Killing…I Mean Keeping Fish

Look, I promise you, I really care about my fish. I don’t set out trying to hurt them. I do my research, I don’t put goldfish in a little bowl. But I can never seem to keep them long. I’ve had about twelve fish with mostly disastrous results. At least four were guppie fish, that died quickly. They’re a bit weak. A few others died from sudden disease outbreaks in the tank. Of course, there is always that one fish that has to go in the most dramatic way. That fish for me was a little platyfish named Danny.

He was one of the first fish I bought. At this time I didn’t realize there were siphons that can vacuum out the tank. I had given them an automatic feeding block while I was on vacation. It had left a seemingly uncleanable mess behind in the gravel. In my view, the only solution was a total cleanout so I could rinse the gravel. Of course, now I have much better ideas, but I’m a slow learner so I decided to take out the fish.

My first two fish, Percy and Reuven, and my snail, Nico, came out nice and easy. Danny seemed to have decided that morning that he was determined to exit his miserable existence. Maybe he hated me, maybe Percy and Reuven were bullies. Nevertheless, when I went to take him out of the tank he jumped out onto the table. I managed to be faster than his self-destructive tendencies and saved. However, he won in the end, as his injuries did him in within a few days. From then on, I’ve put much more effort into caring for my fish. Right now I have a little betta fish named Ian and a little rabbit snail named Quill. Thankfully, at the moment, they don’t display any suicidal tendencies.