Fish - if you can’t catch them then buy them.
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One of the many things my Dad was good at was not fishing…and all the worse because my Mum comes from a long line of women who loved nothing better than to stand with a fishing line on some pretty spot along Sydney Harbour, or The Spit at Mosman. My Nan was a champion at this past time and I remember her reeling them in, cutting their heads off and scaling the smelly things in record time. Whenever we had a fishing weekend Dad would come along, stand for about, oh, five minutes, with a rod and then toss it down and sleep in his chair or read the paper for the rest of the day. With Dad it was either unconditional surrender on the part of the fish or he got bored and gave up.
But one thing he did go in for, time and time again unfortunately, was keeping tropical fish. I wish he hadn’t because he had no idea what he was doing and his fish-keeping activities were more like a study in mass slaughter. He really loved those colourful little tropical fish though and came home with an indoor pond outfit and a plastic bag filled with water and tiny fishies. In they went and all was fine for a few days until one by one they started floating to the top of the water. Back to the shop and back with more fish. The pattern was repeated several times over the next few weeks with Mum complaining about the presence of gold fish floating in the toilet - Dad would flush the dead ones away and seconds later they’d come floating back up again!
My Uncle though was an expert in this field and was very proud of his beautiful aquarium; he was totally clued up on maintenance of the equipment, water temperature, feeding, oxygen, etc. I remember he had this one fish - it was like a tiny minature shark about 3 inches long - for about twelve years. It was like one of the family and he would allow us to feed it when we kids visited. Dad couldn’t compete with such skill as his fish were lucky to last three days; and it didn;t help when he decided to add blue food colouring to the pond water so that it would look a pretty colour. Trouble was, it also turned the little fish a pretty blue colour so this added to their problems.
In the end Dad tossed in the fish-keeping hobby and went onto other projects most of which went the same way as the fish hobby. My uncle though saw his fish thrive and survive for many years through excellent care and maintenance of both the fish and the equipment. Even when they moved house they took the tank and fish and they travelled well too. It pays to thoroughly research and do your homework when you are going into a hobby such as keeping fish; they have needs and habits as well as any pet and with the right care and attention they will give you years of interest and pleasure.
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