Friday, April 15, 2005
friday fish blogging - here fishy fishy fishy!
Four years ago, I decided to get some goldfish. I went to the pet store, as you do, and bought a few "fancy goldfish" which promptly died (well, it took a few weeks, but it was still pretty quick). I was confused, because I didn't do anything wrong with the fish. Then I went to the world's greatest fishie store, Bangkok Aquarium here in San Jose—they have beautiful, clean tanks full of exotic (and "normal") fish, and they also have small furry creatures, frogs, lizards and snakes. Better yet, they have intelligent people running the store!
My fishies don't have names. I just call them "big fish," "bulbous fish" and "skinny fish."
Kate, my co-worker whose birthday was yesterday but that's not relevant to the story, got some 10-cent feeder fish from them, stuck them in a makeshift pond in her backyard, and they grew into big ol' koi. I got three fish from them, almost four years ago, and as you can see in the photo they're happy as could be. Well, if you can't see that just trust me—they're happy fish. I also have a good tank, in that all I have to do is change the filter every two weeks or so, and wipe down the sides of the tank. I change their water when it starts to look cloudy, which isn't as often as you would think.
I almost think these fishies are to the point that I should get a larger tank for them, but I'd keep this tank and probably find another place to put it so that I could have two sets of fishies. The trick to getting fish to live is simple—don't buy crappy fish. Although if I recall correctly my brother once won crappy carnival goldfish and they lived for years, surprising everyone. Oh, and I could never get saltwater fish or fish that required heating, because that's way too much stress and the electricity in my neighborhood goes out at least once a month (or so it seems). But every time I go to the fish store I look at all the exotic fishies and marvel at how pretty some of them are.
Four years ago, I decided to get some goldfish. I went to the pet store, as you do, and bought a few "fancy goldfish" which promptly died (well, it took a few weeks, but it was still pretty quick). I was confused, because I didn't do anything wrong with the fish. Then I went to the world's greatest fishie store, Bangkok Aquarium here in San Jose—they have beautiful, clean tanks full of exotic (and "normal") fish, and they also have small furry creatures, frogs, lizards and snakes. Better yet, they have intelligent people running the store!
My fishies don't have names. I just call them "big fish," "bulbous fish" and "skinny fish."
Kate, my co-worker whose birthday was yesterday but that's not relevant to the story, got some 10-cent feeder fish from them, stuck them in a makeshift pond in her backyard, and they grew into big ol' koi. I got three fish from them, almost four years ago, and as you can see in the photo they're happy as could be. Well, if you can't see that just trust me—they're happy fish. I also have a good tank, in that all I have to do is change the filter every two weeks or so, and wipe down the sides of the tank. I change their water when it starts to look cloudy, which isn't as often as you would think.
I almost think these fishies are to the point that I should get a larger tank for them, but I'd keep this tank and probably find another place to put it so that I could have two sets of fishies. The trick to getting fish to live is simple—don't buy crappy fish. Although if I recall correctly my brother once won crappy carnival goldfish and they lived for years, surprising everyone. Oh, and I could never get saltwater fish or fish that required heating, because that's way too much stress and the electricity in my neighborhood goes out at least once a month (or so it seems). But every time I go to the fish store I look at all the exotic fishies and marvel at how pretty some of them are.
