You may now call me ... POSEIDON!

Growing up in North Carolina, I'm really used to live things being around me all the time. Feeling that urge to be living with some living things in a downtown loft, I figured a good first step might be some houseplants. I bought some Japanese Peace Lillies two weeks ago... but somehow it wasn't enough.

So yesterday I got a decent deal on an 60 gallon aquarium set-up from a local guy off of Craigslist (who helped me deliver it too, since it wouldn't fit in my car ... thanks, Dan!) and set-it up last night:

It came with the gravel and filtration set and some ornaments:

I know you're supposed to cycle the water, but when I woke up this morning, there were tons of snails all over the sides! Not to mention that the ornaments were covered with algae... I did a chemical test and the levels seemed safe enough to get a few fish. So today, I got:

• 1 Betta fish (who seems very listless - if you want to see why, go to your local PetCo and see how they're packaged)
• 10 Danios
• 4 Black Lyretail Mollies (one of them which was super sickly from the store, but he joined his other 3 friends and it seems to be doing alright now)
• 4 Sunset Platys (one which I don't think will make the night - it was looking really listless at the store, too)
• 3 Bamboo shrimp

I've had a lot of fun just watching them all day. After I get back from NC at the end of November, I'll see how these little guys are doing, and fi they'd be willing to pick up a few more neighbors.

Part of the new tank: (bought some aquatic plants, moved some stuff around to create more nooks and crannies)

A few more things I want to do tomorrow:

Get a few more aquatic plants, and a few marble pieces - in case any of the fish start breeding (the platys and mollies bear their young live), I want to create a small area with lots of larger marble pieces that'll be safe for the fish fry.