Ick.

Or rather Ich, short for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (also known as white spot disease); It’s a parasite that lives on the slime coat of fish and all fish keepers dread the appearance of those little white dots. Today while trying to take pictures of my new tanks I noticed my betta “Promeitius” had 3 white spots and I basically freaked, not only for his health but also for the health of all the other fish in that tank.  I treat ich as naturally as possible, I am not a believer of dosing up my fish with antibiotics or other medicines, so my usual coarse of action is cranking the temp in the tank to a balmy 86 degrees and adding aquarium salt. (ich can’t live in high water temperatures nor can the freshwater variety tolerate salt).  

Speaking of fish and fish related things, I will be closing my “Miss Ellyse’s Aquatics” blog and just posting the content here instead. I think snouts heart sprouts might be easier to remember for most people, even though most fish don’t have snouts.   So in the coming weeks there will far more fish and aquatics related posts then before.  If there are ever any topics you would like for me to blog about please don’t be shy. I love suggestions; they make my life a lot easier!!

What else is going on in my life currently? I am battling a horrible infection, so I am really weak and I am not being able to get done ever 1/16^th of what I should be getting accomplished however, I am going to dig through my storage unit to find my box of bags so I can have a few ebay auctions to try to raise enough money for that Epiphanie Clover Camera Purse I posted about in one of my previous posts. It seems silly being as I do not have enough money for the $800 dollar camera I plan on getting, HOWEVER, I will have a better paying job soon and I WILL have a new camera that I can manually focus.  I did manage to get my little point and shoot digital camera fixed, however trying to take photos of anything fast moving (ie fish, shrimp, cats, dogs) is not exactly a piece of cake. I manage to get it done, but for each picture that I manage to get in focus there are 25 that I do not, which believe me wastes a lot of my time (something I have hardly any of.) Focus and fast movement issues aside, my little camera is working pretty well again. It will work great for taking pictures of who knows what. Most likely food, as I have been stalking several blogs lately especially “Delighted Mama” which have tons of amazing alternative recipes which use natural and nontraditional sweeteners and healthful ingredients. This whole infection thing is getting me to try to take better care of my self again, which I sometimes forget about when I am running around like mad and trying to be super woman.

I look forward to feeling better so I can get some spring cleaning under way as well as planting my little garden and getting my outdoor fish tubs set up. I am glad I had been forcing myself to wait because the past 4 nights have been well below freezing again, which would have been detrimental to my little fishy friends.