New Family Members

Let me introduce you to the newest family members here on The Edge.

This is Pirate (that dark patch is only over one eye)

And Lady Gaga

This is Avogadro (we're science geeks here on The Edge.  Avogadro's number is the number of atoms in a unit of measure known as a Mole.  Teaching Chemistry at the college level makes this number very important.   It's 6.022 X 10 raised to the 23 power, by the way)

And lastly Savage (yes, named after Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame)

[Wait, you say.  I thought this was a GARDENING blog.  Well, yes, Garden and Nature.  But it's February and not much is going on in the garden and, since I'm a Hot House Flower I'm not checking out what's going on in Nature very much.  So you'll have to settle for a post about the artificial ecosystem in my office, namely my 55 gallon tank with live plants, fish and snails.]

For those in the know - Lady Gaga and Avogadro are Koi Angelfish while Pirate and Savage are Czech Angelfish (that has to do with the colors, not the species or place of origin).  I have no idea of real genders, and won't until they reach maturity (which might take a year or two).  I'm hoping I have at least one male and one female so I can watch their territorial and breeding behaviors.  In the meantime it will be nice to have fish that I can identify as individuals (instead of Lemon tetras, which all look the same).  

Angelfish are classified as Cichlids, although they are peaceful for a Cichlid.  This means that they are more intelligent than the average fish and will show individual personality traits.  Already they've demonstrated a level of curiosity about me that the tetras never do.  I had trouble getting good pictures (hence the spots from the aquarium surface) because they kept looking at me while I was trying to take pictures!

This should be fun!