That being said, one day I was sitting on a mat in front of the fish tank with a mom and her 2 year old son. We were pointing out the fish and talking to them as if they were in Finding Nemo. The mom pointing to something floating on the top of the water. "Whats that?!" She asked me. Looking at it, I was 100% positive that it was nothing but a piece of the fake seaweed in the water that had gotten loose and was floating on the top. I told her in a rather confident tone what I believed it to be. However, the mom was not convinced. "You know, some fish end up eating each other if they're not fed enough" she said as she got up on her knees for a closer examination. Those words did not bring happiness into my heart. Also I thought to myself--#1 please dont say that in front of your son and #2 please dont really be a dead fish.
Sure enough, she jumped back quickly and with all the confidence in the world told me that it was a dead fish that had been eaten and was still being eaten. I then examined it myself and sure enough it was a dead fish, but without the head! EWW!!! SICK SICK SICK!!! Those cannibals! It had been so disintigrated that it looked like seaweed!
I did the best I could to distract the kid so that the trauma of the hospital did not include the death of one of his fish friends. The mom then asked-"whos job is it to clean it up? Its not yours is it?!" Yes mam! It sure is. I dont know who else would do it. I got up, feeling like the song that is played on the drums right before an execution, was being played all around me. (I even think that I began singing it outload so as to have some comic relief!)I slowly slid the lid off right after a took a deep breath. However, in doing so the fish got extremely excited. To them, they were getting second breakfasts! They were jumping all around and swimming so out of control that the dead fish was moving all over the place and was basically impossible to get out. Then a brilliant idea popped into my head. (or at least at the time what I thought was a brillant idea.) I'll give them more food and then they'll be busy eating that, that they will leave us alone. Nope. Remember, when they get food they go crazy trying to scarf up each and every one of those tasty little circular bites of food- that they dont care that I am trying to scoop of their neighbor and flush it! Each time I went in with the net, a fish would run into it. Then some of them began taking little nips that the dead fish AGAIN! Goodness fishies! Give it a rest!!!
Soon after the food frenzy died down and I was able to fish it out! (hehe. PUN definitely intended!) I went to the toilet and flushed it away. As it was going down, I thought- maybe its tricking me and thinks that this will lead to ocean! Maybe he thinks that he is finally free. Then I remembered that it didnt have a head. I dont think it was a trick.
I now am super careful to feed the fish more food and more often so as to have less casualties!
3 comments:
Maybe that is why we didn't have fish to eat when you were growing up. I found the cartoon really interesting because we just picked out and paid for our cemetary plots and funeral plans. What a pleasant thought! Maybe we should have looked into the decorated ones that your fish had to choose from. We really love reading about the fun and interesting things that go on in your life. M
I have found that it does not matter if you feed them more or feed them less. They are still going to die. We have gone through a lot of fish for me to come to that conclusion. And yes the fish food stinks.
Again, our twin-dom shows itself. I am not a fan of fish, and especially not of dead ones. In fact I have a pretty serious aversion to the dead variety. Last year a girl at work asked me to feed her fish while on vacation. Yep, you guessed it, the very day after she left, it died. I stood next to the tank for like 30 minutes trying to pump myself up, but only psyched myself out. A dear friend came down and did the deed, putting the remains in a sealed manilla envelope (I was at work mind you--limited resources), and then in the trash for the cleaning ladies to pick up. Still makes my skin crawl just thinking about it...
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