Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Of Fish and Me

A couple of years ago, I got myself an aquarium. I liked the idea of having one, and I enjoyed watching the fish swimming lazily through the water. I wasn't very patient though, so there were some issues that cropped up along the way.

I feel bad about it, but I got a bit petulant with somebody at Petco where I bought the tank because they refused to sell me anything live. I had read the internet! I knew what I was doing! Oh, how I did not. If I could go back and stop myself from doing it, I would in a heartbeat. She was doing her job, and she knows much more on the subject that I do. Instead, I have to live with the fact that I was "that guy" to her on a day that probably was going okay before I walked in with my notions.

So I went home in a bad mood after buying the aquarium and some stuff, and I set it up in my living room. This was in my old apartment, so I had to carry it upstairs to get to said living room. Once I had everything set up, I decided I would be defiant, and I was going to get those fish. I went to another Petco, this time it was my local one, and got a couple of fish that were supposed to be hardy and recommended for a beginning tank owner.

My initial results weren't those of disaster, but they also weren't all that favorable. Yes,I lost fish, and I felt bad. I also had the issue of my tank getting cloudier and cloudier, and I (remember, I know this stuff from the internet!) couldn't figure out why. So I did the only thing I could think of, I fiddled with it and threw money at it.

That was the wrong solution. I needed to sit down and actually think about what was going on; really look into what could cause my issue. There were a few more casualties during this time period, and Lindsey was getting fed up with me. Things finally sorted themselves out after I did a drastic water change on it all, and it seemed to be okay sailing from there.

I still found little nuances that I was doing wrong, and I'd continue to throw money at it to fix it. I was starting to feel the frustration over all of this.

When we moved to my new apartment, I had to empty out the water from the tank and put the fish into something safe. I then had to carry it down the stairs and transport it to my new place. Setting it up again was a chore, but I had it up and running just fine after a while.

Fast forward some time, and I had my (expensive) pump that I had gotten to solve issue go out on me. That's when I basically threw in the towel and said that was it. I had been getting sick fish that died, and I was at wit's end. When the last of them had perished, I drained the tank and stashed it in the garage. This was not a popular option with Lindsey at all.

Lately, I've been finding myself wanting to have that aquarium back up and running again. Today, I decided to bring it inside and clean everything. It's currently sitting where I think it would look good, but it's going to sit there a while until we both agree on whether or not we want it up and running again.

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