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Now, hold on a moment. Fishbowls make for awesome decorative accents that you can literally change almost the entire look of with ease (as long as there are no fish in them, of course). As for betas--they're sold that way because they will, quite literally, attack their own reflection until they die. (Some ill-advised person gave a friend of mine in high school a mirrored aquarium--and three starter male beta fish.@Tallyollyopia
Well, keeping plants in aquariums isn't really for beginners. But it all depends on what kind of lighting you have, and what type of substrate (you know, the stuff on the bottom of the tank- sand, gravel, nutrient rich eco-complete gravel) you have.
I have what is called a walstad setup, where you put about an inch of organic potting soil on the bottom of the tank, and then cover it with an inch of gravel or sand. (I have black sand covering mine). The soil provides my plants that are root-feeders with nutrients so I don't have to spend a fortune on aquarium plant fertilizers.
Certain plants require a certain amount of light in order to be healthy. There are great low-light plants that can grow in tanks that don't have optimal light (some examples are jungle val, water wysteria, anubis and crypts) . Any tank that you buy as a "kit" that comes with a light is not going to work for growing plants (since most come with weak incandescent lights, LED lights that don't provide the correct spectrum of light for plants, or weak florescent lights like T8 bulbs). You really need a T5 florescent fixture with 7000k (7000k light temperature) daylight bulbs or a nice LED fixture that is specialized to grow plants (which is what I have).
It also depends on the depth of your tank, as the taller your tank is, the further your plants will be from the light, and the less light your plants will actually be able to use.
Also, as a general rule, I'd never buy fish or plants from petsmart. I also would never immediately trust any information any petsmart (or any large chain pet store) employee tries to tell you about fish. They generally don't know squat about the fish they're selling, and will give you the wrong information. NEVER LET ANYONE TRY TO CONVINCE YOU THAT PUTTING ANY FISH IN A FISHBOWL IS SAFE OR HUMANE (YES THIS INCLUDES BETTAS!) FISHBOWLS ARE LITERAL DEATH TRAPS FOR FISH. THEY ARE AWFUL AND I TRULY CANNOT FATHOM WHY THEY ARE STILL SOLD IN PET STORES.
Sometimes, just handing your number out to people you want to have it isn't enough. I've been job searching, which means my number has been going everywhere, and I occasionally get crank calls. (And for some reason, I keep getting calls from a 212 area code that speak Spanish when I call them back.)
I only hand out my number to people I want to call me, or to recognize who it is when I call them, and I always turn it off while driving. Oh, yes, and when I get phone spam, I use caller ID blocking so that I don't have to deal with that person again. (When I was visiting my mother and brother in Oregon a couple of years ago, I got a call on my old clam shell cell phone from some interior decorator in Wyoming, asking for "Mark." My brother's name is Mark, and I couldn't figure out why he would have given my cell phone number to an interior decorator in Wyoming, of all places. Eventually it came out that the guy was trying to call a client in Colorado [same area code as my phone] who happened to be named Mark. Then he called again. It appears that my number was just one digit off from his client's number, and he kept mis-dialing, so I put a block on his number. Then he called again, from a different phone! Sigh. I hope he got as tired of talking to me as I got of talking to him.)
I've been incredibly indolent today. I fed the cat and myself (Roger handles his own meals), I dealt with most of my email, and I played computer games and watched television. And now I'm about to get dressed and go to the grocery store for some more cashew milk.
Good night, everyone. Margret