Gobby is the biggest and most interesting resident of our fish tank, but
I'm ashamed to say I can't remember what he is. He was bought as a
replacement for Wally the Hillstream Loach.
We got the fish tank about five or six years ago, starting out with goldfish.
We ( or should I say my husband) did everything by the book - the water
was changed regularly and tested to see that the ph was correct, the
fish weren't fed too much or too often. But sadly the gold fish, named
after the Irish world cup squad of 2002, took ill and died, mostly from
swim bladder disease. After that, because Wally the Hillstream Loach
continued to thrive, we turned up the temperature and got guppies, tetras,
mollies and swordtails. Slowly, we lost interest in the tank, changed the
water less frequently, stopped sitting and gazing at the fish, but we still
fed them. The population dropped to a few swordtails. Then, one day,
we noticed tiny baby swordtails. Our fish were multiplying. We've now
got several generation of swordtails and every so often, we spot a
couple of babies swimming around. We're not sure why we've had this
totally unexpected success with swordtails but we suspect that it may
be due to the fact that they do well in 'hard' water. The tank may be
a bit boring with all the swordtails and Gobby but at least the fish
are healthy and presumably happy.