied to more back home to Oregon and she could finish her last couple of classes online. I gave the fish away to friends, packed up the hex tank along with everything else and moved to Oregon.

Right now it is after midnight and I am tired. I will continue this background story tomorrow. Please return to read about the new tank in the new city. Also the start of my planted aquariums. And up to present day with the 125 gallon birthday present.