Mascotas Nuevas – Peces!
Before I moved to Puerto Rico I was into fish-keeping and had 3 fishtanks in my house. When we moved to Puerto Rico I figured it would be too hot in our un-air conditioned house to keep a fishtank from overheating and pretty much struck that hobby off of my list. Lately, we have been talking with several friends and neighbors about aquaponics and that got me missing my little fish friends 
. So when I was at Wal-Mart the other day, I picked up a 20-gallon tank and decided to set up a little experiment tank.
One of the many pluses of our trees/grass/plants growing in, is that it has made the temperature at our house much cooler. All of the added shade and greenery has literary lowered the temperature at our house by 5 – 10 degrees and made our property a lot more temperate. And ready for a fishtank! After I purchased the tank, I ordered live aquarium plants and real stone gravel online. I prefer live plants and real gravel to the plastic stuff, as the real stuff is beneficial to the fish and creates a little self sustaining eco-system. That means less cleaning and healthier fish. Win-win!
Once the plants and gravel arrived in the mail, I set up the tank and headed to the Mayaguez mall for some fish. There is a little pet shop kiosk there and the two kids working the store were very knowledgable and helpful, even with my bad Spanish. I purchased 2 bettas (1 male, 1 female), 3 tiger barbs and 2 gouramis. All of these types of fish are semi-aggressive, which means they can hold their own. (It’s important to keep the same temperament of fish together in an aquarium or else they will fight/nip/annoy the less aggressive species to death.)
Our new fish / Nuestro peces nuevos:
Sydney LOVES the new fish and looks forward to feeding them everyday. The fishtank as a whole adds a great element to our living room and, in my opinion, is much more fun to watch then TV.
Spanish fish hobby words:
Aquarium = Acuario
Freshwater = Agua Dulce
Fish = Peces
I have one freshwater aquarium with seven semi-aggressive fish. = Yo tengo un acuario agua dulce con siete peces semi-agresivo.
(please feel free to correct any of my bad Spanish …)
December 7th, 2011 at 8:59 am
I love the fishes!!!!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
December 7th, 2011 at 11:22 am
I see that you are practicing your Spanish which is good! Is Sidney billingual? Don’t worry about the mistakes, I know my English is not perfect either jajajaja… I had a salt water tank and I decided to buy a chiller because my house is very hot during summer time and fishes were dying. It worked pretty good in my 50 gallon tank. I agree with you, watching a fish tank is an amazing relaxing hobbie. I love it too!!!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
December 7th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
I just love that. I remember as a kid watching my brother’s aquarium for hours on end. Was just thinking yesterday about you and fish keeping.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
December 8th, 2011 at 6:34 am
Great fish choices, love the tiger barbs zipping about. The video is great, you can hear a very happy coquis chirping in the background. I had tropical fish when I was a teenager. I had a separate tank that I would keep sunfish I caught. I’d only keep them a month or so and then release them. Fun stuff.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
January 26th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Hi, my name is Alane and I use to live in Guaynabo PR (I am currently trying to move back). Life their is wounderful. Back when I use to live their I use to watch people in Pinones (over by the San Juan Airport) catch the pretty fish, for use in their salt water aquariums. I don’t know if their are any laws about that but I have seen it done.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
February 3rd, 2012 at 8:54 am
Hi Alane! My husband used to do that for our salt water aquarium and we really don’t know if it’s illegal. What I can tell you is that most of the died.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0