New Fish Day for Maia

First off, let me say, I'm not sure what the deal is with our big "Presidents Day Break" here in Sioux Falls. I told one Indiana friend that we just really honor the presidents in South Dakota. The kids had last Wednesday through yesterday (Monday) off from school, right during the same week when I finally resumed teaching at USF after Christmas and J-Term break.

They spent a lot of time with other people.

Mom & Jim shouldered the bulk of the load, I took the kids there Friday afternoon, and left them there until Monday evening (USF does not honor President's Day, and I teach all day on Mondays).

At some point over the weekend, Maia decided that she also wants to have fish as pets. I said that since she hadn't spent her Christmas money yet, she could buy a fishtank and some fish when we got back to SF. Mom actually had a fishtank that had belonged to Aunt Rene', so she sent that home with the kids on Monday.

Today we went fish shopping. We wanted to get our fish at Mini Critters, because our friend, Megan, works there. But they didn't have any Bettas. I've really been impressed with Xander's Betta. It's lively, hardy, fiesty, and has a habit of snacking on the goldfish's long fins (well, they're not so long anymore).



Xander's got a "spicy fish" (red Betta) like this one, and a no-longer-long-tailed goldfish, as well as 2 golden snails. His fish are (as of today), named "Spic" and "Spam." Because they live in a clean tank (Matt & I cleaned and conditioned both tanks yesterday), and because one likes to eat the other one. His snails are named Bob & Joe. (Again, as of today).

This is what "Spam" looked like when we bought him. He's much stumpier now, and skittish for some reason...


These names are much easier to remember than the old names he had for them... one of them was Zahita, for a while his snails were Snickety and Snickerbob, but I think those are the two that died. So Bob & Joe is a lot easier to remember. His snails are pretty much identical, and he was thinking of naming one of them Noodle. I said he should call them Mr. Noodle and his brother, Mr. Noodle (Sesame Street reference).

Again, this is what Xander's snails looked like when we bought them. He has two. Now they're kind of grimy, and like to latch onto each other as food after we clean the tank!


ANYWAY- Maia chose a lovely deep blue-purple Betta, as well as a kind of purply-silver something... I don't know what it is. And one snail with a purply swirl on it's side. She decided to name the Betta, "Captain Hook" and the smaller fish, "Tinkerbell," while calling the snail "Peter Pan." So we have a theme tank going in her room. Her tank is a bit larger than Xander's. Maybe we'll continue to add to the tank with such characters as "Wendy," "Little John" and a whole school of "Lost Boys?"