Friday, November 21, 2008

Why a Fishtank?

People spend so much time, effort and money on fishtanks.
I know, I have three...

I still can't quite put my finger on why though. Sure they are nice to look at but when I think about it, I probably spend more time on maintenance than I do on actually watching fish.

When I get around to looking at my fish tank (or 'phish tank' as spell check would prefer I typed it...) I realise how bored the fish must be (guess I'll swim to that spot over there now. I wonder if it's any different compared to the last time I was over there? OOoo look it's my baby I think I feel like eating the fruits of my loins again...)

So I had brought it upon myself to try make life a bit more interesting for my fish (in hopes that they would become more interesting to watch).
For instance, I decided to try make one puny male guppy very VERY happy by giving him an exclusive harem of 16 females. It was fun to watch him displaying his tiny dorsal fin and short tail thoughout the day only to constantly be rejected by all the females.

After a number of enrichment efforts I always end up in the same situation though. I suppose you can't blame something that lives in a 1m squared universe for being predictable.

There must be some GOOD reason to explain why we keep fish in tanks. Perhaps I'll stumble across it one day.

Something to do with human nature I guess...

EEbEE

8 comments:

Laura said...

yay, eebee is a blogger- woohoo
can't wait to read more abut life in a fishtank... or watching a fishtank... or spoogeskin?
L
xxx

Helen said...

the poor little guy, I can just imagine his thoughs... from the luckiest guppy ni the universe to the most rejected... and they can't even use the "only if you were the last male in the tank' excuse...

Luke said...

I had fish at one misguided point in my life. They all died in the end, and no amount of money spent on saving them worked...

Fish tanks are dumb...

:D

sarah said...

i am afraid of goldfish

i never knew i was until i moved to japan and people started giving me their goldfish and their creeoy little poppy eyes would follow me around the room

shiver

once, at one school, the scienve teachers froze the goldfish with liquid nitrogen and then brought them back to life - as an experiment. they then gave the fish to me as a present. i then carried the fish back on the bus, train and in my bike basket. i got to the subway station and had to lock them in a cubby hole for 3 hours. i then got home and when thomas came to visit, he managed to boil them (by putting the fish bowl too close to the stove) and then freeze them (by putting tjem on my balcony in the snow)

i killed them by forgetting to feed them

creepy things

sarah said...

so many spelling mistakes

i am in a hurry

eeeee

EEbEE said...

Maybe the other females will warm up to him if he puts some effort into growing his fins or something (afraid i can't really do much more though...unless, introduction of another male with bigger fins will mean competition and then he'd have to smarten up).

Sarah! i can understand if someone kills their fish on purpose because they need to eat or if they give it away because they know they can't take care of it. But slowly killing an innocent fish by random methods of temperature torture! That's pure evil

I seem to recall Neville's lab having a goldfish with like 300 names. did you guys torture and kill it too?

EEbEE said...

not to mention starvation!

sarah said...

it`s not like i did in on purpose!

i swear!

i am catholic!