#redgan

"Eeeeeeeeek!" Red squealed, immediately seeing the first of many display tanks. This particular one was planted primarily light green with shades of red. Oto catfish grazed on the glass while Amano shrimp picked through the foreground plants. They walked up to the tank and bent over slightly to take it all in.

Raegan wasn't used to being able to actually spend time admiring this particular tank. Whenever she came with her family she was either on a time limit or so excited to be at the store again that she went straight to browsing the aisles of tanks. But today was different: she planned on showing Red around the magnificent store and would take as much time as it took for Red to absorb it all in. 

After admiring that first breath-taking tank, they proceeded to walk through the store. Raegan saw Red look at the goldfish aisle and take a step toward it, but Raegan stopped her.

"C'mon, we gotta go in order. It makes it so much easier. Besides, first up are the bettas!"

They walked up to a bookshelf-like cabinet filled with bettas of every tail type and coloration. The bettas were housed in tall rectangles filled a little less than three-fourths of the way with water to prevent jumping, and each had a plant of some sort. Some had clumps of java moss, some had "lucky bamboo" stems poking out of the water's surface, some had java ferns. All of the containers were spotless, having had their water changed that morning before the store officially opened.

Directly to the right of the betta display was a paludarium display, which is what caught Red's eye next. It was in one of those Exo-Terra tanks that have a double door that swings out for maintenance, so the water level was pretty low. This allowed for the waterfall to be the primary feature, which Raegan examined as Red marveled.

After fruitlessly examining the paludarium for livestock of any kind, Raegan gently nudged Red and brought her attention to the half a dozen tanks filled with angelfish. This was the South American aisle, and first up was angelfish. Occasionally they had Pterophyllum leopoldi, but today the first tank was labeled "F-0 Altum Angels."

Red's reaction was hardly the eardrum-breaking squeal Raegan expected. She simply walked up to the glass, her eyes wide open, and just stared. The angelfish stared back curiously as Raegan marveled at Red's appreciation for these fish.

"I feel like I should be reacting differently," Red said sheepishly after awhile. But it was okay, Raegan understood: neither words nor actions couldn't express the fascination Red had for these creatures. They moved onto the next tank of angelfish: these were of mixed colors and sizes, but all within the realm of about half-dollar coins.