Updates from the bowl

So the Betta splendens that we bought for our fishtank turned out to be a real killer that seemed gentle by day but spent its nights stalking and terrorising the Neon tetras. We did toy with the idea of keeping him in a separate tank on his own, but decided against it. After all, he had already earned the nickname 'Rasputin' from his evil deeds.

MDH and I figured that the betta would be better off if he had an owner who would love him and care for him and give him a friendlier name - so away he went, back to the fish store from whence he came.

In exchange, we now have four very lively, very zippy Zebra danios - golden with purple-black stripes running lengthwise. Three of them are frolicking in the bubbles, playing tag with each other at the top of the tank. The fourth is slower and spends most of its time rooting around for tidbits at the bottom of the tank (it's been doing this since we bought it...I'm beginning to wonder if it is sickly). They seem to get along fine and dandy with the Neon tetras.

We have also introduced a male guppy into the tank. He is a striking combination of metallic blue and orange, with a fiery tail fringed in black. He patrols the tank like a little helicopter and has established himself as the king of the fishbowl. The Zebra danios attempted to harrass him in the beginning, but he scared them off by displaying his fins and then beating them away with his tail. Fiesty. I have named him 'Rocky' (MDH thinks that it's for the Sly Stallone movie, but really, I've named him for 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' because guppies, you know, they are such showoffs.).

We'll see how this pans out.