Austin’s latest employees include snails, catfish, cichlids, sharks, and barbs.
At 35 years old, I’ve always wanted a big fish tank. Outside of a small goldfish tank I had when I lived in San Francisco, I’ve never had the luxury of having to change 20 gallons of water once a week. But now I do and I’m super excited about it!
We have the following fish:
- variety of African and South American Cichlids
- one Rainbow Shark
- one Catfish
- one Rainbow Fish
- one Barb (the rest didn’t make it)
- two Snails.
We went through some up and down and some fish were lost on the way, but we now have a happy 60-gallon fish tank up and running. Watching these guys grow quickly has been fun and they come to you when you walk by the tank. I also got lucky in that there are drain and faucet hookups right behind the tank which makes the only annoying part of maintaining a tank much much easier.
Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.
– “W. C. Fields”
Update 5/17/2016
Our friends over at Petco sent me this amazingly helpful infographic on how to choose your freshwater fish for compatibility. I think all Fish stores should have one of these laminated and hung up in the fish department. This would have saved my tank some serious carnage. Thanks, Petco!
