Most animals that I absolutely adore tend to try to kill me. My allergies are not fond of anything fuzzy, I usually stop breathing, but luckily we’ve found one type of dog that doesn’t set them off. Hence the reason we got a Goldendoodle named Odin. (He’s the goodest boy ever!)
Buying my first fish tank was one of the best choices I made, even though my first tank is what has given me the biggest headache. Fish have brought a whole other level of peace to me and our home. There’s a beauty to fish, I have them surrounding my desk and it’s so perfect to take a break during the day and just watch them. The only problem is I’ll find myself losing a half hour because they are just fascinating to watch.
Another thing I love is how much there is to learn. Tanks are their own science experiment, watching the water levels and keeping the fish happy. Learning about each type of fish, their needs, and finding how to not just keep them alive but HAPPY! I am truly loving learning about these beautiful creatures.
I’m finding these fish are having a major impact, for the better, on my mental health. They are keeping me busy, bringing more beauty into my life, and giving me a place to sit and zone out. I think water has healing powers in the home, so I like to think bringing this much water into the home is having positive benefits on the energy here.
So, remember how I mentioned starting with 1 tank? Well, we have 14 tanks right now and it’s just the beginning. This has become a hobby/job for both Lilly and me to do together, and we are really enjoying it!
Anyway, my first 2 tanks were 10 gallons: 1 GloFish tank and 1 guppy tank. The GloFish tank was with the intention for Rayne to enjoy it, which she has. She enjoys it SO much that she stripped down a few days ago and sat down in it with her fish. I couldn’t believe it. I was upstairs and heard a huge rush of water hit the ground. Somehow nothing broke and all my fish survived.
My guppy tank fish were given to me by a good friend who has hundreds of them! This is the tank that is causing me the most issues. It had a PH issue which then led to a MASSIVE bio bloom (I’ll explain this in a later article) which caused me to lose about 20+ guppies over the last few weeks. Today I finally had to break down and do a 40% water change and hope for the best. So, keep your fingers crossed for me!
Then I have 10 3-gallon betta tanks. 3 are waiting and prepared for females that are on order. I could list off my bettas but for most, it probably wouldn’t mean much, instead take a look at my Lil-Ray Betta’s tab! You can see their beautiful pictures. We do have one ‘special case’ betta. She was a betta we saw at a pet store, she has a spine defect, and we learned she had been there for over 3 months. So, we brought Ms Betty home, got her a small tank, and gave her a home. She obviously is nothing more than a pet, but she’s a funny little thing that we love.
The remaining tanks are our ‘boom-boom’ and ‘grow-out’ tanks. We dubbed the mating tank our ‘boom-boom’ tank; a tank with nothing but 5 inches of water, a heater, a few live plants, and eventually a few other mating items when we are ready. The grow-out tank is where the baby fry will grow up until they start fighting and need to be put into separate containers.
It grew very quickly but I’m so happy!! I’m waiting for a few final live cultures to show up that will serve as the fry’s first foods: vinegar eels and microworms. I’m currently growing my grindal worms. As soon as my cultures are ready to go, we are putting Sparky & Spunk, my small koi pair, together to mate. I’ve seen them react through the sides of their tank and they are ready to go! He is building bubble nests and ready to procreate!
I have a few goals for the next few months as we are kicking off Lil-Ray Bettas:
1. The first one obviously being: having my first batch of fry successfully. Some people have great luck right off the bat, some people take a few tries. For my mental health’s sake, I really don’t need a ton of dead babies starting this off!
2. I would like to grow a successful YouTube channel, somewhat similar to Simply Betta. She is an absolute doll and so full of knowledge! My channel will feature more than fish and will feature more of my learning curve than anything. So, if you are on YouTube, please give us a follow at The Marissa Ann, we will have our first video up on February 22!
3. I’m committing to showing more of my daily work with the tanks on my TikTok, again bringing more of a following. The following is not for popularity, but for the hopes of successfully running an online store. Give me a follow at @TheeMarissaAnn!
4. My next tank setup is a betta rack. It will be a heavy-duty, plastic shelving unit that will house somewhere around 50 plastic mini-tanks for the fry when they grow too big for their grow-out tank but are still too young for the pet shops. Brand new this will cost me somewhere around $400-$500, but Mike and I are thrifty and hoping to find the rack second-hand and maybe some of the jar units. Keep your fingers crossed.
5. The big project, once we get going, will be a large shelving unit in my office. The shelving unit I want alone is $300 to support the weight. I need about $200 in carpet protecting pads (the ones used in at-home-gyms). This unit will hold 3 20-gallons, 3 10-galls, and a top shelf for more jars. This will be a jar more expensive project for down the road after my business has taken off a bit. The great thing is that 20-gallon tanks can be divided into 5 4-gallon tanks for bettas, leading to easier care and more bettas. Same with the 10 gallons.
6. To be able to successfully breed my mollies and guppies in addition to bettas.
7. And finally… down the road, the idea would be to switch my betta rack out for this super amazing, self-water-changing betta display instead of the individual jars. It’s sleek, continually & slowly changes the water out throughout the day, offers an open display for the bettas, and has 3 of the sides blacked out for stress-free living conditions. It’s AMAZING and will only happen if my business were to really take off. More of a dream item but something I wanted to share.
With all that being said, we expect to be putting our first pair together within the next month, if things work out the right way! I am planning to upload weekly updates to my YouTube channel and more frequent updates to my TikTok channel if you’re interested in staying caught up with our new adventure.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel today so you can get a notification when our first video goes live!!
Thanks for reading!
Much love,
M
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