Scaly Gold Love

Let's talk about scales, shall we? 

Let me introduce you to Goldie the goldfish.  She has been with us for over two years.  Technically, this is Goldie II, but my girl does not know this (yet). Original Goldie came home in a teensy fish bowl.  Unfortunately, that sweet girl did not make it. Within a month I found her kissing the sky, if you know what I mean!

I had to replace that fish before my girl realized it. "But Tina!" you say, "this is a perfect time to teach her about death and loss," or, "Tina, you can not shelter her from pain..." Yeah yeah, I hear ya.  I do. But this little girl has already learned that lesson and learned it well.  In about a two year period she lost a grandfather, a grandmother, an uncle and two dogs, and watched me grieve the loss of my cousin who is the same age as me. I think she's got it.

So I grabbed the hubby for an emergency meeting and we came up with a tag team plan. He diverted our girl while I hit the pet store in search for Goldie II and a tank. This was after a little Google work and realizing that fish just don't do very well in a little itty bitty bowl. 

I believe that Elmo's Dorothy is replaced on a frequent basis!

So, I spent almost $100 for a 10 gallon tank, filter system, and the conditioning items needed to add to our tap water. *And by the way, I totally avoided the suggestion from the pet store employee that stated I must have a 10 gallon tank for this 2 inch fish. I thought he was trying to up my purchase price and disregarded him by getting a 5 gallon tank. 

*Remember this info for later.

I set up the new aquarium and placed the bagged Goldie II into the fish bowl and explained to our girl that she had to go through a transition period before entering her new tank, hence the bagged fish floating on top of the water in the tank.   

I should have Googled a little more...because within 2 months I almost killed Goldie II. I thought I was being a good fishy mommy by cleaning out her dirty tank water almost weekly. And feeding her, a lot. I mean, a lot.

Soon, her tank took on a very cloudy look. And, miraculously, she looked like she had a new outfit on. Like someone had painted her fin tips black.  She seemed to enjoy hanging out at the bottom of her tank too. I called the pet store and they said to bring a sample of her water in, pronto!

The water was tested, way too much amonia, like so much that the poor fish was in grave danger. And her new fin jewelry? Amonia burn. Yes.....I burned the fish.  I learned that I was killing our fishy by removing all of the good bacteria as well as the bad from cleaning her tank too often..  I didn't understand all of the pH balance stuff, but the mom guilt came on hard.  We were given more chemicals and for the next six weeks, it was a nerve wracking experience of whether or not the fish would survive, but survive she did. Phew!

Almost 2 years later and our girl is hanging out on the bottom of her tank again. I know what that means. Goldie II is in distress.  We took a water sample and headed off to the pet store.  And once again, too much amonia.  I explained that I had just cleaned her tank the day before.  And the sales gal noted from the picture that she sure was a big fish for such a little tank and how big was that tank anyway?  

*Remember the suggestion way back in the post about getting at least a 10 gallon tank? Yeah, that flooded my heart when the gal explained to me, again, in great detail, with lots of fish love in her heart, that I really needed AT LEAST a 10 gallon tank for her. 1 gallon of water per 1 inch of fish. Well...what we have here is a very healthy fat fish...so after a phone conference with the hubby, we now have a 30 gallon tank for Goldie II.

Sitting on my dining room table.

Because I have no where else to put this monstrosity in my 1100 square foot house, no matter how much de-cluttering we have done!






We have the condo, err, uh, the fish tank set up and are following the instructions of the pet store chica to the letter. It must run at least 24  hours before we transfer our beloved fish into her new housing development, sorry, fish tank.  Then we should avoid feeding her for a day or so.

On a serious note, I do pray she makes it over night. She is a tough fish, being that she survived amonia poisoning and all. And we kinda like her, a whole lot.

{Purse}onally Yours,