Caring for the Fishes

So we had the goldfishes. Next morning, it was time to feed them. Overfeed them and they will die, the pet shop guy had warned us. My daughter opened the lid, dropped the prescribed number of food pellets… and nothing happened. The fish wouldn’t come up and eat. After a few minutes, she was getting frantic. Perhaps they’re not used to the “system”, I said. Or us gawking at them. I told her to close the lid and move away from the tank. Sure enough, with the setup back to “normal”, they ate the food. I guess the lesson is to not make too many changes at the same time.

 

After lunch the same day, my daughter dipped her hand in the tank and expected the fishes to nibble away. Instead, they avoided her like toxic waste. Never the patient one, she got very frustrated. To make matters worse, the fishes in her friend’s house were apparently more, er, “friendly”. Our fish are boring, she declared. And we were only at Day 2 (sigh).

 

Over time, the fishes got used to things and started eating even with the lid open. And us staring. Though my daughter would have you believe that the fishes got used to only her. And that if we come too close at feeding time, they’d stop eating. A theory she won’t allow me to disprove. Kids these days… so unscientific.

 

Surprisingly though, after the first few days, my daughter has developed patience and perseverance. At least in matters related to fishes. She sat for a long time with her hand in the water before they finally started nibbling and brushing against her hand. Upon which she decided to start training them to do tricks. And she curses me when I try to make her learn new things, the little hypocrite!

 

Anyways, the first trick she wanted to teach them involved forming an “O” with her fingers and have the fishes jump through them (Damn you, YouTube!). Teaching fishes to jump out of water sounded very dangerous, so I persuaded her to instead use a (large) hoop that she could dip in the water.

 

Once the fishes started going through the hoop, it was time to compare and disparage her friends. “My friend moves the hoop to go around the fish”, my daughter announced, “It’s supposed to be the other way around, dumbo!”. I guess she’s not going to be a fan of the theory of relativity…

 

Bit by bit, she’s also learning that it’s her responsibility to do what’s good for the fishes, and equally important, to resist doing whatever she would like to do to/for the fishes. Thus, she realized that it’s more important to leave enough space for the fishes to swim around, not flood the place with whatever trinkets, plants and house-like-structures that she’d like to see. Who’d have thought?!

 

And then 3 weeks after the fishes came home, she announced, “They seem to have grown so much. I liked them smaller”. Don’t we all, kiddo, don’t we all.

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