Beau is Lurking

Anyway enough tumblr drama look at Beauregard he is Fantastic

He's DTF (Down To Flare) and DTF (Down To Fight) and DTEATN (Down To Eat All The Noms)

I rescued this GIGANTIC cutie today. I work for a cat shelter and we are sponsored by a chain pet store, where we do adoption events. A lady approached me with this guy in a vase. She said her father went into a nursing home and couldn't take the fish with him, and what should she do with it? After some thought, I said I'd take him and here we are. He might have gone into a cup, or given away to a kid with that awful vase, and I have the space... sorta. I need another heater as my shrimp are going without for the time being. I also will need a filter...

2019 has been rough...

& it's Not Even October Yet

So, on top of personal mental health issues and family members having their own battles, and work being unpredictable with my shifts, a lot has happened with the non-human side of the family, not all good... not much good as far as my mental health tries to put it (I often need to be reminded to step back and see the "then vs now" of it all), so I'll try to do an update on that to the best of my memory (I've always been bad at remembering dates - I would forget my own birthday if people didn't fuss about it)

Sometime between January & February, a heatwave was the final straw for Cabaré who had been fighting a scale tumor (I know, my fault for not researching dragon scale variants before getting him) for 3 months, aside from the tumor, he was as active as he normally was, eating fine and his fins were recovering nicely from the fin nipping, but 45°C IN the flat with the air con running was stressful enough before the power started to cut.

Late February, a tank heater malfunctioned and killed a couple of my tetra before I caught it, thankfully, not too much trouble was caused and I had a spare heater on hand, various issues have stopped me from getting new stock for the shoal however, so it currently stands at 7 black neon tetra.

March... hooboi... uh, as much as I was meant to have a milestone birthday that month, the month was utter chaos... Shakita, my Gran's beloved Am.Staf previously posted about, had her age catch up in the space of a fortnight and had to be laid to rest. Another event, regarding people, unfolded days later that made it tempting to remove all reminders of the month altogether, looking for a timeline in chats from family, someone already has.

Early April, I had flown interstate on a holiday I'd organised around Xmas, so I allowed tank/pond plants to grow out; a mild regret in now I have to sift shrimp out of a 8×10×5 inch ball prism of moss before i can trim, seperate or transplant it. Amidst this, I also had gotten a female Betta; Beau-bo, named after Critical Role's Beauregard, I had intended to have a female in a display next to Cabaré just a few months earlier, but due to...reasons, I had let the empty tanks (quarantine + Cabaré's) go un maintained at all, a bad move that I'm still trying to fix in my own slowbutt pace, so she was put in beside the matten filter of the shimp/tetra tank. I managed to lose 1 of 3 rescue orchids but have had decent success with most of the terrestrial plants I've gathered admittedly with a few close calls. I also recieved news around late April/early May that a friend of mine needed to rehome their 4ft tank, so I set out to rearrange my flat so it could fit... this turned out to be a 3 month task as different bills and problems would pop up, including a vet trip for Ludwig who sprained his wrist, and we decided to get bloods checked for any nasties; an overactive thyroid gland due to age was causing his metabolism&appetite to soar, so a prescription was given.

I kept quiet about it, but I got some zebra danios for my little basin-ponds at around Xmas last year, the planted/natural filter pond having mild success breeding, however, winter and personal issues haven't allowed me to see whether the bubs made it through winter (I had to go away for a while and the ones I could find were 1.5cm when I did get to check - it will be a matter of headcount once time/weather allows me to get back in there)

So between June and August, I had been preparing for and focusing on the 4ft tank (my first tank over 2ft), especially when I was challenged to scape it. Thus far, the plants I was expecting to grow slow have gone mad and are due for another pruning, while the plants I expected to go mad and fill in are taking their time still. I have all 3 of the same fish that came with the tank (I was scaping it wet - not something I recommend with fine and/or planting substrates), 2 Angels and a Cory, however the quarantine tank I'd set up for the new cories (to give Dusty a shoal of his own) crashed (again, my fault for prioritizing other things) and I thought I saved 1, but he didn't make it through the next day, so that was a big bummer. I've only had the energy to do mild plant tending and water changes since. My cousin's household has also gained a few more sets of paws from G.A.P, so Jojo now has siblings that are his own size (almost - he was always tall).

And then we get to September, specifically this past week... Ludwig, the mascot & icon of this blog, got out and went missing after plumbers made a lot of ruckus (like, scared me awake in my flat next door noise), today is day 5 without his medications and mum has been beside herself about it. But we couldn't let ourselves be too shaken as we were in order to recieve a rescue Greyhound to try and help my little sister with her mental health. Scout, a huge 9 month old pup who was pulled before being raced due to injury arrived earlier today.

So, that's how the year has been playing in regards to my nonhuman fam and a little about the human part.

Hopefully, Ludwig finds his way home (we've notified council and neighbours, but 8ish years ago, vets refused to microchip him because he was already over 5yrs), and I hope to get back in the habit of photographing things, but that might have to wait for my phone to be repaired and my head to have cleared a little.

I have been vaguely active on my new started in April while I was interstate Instagram account with the same name as my main blog (it is just as eclectic as that main blog too, probably)

I love his little moss penthouse

💙💙 Beau 💙💙

Did a serious clean and remodel of the 30gallon, it looks so good now. Hopefully the bolbitis is able to reestablish itself now that it has space and light.

Planning to get a school of Neons or something to fill it out

Bonus pic of Beau in his bachelor pad, you can barely see him but he loves his little moss nook

My dad scared him by accident so big tough guy went to hide in his leaf

He's gorgeous I love him so much

Was wondering why Beau was stationed under this leaf - he's building a bubble nest!

A new child appears

The tank looks good today

Beau has officially accepted the floating log as his seat of power. Mainly because it is the optimal position to observe both the doorway (for anyone coming in who might give noms) and the front of the tank (for those in prime position to give noms) AND my desk (to spy on the primary nom giver)

My two blues 💙

Local Tough Guy Flares At Own Reflection

...I'm tempted to be a total nerd and name him Beauregard (any Critters around?) On account of his attitude and willingness to throw down at any moment

Bonus pics bc I didn't realize this one was so similar to the previous post

Got the buddy to flare a little so I could see the belly area better and verdict is in - its a boy!