So…since returning from my trip home to Ohio very very late Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I decided to push myself a bit to follow-through with the aquarium…there was a pretty great moment of hesitation where I wondered was I really up for this…but the aquarium was sitting there to greet me, as a reminder of this adventure I had started on, all ready for the next step/s.
Friday while my girls were at Kumon (same shopping center as the pet store), I made my way there to make my first purchase/next step towards committing to trying out this fish-keeping dream.
Next step, fill it with water and then prep the water with “water treatments.” Actually opening the water treatment bottle plus a jump-starting bacteria pouch was a significant step for me as well, as another wave of hesitation came over me. Until they were open, I could still change my mind and wait until later; and/or perhaps resell the aquarium tank… But as my daughters had already insisted on helping with filling the tank with water, I had enough push I needed to move forward.
All 3 kids also corrected my reference to the aquarium as my fishtank, explaining that it was not mine, but the family’s–it is ours –and they fully expected to be included in deciding on which fish we would put in it. Later I found out my husband actually fully expected to get a say as well…
So, 5 people deciding on Fish for a 10 gallon tank, with the approximate rule of 1 inch of fish (full grown size) per gallon = 2 inches of fish per person.
I panicked for a moment as I thought about how difficult this ordeal might become, and also how limiting 2 inches of fish per person could be, if we approached this as a “everyone gets to pick 1 fish” type of deal. And how did I go from having 10 inches to work with to just 2 for me, and now also 2 that I would have to figure out how to navigate around what my husband and kids would choose?
This had been a daunting enough project even when I thought it was just “me”–how did this become something for which “we” all needed to be taken into consideration?
But then I remembered “we” includes “me,” especially in my marriage and in my family, and by including “me” it means my concerns and worries all matter and would be something “we” could and would all work together to figure out. (I know this is kinda an obvious truth, but lately I’ve been reminded of how difficult it can be sometimes for me to truly grasp, and fully trust, and to then communicate more openly and freely as a fruit of this truth and trust…)
So, deciding on our fish is officially a family affair, but not necessarily a 1 fish per person although it may or may not end up that way — main point is this can stay fun and collaborative for all of us, and not just pressure on myself to make it work.
We, as a family, are now proud (with me still slightly nervous) owners of our 3 first fish (the ideal max # of fish one should add to a tank at a time):
(1) Chloe and (2) Georgie, 2 zebra danios named by Amee and Trevor, picked as a family because apparently they’re super hardy in various water conditions so a good choice for adapting quickly to a new tank (Cloe’s the bigger one), and
(3) Pippa, an albino cory catfish Olivia picked and named, to help keep the tank clean…