So long my fishy friends!

First my computer crashes then, sadly not one but two of my goldfish have passed on. I know we are not supposed to become attached to such pets. Dogs, cats horses but gold fish? Can one really become attached in some way to the little critters swimming in a tank of water?

The answer is, of course, yes. While I have to say that I don't miss Sal and Lenny as much as I did my little furball dog of 16 who passed on 2 years ago, I do however miss the goldfish antics. The routine went like this; I would come home in the afternoon, turn on the tank light and wait for only a second or two for the occupants to come rushing up to the top of the tank to be fed. Sal would be the first then Lenny and after a moment or two, Mimi would meander to the top for the leftovers.

It would be the same thing, day in and day out. So what happened to Sal and Lenny? I'm not really sure. One day Lenny kept getting wedged between the water filter and the glass. I would move the filter but he would always find a way to wedge himself again until he could no longer move. I finally had enough so after work I bought an under gravel filter. When I got home however Lenny had wedged himself in again and died.

Sal died around two weeks later. I came home and all seemed okay. Sal and Mimi ate and everything appeared to be as normal. Around an hour later, Sal was just swimming around and suddenly appeared to be, well, drunk! He crashed head first into the gravel then banked off the glass in a very rough way. I quickly decided to do a fast water change so I scooped him and Mimi up in a net and placed them in a separate temporary sick tank. While I was cleaning the tank he passed on.

I was shocked to say the least to lose not one but two of my favorite fish. I was also surprised to see just how much Sal had grown! When I brought him home, he was around two inches long and when he died, he was a whopping six and half inches long! Yikes, I really had not noticed just how large he had grown.

They say you should not make any changes after a loss and “they”, whoever they may be are correct. I couldn't take it looking at such a quiet tank so I went out a few days later to PetsSmarts and bought two lively goldies. What what the big deal? Tonight while talking on the phone the two new guys were attacking quiet little Mimi relentlessly. One would try to “eat” the bubbles while the other tried to eat Mimi's scales. Needless to say, they have been separated. I have to say that I had no idea how predatory goldfish could be to one another.

So as it stands now, Mimi has the tank to herself while the two little hoodlum fish have to share a small tank for now. What about the computer? Don't ask, lets just say I'm in a rush to learn Linux!

Richard