Fish. I like fish a lot. And there's a lot more to pet fish than you might realise.
I use to have a nice, rather ordinary smallish freshwater aquarium. (I saw the same one on Star Trek - The Next Generation, although I think it was sans fish.) Mostly I kept small goldfish or, if you're going to be fancy, tiny koi. Cute little things and quite friendly. Whenever I would walk over to the aquarium, they all swim over to the side and say, in their fish way, "Hi. Glad to see you!"
My favourite was a black bug-eyed fish named Alaska. (Don't ask.) He was especially friendly and seemed always happy to see me. One day when I went to greet my fish, he was missing. My heart sank as I saw him floating upside down, dead. I do not easily accept the unnecessary death of a friend. I gently lifted him out and took him to the bathroom sink. I ran cool water over him while gently stroking his gills. Ridiculous, I know. Still...Wait, are the gills moving? Is that a tiny heartbeat? They were and it was. Just to be sure, I kept him in his own little white bowl for a few days, feeding him sparingly - Goldfish should always be fed sparingly. Most people overfeed them and then wonder why they die - and then returned him to his friends. They were all happy to see him and he lived for several more years.
I no longer have my aquarium and my dear fish. I lost them through a great tragedy. Once in a while my husband gets the grand idea of adding to the aquarium. I didn't like this, but he's stubborn and knows everything. One day he brought some fish home and dumped them in the tank before I could intercept him. Immediately, my very innocent little goldfish were under attack and before I could get the net to pull them out, they were all dead, in pieces. You can imagine how upset I was. "Simon, what were those fish."
"Well, the guy at the pet store said they shouldn't be put in with other fish, but I thought..."
I glared at him.
"I wasn't thinking."
I continued glaring. "Did you ask what they are called."
"Perennials , I think, something like that."
"Piranhas," I gasped.
"Yeah, that was it."
So my fish were dead and I was left to care for piranhas. I dutifully fed them, but I didn't make friends with them and I wasn't too unhappy when they died off one by one. (No, no, of course, I didn't kill them. I would guess that the water was too cold for them, something like that.)
I gave away the aquarium and haven't had the heart to keep fish since.
Now I just look after pixels in FishWorld.
And my beloved readers, please refrain from putting barbed hooks in those delicate mouths and do not, I repeat, DO NOT drown them in the air.
Remember, fish are people, too!
Giving credit where credit's due (all from the the Creative Commons):
Snippy the gold golfish is courtesy of the renowned Rubyblossom
Alaska the black goldfish is played by Concerto of Katie@!
The piranha is from marcelometal
