As promised. a couple of pictures of my new fish. Unfortunately, taking pictures of fish is a tad harder than i expected... ;-) So i had to cheat with one of them. I got it from the net :-/

First a picture of one of my blue gourami fish. Its dutch name is "blauwe spat" because of its blue colour and signature black dots (3). They are very peacefull, friendly fish. Except towards one another... I was a little worried about the little one (which i expect to be male) because the bigger one (female, picture) kept nipping at it. After a few days he got fed up and started fighting back. They fight dirty by the way. Nipping at the other when its back is turned! At the moment there is a truce only occasionally broken by a few catfights. Especially when i stand in front of the glass. They always seem to greet me when i get home (food, food!). I'm still can't be sure about their gender because the telltale elongated male spinal fin develops when they are fully grown (12 cm). They are now about 6/7 cm long. I'm going to add one gourami. Once i've figured out which genders i currently have. The ideal combination is one male and 2/3 females. 2 males results in vicious fighting...

My fish have returned! After a long period of no fish and a sad empty tank :-( Although it had its uses during Christmas. An empty aquarium makes an ideal extra light-and-greenery feature.

Pictures of my new fish will follow suit!

...and with it, the Era of Great Hamsters has ended.

Hannibal was the last hamster I had in a long series of midget hamsters, named after emporers and kings. He and his twin-brother arrived some 2 and a half years ago to live in the castle of Amersfoort; the bigest house ever for one of my hamster to live in. Yet they probably lived the most confined life of all.

He and his brother were twins - I couldn't come up with a good name for them both (can you name a famous royal twin?) , so I called them Hamster 1 and Hamster 2. Hamster 1 never liked to be confined to his cage; on several occasions he escaped his cage to join his brother (Hamster 2), or play with the cats. Because of these daring achievements, and because the land he thus concurred (against all odds I might say), his posthumous assigned name will be Hannibal Little-one.

Recently, #1 of the twin hamsters died... Sad, but such is life.

In the meantime, #2 (which has now become #1) is alive and kicking. He even found the courage to escape and take on Hobbes the cat. After chasing Hobbes and #1 through the kitchen, I managed to convince Hobbes that it wasn't a toy but actually a brother and that he should be nice, so Hobbes dropped him on the floor. In true fighting spirit, #1 bit me like hell, so I dropped him to the floor (it wasn't really a drop; more a flight - I tried to run it to its cage). #1 looked as if he finally gave up (all dizzy on the floor, ready to join #2 - used to be #1), and I was ready to give Hobbes another go at it. Then he stoodup and started approaching Hobbes with renewed vigour. This time I caught #1 and managed to bring him to his cage. I thought he would die now for sure, sustaining heart failure or something, but #1 thought otherwise; a good breakfest would do him good so he seemed to think. 2 weeks on, #1 is still as active as before...