Aquarium Diaries

In the dim, dark, distant past, we bought a goldfish and put it in a bowl. They never livd a long time, but they weren't that hard to do. Goldfish care never seemed that complicated.

But the world has changed. Last month, the two resident grandchildren came home from the school carnival with goldfish. Grandpa was a good guy and bought food and little tiny bowls for them. Then Grandma went over the top, thinking the fish couldn't possibly survive in those four-inch bowls and in order to care for them properly, we had to have an aquarium.

So home we came with a five-gallon aquarium and various and assorted stuff. One goldfish died, and Mom goes to the store to replace it, coming home with a new fish. Then the other original fish dies, and Mom comes home with two fish - one to replace the deceased and a new one for herself.

To make a long story short - we lost five fish in he space of a week and a half. The good news is that the grandchildren are taking it all very philosophically. But we now have an empty aquarium, which wasn't free. So Grandma goes to talk to the fish experts at the pet store. Apparently, aquariums need to "season." It has to be set up and allowed to run for about a week before introducing fish. Before you get fish, you have the water tested. The original fish were the victims of ammonia, which comes from the new aquarium and is also a byproduct of goldfish respiration. Once the water is "clean," it then needs to be allowed to accumulate a certain amount of bacteria. Water that's "too clean" is a shock to a little fishie's system.

Well, we have a clean aquarium. No ammonia in the water. We've allowed the water to "age," And today we introduced one new fish. So far, so good. He doesn't seem shocked. He seems content enough. He'll have to learn to be an only fish, because apparently you can only have one goldfish per five gallons of water. We are cautiously optimistic. We haven't named him, though. We want to see if he's going to hang around before we form a personal relationship.

Life hasn't been all goldfish. The kids have had plenty to do.

Karate:

And Golden Eagle Awards: