Soon after we arrived here, we bought a fish tank from a family moving back to America. We stocked it with 2 sucker fish, 2 trash fish, 4 guppies, and 2 mollies. Unbeknownst to us, the pet store blessed with a pregnant guppy. Within 3 days of having them in the tank, we had10 baby guppies.
Since that day nearly 5 months ago we have held over 15 fish funerals. The first one was dramatic with kind words spoken over Loopey, tears shed by all the girls, prayers offered, and one final flush. Afterwards the girls stayed up late writing farewell notes and drawing pictures of Loopey in heaven. We taped them on the fish tank because surely the fish were sharing our grief.
This summer has literally cooked our fish. Without a/c, there was no way to control the temperature of our fish tank. We'd place a fan on it, but the thermometer stayed in the danger zone. We have heaters in the tank for winter time, but we certainly had no need of them this summer.
After flushing Loopey, Bubbles, Lucy, Princess, Skipper, Flipper, Oscar, and Susanna the girls gave up naming the fish. I'd be in the kitchen, and one of the kids would holler, "Mom, another fish is dead!" or "Mom, a dead fish is stuck to the filter!"
As of now we have 5 remaining fish in the tank. Our two sucker fish are alive, well, and huge! We also have 3 guppies (I think they are grandchildren of the originals). One is normal, and the other two are deformed. I desperately tried to get a picture of the deformed guppies, but they were too fast (despite their handicap they have amazing agility). Their back does not arch; on the contrary, it makes a "u" shape. I guess there was too much inbreeding and too much tropical weather.
I don't understand fish. In Kentucky we won one at the county fair, and that fish lived for over 7 months in a bowl by my sink. It lived in a tiny bowl, we overfed it, and some days the water was so cloudy I couldn't see the fish. Goldie lived so long that we had to find it a new owner when we left the US. Here I have a nice tank that I clean, it has a filter, and I'm actually really trying to help the fish live. The only ones that seem to thrive are my sucker fish and the deformed ones.
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3 comments:
LOL - I guess there's probably some analogy of how this relates to your new life. I'll leave that for the English prof to figure out...
The Math whiz
Lisa- This deformed fish thing is a payback (remember the "ugly fish" that made the school secretary cry?) The sucker fish are thriving because they have so much carnage to live off of. They are as happy as pigs in mud! You are making a good effort at being a pet owner. I am very proud of you. (You are feeding them, right?) Anyway, your post made me laugh hysterically. Sherry
Lisa: We have a goldfish Shannon was at VBS about 7 years ago. His name is Mr. Goldielocks and he is going strong. His tank is next to our kitchen sink because that's the safest place away from our cats. I'm not sure what the Guiness record for longest-living goldfish is but Mr. Goldielocks must be getting close to it.
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