Morphing

Remember this guy? Not the one in brown, the one in the bag.



He's cute and all. It brought back fond memories of my Fair goldfish, Fred. I'm not sure how old I was when Fred came into my life but odds are I was the same age when he left.

I had him in some sort of bowl and fed him regularly but alas, he wasn't happy.

My memories of Fred's short life, or perhaps it was the tanks of fish my dad had in the basement when we were kids, seems to have triggered something in me, something that led to this.


Oh yes, we've now got a tank with a filter and light, garish "plants", bright blue gravel, a sunken ship, and, of course a friend for Goldy. Any guesses on names? It might help to see the new addition.

"Her" name is Silver. Sam's decided the orange one is a male and the silver fish is a female. I'm happy to play along.

After I got everything set up I was wandering the store trying to figure out what I'd need to keep the tank clean and discovered the following:

• I should have gotten at minimum a 10 gallon tank for two goldfish. Even at that they'd outgrow it in about six months. They're in a three gallon tank.
• Goldfish will eat until they burst. The woman told me that her friend's cat had tipped the goldfish food into the tank while she was on vacation and when she went to scoop the fish out so she could clean the tank the fish broke in half! Disgusting.
• If goldfish eat from the surface they swallow air and can't get rid of it so it messes up their equilibrium and then they float sideways.
• They make large quantities of waste.
• The fantail (Silver) can grow up to about 6" and the comet (Goldy) can grow over a foot!

It sounds to me that unless we plan to invest in more equipment, Silver and Goldy are in a Darwinistic race. Which will win? Right now Silver seems to be picking at Goldy so my money is on her.