Last Sunday a wedding I went to used goldfish in a fish bowl as their centerpiece for several tables. It was unusual to say the least. My first impression was that I felt SO sorry for these goldfish! And then to add to my feeling sorry, I witnessed several people tapping the fishbowls with their plastic forks in order to get that ‘newlywed couple kiss’ reaction. Didn’t they learn in grade school that this was harmful to fish? The noise is deafening!!! Another problem was that there were three or more gold fish in every tank. This is not sufficient space for a fish is it? And what would happen to them after the wedding?
Well, here’s what happened to five of them.
To my dismay, my dad, who was visiting CA for the wedding, brought home one fish bowl for the kids that included five goldfish. I figured this was five fish too many. And I also figured they’d be dead within the week.
Let me preface this by saying… I hate goldfish.
But I wasn’t going to let them die.
I did everything I could (within means). I got food, water cleaner stuff, a siphon and learned about caring for goldfish from the internet and pet store. The guy at the store said the bowl was okay, but they should have more space (different people have said different things from 1 gal per goldfish to up to 10gal per goldfish). These weren’t huge fish so for right now, it would be okay he said.
One problem is that they can’t (or shouldn't) survive in a bowl. Yet there were several bowls of goldfish at the wedding. And I couldn’t just go up and spend money on a fish tank.
The bottom line… with care, you can get them to live in there forever! WITH CARE!!!
I made sure they had enough surface area, I cleaned only a certain percentage of the water every other day, I fed them appropriate amounts of food, I made sure they had light. I left new water out for a while to get it to room temperature and to get rid it of chlorine. I treated the water with water treatment and siphoned the crap from the rocks as food goes right through these guys as waste since they don’t digest food very well… and what happened?
Last Sunday night I was forced to adopt five goldfish.
On Tuesday afternoon I walked in after work and found that two were dead.
On Thursday morning, one more was dead.
This left two.
Okay, two in a large fishbowl seemed sufficient amount of space.
Every morning I wake up, and every day I come home, I look at the bowl with dread, hoping that I won't find a fish floating on the surface.
Seriously!
I was growing attached the these guys. I sit there at my computer and there they are. Right in front of me.
When I changed the water, they don’t scurry away anymore. They were like used to me going in there and siphoning out the crap at the bottom of the bowl in the rocks.
Last night I said to myself with pride, ‘you guys made it’. They lasted a week! I felt proud, I left no stones unturned as I fought for their survival – at least two of them.
Yesterday, one looked sick. I told Jake that he didn’t look very strong. He wasn’t as alert as usual, he wasn’t swimming around as much, and he just looked weak.
This morning…
I have one fish left. ONE!
STUPID DAMN GOLDFISH!
I hate em. But man, I did what I could. Really. I did.
I hope other people had better luck with their fish.
Oh the humanity!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment