http://kidamnesiac.okcomputer.org/2013/11/16/end-of-the-aquarist-era/ Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit... Thu, 18 Feb 2016 12:02:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.4 http://kidamnesiac.okcomputer.org/2013/11/16/end-of-the-aquarist-era/comment-page-1/#comment-868 Sat, 16 Nov 2013 23:23:53 +0000 http://kidamnesiac.okcomputer.org/?p=3731#comment-868 I can so relate! I’ve had a nice 25 gallon fish tank for 20 years and am so done with it. Once I had a kid, the tank’s upkeep just became too annoying, so I decided that once the last fish died, that would be that. Well, it’s been more than three years since then, and one tiny little fish lives on. We didn’t even buy this fish; he got stuck in a net with another fish we bought so the pet store just gave him to us. He is positively decrepit and only has one eye and is fed only intermittently (though overfeeding is what kills fish the fastest; less is more where food and fish are concerned). And yet I keep cleaning the tank every six weeks or so because otherwise it looks beastly, and I am overcome by guilt every time I walk by it. We are moving in the spring, and the tank is not going with us. If he’s not dead by then, I will have to decide whether to off him (ugh; I’ve only done that once with a really sick fish and it was ridiculous how much I wept) or give in to Kira and get her the five gallon tank she’s been begging for in her bedroom (which we know I’d end up taking care of, sigh).

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