Fish Killers

We've had fish as pets for the past couple of years. Mike got the tank and fish once when I was out of town. I wasn't all that keen on the idea of having fish- what with the responsibilities involved- remembering to feed the fish, assigning the task of who would feed the fish, remembering whose turn it was to do the feeding, watching over the kids so as not to let them feed the fish too much or too little, and finally the daunting task of cleaning the tank. This just seemed like more than I could handle, so Mike said he would be the caretaker of such duties.

When Mike and the kids first brought the fish home, the poor creatures kept dying. Mike kept going back to the pet store to get more, and would return with three new fish that would perish within about 3 days. After repeating this a couple of times, I went to do the duty of replenishing our pets and asked the pet experts what we were doing wrong. Why did our fish keep dying? It turned out that we were buying feeder fish- the kind that are destined to be eaten by animals such as turtles and snakes. The kind that aren't supposed to be kept as pets. The kind that are not expected to live in our tank for more than a week.

When Mike first started cleaning the tank (this task is done about 3 times per year), the fish would inevitbly die. They are so sensitive to water temperatures and chemicals within the water. Over the past year or more though, we have- I should say Mike has- learned to clean the tank and keep the fish alive in the process. Up until this last tank cleaning...

Last weekend, I went out of town with the kids while our floors were being refinished. The tank was filthy, and this was a perfect opportunity to clean it, since we had to move it out of Gavin's room anyway. In one of our phone conversations, Mike informed me that the fish didn't make it. I was particularly concerned about how Gavin was going to react to this unfortunate event. We talked about what we were going to do. Should Mike buy more fish before the kids got home so the death would go unnoticed, or should we inform the kids and go get new fish together, or should we just take a break from being owners of pet fish for a while. We never really came to a decision, so when the kids and I got home, there was the empty fish tank sitting on the island.

The empty tank didn't go unnoticed for long. Gavin was too busy playing on the computer, but both Lilah and Emma inquired over the whereabouts of the fish. When I broke the news to her, Lilah asked when we were going to get new fish. Before stopping to think and process the idea that popped into my head, I blurted out- "Maybe we should get something easier to take care of, like a hermit crab, or something."

My concern about how Gavin would react comes into play here.

About 30 minutes later, Gavin came to me and said:

G- Can we go to the store to get hermit crabs today? Did you know that hermit crabs are my new 5th favorite animal?
Me- What's your favorite animal?
G-Everybody knows that. It's an elephant.
Me- So what's your second?
G- A snake.
Me- And third?
G- Hmm. I forgot that one.
Me- And fourth?
G (thinking hard)- I forgot that one too. But 5th is definitely a hermit crab. Can we go to get one today?
Me- No, not today.

The kids keep asking when we're going to get hermit crabs. My response so far has been:
-When you can be responsible for putting all your toys away and keep them in thier place (unless, of course you're playing with them), then we'll talk.