Gurgling Night Light Tradition

One of my earliest memories is of my father's fish tank.  I don't really remember the fish, but the glow of the aquarium lights and the gurgling of the filter are as clear in my mind as if they were here today.  I don't even know how old I was when that memory was formed.  I must have been pretty young because that tank was in the living room of our little ranch-style house on Stanford Dr, and we moved out of that house when I was five years old.  I have loved fish tanks ever since.

Naturally, when Trish and I began having kids of our own I wanted  them to have those same memories.  When James was two, and Ava was still just a little poop-machine, I took some tax-return money and invested it in a few memories.  First, I dropped about $100 on oak plywood and molding at Home Depot and made a pretty nice cabinet stand. I put it in the kids' room then set up one of those 55 gallon starter kits from PetSmart.  In terms of aquarium equipment they pretty much suck, but they do make a great starting point.  I didn't really know anything about the myriad fish species available at the store, so I bought whatever looked cool and said "tropical semi-aggressive" on the label.  I made just about every mistake that a person can make when learning about caring for fish.  After the five weeks of death, we ended up with a few angels, a rainbow shark, a leporinus, and an African leaf fish.  Trish liked the leporinus.  She called it "the beetlejuice fish" because it looked kinda like the giant sand worms in the movie.  My favorite was the leaf fish.  It really looked like a leaf.  It even swam like a leaf would swim (if a leaf could swim).  I think the kids just liked the glow and gurgle.  It was about the coolest night light than any 2 year old has ever had.

A little over three years, and as many tax-returns later our little 55 has come a long way.  It was relocated to the living room and became an African cichlid tank 2 years ago.  We have two Red Zebras, two Kenyis, an auratus, five recently added juvenile duboisis and a 7" featherfin catfish.  We also have a juvenile Oscar as a temporary resident right now; our South American refugee.

James and I just finished a major cleaning and remodeling last night.  He helped me take everything out for the cleaning, and he helped me decide how to rebuild the rock structures afterwards.  When we finished, he sat in the Lazy-Boy with me and just stared at the fish for over an hour.  He was pretty proud of his work.  He is only five, but he knows the different personalities of the fish in the tank.  He is starting to understand the social heirarchy between the cichlids.  Both of the kids still really get into it.  Their favorites are the catfish and the juvie duboisis.  I'm just happy to see them interested in something that doesn't have pixels or take batteries.  Funds have been pretty tight for the past few years while I have been in school, but by throwing a little money at the hobby every once in a while when we have it to spare, we have something that we can enjoy and share everyday for free.  I would be willing to bet that they will remember their Dad's fish tank for the rest of their lives.