Anybody else like fish or tarantulas or lizards or gerbils or any other little critters you keep under glass? We can't have real pets in our apartment, so we're making do for now. I miss my rats, dogs, and cats. Anyway...

We have two tanks, one upstairs in the bedroom (nightlight) for 2 big goldfish, basically stunted carp, nasty eating machines, and one for the others downstairs, full of different colored guppies, I think. They're better to watch than TV a lot of the time. No plastic plants or sunken ships, just big rocks, little rocks, driftwood, real plants, a good filter, and the simplest setup we could do. There's a sucker-fish in each one, eats algea from the glass, called a "picostomas", I think, so we don't have to clean very often. So far, they seem to be almost self-contained and low maintenance.

I don't know how many gallons they are, 'bout the size of a 'puter monitor, or what the PH balance is, or what the latin names of the fish are. Don't care. I just watch them swim back and forth, chase each other, suck up and spit out rocks, bump into stuff, and other fishy things, and all we have to do in return is add water a couple of times a week from the Brita filter. Also, they eat any bugs we toss in (lots of houseplants). Wheee!

Basically, they're nothing fancy, we like to use colored card-y board and aluminum foil for backgrounds instead of slick pictures of plants, but I would like to put a tank in an old empty TV shell some day. Ever heard of that? The Fish Channel, 24/7. Veeeeeeery mellow. Maybe some black lights and stuff...

Oh, we got auto feeders for when we went on vacation, but the perpetually-hungry goldfish managed to make the prior picostomas disappear, so everything was crusty-green when we got back 2 weeks later. Frankenfish.

(The reason I posted it on this board is that I think they're all stinkin' communists, socialists at best, so I feel compelled to repress they asses and keeps 'em locked up. Just another example of the white man keeping the goldfish down. We even gave them each a little sentencing ceremony before adding new fish. Funny, none have tried to escape, yet, but their numbers are slowly thinning, so it may be time for another pogrom soon.)

We're gonna get a decent digital camera soon so I can post a picture or two, and maybe make some little black and white striped prison uniforms for the guppies, but the truly nasty ones are in specailly-segregated confinement and wearing orange jumpsuits already.

So, do you have any little prisoners of your own worth telling about? (I really gotta get out of the house more)

Well I have 9 fish that are at the mercy of my wife... I haven't fed them in a year I think.. LOL

Also have 3 gerbils, and 1 tiny little dwarf hamster...

We are allowed to have cats and dogs under 25lbs, but since we are both gone for 11-13hours a day at work it wouldn't work out too well.

Would your boss let you have a pet at work? Something small on your desk or in the break room? I don't mind waiting at the Doctor's office so much when there's a fish tank in the lobby, for example.

I don't think I could have any pets at work. Not to mention my place of work varies which would make it difficult.

The thing with my fish at home is that the tank is kinda small its a 6 Gallon ECLIPSE system. It was a good deal, and the eclipse system is easy to maintain, but the tank is small, and looks even tinier in our big living room. Id like a big 40 gal tank, but Im not sure about that right now, I just have so many other things on my plate.

The fish tank in a TV Shell is a very cool idea, I had thought of that myself before.

We like to go to aquariums in large cities, like the one in New Orleans, (which has sharks and stuff) where you walk thru a clear tunnel at one point and the tables are turned. When the big ones tap on the glass, it gets, um, interesting.

I have the best pets of all, work and home........SeaMonkeys!

Ooooooh, those ARE cool. Do they really look like the ads in the comic books? You know, with crowns and tridents and stuff?

Originally posted by Griff
Ooooooh, those ARE cool. Do they really look like the ads in the comic books? You know, with crowns and tridents and stuff?

haha no, no they do not.
Mine have formed their own nudest tank colony, no clothes or crowns.

The other day I heard the phrase "Hamsters are the Bic lighter of pets." Hmmmm.
I think they were referring to plentiful/disposable. Is that true, AdamJ? Either way, it's a fun mental picture.

Krissmarie, I saw nude monkeys in a zoo, but they were doing something I can't tell you about, does that count?

Originally posted by Griff
Krissmarie, I saw nude monkeys in a zoo, but they were doing something I can't tell you about, does that count?

Ummm, no....no it does not:rolleyes:

Originally posted by Griff
The other day I heard the phrase "Hamsters are the Bic lighter of pets." Hmmmm.
I think they were referring to plentiful/disposable. Is that true, AdamJ? Either way, it's a fun mental picture.

I should hope not, but it probably is. I have already reported my local PetSmart store for inhumane treatment of their gerbils. Since gerbils/hamsters are cheap they seem to get treated as such. :(

Is there a hotline for the mistreatment of gerbils?;)

but seriously......how are they mistreated at Petsmart? I go there all the time...they seem to be pretty happy, well as far as gerbil happiness goes I guess.

Um, "gerbil happiness?"
(Sure it was cheap, but c'mon...I get visions of hamsters chained to power-generating exercise wheels, little weasles in black leather cracking whips, steam; you know, average stuff)

Well the problem with gerbils is that when they are young they don't know how to play properly, and can be TOO rough with each other. Often resulting in bloody tails and hindquarters. This is espeically true if gerbils in the same tank come from different litters or are of different ages.

When I went to Petsmart there was one gerbil who was very bloody on his rear hip, he was so small and little, only a couple months old. The other gerbils just kept chasing him and scratching/biting his wound. It really made me mad.

Gerbils are probably the best 'small' pets there are. Im glad I got them.

Seamonkeys I have had varied luck with. The last two tanks I bought died off within 60 days. Ive had luck before, with some sea monkeys living almost 2 years. I don't know why I had such bad results last time. Maybe I will try again, they make great desk pets :) :)