Maine Pets

LOL, I believe it!

Here is my fish story.

Many years ago one of my girls came home from the school picnic with the usual goldfish-in-a-bag. I bought gold fish food & put the 2 of them in a glass salad bowl and waited (they always died).

A week later they were still alive, so we progressed to an actual fish bowl, read up on fish care and bought de-chlorination drops for the water.

A month later it was clear that these guys were survivors so we moved on to an actual tank with electric filter.

6 months passed. The tank accumulated the cursory plastic mermaid sitting on a treasure chest and assorted plastic plants. The fish had names and my daughter swore up and down that they knew her and followed her finger to earn food.

that seemed like such an awesome accomplishment - we did not even drream of dog training them LOL

Then came the awful day that I had believed we had avoided - "the fish are sick!" my daughter wailed, "they are all swollen" Sob sob "We have to take them to the vet!"

Exactly the words a single Mom of two on a limited budget wants to hear - take the fish to the vet - fish of all things.

I convinced her that a trip to the exotic fish store was a better choice for them (not to mention my pocketbook)

The happy ending came when the fish store proprietor told us that our fish were not the run-of-the-mill-goldfish-in-a-bowl, but were Oranda ... and, they were not sick but that the welling around the head is normal Oranda development.

http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/goldfish_and_koi/goldfish_table.htm

(At that time Orandas sold for $5-7) We spent alot of time there talking to the fish people about the Orandas and found that as a breed they are a pretty developed fish and more people oriented than most fish - sort of like Koi.

Those fish lived 6 years - the longest that fish have ever survived in my home - but never learned another trick

Sandi
Pet Improvment
California

how did you teach your fish tricks