Fish Story

I have a friend on facebook. Linda said she found a beta fish in an apartment. I guess the last tennant just left it there. She took it home and gave it a nice new tank with lights, air and a few toys it looks like.

It reminded me of a story. I know shocking isn’t? I am glad that I am writing these down. I will probably forget them in my OLD age!!

My Mom wanted to put a little pond in the front yard. She was able to make it to the portch and liked to watch the water run and wave at people that passed. Making the pond wouldn’t be too hard but as Westnile was making itself known all over Colorado, she decided we needed to put some little gold fish in to eat any bug larva that might pop up. I dutiful ran down to PetCo and grabbed some feeder fish. Theye are the ones that they sell to people with bigger fish, the big fish gobble them up! I was feeling very proud that I had saved about a dozen fish. Home I went and got Mom’s little pond going. It was more like a big tub with rocks and water running over it.

It got to be LATE fall and I didn’t want my rescues to freeze so I decided to use one of Peter’s (My son) old aquariums. I filled it and when the weatherman said that a cold killing frost was coming I got a bowl and went to the front yard. I had a net and started chasing those little buggers every where. I saw a neighbor out in her yard and I yelled and asked if she could help me a minute. Which she graciously did (Thank you Sandy!). I had been trying to make sure that the rocks didn’t fall on any fish and that the net could grab them. I described how I thought we could best catch them with the net explaining in great detail the plan I had for rescuing the rescued fish. I should have saved my breath. She is rather a straight forward person just dipped her hand in and grabbed the fish, plopping them one at a time into the bowl. When she thought all of the fish were in the bowl she dumped the water out of it and found a couple more fish I tried to grab them with the net, but Sandy just picked them off the ground and dumped them in my bowl. After the water and the rocks were properly put away… OK, I am not fooling anybody.I put the shit in the backyard.

We counted we had 14 fish….Don’t ask me I don’t know. OK, I know what happened but I don’t know which fishes they were from. So I took them in the house to show Mom. Sandy came in for a cup of coffee. While I am arranging the tank Sandy mentioned the huge tanks her mother and my Mom had done back in the day. I think her Mom had 10 or more tanks, Mom had at least 5. But one purchase of a fish that you don’t keep in quarantine, even if you have bought from them before, can wipe out everything, except snails, for some reason the snails flourished. Any way I had assured Sandy that I had washed out all of the rocks, tubing, lights, etc.

She got ready to go she said “You remember don’t you that gold fish emit ammonia so you have to clean every couple of days?” I had forgotten all about that but wasn’t willing to admit it! Isn’t is strange you can forget something until someone mentions it and then it pops right back up! Kind of like when you stand in the middle of the room and wonder, “I know I came here for something.” so you walk off and when you get to where you started from you remember and have to go back again.

I should have saved the energy. Most of the poor critters didn’t make it a week. We had toilet side funerals for them all, and some two at a time. I guess you might say that one fish had decided that he was king of the fish tank and NOBODY, that would be NOFISH (?!?) was going to stand in his way. When he was the only one left in the tank I felt sorry for him so I went back to PetCo and purchased a regular fish, not a feeder fish. I felt kind of guilty not saving another one but I thought the new fish might be a little stronger than the others. So for Christmas our lone fish got a friend.

I am not sure which one was the male and which one was the female. But in a short while,  I saw little black – Pepper spots. Watching I could see them dodging in and out of the plants that I had gotten to help keep the fish entertained. Yep, you guessed it, babies. Once again with netat the ready, I scooped up as many as I could before they got eaten by the adults.

I know kids can be a hand full (FINFULL!?!?) but eating your own kids just doesn’t sound like good parenting to me. I got about 6 before they were all gone. I put the spots in a big bowl and left it on the table….rule one of raising fish, don’t put them in an open container, around CATS!! Skipping the gory details. The bowl was empty.

The next thing I know the “friend” is pulling a floater in the tank, OK, Henry (you know Henry VIII six wives, divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.) Well, he wasn’t going to get another chance. If you can’t play nice you can play all by your self. And boy did he! When I knew that we had to move I really didn’t relish moving his tank. Thank goodness about a week before I moved he actually passed away. I know it is bad to say thanks but he really was better off. I held a special toilet side funeral for him after all he lasted almost 2 years!! Just to make sure we remembered him it took 3 flushes to say fair well!! I don’t know if the water pressure was bad in the toilet, but none of the others came back. I guess he really didn’t want to leave, but DAMN!!!

I wonder what to have for dinner tonight… maybe TUNA casserole?