Tag Archives: goldfish

January 4, 2021 · 10:11 am

Can Fish Grin?

I don’t really know, but my fish SHOULD be. Their water is sparkling clean. They have nice decorations in the tank. New filter innards….

They have made it clear over the years that the only thing they really care about is getting fed twice a day. They see me coming, jam themselves into the corner of the tank, wriggle their bodies and blow bubbles at me until the flakes come raining down. Then I am forgotten.

Our aquarium is on the divider between our kitchen and our dining area. This is a high traffic area in our house, so it makes me happy when the aquarium is bright and shiny.

I have made lots of changes on how I take care of the tank and what I put into it, but the fish remain goldfish – and seem to take pride in their reputation as ‘messy fish and champion poopers.’ I used to have a 40 gallon tank with lots of fish. It stayed looking good with relatively little work. THOSE fish didn’t react to me at ALL, so I finally gave the fish and the equipment away. I’M not easy to live with, either, so this is a good match. :0)

Leave a comment

Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as , ,

December 20, 2020 · 1:44 pm

Laborious Aquarium Clean-Out

What is usually a 30 minute job turned into at least a two-HOUR job this morning and afternoon. I was putting together the aquarium after cleaning and ran into a problem with the filter. The motor wasn’t running when I plugged it in. I played with it, my muttering becoming more and more colorful as nothing worked. I finally asked my husband to come look at it.

He looked at things, tested it, and decided it was dead. I found one of our old filters and installed it so that the sweet fish wouldn’t croak while we waited for a replacement. My husband continued to look at the one that wasn’t working, and decided it was working again. I changed things out, only to find out the motor died. We did this two more times. Finally, he took the filter apart as far as he could and found a part he thought had been jammed. I changed the filters out for the fourth time and it worked. I told my husband I would fix lunch and leave the new filter running and see if it quit again.

I came back after lunch and it was still working. I then proceeded to clean up the kitchen – which is always a mess after aquarium cleaning – PLUS now from the lunch fixing. I have just now finished cleaning up and leaving the dishwasher running.

All this for two goldfish who never say a word, show any affection, do tricks, or perform any service. They DID get into the far right corner of the tank and wriggle their little bodies, opening and closing their mouths as they looked at me. I broke down and put a bit more food in the tank.

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as , ,

February 27, 2019 · 4:47 pm

Happy Fish

I changed the water, cleaned the tank, and put in different decorations for the goldfish today. They have tripled in size since I got them, and goldfish are notorious for dirtying their water quickly. It’s a good thing I really like them because they’re a lot of work for pets that don’t show affection, do tricks, speak or anything. They DO, however, gather in the corner and wriggle their little bodies and blow bubbles at me when it’s feeding time twice a day.

 

Of course, I don’t give THEM affection, as such, other than to take care of them. I don’t do any tricks, though I DO speak to them. Maybe they hold me at arm’s length because I didn’t name them. (There are three regular-looking gold fish and one that is essentially white.)

“Very few of us have any idea whatsoever of what life is like living in a goldfish bowl, except, of course, for those of us who are goldfish.” ~ Graham Taylor

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, Family

Tagged as , ,