Joe and Jamie’s Blog

While we picked up the African frogs, we also picked out some new playmates for Bubbles. Jamie liked the Calico Fantails and I liked the Black Moor goldfish. Splotch is the Calico Fantail and Brutis is the Black Moor. Splotch has a black spot on one side and not the other, kind of like a splotch of paint on the floor, hence the name Splotch. I named the Black Moor Brutis, after the big guy in Popeye that always beat on Popeye and went after Olive Oil, because as soon as he was let out of the store’s bag he went after Splotch and was bullying him around. Thankfully he stopped after the first few minutes and hasn’t done it since, but it gave me the idea for his name. I guess Brutis needed to show dominance, but Bubbles is almost twice his size so he calmed down when he came over.

We cleaned out their tank before we purchased them Saturday. As you can see this was the main highlight of the day. It took a long time to clean out both tanks completely. They are very happy together. What I learned from the unfortunate Doodle accident, I am pretty sure these fish will be fine. We started them all out together in clean water so they can muck it up as a family. Enjoy the pics and flick at the end.

Saturday Jamie and I went down to Petco to get some fish and frogs. During our last visit we noticed some African frogs that were in a tank with some fish. We were interested because it was odd to see frogs in with fish, mainly because we didn’t think frogs stayed in the water 100% of the time. Apparently these frogs do. The African frogs don’t grow more than 2.5 inches.

We had set up the old five gallon wish tank prior to going to the store. Just had to pick up a heater and a filter for the tank. We needed a cover as well, but they store was out of them. I had to rig a top with some leftover fiberglass mesh to replace screen windows. Essentially the same stuff without the nice plastic edge around it.

We bought three of the frogs and decided to name them Bud, Weis, and Er, after the famous three frogs from the Budweiser campaign a few years back. I know, I know, how original. Eh, whatever, I own the Budweiser frogs and you don’t

Enjoy the pictures and the video.

I have some unfortunate news, Doodle has passed away.

When I woke up this morning Doodle was acting very strange. He was near the top of the tank barely moving, just floating with the current. I went near him, but he swam to the bottom so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I started to research this while at work today and found several reasons why this could be happening.

1. Overfeeding or bad diet can cause digestive problems. - I rule this out because Doodle was new and he didn’t eat much at all. Bubbles comes to the top to eat and would eat all the flakes before Doodle got them. I also hand fed Doodle because of this, so I know he only ate a flake or two since Saturday.
2. Swim Bladder issues - I rule this out because he had no problem swimming around until this morning. So unless he developed it overnight (which now I think he actually did) then it wasn’t this.
3. Dirty water conditions - I still think this is why. Bubbles was in that water for two weeks before Doodle, so Bubbles was used to the conditions, Doodle was not. With just Bubbles all I did was change the water once a month which was fine, but now that there was two I should take out at least 15% of the water each week.

I had Jamie run to the store and get two gallons of water and change it out because of #3. Doodle responded better for a bit, but didn’t recover. Jamie went to the store to get test kits for the water when my mother found Doodle behind the filter on his side.

So farewell Doodle, we barely knew ye. You were the best looking Telescope goldfish Petco had, sorry you had to go.

Off to Petco to get some test kits now, possibly a Doodle2 later tonight….maybe Doddle Jr or Doodler, not sure how the sequel name will go yet.

[UPDATE]

Jamie and I went back to Petco last night and grab a test kit and then headed home. We tested the water and the pH, hardness and nitrate leves were just fine. Nitrite was a bit high and the ammonia levels were a bit more on the stress than safe side.  We plan to change out two additional gallons of water this weekend before purchasing another fish. I talked with the people at Petco for a long time last night, going over everything. I learned that we did pretty much everything correctly and that it could have been anything that killed the fish. They said that it could have just been the fish itself and that it probably wasn’t anything serious that would affect the other fish. I tend to agree with them now, especially after Jamie read that Telescope Goldfish are the hardest goldfish to care for. They are not recommended for beginners (that’s what we are obviously) and that they are prone to disease and die more often than others.

So we think we may hold off on the Telescope Goldfish again, unless we use our second smaller tank for it by itself. We now have our eye on a Black Moor or Calico Fantail. We’ll see this weekend which one wins I guess.

As I said in the last pet post, we have had our eye on a certain fish, a companion for Bubbles. Well this weekend Petco finally restocked their Telescope Goldfish, so we just had to get one!

Meet Doodle. Unlike Bubbles, Doodle likes to just float around the bottom, swimming here and there. Bubbles is the one that non-stop swims around the tank. I think Doodle is just getting adjusted. I was surprised how Bubbles reacted with another fish in the tank, it was as if the other wish wasn’t even there. Now they swim around together and I have no worries of coming home and finding only one fish. I caught them playing what looked like tag today which was fun to watch for a bit.

Next we plan to get a tropical fish since we need to put the smaller tank to good use. We saw this shark looking fish with a flat white bottom with whiskers like a catfish. I forget the name and can’t find a picture online so you’ll just have to wait till we get one to show you what I mean.

We upgraded Bubbles to a 10 gallon tank. He seems a bit more calm now since he has more room and more oxygen in the air. I think it was mostly the current in the small tank. We needed to aerate the small tank so he had enough oxygen, but that caused a bit of a current which Goldfish don’t tend to like too much.

Jamie and I have been eying some companions for Bubbles, so maybe more to come this weekend. For now watch another video of Bubbles in his new home.

Meet Bubbles our new pet. Jamie and I picked him up on Monday. Bubbles is a Red & White Ryukin, part of the goldfish family. He’s a fun fish because he loves to swim around a lot. We just recently added a bubble bar and he loves to eat the bubbles, how ironic.