And...Fish...Take Three

Last Friday, I got a phone call from a friend of mine, who used to teach primary with me. She and her family were in the process of moving across town and she wanted to know if we were interested in taking their fish.

It took me a little while to understand exactly what she was asking (through no fault of hers) and when I finally understood, I told her we didn’t really have anything to keep fish in. She quickly offered to include the tank, filters, and everything else. Kevin was pretty excited about the idea, and since it was all free, I said yes.

A few minutes later, she drove up with a large 30-40 gallon tank, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Inside the tank were two small fish. One was a tetra (I think). It’s gold and tiny. The other is an algae eater. She told me they were about five years old, and that they were the only two fish she had been able to keep alive. They were basically immortal.

I decided to put them into a small cup while I cleaned out the cage. About 20 minutes later, I came out to check on them. The algae-eater was still in the cup, but the orange fish was gone. I quickly looked around and was horrified to find it lying outside of the cup on the floor. It looked dead. It had probably jumped right out of the cup.

“Great,” I thought. “I’ve had the fish for ten minutes and I’ve already killed it.”

I decided to put it back in the water, just in case, and to my immense gratitude, it only floated upside down for a moment before it righted itself and began to breathe. The fish really is immortal. I put a lid on the cup and went back to work on the tank.

We set everything up, and then we put the fish in. They seem to be doing great. Kevin named the algae-eater “Sneaky” since it isn’t always easy to find, and the orange one “Orangey,” for obvious reasons. He’s been feeding them every day, and so far, they seem pretty happy.

Here's Orangey. I couldn't find Sneaky to take a picture today.

Hopefully they last longer than our betta fish did. In case you're curious, here is the other fish stories: Take 1 and Take 2.

There may be some good news on the foster care front! If things pan out, I'll post more tomorrow.