Some people have lots of cats, we have fish.

I got a Betta fish to keep me company in my dorm room three years ago. I named him Cai, after one of the knights in The Mists of Avalon which I was reading at the time. I got him a bowl, a fish sitter for spring break, and he kept me company. Cai is still with me today. Over the summer he graduated to a one gallon bowl instead of his half gallon former home. He was still seeming sluggish, as he was much larger than when I got him.

So, Cai graduated again to a two gallon filtered, aerated tank:


These days, the little guy is three years old and more active than ever. The change in his disposition was remarkable. In the meantime, Steve and I had gotten five other bettas and two goldfish, each with a bowl to themselves, of course. Seeing Cai's improved state led us to decide that ALL of these fish deserve their own little tank. Except today, we went overboard:


My brother was going to give us a ten gallon tank, but it was in such a bad state of repair that we decided to forget it... and went to PetSmart and got one twice as large. There are no fish in it yet, as it is filtering, heating, and aerating its way to stability for the next couple of days. There is a tank divider so two of our remaining five lucky bettas will get new ten gallon digs complete with lots of real and fake plants, pretty gravel...


Yeah. Overboard. We couldn't decide which fishies got the two spots in the tank, so we ended up putting their names in a hat and picking them out..