We have finally gotten our fish tank and fish going. We have had some bumps in the road but I think they were all good learning lessons. 
This has been a Nolan's birthday - Elijah's birthday - Christmas present. Nolan had been asking for fish for quite some time and our friend Kevin just happened to have a fish tank that he could sell to us. (We WILL get the money to you and you WILL take it by the way.) The aquarium also just happened to be a 55-gallon aquarium so we started big time instead of what I was thinking...about 10 gallons! I went out and bought a filter, aquarium rocks, and fish food. Then we found out that the water had to "cycle" for about a week before we could put fish in it. 
Kevin brought over a heater so we could get the water to the correct temperature since we finally decided that we wanted a variety of tropical fish. We started with a few guppies from Joe (Brent's dad) and Adam (Brent's brother). Nolan and I were in Winston-Salem one day and went over to the Pet Supermarket and I let him pick out some fish. Another challenge - figuring out which fish could go with the guppies. We got a couple of neon tetras, a couple of glofish, some platys, and Nolan picked out a lemon tetra which was his favorite. We put the fish in and were excited to have fish in our aquarium finally. I went to the store and got some small algae eaters, 4 zebra danios, and a guppy that I thought was cool.After about a week, I noticed that the fish didn't seem to be very active and then noticed that one fish had white stuff dripping off of it. Our first fish sickness - ICK - and luckily Adam came over and showed me what to do about it. Also, he told me that I needed to be checking the pH which I had totally forgotten. We finally took care of the ick but I'm sad to say that we lost about half of our initial 20 fish (including the lemon tetra which Nolan loved). We had our first lesson on dealing with fish death and then Nolan and Elijah quickly got over it and promptly began to love to "flush" the fish. (BOYS!!) When that was pretty well resolved I realized that the water was about 68 degrees!!! Brent and I finally figured out that the heater had cracked when we changed part of the water (again...our fault!) SO....I went out and bought a new heater.
Kevin brought over a heater so we could get the water to the correct temperature since we finally decided that we wanted a variety of tropical fish. We started with a few guppies from Joe (Brent's dad) and Adam (Brent's brother). Nolan and I were in Winston-Salem one day and went over to the Pet Supermarket and I let him pick out some fish. Another challenge - figuring out which fish could go with the guppies. We got a couple of neon tetras, a couple of glofish, some platys, and Nolan picked out a lemon tetra which was his favorite. We put the fish in and were excited to have fish in our aquarium finally. I went to the store and got some small algae eaters, 4 zebra danios, and a guppy that I thought was cool.After about a week, I noticed that the fish didn't seem to be very active and then noticed that one fish had white stuff dripping off of it. Our first fish sickness - ICK - and luckily Adam came over and showed me what to do about it. Also, he told me that I needed to be checking the pH which I had totally forgotten. We finally took care of the ick but I'm sad to say that we lost about half of our initial 20 fish (including the lemon tetra which Nolan loved). We had our first lesson on dealing with fish death and then Nolan and Elijah quickly got over it and promptly began to love to "flush" the fish. (BOYS!!) When that was pretty well resolved I realized that the water was about 68 degrees!!! Brent and I finally figured out that the heater had cracked when we changed part of the water (again...our fault!) SO....I went out and bought a new heater. 
Last Sunday, Nolan and I went to Wal-Mart and purchased some more fish - 2 fruit tetras, an "ugly" algae eater, 3 more glo-fish, 3 more platys. So far, all of the fish that we have now are surviving and doing well...I think! Below is my personal favorite. It's one of the fruit tetras:
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