As an aquarist what would you like for Christmas or what would you like to give to your favorite "fish-head?"?

There are important causes to give to in terms of helping those out of work and in hard times, the homeless, meeting spiritual needs and conservation causes. Each of you will have your own list. And in the economy as it is, sometimes some heart-wrenching decisions have to be made.

And gifts between people are still not the "reason for the season."

Still we really enjoy giving and receiving. My wife and I also have come to see the need for one thing special that we will talk about for the rest of our lives. And while remembering those closest to ourselves, there may be some relatively little things that are still remembered years later because someone was actually listening to the other. And to me, special is the thoughtfulness of a gift that maybe is really "needed" or at least used right away (as opposed to another unworn tie or cumbersome soap-on-a-rope).

So I was delighted when my lady put a bow on a ceramic lined "soup pot" which could be used to boil (sterilize) gravel, peat moss and spawning mops. She also packed a good turkey baster, a package of those bright colored soap-less plastic pot scrubbers (our algae-eaters), a little cullender to strain gravel out of a wash bucket, a right-sized, small mesh net and the appropriate fish food brand in a stocking.

She doesn't get fish poop on her kitchen things. I don't get detergent on my fishy things