Thursday, June 27, 2013

Somethin' Fishy Around Here

Garrett loves fish! 
So, of course, we have a fish. Much to my dismay we learned that the goldfish sold in stores are no longer air breathers, but must be in an aerated aquarium environment. That leaves only Betas as an air breathing option. Betas are not the rugged manly kind of fish I wanted, but we let Garrett get one anyway. When my brother left we were given his Beta to fish-sit till he got back. Rather than have two tanks on the counter I bought one of those fancy dancy divided deals. Garrett's fish tried to be tough, but ended up dying from Pansy Syndrome. Rob's feisty fish was still going strong, but I needed to clean the tank and get Garrett's little friend out.
I always catch the fish in a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl for safe keeping...

 Something went wildly wrong on this day. The dang thing swam THROUGH the hole half way and got stuck. THAT'S when I realized I had the wrong scoop!! Dang it, now what the heck do I do? I couldn't pull the darn thing out or he'd drown. He couldn't get the rest of the way through. I couldn't leave him sitting there till Stephen got home or he'd die. I muttered my  favorite word, that my kids aren't allowed to repeat, under my breath and sent a picture to Stephen followed by a phone call. 
We were in luck he was at the office about 5 minutes away; and came to the rescue!!

I'd already decided the best option was to break the spoon off from around him, but I wasn't strong enough to do it without killing the fish. He held the spoon with some kind of grip thingy and slowly cut it away with some other manly tool that I probably know the name of but can't remember...while mumbling something about only my wife could manage to get a fish stuck in a spoon. I'm positive I'm not the only cool wife out there though...

It WORKED!!
The darn thing was free, and obviously traumatized. I figured he'd be dead within a few days.
Wouldn't you know it, he's still going strong and feisty as ever. Seriously tough little cookie that fish is.

I just want an old fashioned, low maintenance, goldfish.

2 comments:

Sheffer's said...

Hahaha! I would totally do that too. You are not alone. :) My boys also know they need to stay away when Mom says her "secret" word in frustration. ;)

Anonymous said...

That's a great story. We had a Beta fish once upon a time, and I HATED cleaning the bowl. I used a slotted spoon, too. It never got stuck in it though. But it did die on Halloween. That was creepy.