I'm honored to have my fish, Bubba, used for the cover of this month's
bulletin. I told him that Ilene used him for a model and he is very
flattered.. I've had Bubba for about 4 years and out of 6 tanks of fish,
he is the only "pet" fish I've got. My first tank was a 55 show tank,
36" long and quite tall. It is used as a room divider between the living room
and the dining area. When I first got it I found out my niece had Severums she was
trying to get rid of. She had a green male and a gold female spawn. These just
happened to be on a list of "nice" big fish one of the pet store employees
had given me. I knew nothing about anything fishy but had 2 friends with tanks
that were also interested, so I took a trip to Tacoma.
There they were, 16 Severums from 4" to 6" in a 30 gallon tall tank.
I knew nothing, but was pretty sure this was inadequate housing. I
brought 2 home, 2 went to a friend with a 55 gallon tank, and the rest went
to another friend with a 125. They had been picking at each other, some
had cloudy eyes, and they just generally didn't look great, but all came
around and did well. It turned out that Bubba's brother, Atilla, was very
aggressive toward him, so I gave him away. This was, after all, my living
room "relaxing tank," and seeing Bubba cower in the corner just wasn't
relaxing.
Bubba has had many different tank mates, as I have made many fish
mistakes. There were the Giant Danio's, Larry, his brother Darryl, his
other brother Darryl, etc. They darted around too much, made me nervous,
so did the Rosy Barbs. I've tried other Cichlids, but they all picked on
Bubba, no matter their size. He now resides with Congo Tetras, 1
Rainbowfish, a Clown Pleco and a pair of Kribs with 2 of their last batch
of offspring. He has helped raise 2 litters of Kribs, never eaten a fry,
although you won't convince their parents of that.. He does hate being
bitten on the tail by the protective parents but can't catch them and never
takes it out on the kids. He seems to enjoy watching them and misses them
when I weed them out.
He is about 9" now, he pets me when I do water changes. He loves angle
worms and the occasional fly that makes it in the house. He will beg when
we eat dinner, hoping there are peas or green beans for him. As a joke I
once gave him a spaghetti noodle, no sauce, and I'm sure he thought it was
a worm. He chewed on it until it returned to it's original components,
pasty flour, and spit it out, clouding his tank. He doesn't seem to get
jokes.
Bubba makes immediate judgment calls on whether he likes people or not. He seems to
like all people with fish shirt, but hates my daughter. When she
sits at the end of the couch by his tank he bites at the glass and colors
up beautifully. If this doesn't properly impress her, he picks up
mouthfuls of gravel and spits them at her.
 When people
look at the 30 gallon of small community fish across the room
from him, he does what we call "Bubba's puppy spins." He does circles from
top to bottom until the people come look at him. If you try to look at
another fish in his tank, he places himself directly in front of your face,
no matter where you move to.
All in all, he is a very social fish and I
feel quite privileged to have him for a friend. |
Revised: September 14, 1999.
