Tag: decoration

August 17, 2018

Watching Fish

Becky and Kimberly have a little tank in which they keep trying to grow fish.

Once, (after collecting fish slowly over about a year) they had about a dozen Platys (live-bearing freshwater fish) in four different varieties with two plecostomus (bottom-feeding suckermouth catfish) and two Siamese algae-eaters (bottom-dwelling freshwater fish).  It was a very colorful tank.  They had plants in the top and bottom levels for hiding places (needed for baby fish).

Lucas watched them feed the fish about three times a day.  One day, he dumped a mega can of fish food in the water.  Although they tried to save the fish, unfortunately, only a few recovered.  Lucas watched them “Save” the fish with the fishnet and thought he could replicate this with a milk cup.  We found the remaining three Platys floating in the milk cup.

The tank became a water plant tank for a month or so.  (They slowly saved up money for new fish.)

A few weeks ago, Becky and Jillian bought some colorful feeder goldfish and feeder minnows to join Ooh (the remaining Plecostomus who had hidden in the shark decoration for over a week so they were super surprised when he was seen in the “plant tank!”).

The tank has Nemo and the big shark in it, along with some other Nemo stuff, a unicorn laying against the wall like she’s sleeping, a snail, and beach shells (I do not know why the unicorn lives underwater).

The little goldfish have animal names like “Tiger” and “Gazelle.”

They have beautiful coloring!

Aren’t animals amazing?  The girls love watching the interaction between the fish (and, they are so funny sometimes!) and play-talking what they are saying.  These conversations go something like this:

“Tiger: Food! Food! That tall giant is feeding us that flat stuff that looks like dead leaves but tastes gourmet!”

“Gazelle: You actually eat that?”

“Tiger: (while chomping away) Yummy yummy yummy!”

“Ooh: Why don’t you hide from the giant things?”

“Gazelle: Only the hyper one.”

“Tiger: The hyper one?  It isn’t as scary as the smudgy black one.”

At this point I laughed at Becky’s monologue.  “Becky, what is the smudgy black one?  I get Lucas is the hyper giant.”

“Mom,” Becky laughs and points at the fishtank.  Prim (Christina’s 4-year-old Aussie Mix) is standing in her new favorite spot between the fishtank and the couch.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart