Tag: pets

Hello!

Today’s photo is of the two little monsters caught doing what they do, which is being naughty. 😄 We keep our guest slippers in a basket by the front door, and today they decided that the slippers would be fun to play with. It’s so funny that they love to play with footwear! We have a little basket that we put the kids’ clean sock into after the laundry is done, and the kitties have been grabbing a sock here and there, and bringing them downstairs to play with. At the moment, there are about 10 socks on the floor now! Thankfully, they don’t damage them. All-in-all, the kittens are not too bad, but sometimes it can be frustrating… for instance, they accidentally turned on the kitchen faucet, and when I came home from work, the water was running full-blast. 😞 Oh well…

Take care! 🐱

– B 

I’m surprised how tolerant Lani is of the kitties. Maybe more tolerant than me! 😆

こんばんは！Hi, how are you doing?

Tonight’s photo is of one our kittens, trying to hide. I don’t have too much to say about the effectiveness of her technique.

Today went by so quickly… my workday was pretty busy, and before I knew it, it was 4pm. Since I skipped lunch today, 4pm meant I worked 8 hours and 20 minutes. I am still using Toggl religiously, so I know pretty much exactly how much I work, and how much time is spent on each task. It’s a great tool!

Well, I’ll try not to work so much and balance my home life more, which for the next few weeks means spending it with my girlfriends! (2 kittens and our doggie) 🐱🐱🐶 Plus some finned friends. 🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠

Take care, and see you tomorrow.

おやすみなさい！

– B 

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today I spent some more time working on the aquarium. In a previous post, I described a bit about what I wanted to do with the plants and the focal point of the aquarium. Well, I’m still not 100% sure what the focal point will be, but I’m leaning towards a reddish plant, while all the other plants will be green.

I chose black and white for the rocks and gravel respectively, so that the fish and plants would have an extra pop of color. I placed a couple plants from the old aquarium into the new one, and you can see how the green stands out against the black background (some foam board from the craft store). I’m quite happy with it so far!

I also added more substrate (the gravel) on the sides so that I could angle the slate rocks up a bit, which creates some nice hiding areas for the fish. I think that the algae-eaters will need those places (and that leafy plant) to take refuge in after the tiger barbs are moved over, since those fish can be aggressive. I hope they get along!

I’m not sure if I want to keep the large plant that’s on the left side permanently, though. I wanted more grass-like types, but for now this plant is helping to keep the water clean while the bacteria get settled in the new tank. It usually takes a few weeks, but I kind of kickstarted the process by putting some bio material from the old aquarium next to the filter of the new one. Hopefully it won’t take too much longer for the bacteria to begin thriving.

In the meantime, I’m doing daily water tests, and it seems the ammonia level is the only thing to be concerned about right now, so I do a 25% (5-gallon) water change when the ammonia gets too high. The three algae-eaters that are in the new aquarium seem to be happy and healthy! 😄

Please take a look at the rest of the photos in the gallery below:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I hope you had a nice weekend!

おやすみなさい！

– B 

Hi! Today was another scorcher. In the photo above, the asphalt looks dark and wet, but in reality it was just so hot that the tar took on a different look. It seemed like it was ready to melt into goo!

I was on my way to the local fish store to buy another Siamese algae eater and check out some of the live plants. There are some benefits to having real plants vs fake in the aquarium, the most important is that they improve the condition of the water by absorbing ammonia and CO2. But they also are a lot of fun to grow!

You will have to do a little trimming once in a while, but it’s not often and it is very easy. If you turn off the filter and then trim, the cut leaves will float up to the surface and it’s easy to gather them.

I didn’t buy any today, though, just looking and deciding how to plant the new aquarium. I have lots of ideas, but am thinking about what the focal point of the aquarium should be. Will it be a large rock (think mini-Half-Dome), a nice piece of driftwood, or perhaps a striking red plant? I haven’t decided yet… but I think I want to plant a bunch of small ground-cover type plants, and then some tall grasses in the background.

There is a whole art of aquarium design called “Aquascaping”. It’s fascinating and beautiful! Most of the tanks are very wide (and large) for a nice panoramic design, but my tank is a “tall” style, so it will be a bit different, and there are not many aquascaping examples out there for this type of aquarium. So, I am taking my time to figure it out. I did find this site that has a lot of nice layouts and the plants they used to create them. It’s a huge help!

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

おやすみなさい！

– B 

こんばんは！How’s it going?

So, my wife and kids are in Japan for a month and I am at home with the two kittens and the dog. Which means that I get plenty of “attention”.

We’ve had cats for about 18 years now, but it’s been a while since we had kittens. I don’t remember if our previous kittens were as naughty as these two are – they will knock everything off of any surface they can reach (or jump onto) and generally wreak havoc around the house. Yesterday, one of them even fell into the new aquarium! 😠

But when they get sleepy they are very cute. For instance, the photo above is their normal way of sleeping. Crazy, huh? These two sisters are really funny! So, I guess all the trouble is worth it. 🐱 Maybe.

Well, I hope you had a great day! Meow!

おやすみなさい！

– B 

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

Today it’s Independence Day here in the States, and I spent it at home relaxing, watching a lot of baseball, and doing a lot of research for the new aquarium. I have a rough plan for how I want to decorate it, and the mockup is below:

I want to keep the tank kind of simple, with a black and white color scheme, with the black being some flat shale rocks, one standing, and two flat, and the white being the substrate (gravel). Then, I’d like to have at least two type of plants, maybe three. After the success of growing plants in the small aquarium, I realize that they can grow fast! So, I am going to start with just a few and see how it goes. The mockup only shows the starter plants, but I’d like to have it pretty lush in the back of the tank, and keep the front and left side of the tank open.

As for fish, I will keep this a barb tank, and add a Siamese algae eater or two. And then I should have enough room to get a few more barbs. I saw some green barbs at the pet store today, so I might go for those. The last thing will by my Malaysian trumpet snails. I hope they thrive!

Anyways, I hope you had a nice day, and we’ll see you tomorrow!

おやすみなさい！

– B