42; My Life Aquatic

 

Top: SheTigerVintage on ebay • Skirt: Wholesale-dress.net • Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell on ShopAKIRA • Belt: Etsy • Jewelery: everywhere • Seal plush: New England Aquarium

Went into Boston on Monday. Kathryn had been dying to visit the New England Aquarium and we decided to go this week since we found a day open between all the chaos that's been going on lately. (Her grandmother died last week, and it's been hard for her to deal with especially when her family didn't know for a long time when the funeral was going to be, making it very difficult for her to get out of work when her boss doesn't seem to believe that his employees have a life that doesn't involve work.)

Kathryn's been arguably obsessed with fish and aquariums lately, and ended up setting me up to get a fish for myself, so it seemed like the one thing she would be interested in doing. I even bought a betta while in Boston and brought it home on the train -- very carefully, I might add! I don't have decent pictures yet (he moves around so much) but I will eventually. His name is Hesperus, and he's a halfmoon betta with blue and turquoise colouring. I've been stressing about his tank, because ammonia in the water (created by food if left uneaten and a betta's waste product) will hurt and eventually kill a betta if there's enough of it, and my ammonia testing kit says there's some in his tank. (Only 1.0 ppm, but that's still enough to make him uncomfortable, possibly burn his gills and make it hard for him to breathe. I suspect it's from the water he was in when I bought him, as pet stores rarely, if ever, clean the betta containers while they're in the store.) I've also had to struggle with the water filter's output current, because he kept getting caught in it and it would shove him across the tank and into a wall. I found a means of fixing it, and it seems to be helping disperse the current so far. I'm just worried about the ammonia levels...I'm doing what all the research I can manage is telling me, but I still worry. He seems lively enough, at least!

Now, I'll stop rambling about marine life, and instead, show you pictures of marine life! (Click to enlarge.)

 

The new tank where you can pet rays and small sharks. They're so soft!

I have no clue what this is -- an urchin of some sort?

A lion fish!

Is there anything cuter than a cuttlefish? Yes -- a sleeping cuttlefish.

I swear, these colours are true to life.

 

Look, it's Kathryn! Okay, so I said marine life, but I swear, if she keeps researching and talking about fish, she'll turn into a mermaid or something. ♥