sethrak

Ok, latest on my list of coveted icons, Pudge Controls the Weather, for fishtank posts. :D I know it exists, I've seen it in the wild.

/dork

The heater seems to be working well. It has a built-in thermometer, but it's kinda hard to see what temperature level it's at, without the hood light. We had to unplug the hood light, because the hall only has one outlet, and the tank set up now has three plugs. A light is optional. Heat and filtered water are not. I thought the obvious answer was to get a power strip. Davner disagrees. He regards a power strip on the floor, below a tank of water that may leak or drip, as a safety hazard. I pointed out that the base we bought for the tank has a storage shelf, and we can put the power strip on that, off the floor and out of any puddles/drips. He was unconvinced.

They're tropical fish. They can't cope in room temperature water. I'm pretty darn sure other people do the same thing. ::amused sigh::

He is starting to think goldfish would be easier. But goldfish get a lot bigger than tetra, and we only have room for a ten gallon tank.

Besides, we're a military family. We need a small setup, for when we move, and fish that aren't going to live long enough to require rehoming. Wiki claims tetras live a max. of five years in captivity. We're ten months into a three year assignment, which we hope to extend to at least four years by Davner volunteering for an unaccompanied tour to Korea when he's done at NORAD. (Top choices for the follow-on to Korea are here, or Japan if Mark's development progresses enough and we can get assurances from other families stationed there about the services available for special ed.)

Goldfish can potentially live a LOT longer than four years, and can get quite large, depending on the subspecies. Neon tetras, the tetra variety I've been eying the most, get to about 2 inches. And tetras as a whole tend to school, and move around quickly, which Mark will really enjoy watching.

Eh. We might end up putting off buying the fish til December, regardless. Tierra Vista, the civilian contractors who run base housing here, recently had a meeting, and sent out pdf emails to residents unable to make the meeting, about the next phase of construction. If Dav and I are reading the map correctly, we're in the middle of the Phase 1 section, which is set to be cleared out and torn down by the end of November/early December. Residents there are top-priority for homes in the newly-built sections. But unless we're given a house vacated by someone PCSing to a different base, we have to pay for our own moving costs. (AF rules, not Tierra Vista rules.) This means we're going to try and cram as much stuff into the flatbed of Taco-chan and compact trunk of Tohru-chan, and make a lot of short trips to the new house. Maybe bribe some first-term Airmen with pizza and soda to help us with the heavy stuff.

So, it might be easier to just leave the tank empty til we move. I don't know. I'm going to talk it over with Davner this weekend. We haven't gotten formal notice to vacate yet, and they are required to give us first 60 days notice, then 30 days notice.

Aside from that, I am really looking forward to the move. The new houses look really awesome, and frankly, although this house is in better condition than the houses we used to rent off base in other states - it's still falling apart. The fence is in particularly bad shape - and its condition is not improved by two little blond velociraptors testing the perimeter defenses every chance they get. :;amused face-palm::

A new house will be nice - provided it doesn't decide to blizzard on Moving Day.

Edit: EeeeeeEEEEEeeeeee!!!!!! Thanks,

nagaina!