Keeping Minnows As Pets

A few months ago, we caught 4 minnows out of a pond and brought them home. We couldn't really fin anything on Google about how to care for them, so I just had to figure out what they would eat. Now I decided to make a post about how to care for them so all 5 of you out there who read my blog will know how to care for minnows. Because I'm sure that all of you have minnows. I'm not talking about Rosy-Reds, either. I mean the real thing that lives in ponds and gets used for fish bait.

First, you need to know that no matter how big your minnows are, or how small your crayfish is, DO NOT, under any circumstances, keep them together. The crayfish just might decide to kill and eat the largest minnow, and when you move the crayfish to a different tank, he might go and die on you.

Have you ever noticed that when you take a couple of dozen minnows in a bucket to use for fish bait, they all die after a few hours? That's because they don't have enough oxygen, so you need to have an air pump in a tank for minnows.

You don't have to have a big tank, but they will be a lot happier and healthier in one. At first, we have 4 minnows, 1 crayfish, 2 tadpoles, and an unknown number of water snails in a plastic box about the size of a shoebox. Then we moved them to a 1 gallon tank with a lid when they tried to jump out of the box. Now I upgraded to a 10 gallon tank, which, if you buy one without all of the fancy gadgets such as heaters, filters, etc., only costs about $10. We have 3 minnows, 1 guppy, 1 algae-eating fish, and 2 snails (which, for some wonderful reason, don't seem to be reproducing) in it.

At first, I had to try different foods to see what they would eat. I found out that they eat floating foods, but the only food we had at the time was betta food, so I would either crush it or soak it in water for a while before I gave it to them so that they could eat it. Now, I use tropical fish flakes and freeze-dried tubifex worms mixed together. What I do is get a small container, such as a spice container, that's been thoroughly cleaned, and then I coarsely crush the flakes into the container until it's about two thirds full. Then I take some tubifex worms cubes and crumble them into the flakes until the container is almost full. Now shake it up to mix the food. (I crush the food because even though the minnows could probably handle the big flakes, the guppy couldn't.)

We don't heat the water, and they are fine. They also don't seem to be having any babies, which is good for me, because we'd have to find something to do with them.

That's how I take care of our minnows.

The Best 4th of July Dessert Ever!

For the 4th of July, I made up a recipe for a red, white, and blue dessert, and we all love it! Here's the recipe for 4th of July trifle:

Ingredients:

Blueberries
Sliced Strawberries
1 16oz. bag of frozen mixed berries, which has Strawberries, Blueberries, and Raspberries
2 large tubs of Cool Whip
1 angel food cake, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 normal sized batch of strawberry jello (not the family sized box) cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Instructions:

In a large trifle dish, put down 3 layers in this order: cake, cool whip, mixed berried. On the last layer, before you put down the cool whip, scatter the jello pieces evenly on top of the berries. Spread on enough cool whip to cover the last layer. Make alternating circles with the blueberries and the strawberry slices. Refrigerate covered for 4 hours before serving. Cover any leftovers and store them in the refrigerator.

How To Make A Coconut Monkey

I just made a really cute coconut monkey! Here's how:

Supplies:

2 halves of a coconut shell
Hot glue gun
Hot glue sticks
Felt
A cord (A shoelace would work well)
A black thingamajigey (I don't know what it's called, so I'll post a picture of it)

Directions:

Make sure both halves of the coconut don't have any meat left in them. Punch out all 3 eyes of the coconut. Try to make one hole bigger than the other 2 for your monkey's mouth, like this:

Take the half of the shell that doesn't have eyes and drill a hole get your brother to drill a hole on the point in the middle of the shell.

Cut a strip of felt about 1-11/2 inches wide and 5-6 inches long. Take the half of your shell with eyes and glue half of the felt to the bottom inside the shell. Then line up the other side, make marks where the felt should go, and glue the other half of the felt to the inside bottom of the other shell. It should look like this:



You just made a hinge.

Now take your cord and double it over. Tie a knot on the double end, not the end with 2 points. Slide your black thingy (the picture's the next from the last) onto the doubles cord starting at the end with 2 points (remember, you tied a knot at the other end)and push it all the way down to the knot. Push both points of the cord through the hole in your monkey's rear end. It will look like this:



Now take the points of the cord, and glue them a little under and below each eye, like this:



The cord is the latch, the tail, and the handle. When you want to latch the monkey, squeeze the black thing and pull it up to the top of the cord, like this:



You can put stuff inside of your monkey and carry it around. Also, to make it look more like a monkey and not like a mouse, you can glue felt ears on the monkey, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Here's the finished product, minus the ears:

God Bless The USA

Sno Cone Survey

Mymomconnie is having a sno cone survey! My favorite flavors are: Almond Joy, Birthday Cake, Coconut Cream, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Watermelon. The flavors that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole are Pickle Juice and Pickle Cheesecake. Yes, someone (who shall remain unnamed) actually tried the second ones and tried to feed it to the dogs after tasting it.

They wouldn't eat it.

Another flavor I don't like is strawberry lemon cheesecake with cream. I tried it once, and it was pretty.... weird. I have to wonder when the people who make the sno cones think when we put several crazy flavors together. Today, I ordered a Strawberry Orange with Cream for one of my sisters!

My Guppy

I recently bought a guppy from Wal-Mart. At first I didn't know she was a guppy because she was in a Rosy-Red fish tank. She looks alot like this:



Only she's not as green. She's more of a grayish color.

She had babies a little over a week ago, but none of them lived. She should have babies again around July 20th.

If you have any advice about guppies, please let me know!

Also, if you live around us (you know if you live around us) and you want a guppy in a couple of months, let me know!

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