July 9, 1986
This week we closed another phase of our lives. We gave our aquarium to my nieces.
When Beth was 8 years old she received the aquarium and a few fish as a birthday gift. It seemed like a good way to build responsibility and not near the problems of a dog or cat. Needless to say I had never had fish when I was young.
After carrying buckets of water across my living room, floating plastic bags of fish and mothering upteen hundred baby guppies I am more than ready to relinquish my job to my sister.
Wait until the first baby is born and gets eaten by its mother while her sensitive 8 year olds look on. Or how about the day you decide to rearrange the furniture and find out how much 10 gallons of water can weigh. It should also be noted that no matter how much water you take out of the tank some will always splash out on you and the carpeting.
I remember the time we bought some plants and discovered a snail among them when we got home. How excited my kids were! But then we found out that snails multiply, even when there is only one. Before long hundreds of tiny, medium size and large snails had taken over our tank, the filter, rocks, and ship wreck model. Even when the last fish had died our snails continued to live on for months.
A few years after Beth had lost interest in the fish colony, David decided to give it a try. He was much more involved and I must admit more concerned about feeding schedules. Unlike his sister who was content with the fish she had David was continually reading fish advertisements and dragging me off to view the latest bargains in Zebra fish or Neons. But even David finally tired and when the last lone guppy died a few months ago I was left with a tank of cloudy water which no one wanted to empty, clean or store.
So when Michelle and Julie won two goldfish at Community Day I did not protest as David offered to give them a new home. I assured Charlene I didn’t mind giving it up at all. Now that she has spent two hours scraping the hard water deposits from the sides of the tank, more time finding a sturdy stand and carrying water form the laundry room perhaps she understands my eagerness.
I heard new fish have already been added to the community. Good luck folks! You have all my sympathy.
GCB