The shrimp are HATCHING!

I found four teensy, tinsy little clear shrimp on the aquarium glass today, and it is SO exciting.  I don't know if mama shrimp has hatched them all yet, or if these are just the early birds, as she wouldn't turn so I could see her belly, but still, FOUR.  If I'm finding four there are probably more!  So, I will have to put the snails on a diet and increase my water changes to keep the tank clean for them, but stop vaccuuming the bottom to make sure I don't suck them up.  BABIES!  My cherry shrimp tank isn't doomed to failure after all.  :D

Snails

Got some aquarium snails in the mail on Friday, and they are eating/laying eggs like mad crazy.  They are cute little striped things, but really, too many is too many.  So I now have my morning rounds with the turkey baster removing extra eggs.  I am hatching some for Byron and some to try and trade in at the fish store, but we shall see, and really, I don't need THAT many snails.  I'm removing like three or four clutches EVERY DAY.  That would be lots of babies!

Elspeth loves the snails, she always wants to hold them which worries me as they are fairly small (size of a nickel), and I'm afraid she might mush one even with strict supervision.  So, we are thinking of getting her a haustrom, they sell them at one of the local fish stores.  These puppies get the size of a tennis ball, so there's no way she could hurt them.  They are plant eaters though, so it would need it's own tank.  I am thinking a 20 long (we could put it on the Abomination aquarium stand, it's not so bad now that it's in Elspeth's room), with just a filter.  Also a rainbow shark for Mark (he REALLY wants one) and maybe some brigs for me, just to fill it up.  So, if anybody wants to contribute to the coolest birthday present for Elspeth ever, let me know.  ~_^

Announcements = sent

They are all in the mail.  Apparently quite a few have already arrived, which is nice.  If you still want one, and have not given me your address, there are still quite a few more, so send me a mailing address!

In other news, Elspeth rolled in the dirt at the playground today.  Then she poured ketchup all over herself (and Mark's laundry, groan).  Then she found jelly beans and chewed them and spit them all over the house.  She was one sticky baby, and I am one frustrated mommy.  Gave her a bath though, so at least she's clean.  I am still finding jelly beans.  >.<

Addresses

I am sending out the first wave of Emersen's birth announcements.  Anyone who wants one, who HASN'T sent me their address within the last month or so, please send me your address now.

Busy day

First of all, the plants got here, so I spent about two hours stuffing them into the 20H.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  They sent me so many extra plants, and they were all perfect, even after getting stuck in the post office over the weekend.  Elspeth was my little helper, she did a good job with the string and small rocks.  Unfortunately though I kind of forgot about lunch, Elspeth was ok because I always have crackers and cheese and raisins out for her (some days, it's the only way she eats), but I was kinda woozy by the time I was done.  Low blood sugar is NOT fun.  I am hoping the crypts grow in quickly, when they do this tank is going to look AWESOME.  There will be pictures.

Today is also the first day of the Freedom Festival on Center Street, we went to that after quick dinner at Guru's (mmm, tasty noodles and rice), and we got to hear Moosebutter.  Elspeth loved it, which made Mark proud, I think.  Also, Elspeth saw an enormous tortoise, and was a little scared of it.  If it was far away, she wanted to look, but she did NOT want to get close!  She was very cute.

Kamikaze fish and shrimp eggs

Francis the betta jumped out of his bowl yesterday while we were out.  I forgot to put the lid back on when I changed his water.  Mark found him and thought he was dead.  Fortunately he landed ON his lid, which made him easy to pick up.  I flipped him back in and now he's swimming around like nothing happened.  Bettas are tough.  One of our shrimp has eggs, too, so hopefully by this time next month I'll have a bazillion tiny baby cherry shrimps swimming around in there.  We have completely given up on the red claw shrimp though, and have put our smaller gourami male in the old ten gallon, so that Talbot will leave him alone so he'll color up.  Got one more female too, so we have four females and two males.  The plants were supposed to come today but didn't.  They sent me a bunch of extras to make up for not shipping them sooner though, and they will get here for sure on Monday, so it's ok.  Disappointed though, I had been counting on spending my evening planting plants, not sitting around doing nothing.

In news that people other than me (and apparently Byron) care about, we went to the pool today and had lots of fun.  Got a little sunburned dispite the frequent slathering of sunscreen though.  At least Elspeth seems to be burn free.  Me and Mark though are definitely lightly toasted.  Apparently I look ok in my swimsuit though (a relief, I don't think I've lost much of the weight from Emersen yet).  Also, Mark got called as the move in specialist in our church.  Which is funny, because our other calling is as cochairs of the new member committee, so the two sort of go hand in hand.

Ninja shrimp

Well, I can't find mama redclaw shrimp ANYWHERE.  It's only a 10 gallon tank too, either she climbed out (unlikely, I would have found her) or she's a freaking ninja.  Not finding any babies in there either.  I'm considering just getting a bunch of red claw juveniles from a dude I know in Payson, and growing them out myself, as I went back to Animal Ark and they appear to only have females... that also makes it possible that mama shrimp's eggs weren't fertile in the first place, so boo.  I did find a baby cherry shrimp in the other tank though, so at least one made it, maybe more.  I have a huge hair algae infested ball of java moss in there, if they climbed in there I'd never find them.

In non-shrimp news, Elspeth now says "yokai" when I tell her to do things... whether she does them or not.  Silly baby.  But she is learning Japanese, which I had been starting to wonder about.