Swimming Happily Ever After

When the girls were very little, they wanted a puppy. Dad said no. Then they wanted a kitten. Also a no. After that they went for hamsters, mice, gerbils, even frogs - Dad held his ground. Finally, when they were 4 and 7, he broke down and bought them fish. Six of them, a motley crew of assorted fresh-water swimmers, no specific type, no spectacular colors, nothing awesome or unique, just plain old fish. And the girls loved them!

Those fish had it pretty good in our home. They had their own little room off the laundry room and lived in a fish palace - a 50-gallon tank filled with rocks and bridges, plants and colorful stones, filters, bubblers, automatic feeders, lights, the works. Chris bought cleaning apparatus and nets and small transfer tanks and little water vacs. Nothing was overlooked, it was everything a fish could ever need or want! And the girls were thrilled!

Then, in 2003, Chris began working in China and the fish, by necessity, became something of an afterthought. As Chris prepared to move his entire life overseas, and the girls began school and became engrossed in other important kid stuff, the fish were more or less left on their own. Algae began forming on the inside of their tank and the plants began to wilt and turn brown. The colorful stones were covered in slime and the bridges and rocks tumbled over and lay on the tank bottom. The filter clogged up and puttered to a stop, and a white layer of water residue coated the lamps and oxygen lines. The battery in the feeder eventually died, and the food sat abandoned, just out of reach. The fish were forgotten and forlorn.

But somehow they survived. Year after year the huge tank sat just off the laundry room and became greener and greener with algae and mold, so much so that at one point we couldn't see if the fish were still in residence! Not only did they live, they seemed to thrive in their natural environment, swimming happily in their palace absent of processed food or high-tech filters or special lights or bridges, plants or rocks. Maybe it was our imagination, but they seemed to leap happily whenever we walked by, confident, even behind those walls of green, that they were still very much a part of the family!

Now, anybody who knows anything about tropical fish will tell you that they don't enjoy a long life span. In fact, a year would be a very successful life for most fish, even in the best of circumstances. So when our fish survived year after year while we were in China, sometimes going for long periods without food or clean water, it was something of a phenomenon. In fact, although we started losing them about two years ago, the last of them survived right straight through until just this past Spring, which is almost ten full years! As Chris said, when I was feeling somewhat sentimental about losing the last one (named Junior), "Well, it was a pretty good run!"

This little pond is just around the corner from our house and when I walked by today, I couldn't help but think that this little piece of paradise might just be where our fish dreamed of living one day while they were swimming happily around their algae-covered palace by the laundry room. I've decided that's where they are now, in a sort of fish-heaven, enjoying real rocks and plants and all the algae they could ever want, swimming, endlessly swimming, happily ever after!