Chriss' Case

Help ... Can't stop

There is a hobby rapidly spinning out of control at my house. It started with a little 10 gallon fish tank. I bought it to give me peace after stressful days. I bought the cheap setup at Wal-Mart and away we went. A frog, a few tetras, a little catfish and 2 red Dwarf Gouramis found a home in my little tank.

And it did give me peace. All was working well ... a little too well.

My husband decided he needed some peace as well. But his fish of choice lovingly refered to as the "man-eaters," would not go in my community tank. So we bought a 29 gallon. Everything was fine until 2 of the man-eaters decided to pair up and make little man-eaters. This meant the rest of the man-eaters were no longer allowed in 90% of the tank, thanks to vicious pair hearding everyone away from their brood.

Enter a 2nd 10 gallon tank for the three evicted from the family tank.

Not to be outdone by my husband's 2 tanks. I find a good used 55 gallon tank and it moves into our living room. It was quickly populated with kissing gouramis, catfish, tetras, dwarf rainbows, red-tail sharks, snails and ghost shrimp.

By this time, I've been spending far too much time researching fish on the Internet. And that's how I discovered nano-reefs -- a small way to test the saltwaters as it were. Enter a 12 gallon show aquarium with live rock for the reef, a couple of turbo snails, a blood shrimp and a clownfish (I can't turn down the 7-year-old who's seen Nemo too many times.)

At that point 2 more of the man-eaters have decided to settle down and the single girl is no longer welcome which is where our sixth aquarium comes in.

"Hello, Aquariums Anonymous..."