Down the Rabbit Hole

Fish, Fish, Fishy...

I am puzzled by my inability to keep fish alive. In fact, if I recall all the years of schooling in marine biology, the independent research projects and all the extracurricular activities, that fact that I can not keep a handful of tetras alive longer than two weeks becomes down right embarrassing. When I was in college I had a basic 10 gallon fresh water aquarium that housed half a dozen assorted tropicals. That tank and its inhabitants traveled back and forth to Jersey with me multiple times in the school year without a single casualty. Those fish lived almost in spite of themselves. I am certain they were subjected to any number of bizarre treatments the hands of my roommates while I was in class, including exposure to some recreational narcotics. I'm positive they were either not feed or overfed on a regular basis and I can not imagine haven taken time from my hectic college schedule to have done anything as mundane as testing their Ph or Ammonia levels or even doing regular water changes. All that, and yet they lived, thrived even. Since leaving my college days and aspirations of being a famous marine biologist behind, I've upgraded from a lowly 10 gallon to a beautiful 45 gallon freshwater tank with the expensive Penguin Dual 350 Bio Wheel filter, the Cadillac of filter for hobbyists. I have any number of water conditioners, stress coat formulas and various other bottled exlixers that all but guarantee tank and fish health. I've decorated the tank with colorful plants and amenities to make any fish feel comfortable and as anxiety-free as possible. All this, and I'm still scrapping poor dead fish from the filter pipe with my little white net. Puzzling and embarrassing. After the last fish perished, I abandoned the tank for several months, watching it turn into a green, murky, inhospitable place. I laughed off the teasing comments and tried to ignore the hopeful way my nephew ran up to peer into it, as if there would suddenly be something to see. Then, last weekend, I took the plunge...again. I shook off fears of my fish-keeping inadequacies and got it cleaned, got it running. After a few days, I took Jaden and headed off to Petsmart to purchase a small, inexpensive clutch of Neons and Zebra Danios...the heartiest, cheapest fish I could stock a tank with. Jaden is delighted with our new pets. They are small, not very flashy and a little hard to even find in the big tank but so far, they are alive. Well, to be honest, I've lost one Neon but he looked a little peaked when I first brought him home so I'm not really counting him. Though my recent success does not outweigh my past failures, I am cautiously optomistic that my fish killing days may be behind me. I'm tempted to get Jaden some more fish, at least ones with more color that are bigger than piece of paperclip...maybe some Tiger Barbs or Gouramis or Red Finned Sharks...or maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself just yet....