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Motherhood: the days are long but the years go by too quickly

Fish for a day 9/7/2014

When William turned 4 earlier this year we decided to give him a fish for his birthday. Although he is strangely attracted to predator carnivores we thought best not to give him an orca, great white, alligator, or large cat. He would instead need to satisfy his blood thirst with a small, but still meat eating Beta Fish.

Fans of the art work in Porstmouth NH.

As a child I had a goldfish, Henrietta. I won her at a school fair by tossing a ping-pong ball into a small bowl. She was a great fish, never a complaint from her and she lasted about 2 years. Her upkeep appeared minimal as I will admit my parents did the bulk of swishing out the bowl. When I went to the pet store to look at fish I was directed to the Beta’s as they are now the only fish that can exist without a filter in the tank. The goldfish was now too much work and my husband wanted to keep this experiment as simple as possible.

I bought a beautiful red “Full Moon Double Tail Male”. He seemed simple enough with his half gallon tank and one pellet a day. The water would need to be changed once a week and if he was good, I could reward him with a blood worm every now and then (ahhh, a mini carnivore). Fishy, as he was later called, lived on the top shelf of my closet for a few days then was presented as the Woo-Hoo gift on William’s big day. I thought Woo-Hoo, Will - more like a ugh…. I will say his enthusiasm grew however as the blood worms were presented and now Fishy was more of a woo if not a full blown Woo-Hoo.

Enjoying the real deal at the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota FL.

After being presented to Will, Fishy was moved into his placal bowl and then quickly began to die. Fishy became covered with a white fuzz on the right side of his body. So the morning after Will’s birthday, I ran (on what was an extremely busy day) back to the pet store to get something to help this poor fish. The salesman was very helpful but not optimistic. I purchased an 8 dollar treatment (for my 14 dollar fish), a larger tank ( 1 gallon) and a tank heater and hoped they all would work. When I finally came home later that night I administered the dosage and kept my fingers crossed.

Sadly Fishy did not make it. I told Will he was sick and that he needed to see the pet doctor at the store. Luckily a dear friend came with me and distracted the 2 boys with other store animals while I healed (exchanged) Fishy in the aquatic department. Did I mention this was all on the day of his birthday party? William was happy that the “doctor” was able to cure Fishy. He of course did not seem to notice that this was not the same fish. Now I do believe that pet ownership can be a very strong life instruction tool for children, but I did not think it was good for him to have his first pet die with in the first 24 hours of ownership. Some day I’ll tell him, just not yet.

Wisdoms of Wine

Past Offerings

As we know life is never simple and it throws at us many curve balls, "A Matter of Heart” includes reflections related to my younger son’s heart defect then and now
(pulmonary stenosis).

“The Search for Perfection” includes those regular trials of parenthood and how we must balance our goals for our children and self with the reality that –no – we cannot quite do it all.

“Gear” is simply tirades related to the stuff of parenting & life

“Insights & Inspirations” contains my thoughts on items not necessary related to being a parent,
but simply life in general.

"Travel"

Fishy 1 on the way home.

Fishy 2 has been slightly better. He’s still alive four months later and that has to count for something. This little guy, however, came down with a case of fin rot (not pretty). It turns out running the air conditioner is not good for a tropical fish. I spent another 7 dollars on a "treatment" for this ailment. After trusting in the pet store remedy which did not seem to fix the rot, I turned to the web and found a salt treatment regiment of which we have just finished. Ten days of complete water changes, dissolving aquarium salt, and trying to not to shock the fish with a too cool water temperature are not what I’d call simple pet care. Makes having a goldfish with a filter seem like a breeze.