Welcome to the Family, Frick!

After the sad loss of one of the Bunkers we were left with the decision of whether to leave the remaining Bunker alone or find him a new friend. My heart was already broken after seeing one of my turtles dead and the idea of watching the other one all alone every day was just as bad. So we have a new addition! This is Frick!.

After a full afternoon of searching last Saturday, we came home with a wee baby turtle which we’ve named Frick! (yes, there must always be a ! with his name or it wouldn’t be the same!) as a tribute to one of my favorite TV characters… Elliot Reid from the show Scrubs (one of the funniest shows ever).

You see, Elliot Reid is the most accident proned and unlucky gal TV has ever known. She puts her foot in her mouth daily and always manages to say and do the wrong things, yet she remains a truly lovable character. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a video of her screwing something up and then spitting out “FRICK!!“, which is where Frick! got his name, but I did find one of my favorite scenes with her. It’s her and guest star Heather Graham (playing a doctor named Molly) explaining rap to their friends.

Aaaah I love that show, I can’t wait for season 6 to start!

Anyway, back to Frick!

He’s still young and is very new to us so this is all we ever see of him. If we come near the aquarium or pick him up, he becomes just a shell. The Bunkers were like that in the beginning as well so I’m not too worried. Archie Bunker, the remaining Bunker, isn’t really that afraid of us. When he sees us coming the aquarium he just assumes he’s going to get fed… whereas Frick! zooms to a safe place and doesn’t come out until we are gone. Or… just disappears into his shell and hopes we don’t notice he’s there, like in the photo below.

We have been talking about it and we’ve decided that it’s time to upgrade our aquarium. At the moment we have a 60L aquarium which was fine when the Bunkers were both small. Now Archie Bunker is quite big and although Frick! is still a wee tiny thing, we think the bigger one may have a lack of good space to swim around. Plus, we could put more cool shit like the Floating Turtle Log in a bigger tank! We’ve pretty much settled on getting the Juwel Rio 180. The larger aquariums have better filtration systems and stay cleaner longer, I like the idea of that. Plus, this model comes with the stand included. That comes in handy for the food, filter elements and all that other junk.

Hopefully then I will feel a bit more at ease. I’m so worried now about the other Bunker, I keep waking him up when he’s sleeping because I think he looks dead. No matter how clean the tank is I keep getting worried that it’s not clean enough or like this one is contaminated with something somehow. Maybe when we have the new aquarium the turtles will be able to sleep in peace without me picking them up or wiggling them to make sure they are alive!

Anyway… welcome to the family, Frick!!