One-word update: deceased.
Longer update: I managed to keep that second fish (after he ate the first fish) alive for 7 months. I left Jimmy in charge of it and within 2 weeks, the fish was dead. He offered no explanation as to what happened, but he didn't even have the common sense to hide the tank. So after we flew home on Friday night, he and Mac ate sandwiches at our little breakfast bar, and Mac saw the tank (sans water, sans fish) and naturally asked "where's the fish?".
Wouldn't you have hidden the tank at a minimum in the hopes that everybody forgot about the fish over 7 weeks?
When Ruth came to work on Monday, she told me that the only mishap during our absence was the fish's death. She wondered if she shouldn't have gone out to buy a replacement fish? How sweet is that?
But thankfully she didn't and now we're officially, once again, happily pet-free.
RIP Mike/Nick #2.
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
NYR 3-18-11 - MURDER averted at Casa Story
Tonight when Mac and I got home from an after-school bowling birthday party, I noticed that our remaining pet fish was hovering over the rocks. He didn't appear to be laying on the rocks like his deceased fish-brother so I wasn't totally convinced that he was dead. Tapping on the tank did nothing to stir young Nick v.2. So I grabbed a lightstick that Mac had from the concert last weekend and stuck it in the tank to nudge him. Well that was all it took. That little fish started swimming like his life depended on it.
If I can be honest, I wouldn't have been devastated had the fish been dead. I know, for you pet lovers out there, this is heresy. Quite frankly, I'm over this experiment with having a pet that nobody helps me take care of.
I will also tell you that I feel bad because I might have/sort of/possibly broken off some of the fish's fins the other day when I changed his water.
But it wasn't entirely my fault. Nick #2 has been acting very skittish since he killed his fish-brother. Even Ruth has noticed that he's acting guilty.
So when it was time to clean his tank the other day, he would not let me scoop him up in the net. I dumped most of the water out and was able to catch him but then when I put him in the reserved water, he would not get out of the net. In a bit of a panic, I might have had to forcibly remove him from the net because he was going to die if I didn't. When I put him and his reserved water back in the big tank, I noticed a little bit of fin on the bottom of the reserve container. And when I checked him, Nick #2 was definitely missing the midsection of his fin area.
He was a little sluggish after the mauling, but he's rebounded these last few days until he decided to play dead tonight. He's lucky he didn't go the way of his fish-brother and meet the inside of the trash can.
For not murdering Nick #2 right in front of my child, I am truly thankful. I just saved myself lots of money paying for Mac's therapy to get over watching his mother throw out his living pet.
If I can be honest, I wouldn't have been devastated had the fish been dead. I know, for you pet lovers out there, this is heresy. Quite frankly, I'm over this experiment with having a pet that nobody helps me take care of.
I will also tell you that I feel bad because I might have/sort of/possibly broken off some of the fish's fins the other day when I changed his water.
But it wasn't entirely my fault. Nick #2 has been acting very skittish since he killed his fish-brother. Even Ruth has noticed that he's acting guilty.
So when it was time to clean his tank the other day, he would not let me scoop him up in the net. I dumped most of the water out and was able to catch him but then when I put him in the reserved water, he would not get out of the net. In a bit of a panic, I might have had to forcibly remove him from the net because he was going to die if I didn't. When I put him and his reserved water back in the big tank, I noticed a little bit of fin on the bottom of the reserve container. And when I checked him, Nick #2 was definitely missing the midsection of his fin area.
He was a little sluggish after the mauling, but he's rebounded these last few days until he decided to play dead tonight. He's lucky he didn't go the way of his fish-brother and meet the inside of the trash can.
For not murdering Nick #2 right in front of my child, I am truly thankful. I just saved myself lots of money paying for Mac's therapy to get over watching his mother throw out his living pet.
Monday, January 31, 2011
NYR 1-31-11
Mike and Nick appear to be getting acclimated to their new environment. Since their arrival, they've hidden in the fake tree every time we go over to check them out or try to talk to them. Mac even put some of his toys on the outside of the tank because he thought they'd like to look at them, but even that didn't endear him to them.
The tide is turning, though (so to speak).
I just went over to the tank (twice to make sure it wasn't a fluke) and they didn't swim back to the tree to hide. In fact, one of them (Mike? Nick?) stared right back at me for a long time. Ruth told me I should be talking to them because fish like to hear people's voices. I don't know where she gets these things from, but since I already talk to them, I'll go with it.
Anyway, for pet fish that finally are acting like they like us, I am truly thankful (because pet fish that don't like us make me very sad!).
The tide is turning, though (so to speak).
I just went over to the tank (twice to make sure it wasn't a fluke) and they didn't swim back to the tree to hide. In fact, one of them (Mike? Nick?) stared right back at me for a long time. Ruth told me I should be talking to them because fish like to hear people's voices. I don't know where she gets these things from, but since I already talk to them, I'll go with it.
Anyway, for pet fish that finally are acting like they like us, I am truly thankful (because pet fish that don't like us make me very sad!).
Saturday, January 29, 2011
we've added to the family
Mac constantly wants a pet. Like a big dog kind of pet. Which we are not having because a) I don't like inside animals and b) I hear horror stories over and over about traveling with pets to foreign countries every two or three years and c) we live in an apartment (see item a for more clarification if necessary).
A few years ago when we lived in Sao Paulo, Santa brought a betta fish to Mac. Or rather Santa left Mac money and a note that said to go to the pet store and pick out his own betta fish. (I think the pet store where Santa would have been shopping sold out of betta fish right at Christmas - they must be a very popular Christmas gift for apartment-dwelling Paulistanos).
So we went to the pet store and they had two betta fish in the whole store - both in the same tank which I understand is a no-no for betta fish. In case you didn't know, betta fish are fighting fish so naturally if two are in the tank together, they fight. And when anything fights, there's a winner and a loser. We ended up buying the loser.
Why, you might ask?
Because the winner was a female, according to the shopkeeper (how did she know that??) and the loser was a male.
That's all Mac needed to hear. He absolutely did not want a girl fish.
It didn't matter that the girl fish was a magnificent creature with a blue tail that fanned out over what looked like half the tank.
It didn't matter that the boy fish looked like a loser. His tail was all ragged because that girl fish had beaten it right off.
So we took home a very overpriced, beaten-up, bedraggled boy betta, who was promptly named Pedro.
Pedro was the ideal pet. He got fed once a day most days, his water was changed every 4 days unless I forgot it was the fourth day, and he didn't ask for anything else. He didn't care that we didn't make his tank pretty with rocks and fake trees (that I saw as merely an algae-collector that would need extensive cleaning.) I put a mirror up next to his tank because that's what I'd heard you do with bettas to bring out their fighting instincts. Poor Pedro was so glad to be away from his female fighting roommate that he never took the bait and blew up. He was a lovely docile creature who really thrived on neglect.
I gave into having a pet fish because I thought it would be a short-lived affair. We'd buy Pedro, Pedro would live for a couple weeks or maybe a couple months, and then we'd have a solemn toilet-flushing funeral service. We'd be so torn up over our loss that we'd all swear off pets forever because we just couldn't bear to lose a family member again.
Except that Pedro refused to die. I am not proud of this - and please don't report me to PETA - but we sometimes forgot to leave Pedro with a friend when we went out of town so there were some weekends or - gasp! - even a week when he didn't get fed. We always came home expecting him to be belly-up, but Pedro was hearty. I believe that Pedro was so happy to be away from that girl that he could thrive anywhere as long as he wasn't with her. We kept Pedro on a shelf in the kitchen and as I was the one in the kitchen most often, I found myself talking to him like a crazy lady. I really could watch him swim in his little tank for stretches at a time because he became so beautiful. Pedro's tail grew to be more magnificent than his sister's. It was long and wavy and garnet and black. A perfect Gamecock fish for a perfect Gamecock-loving little boy.
We had Pedro for 18 months before it was time to leave Sao Paulo. We said our goodbyes and gave him to a friend to love when we left the country.
We got through the year in SC without an animal pet of any sort, but the drums have started beating around here for a pet. I will not have a guinea pig or any other member of the rat/rodent family; I think birds are disgusting housepets; there's no chance of a cat or dog; and so that leaves us - again - with a fish.
We went to the pet store today to buy a betta, but they were all out. So we bought substitute fish. They're like mini-bettas - we got two because they're not fighters and we didn't want them to be lonely. We even got rocks and a fake tree.
They have been named Nick and Mike. In the store, Nick was the big one and Mike was the little one, but in the car coming home, Mac decided he liked the little one best and as Nick is currently his alter-ego name, Nick became the little one and Mike is the big one. They've been acclimated to their new tank and they're swimming like crazy. I can't tell if they're happy or not, but I'll take it as a good sign that nobody's belly-up yet.
I present the newest Storys - Nick and Mike (or Mike or Nick):
A few years ago when we lived in Sao Paulo, Santa brought a betta fish to Mac. Or rather Santa left Mac money and a note that said to go to the pet store and pick out his own betta fish. (I think the pet store where Santa would have been shopping sold out of betta fish right at Christmas - they must be a very popular Christmas gift for apartment-dwelling Paulistanos).
So we went to the pet store and they had two betta fish in the whole store - both in the same tank which I understand is a no-no for betta fish. In case you didn't know, betta fish are fighting fish so naturally if two are in the tank together, they fight. And when anything fights, there's a winner and a loser. We ended up buying the loser.
Why, you might ask?
Because the winner was a female, according to the shopkeeper (how did she know that??) and the loser was a male.
That's all Mac needed to hear. He absolutely did not want a girl fish.
It didn't matter that the girl fish was a magnificent creature with a blue tail that fanned out over what looked like half the tank.
It didn't matter that the boy fish looked like a loser. His tail was all ragged because that girl fish had beaten it right off.
So we took home a very overpriced, beaten-up, bedraggled boy betta, who was promptly named Pedro.
Pedro was the ideal pet. He got fed once a day most days, his water was changed every 4 days unless I forgot it was the fourth day, and he didn't ask for anything else. He didn't care that we didn't make his tank pretty with rocks and fake trees (that I saw as merely an algae-collector that would need extensive cleaning.) I put a mirror up next to his tank because that's what I'd heard you do with bettas to bring out their fighting instincts. Poor Pedro was so glad to be away from his female fighting roommate that he never took the bait and blew up. He was a lovely docile creature who really thrived on neglect.
I gave into having a pet fish because I thought it would be a short-lived affair. We'd buy Pedro, Pedro would live for a couple weeks or maybe a couple months, and then we'd have a solemn toilet-flushing funeral service. We'd be so torn up over our loss that we'd all swear off pets forever because we just couldn't bear to lose a family member again.
Except that Pedro refused to die. I am not proud of this - and please don't report me to PETA - but we sometimes forgot to leave Pedro with a friend when we went out of town so there were some weekends or - gasp! - even a week when he didn't get fed. We always came home expecting him to be belly-up, but Pedro was hearty. I believe that Pedro was so happy to be away from that girl that he could thrive anywhere as long as he wasn't with her. We kept Pedro on a shelf in the kitchen and as I was the one in the kitchen most often, I found myself talking to him like a crazy lady. I really could watch him swim in his little tank for stretches at a time because he became so beautiful. Pedro's tail grew to be more magnificent than his sister's. It was long and wavy and garnet and black. A perfect Gamecock fish for a perfect Gamecock-loving little boy.
We had Pedro for 18 months before it was time to leave Sao Paulo. We said our goodbyes and gave him to a friend to love when we left the country.
We got through the year in SC without an animal pet of any sort, but the drums have started beating around here for a pet. I will not have a guinea pig or any other member of the rat/rodent family; I think birds are disgusting housepets; there's no chance of a cat or dog; and so that leaves us - again - with a fish.
We went to the pet store today to buy a betta, but they were all out. So we bought substitute fish. They're like mini-bettas - we got two because they're not fighters and we didn't want them to be lonely. We even got rocks and a fake tree.
They have been named Nick and Mike. In the store, Nick was the big one and Mike was the little one, but in the car coming home, Mac decided he liked the little one best and as Nick is currently his alter-ego name, Nick became the little one and Mike is the big one. They've been acclimated to their new tank and they're swimming like crazy. I can't tell if they're happy or not, but I'll take it as a good sign that nobody's belly-up yet.
I present the newest Storys - Nick and Mike (or Mike or Nick):
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