Going on 20

So in early April, I replied to the person's ad about the 20 with everything for $35, and of course I got it. The guy told me that he had a 120 gallon saltwater and a 55 gallon fresh and his wife was bugging him to get rid of his extra tanks; I thought it was pretty funny. He was a total nerd. Fish people in general are nerds, all of them. Anyway, I got it home, scraped off all the built-up lime (I hate that stuff so muchh) and got everything set up. I let the filter and heater run for two weeks and threw my tetras in. I had just been to a friend's house and noticed that she had a kissing gourami in a 10 gallon tank, and she said that the fish hated her. So I took it and gave her my tetras in return.

He seemed really skittish, even in the 20. I had started doing research on fish, so as to not murder them anymore, and I knew that he really shouldn't be in anything less then 55 gallons. So, that was my goal – to give this fish the space he needs to thrive. Soon after he moved into my 20, I put my other little fish in as well, leaving Gary by himself in the 10. I got another male crowntail, this time he was all red and from PetCo, and named him Rowdy. Rowdy took up residence in the 5 gallon, and seemed really happy with the space. Gary, at this point, became really stressed and developed a mild case of fin rot. I didn't think much of it, so I did a water change and left him with that. Over the next few days, he got progressively worse and I woke up one morning with his tail half gone.

I went to the store and got him some medicine for fin rot (Fungus Clear by Jungle), and it took a few days before it started working. In the 20 gallon, I got four tiger barbs from Wal-Mart, four albino tiger barbs from PetCo, and three emerald green cory catfish from PetCo as well. So now with three fish tanks up and running, I wanted more. I needed more. So I went digging through the basement again, and found a 20 gallon long.