Our New Family Members

Several months ago, a friend was decluttering and offered us a small fish tank. I thought the kids would enjoy having fish, so I took it. And it's sat empty on our buffet for the past several, several months. Finally, this Sunday we decided to get a little fish family for our tank. I set it up on Friday so the water could cycle though the filter and be ready for fish.

We looked around the pet store and decided on goldfish. They come in lots of colors and like cold water so we wouldn't need a heater. Each of us picked out one fish and we brought them home.

We named most of them after characters in the Monster House movie, since it's a current favorite. Aidan named his fish Lance Vance because he is small and speedy.


Sean was very excited to take a photo of his fish to show his classmates on Monday morning. He said and signed, "Sean fish! Fish swim. Fish eat. Fish POOP!" See? They are providing pet therapy already.

We quickly realized we'd bought too many fish for such a small tank (my guess is that it's a 5 gallon tank.) I looked at goldfish care websites and read that they need a much larger space. The smallest estimate was 2-3 gallons per inch of fish. Therefore, for five fish we'd need a minimum of a 10 gallon tank.


I went out and bought another tank last night, with the intention of moving some of the fish into the bigger tank and leaving some in the smaller tank.

Sadly, one of the fish was discovered belly up this morning. Hopefully we won't lose anymore before the new tank is ready.

RIP Jenny!