Due to the phenomenal progress Scooter, and her tank's stability, have made over the past couple of weeks, we were finally able to return two fish to her aquarium. She is such a curious turtle, it was a shame to have to remove the fish from her environment. The two large Redfin Tinfoil Barbs (8 inches each) have been successfully placed in Scooter's 225 gallon tank. Everyone seems to be adjusting just fine and Scooter quickly returned to her old tricks of "sticking her neck out" to try and 'swim with the fishies'.

The Platy Fry are also doing quite well today. We now see 12 babies!

Our HiFin Platy gave birth around 7am this morning to approximately 15 fry. Unfortunately 5 of them died during or shortly after birth. It seems about 10 of them are alive and well though. This particular Platy arrived pregnant and as such also went through many x-ray machines during her travels from California to Florida so we're not positive how well the fry will do but the survivors do appear to be doing ok and have been around for observation for about 14 hours at the time of this post.

Click here to see the pictures of our now growing babies who are residing in a 10 gallon aquarium. You will also see pictures of our pregnant guppy who we believe will give birth this week. We're hopeful for a healthy birth by the guppy and are looking forward to watching the Guppy and Platy Fry grow up together.

This morning we walked out to bring the garbage cans in from the curbside after pickup. We were treated to the unpleasant view of a large armadillo that had been hit in front of our drive. It had to be moved to avoid traffic from being disrupted due to the animal's unfortunate fate and to clear our driveway so that we ourselves could get in and out without stricking it again. We placed the armadillo in a bag and relocated it to the side of the road on the edge of our property. We -thought- calling animal control would result in a pickup of the animal but we were quickly told this wasn't the case. After contacting City Works, the Police, the sanitation department, and animal control it became apparent that this dead animal, that was originally found on 'city property', would be our problem to deal with. They told us to just store it in our own garbage can until garbage pickup came again. UGH! We were sorely disappointed.

It would seem, if you do not want to be responsible for the storage and ultimate disposal of road kill, you need to leave it on city property (providing that's where you found it) and hope they (or something) deal with it in their own way. Otherwise, double bag it, tie it up tight, and hope the next garbage pickup comes soon (for us it will be 4 days). *sigh*

"Rocky" is healing quickly from the Cichlid beating he took only 11 days ago! Take a look at his gallery to observe the healing process noting his most recent pic. Amazing!

The pregnant platty has been released back into the tank since she does not appear "quite ready yet". The first pregnant guppy gave birth to a single fry and then died. The second pregnant guppy birth to about a dozen fry that were all dead upon arrival. We believe that part of the problem may have been that these fish were shipped in from California and arrived pregnant. This means the pregnant fish had been through a number of x-ray machines et al during their flight across the United States. A sad ending but hopefully brighter breeding days are ahead.

Though we have successfully purchased from Doctors Foster & Smith in the past for our other pets, we had never tried their Live Aquaria store. For the first time ever, we purchased fish online! The following documents the experience both good and bad.

A response from LiveAquaria.com has arrived concerning our belief that we received the 'wrong fish'. Click Here for the details. In short, the customer services reps at LiveAquaria.com have been prompt and courteous. It appears we will be receiving four new fish to add to the collection. Hip Hip Hooray!

The community tank is starting to look like a maternity ward! We believe there are at least two pregnant guppies and a pregnant platty in the tank. Oh boy, time to setup the ten gallon aquarium!

New Plecos were obtained from Wal-Mart of all places. Two good sized (aprox 8 inches tip to tip) plecos were stuck in a small ten gallon tank with a few dozen goldfish. We were able to purchase them for only $5.63. They are now all stretched out in their new 55gallon tanks one with the Oscars and the other with the large cichlids. Both seem to be doing fine. Their "first pics" may be viewed by clicking here.

The Jack Dempsy Cichlid, "Rocky", is also showing signs of quick healing from his attack. Updated pictures of this very strong willed cichlid can be found in his own medical watch album located here.

Scooter has eaten a tremendous amount of Anacharis over the past 48 hours. It is truly unbelievable how hungry she has been! It seems she is ready to replenish and work even harder at healing that plastron of hers. We have dropped the betadine cleanings in favor of Nolvasan Deep Wound Cleansings which seems to be doing well. We are still giving Scooter 2 hour mandatory dry docks with the Silvadone Cream as well. Scooters latest plastron pics can be viewed at the end of page 5 of her medical watch album.