For those who follow me on Twitter, I posted last weekend a pic of the newest addition to the family, Mr. Rainbow, a betta fish I got for my son . . .
Mr. Rainbow
Sadly, Mr. Rainbow didn’t make it past last Thursday. My son was heartbroken. I was pretty upset too. I did everything right, stabilized the tank, used the proper water, etc. I’m pretty sure something was wrong with Mr. Rainbow right from the start because he never ate. I also learned from friends and coworkers that betta fish are hard to maintain and the store I got Mr. Rainbow from doesn’t have the best quality of fish. I could have returned Mr. Rainbow for a refund (a whopping $6.28) but I’m pretty sure that putting his body in a plastic bag and taking him back to the store would have traumatized my son further, so we had a somewhat awkward funeral for Mr. Rainbow in the bathroom . . .
At the urging of my parents, I got a ten gallon tank on Saturday and spent most of the afternoon setting it up. Again, I let the tank stabilize for forty-eight hours and checked the ph balance, temp, etc. and yesterday my son and I went out (to a different pet store) and got the (alleged) indestructible fish . . . the carp (a.k.a. goldfish).
So without further ado, I introduce . . .
Shiney
Darth Vader
I really hope this goes better . . . I had nightmares all last night about belly up fish. I even pestered the sales clerk at the pet store asking what goldfish flake brand was better and how to best care for the goldfish . . . she raised an eyebrow and said, “they’re goldfish, as long as it’s goldfish food it doesn’t really matter” . . . um ok, maybe I’m a little too paranoid . . .
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to make light of Mr. Rainbow’s death, it’s just that this whole venture into my son’s first pet is more stressful than I thought . . .
As long as you have an air filter and clean the tank regularly, those goldfish will last for what will seem like a lifetime.
I acquired 2 goldfish in need of a home several years ago. After a few years, they’d grown so big I had to donate them to a pet store so that they could become koi pond fish. For real!
Juliet, thank you for the advice – that’s exactly what my brother said! He had a similar experience and had to eventually donate his fish to a koi pond too because they got so big! I did get an air filter and already have scheduled water changes and cleanings into my study/work schedule
While I’m not super anal retentive, I’m a little obsessive with keeping these fish alive. I had a fish tank with barbs before moving up to the metro and had no problems so I don’t know why I’m so paranoid about goldfish
Let me tell you a traumatizing experience I had pet sitting for my ex girlfriend’s parents the first year her and I started dating.
So my ex, Becky, and her parents were going to NC for Thanksgiving and asked me if I could take care of their pets: lots of koi and goldfish, two cats and a golden retriever. Her next door neighbors took care of the dog by taking it out for its walks and all I had to do was feed the cats, goldfish and make sure the dog was back in her crate at night. Sounds simple enough, no? Wrong?
They were going to be gone for four days. The first night everything went perfect: I fed the cats and made sure their dog was back in the crate after she attacked me with her licking. She was a sweet dog. They have three koi ponds in their backyard and front yard so I fed those, and they had three tanks inside the house (two with goldfish and the other one with some expensive fish).
When I came back the second night I saw that one of the fish tanks had a floating fish in it. No big deal right? Its what I thought too. So I scooped it out of there and flushed it. The next night I come back and that same fish tank had three more fish dead. Weird, but I scooped them out and flushed them as well. Now there were only three fish left in that tank. I came back the next night to feed the fish and there were none left. I freaked out and made sure I was feeding them the right stuff, but of course I was feeding them the right stuff since the fish food was right next to the thank! So I called Becky and told her about what happened and was apologizing left and right for killing her fish. Of course she thought this was funny and I did too afterward, but I was more concerned about what her parents would think!
Long story short, the came back home and everything else was good except for that empty tank that was filled with the goldfish. Her dad took the mickey out of me for it, but he was a good sport about it.