Baby Carp Do Do Do-Do-Do-Do - Baby Carp Do Do Do-Do-Do-Do … - September 21, 2019
My neighbour Karen in Sudbury used to say to me when she wanted to share something rather unusual … “This is no word of a lie…”
When I saw a Herman cartoon about rescuing a goldfish the other day, I hearkened back to my counseling days at Student Services at X U. This episode is no word of a lie…
I’m not sure how it started, but I set up an aquarium full of “feeder” goldfish in my “office.” I say office in quotation marks because this room used to be a storage closet. You can only imagine all the things I did to brighten it up, but this would be a story in itself.
Students enjoyed watching the fishies while talking to me. And I enjoyed that the fishies weren’t being fed to other creatures.
One of the things I learned was that many of my students yearned to have a house pet, but weren’t allowed to because they lived in residence or in a family home. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t a goldfish be nice? Always someone there waiting for you to come home.”
OK admittedly, goldfish aren’t exactly companion animals – they just care about being fed – but still, how nice to have a friend looking at you going “mom-mom-mom-mom” or whatever other words you wanted to put in the fish’s mouth.
But it’s not enough to provide a goldfish, you have to make sure it has a big enough home. My dear friend Lorne who was chair of church council at All Peoples United Church had an idea. The kitchens at nursing homes were always throwing out GIGANTIC glass jars. So Lorne went dumpster diving for me. Or the fish or the students – I don’t know. But he came up with a lot of them.
So anyways, I began to offer students the opportunity to adopt a goldfish – equipped with a makeshift aquarium, some marbles for the bottom, a fake tree and the first batch of goldfish food. You may think it’s cruel to keep a goldfish in a gigantic jar. Don’t. Goldfish are carp and can survive most anything. And their growth will be limited or expanded according to the amount of food and space they have. Also, these fish were otherwise going to be fed to larger fish or turtles.
I was delighted that I had lots of takers. My boss – the amazing DL who has sadly since passed – was also delighted. It cost him and our department nothing, and it made the students really happy. I did have one restriction re the fishies. At the end of the year, if they weren’t taking the fish home, they had to return it to me. They could not flush their friend down the toilet.
Amazingly, similar to the movie “What About Bob,” many students took their fish with them. A few returned them. And I received a few obituary notices. But all in all this was a labor of love that worked really well for everyone including the fishies.
*****
Not all of my fish-related labours of love went well, I confess. In fact, two went horribly wrong.
I felt sorry for the students in the waiting area – staring at a blank wall. So I got permission from my boss to set up a large aquarium filled with FANCY goldfish. These are the ones that cost real money. (And yes, I paid for the fish and the set up.) And there are a variety of species. I had a bubble eye, a lion’s head, a black moor, and very fancy fantail – to name just a few.
And the students really loved them. And so did the staff. And that’s how things went badly… You do not need to feed goldfish daily and you have to limit the amount of food they get even then. I was only hired for two days a week, so I fed them on Tuesday and Friday. And I came in on Sundays to clean them, so I fed them then too.
One of the lovely secretaries was very concerned about the goldfish going three days without food so I told her that she could give them the tiniest smidge of good on Wednesday late afternoon. Which she did, but then she also started feeling sorry for them on Monday and Thursday too. And her idea of a smidge was more like a potluck.
So the aquarium started to get a little scummy. I bought a scumsucker – a Plecostomus – but even Pleccy was having a hard time staying on top of things. Also, these are very delicate fish. I needed to be able to get to the office earlier than the students to scoop out any “floaters” – or ask a full-timer to do this. Seeing live fish in a clean aquarium is calming. Seeing dead fish in a swamp – not so much…
What to do?! I got a plan. I would bring them home during the Christmas holidays and just never get around to bringing them back. I have this joke with my hubs about finding new uses for him every day. And one Sunday after church, at the beginning of the Christmas holidays, he and I hauled from the office to our van and then to our home -- a large aquarium on a cart I had purchased for a volunteer job of flower delivery to unvisited seniors. (A story in itself. See https://sunshineandapurpledress.weebly.com/flower-gals---nov-25-2017.html)
What was the second disaster? Well, I heard of someone who had guppies and didn’t want them anymore and was going to flush them down the toilet. I thought, “Oh what the heck!” And I set up another aquarium in my office for them. The owner kept them in a big enough bowl but I wanted them to have aerated water and gravel and fake plants and toys. Yes, as my Mom claims, I’m a bit over-the-top.
The owner explained to me that as long as I didn’t heat the aquarium, they wouldn’t breed. And I believed her. Why wouldn’t I? So I gently introduced them into their new home. And sure, I was happy to adopt them out, but they just didn’t have the appeal of the goldfish.
A few weeks later, instead of coming in on Sunday to clean the now THREE aquariums, I stayed late on a Friday to clean them because hubs and I were going to be away on Sunday. I was suctioning out some of the aquarium water into the dirty water bucket while the clean water bucket was aerating when I noticed – OH MY GLORY – there were teeny tiny little beings that had been sucked up into the hose!!!
WHAT? Oh no! My guppies had been breeding!!! My dear sweet boss who was also working late heard me yell “OH NO!” and came rushing over – thinking that something terrible had happened. I showed him all the babies and he went “SO CUTE!” And helped me strain them out and return them to the aquarium.
Those of you who are fish fanciers know that it might likely have been better for them if I had flushed them down the toilet with the dirty water bucket. Mommy guppies eat their babies. These babies had only survived because they had hidden in the aquarium stones… When I reintroduced them, they likely became an appetizer…
Ah well. All things must come to an end. The year ended and I was unemployed from May to August end. And this particularly year, it was even longer due to budget cuts. Though I must say, my dear sweet boss did find a way to hire me back for some hours from January to April.
What happened to the guppies? I was in a tizzy. The number of guppies was slowly increasing and I did not know how to introduce birth control to prolific guppies. Thankfully, a sweet friend who worked at a local pet and pet food store said she would take them. Livestock doesn’t make you any money in a pet / pet food store, but folks gullible enough to buy all the extras do. (Ahem!)
*****
I have goldfish nightmares. I kid you not. I regularly dream that I have a tankful of fish that I have forgotten about and they are starving to death – though when I rediscover them, they are huge and numerous. And I feed them. But then I don’t know what to do next.
Don’t feel sorry for me. If only all of our troubles were as simple as throwing fish flakes to baby carp. 😊
When I saw a Herman cartoon about rescuing a goldfish the other day, I hearkened back to my counseling days at Student Services at X U. This episode is no word of a lie…
I’m not sure how it started, but I set up an aquarium full of “feeder” goldfish in my “office.” I say office in quotation marks because this room used to be a storage closet. You can only imagine all the things I did to brighten it up, but this would be a story in itself.
Students enjoyed watching the fishies while talking to me. And I enjoyed that the fishies weren’t being fed to other creatures.
One of the things I learned was that many of my students yearned to have a house pet, but weren’t allowed to because they lived in residence or in a family home. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t a goldfish be nice? Always someone there waiting for you to come home.”
OK admittedly, goldfish aren’t exactly companion animals – they just care about being fed – but still, how nice to have a friend looking at you going “mom-mom-mom-mom” or whatever other words you wanted to put in the fish’s mouth.
But it’s not enough to provide a goldfish, you have to make sure it has a big enough home. My dear friend Lorne who was chair of church council at All Peoples United Church had an idea. The kitchens at nursing homes were always throwing out GIGANTIC glass jars. So Lorne went dumpster diving for me. Or the fish or the students – I don’t know. But he came up with a lot of them.
So anyways, I began to offer students the opportunity to adopt a goldfish – equipped with a makeshift aquarium, some marbles for the bottom, a fake tree and the first batch of goldfish food. You may think it’s cruel to keep a goldfish in a gigantic jar. Don’t. Goldfish are carp and can survive most anything. And their growth will be limited or expanded according to the amount of food and space they have. Also, these fish were otherwise going to be fed to larger fish or turtles.
I was delighted that I had lots of takers. My boss – the amazing DL who has sadly since passed – was also delighted. It cost him and our department nothing, and it made the students really happy. I did have one restriction re the fishies. At the end of the year, if they weren’t taking the fish home, they had to return it to me. They could not flush their friend down the toilet.
Amazingly, similar to the movie “What About Bob,” many students took their fish with them. A few returned them. And I received a few obituary notices. But all in all this was a labor of love that worked really well for everyone including the fishies.
*****
Not all of my fish-related labours of love went well, I confess. In fact, two went horribly wrong.
I felt sorry for the students in the waiting area – staring at a blank wall. So I got permission from my boss to set up a large aquarium filled with FANCY goldfish. These are the ones that cost real money. (And yes, I paid for the fish and the set up.) And there are a variety of species. I had a bubble eye, a lion’s head, a black moor, and very fancy fantail – to name just a few.
And the students really loved them. And so did the staff. And that’s how things went badly… You do not need to feed goldfish daily and you have to limit the amount of food they get even then. I was only hired for two days a week, so I fed them on Tuesday and Friday. And I came in on Sundays to clean them, so I fed them then too.
One of the lovely secretaries was very concerned about the goldfish going three days without food so I told her that she could give them the tiniest smidge of good on Wednesday late afternoon. Which she did, but then she also started feeling sorry for them on Monday and Thursday too. And her idea of a smidge was more like a potluck.
So the aquarium started to get a little scummy. I bought a scumsucker – a Plecostomus – but even Pleccy was having a hard time staying on top of things. Also, these are very delicate fish. I needed to be able to get to the office earlier than the students to scoop out any “floaters” – or ask a full-timer to do this. Seeing live fish in a clean aquarium is calming. Seeing dead fish in a swamp – not so much…
What to do?! I got a plan. I would bring them home during the Christmas holidays and just never get around to bringing them back. I have this joke with my hubs about finding new uses for him every day. And one Sunday after church, at the beginning of the Christmas holidays, he and I hauled from the office to our van and then to our home -- a large aquarium on a cart I had purchased for a volunteer job of flower delivery to unvisited seniors. (A story in itself. See https://sunshineandapurpledress.weebly.com/flower-gals---nov-25-2017.html)
What was the second disaster? Well, I heard of someone who had guppies and didn’t want them anymore and was going to flush them down the toilet. I thought, “Oh what the heck!” And I set up another aquarium in my office for them. The owner kept them in a big enough bowl but I wanted them to have aerated water and gravel and fake plants and toys. Yes, as my Mom claims, I’m a bit over-the-top.
The owner explained to me that as long as I didn’t heat the aquarium, they wouldn’t breed. And I believed her. Why wouldn’t I? So I gently introduced them into their new home. And sure, I was happy to adopt them out, but they just didn’t have the appeal of the goldfish.
A few weeks later, instead of coming in on Sunday to clean the now THREE aquariums, I stayed late on a Friday to clean them because hubs and I were going to be away on Sunday. I was suctioning out some of the aquarium water into the dirty water bucket while the clean water bucket was aerating when I noticed – OH MY GLORY – there were teeny tiny little beings that had been sucked up into the hose!!!
WHAT? Oh no! My guppies had been breeding!!! My dear sweet boss who was also working late heard me yell “OH NO!” and came rushing over – thinking that something terrible had happened. I showed him all the babies and he went “SO CUTE!” And helped me strain them out and return them to the aquarium.
Those of you who are fish fanciers know that it might likely have been better for them if I had flushed them down the toilet with the dirty water bucket. Mommy guppies eat their babies. These babies had only survived because they had hidden in the aquarium stones… When I reintroduced them, they likely became an appetizer…
Ah well. All things must come to an end. The year ended and I was unemployed from May to August end. And this particularly year, it was even longer due to budget cuts. Though I must say, my dear sweet boss did find a way to hire me back for some hours from January to April.
What happened to the guppies? I was in a tizzy. The number of guppies was slowly increasing and I did not know how to introduce birth control to prolific guppies. Thankfully, a sweet friend who worked at a local pet and pet food store said she would take them. Livestock doesn’t make you any money in a pet / pet food store, but folks gullible enough to buy all the extras do. (Ahem!)
*****
I have goldfish nightmares. I kid you not. I regularly dream that I have a tankful of fish that I have forgotten about and they are starving to death – though when I rediscover them, they are huge and numerous. And I feed them. But then I don’t know what to do next.
Don’t feel sorry for me. If only all of our troubles were as simple as throwing fish flakes to baby carp. 😊