Today we're going to talk about kids and Fish. Specifically little kids and the unending troubles I seem to have with keeping fish alive.
About a year ago my best friend moved far far away. We got the left-behinds including (1) 10 gallon fish tank. My first ever.
After a while, the fish became my dearest friends. I love the fish. No... I LOVE the fish. It's almost sad to be so attached to an animal...errr....fish.
After months and months of keeping a stable tank, we experienced a few fish deaths which lead to the biggest probelm of all. We bought new fish. HOWEVER I knew nothing about acclimating periods, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites, etc. About a week and half after the new fish came home, about 5 fish died all in one day. I was stumped! What could possibly be wrong? So hello internet searches- my knowledge depth in fish went from mild to medium deep very quickly. Another week in, numerous water changes, hours and hours of work, plus about $120 later, I have a completely functional hosptial tank, about 5 different chemicals and meds for fish, frogs, and snails, and a million testers. In the process, lost about 4 more fish. I'm down to 1 African dwarf frog, 1 mystery snail, 1 dalmation molly, and 1 zip fish. BUT I was doing good. The water was cleaner than it ever had been, things were looking up....... until the toddler.
Yes- THAT toddler. The beautiful, adorable, cute toddler found the fish food. And while I'm working hard on learning web design and doing church reports, the toddler dumped EVERY.SINGLE.DROP of fish food (2 bottles) into the frog/snail hospital tank. Can you hear the crying? And I'm not talking about her. I think I shed a million tears for the frog/snail.
Which leads to more water changes, more money spend, and more hours of work. And possibly one dead snail. *cry*
Moral of the story- fish and toddlers don't mix. Oh and hide the fish food.
...But she's sooo stinkin' cute and innocent.
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