When Snowy and Ranga came home, I was very excited about having them. Within a week, Snowy was dead, and the pulse of the pump had pushed him up behind the cannister, that bubbled out life to the tank's inhabitants.
I was a bit down hearted, but not surprised; because this was my new pet experience.
A mistake I made was putting Snowy in the bin for collection. As he dried, and withered away in there, the smell was 1000 times his little frame.
I mentioned casually to my house friend person, "can you smell Snowy in the bin? He looks like fish jerky". Well, that was NOT the thing to say. Snowy was the house friend/person's fish.
Back to the Pet Shop.
The staff at the pet shop simply do not blink an eye, when you enter the building and declare that your pet fish is dead. It did remind me of how Snowy, and his tank mate, Ranga don't blink.
This time, I decided a robust breed - a goldfish - was the order of the day. I mean, these types lived easily in natural waterways, eating the native fauna, and proliferating and ruining the natural environs eating everything in sight. I think?
Lincoln was a smart looking fish. Very sleek, well shaped. After Lincoln moved into the tank, I had to move house. My fishkeeping was slapped back into nervous mode. Questions of transportation flicked over my mind at night. I wrestled with thoughts of batteries pumpin life giving bubbles into their environment en route to my new home, some three hours in transit. Would they need ice cubes? I didn't know.
Moving day.
The Big Day had arrived. Frankly, I didn't give a shit anymore. I didn't care if the furniture fell out of the truck, or if the plants catapaulted out of the trailer onto the highway. I did not care if the fish floated breathlessly to their new home. As far as I was concerned, the fact they were not in the toilet was very generous.
We made it to our new home. Now, I waited expectantly for corpses to greet me each morning. With my coffee cup steaming in my hand, I broached the corner of the tank with searching concern in my eyes. "Nope, not dead" I would think to myself, and make some weird little muttering noises to myself.
I carried this burden for some three months, give or take a day or so. During this time, I watched as Lincoln, grew quickly, and became larger than Ranga, the resident comet and elder of the tank. And I kept watching. Lincoln, the arsehole, was on a mission from Bruce. He was chasing Ranga down...on the hunt. Needless to say, I was incredulous at this animals lack of gratitude. After all the feeding, nurturing...and now he was trying to kill the very fish that accepted him into his home.
Moving On.
The constant pursuit to kill his kindred was too much for me to bear. I could not let a newcomer kill Ranga. As such, Lincoln was deftly netted, and flung into the backyard fountain pond thing. I considered him daily, to see if he was ill, or even dead. But no.
Solitude.
Now, Ranga was not being harrassed, but was moving furtively around the tank. Was he nervous? Anxious? Lonely? I decided as he was a fish, having to have the school characteristic deeply intrenched in his fish roots, that he must need a friend. Hello Pet shop.
New beginnings.
As a plopped the new fishy friend into Ranga's calming waters, I smiled thinking, knowing, I had solved the fish issues that had been plaguing the residence. A new calm licked invitingly about my concsience. Actually no, that was the dog licking my foot. But I could sleep easier.
New Hierachy.
Disturbingly, after little under a week, I observed Ranga chasing Sebastian, the newbie, furtively around the tank. On and on it went. I was disgusted. The very behaviour that I saved him from, he was not executing with absolutely no consideration of the hypocrisy. I didnt wait. The net was in and out of the water before anyone could say, "Jack Robinson" and he too, joined the great outdoors....with Lincoln.
C'est La Vie.
The cycle continues. The sun rises, the sun sets. I still have little idea on what fish behaviour is, but I do know that they are alive. I like to believe that they are happily alive. I check every day, expecting a floater, but no. Everything is a dream boat in the fish pond.
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