Post by veronica on Jun 3, 2023 16:47:45 GMT -8
We were helping out at a GSA conference for high school students and this question was one of their icebreakers.
As someone with nothing but niche interests I love this question.
What are your niche interests?
If you're here, I know you've got them.
I'll start.
I've always loved old tech which is why I love this site.
Beyond early internet, I saw the transition from analogue to digital music, and I definitely prefer vinyl.
I amassed a pretty extensive record collection.
I also have a camera collection, both still and motion picture, all film cameras.
I love the mechanics of cameras, the revolution upon society that is photography and its offspring is crazy.
(Film, television, animation, cgi, ai, etc)
I've also recently really got into aquarium keeping. I killed two amazing bettas (rip Hades, rip Agamemnon) and I was like well I need to keep having fish so let me do this right.
I've unfortunately spiraled into four tanks and am about to get a fifth, oh no that's too many!
I strongly recommend not impulse buying fish, or any pets, doing your research and always remembering that's a life and it needs a whole ecosystem to be happy.
(For anyone's interest here's how I got to five tanks. cw: small aquatic deaths)((but it's mostly nice))
heather and I may or may not be roommates. And we may or may not have moved in together chaotically with nothing but some folding chairs and tables.
A fish tank and fish may have been the first thing we brought into the apartment. π€¦π½ββοΈ
It was 5 gallons - that's too small pretty much for any fish.
We had a big beautiful black samurai betta we named Hades in there with lots of decor, and good filter. I changed the water often, it looked good, but grew algae.
We got snails to eat the algae. The tank looked pretty much perfect. Hades suffered a terrible sad death in clear water. Nitrate spike, we didn't have real plants in there.
I treated the water. We got a bunch of plants, live plants and little bulbs that sprouted and grew. We got another, beautiful, beautiful betta- this one was almost white at the belly, turquoise fins with pink tips, a Dumbo Halfmoon, we think they look like the trans flag, we named them Hermaphroditus - one of my favorite figures in Greek mythology.
That tank was perfectly crystal clear, the snails were happy, we got ghost shrimp too. It was like a lovely little ecosystem, but Hermaphroditus' beautiful fins were too big to swim in the 5 gallon. We got a 10 gallon.
But the water was so beautiful in the 5 gal- we got two little female bettas, who live together peacefully - Persephone and Demetre. Hermaphroditus flares up at this little yellow snail with black polka dots- hates that snail. That snail now lives with the girls. We think the spots must have looked like eyes to them. We got the gals a cherry shrimp. It's a lovely tank with lots of natural red. An ode to Hades and Persephone's namesake.
This is where we made our mistake. We saw a crawdad. A big crawdad. I'm southern, I had to have that crawdad. I named him Lafayette.
We bought another 10 gallon. And two little goldfish to keep him company.
Lafayette was chaos, escaped constantly. Eventually escaped and we couldn't find him. After nearly a day, he returned to us, and I threw him back in the tank. But he passed by morning. The goldfish didn't like that. I buried him under a palm tree. I'm sorry, Lafayette.
The forth tank is a beautiful 2.5 gal vase, I found a filter that fit, it's got a dwarf water lily growing in there with little ghost shrimps and a mystery snail. I was hoping we could keep some gold inca snails in there, but they didn't like it. Now we have a gold tank with them and the goldfish.
That vase, my mom legit kept 9 goldfish in throughout my childhood. She killed a lot of fish, but one lived in there for years, it got really big, like maybe 5 inches.
Now we have just two goldfish in one 10 gallon. They're SO big- they eat so much and poop so much, and the plants and filter can't keep up. We've had them a couple months and one's already 5 inches long!
Poor Sacco and Vanzetti (that's their names) Who knew we'd end up keeping you in a fish prison?
We're moving them to a 30 gallon for now, and I'm hoping to build a pond at my parents' house, because I wanna see these fish grow and be happy.
We're thinking about putting Persephone and Demetre in the 10 gallon after we move the goldfish, and maybe a couple new friends so they can form a sorority. And maybe a alien betta for the 5 gallon?
Moral is- if you want anything that's not tiny, you need a big tank. You can't skip any of the steps, that animal needs a whole ecosystem. The tanks are fun, everyone is happy except the goldfish, but we're gonna do better for them. Lesson learned.
What's your niche interest?
As someone with nothing but niche interests I love this question.
What are your niche interests?
If you're here, I know you've got them.
I'll start.
I've always loved old tech which is why I love this site.
Beyond early internet, I saw the transition from analogue to digital music, and I definitely prefer vinyl.
I amassed a pretty extensive record collection.
I also have a camera collection, both still and motion picture, all film cameras.
I love the mechanics of cameras, the revolution upon society that is photography and its offspring is crazy.
(Film, television, animation, cgi, ai, etc)
I've also recently really got into aquarium keeping. I killed two amazing bettas (rip Hades, rip Agamemnon) and I was like well I need to keep having fish so let me do this right.
I've unfortunately spiraled into four tanks and am about to get a fifth, oh no that's too many!
I strongly recommend not impulse buying fish, or any pets, doing your research and always remembering that's a life and it needs a whole ecosystem to be happy.
(For anyone's interest here's how I got to five tanks. cw: small aquatic deaths)((but it's mostly nice))
heather and I may or may not be roommates. And we may or may not have moved in together chaotically with nothing but some folding chairs and tables.
A fish tank and fish may have been the first thing we brought into the apartment. π€¦π½ββοΈ
It was 5 gallons - that's too small pretty much for any fish.
We had a big beautiful black samurai betta we named Hades in there with lots of decor, and good filter. I changed the water often, it looked good, but grew algae.
We got snails to eat the algae. The tank looked pretty much perfect. Hades suffered a terrible sad death in clear water. Nitrate spike, we didn't have real plants in there.
I treated the water. We got a bunch of plants, live plants and little bulbs that sprouted and grew. We got another, beautiful, beautiful betta- this one was almost white at the belly, turquoise fins with pink tips, a Dumbo Halfmoon, we think they look like the trans flag, we named them Hermaphroditus - one of my favorite figures in Greek mythology.
That tank was perfectly crystal clear, the snails were happy, we got ghost shrimp too. It was like a lovely little ecosystem, but Hermaphroditus' beautiful fins were too big to swim in the 5 gallon. We got a 10 gallon.
But the water was so beautiful in the 5 gal- we got two little female bettas, who live together peacefully - Persephone and Demetre. Hermaphroditus flares up at this little yellow snail with black polka dots- hates that snail. That snail now lives with the girls. We think the spots must have looked like eyes to them. We got the gals a cherry shrimp. It's a lovely tank with lots of natural red. An ode to Hades and Persephone's namesake.
This is where we made our mistake. We saw a crawdad. A big crawdad. I'm southern, I had to have that crawdad. I named him Lafayette.
We bought another 10 gallon. And two little goldfish to keep him company.
Lafayette was chaos, escaped constantly. Eventually escaped and we couldn't find him. After nearly a day, he returned to us, and I threw him back in the tank. But he passed by morning. The goldfish didn't like that. I buried him under a palm tree. I'm sorry, Lafayette.
The forth tank is a beautiful 2.5 gal vase, I found a filter that fit, it's got a dwarf water lily growing in there with little ghost shrimps and a mystery snail. I was hoping we could keep some gold inca snails in there, but they didn't like it. Now we have a gold tank with them and the goldfish.
That vase, my mom legit kept 9 goldfish in throughout my childhood. She killed a lot of fish, but one lived in there for years, it got really big, like maybe 5 inches.
Now we have just two goldfish in one 10 gallon. They're SO big- they eat so much and poop so much, and the plants and filter can't keep up. We've had them a couple months and one's already 5 inches long!
Poor Sacco and Vanzetti (that's their names) Who knew we'd end up keeping you in a fish prison?
We're moving them to a 30 gallon for now, and I'm hoping to build a pond at my parents' house, because I wanna see these fish grow and be happy.
We're thinking about putting Persephone and Demetre in the 10 gallon after we move the goldfish, and maybe a couple new friends so they can form a sorority. And maybe a alien betta for the 5 gallon?
Moral is- if you want anything that's not tiny, you need a big tank. You can't skip any of the steps, that animal needs a whole ecosystem. The tanks are fun, everyone is happy except the goldfish, but we're gonna do better for them. Lesson learned.
What's your niche interest?
