49MM LENS FILTER

It was a year ago that I first got my goldfish. It was a crazy whim, spurred by the fact that they were "easy" to take care of (yeah frickin' right) and they weren't furry and also memories of our ginormous goldfish when I was growing up.
Well, all three black moor's died. The only one that lived was a calico fantail I named Bealltainn. I was listening to a lot of Loreena McKennitt at the time plus it was Halloween/fall.
I got two more fish. A redcap Oranda and a beautiful red fantail. And they died. But Bealltainn never wavered.
It was around that time that I read about "cycling" and good bacteria as well as ammonia, pH, nitrites and nitrates. What!?!? None of this stuff mattered when we had our 20 gallon tank with three HUGE fish in it. We would dump out the whole tank every month. We knew nothing about cycling. Somehow the poor fish survived. I can't imagine why since we did everything wrong because that was before the internet and Google searches.
It took from October to February for my main tank to finally cycle. In November I added Mud, my chocolate Oranda who is so big now, then in February I added a Ryukin and a Ranchu. Of course the Ryukin died but the Ranchu is still with us. That brought it up to three--my calico fantail Bealltainn, my chocolate Oranda named Mud, and my cute little red Ranchu named Reiko. In April I got a calico Oranda named Stabler (I was coming off of a looong kick of Law & Order: SVU).
But I always wanted some Black Moors. I originally wanted just Black Moors but of course I have everything in between.
Last night I realized it had been a year since the madness started (there's also a 65 gallon tank sitting in the garage, waiting to go over to my house and be set up) and wouldn't it be nice to get some Black Moors and try again?
So after I got off of work I drove all the way over to Merrillville to the Wal-Mart and got two bitty Black Moors, some malachite green, a powerful filter, and a small bottle of Melafix.
I got two because I figure if one dies, I'll have one left. Isn't that morbid? But I am prepared to keep both. I don't want any of them to die!

I'm recycling names from the first batch because it's the same time of year. One of them is Samhuinn and the other is Annachie.

On an unrelated note NaNoWriMo is about to start!! weee!!!

The Fivespot Mouthbrooder (Fossorochromis rostratus) is a species of fish in the Cichlidae family. It is found in Lake Malawi (Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania).
This attractively patterned cichlid lives on sandy shores. It feeds by plunging its long snout into the sand and then filtering the mouthful through the gill rakers, retaining the edible small animals (crustaceans, worms, etc.) and expelling the sand out the gill covers.
It is often followed by one or more individuals of Cyrtocara moorii, which sample the expelled clouds of sand and flocculent particles for edible tidbits missed by the "Fossie."
The males are iridescent blue with black and green markings. The females are smaller and pale yellow-brown with checkerboard black markings down the lateral line.
Maximum size (min-max): 20 - 30 cm ( 7.87 - 11.81 in ).