The sad tail of Carl

About a year ago, Zach told me he wanted a pet.  We've had dogs and we've had a cat but, since we've moved back and are leasing a place, we have none of those. 

He begged for fish.  I know the routine.  We get a pet (dog, cat, turtle, fish, hermit crabs, yes we've had those, hamsters) and who ends up taking care of it?  Yep.  Me.  There's always an argument over who is going to feed it, water it, clean up after it.  Whatever the case may be, there is always an argument. 

Anyway, back to the fish.  I decided to get him a small fish bowl with colorful rocks and a plastic plant.  And two red eyed tetras.  They were cool for a few days and guess who got stuck with them.  Yep.  Me.

Dimitri and Clyde were not best of friends.  Dimitri ended up bullying Clyde, or maybe it was Clyde who bullied Dimitri.  In any case survival of the fittest and all that, we ended up with one red eyed tetra. 

Because we didn't know if it was Dimitri or Clyde, Ryan renamed him Carl.  Keep in mind this is the same kid that once named our cat Alfonso Soriano Warhammer the third.  Luckily for the cat I vetoed that and called him Romeo.  We started rolling our R's and saying it in our best sing song-y voice. Rrroommeeooooooooooooo.  Well, really that part was just me.  Steve just called him cat. 

Anyway, back to Carl.

So, for the past almost year, Carl has sat on our kitchen counter in his little bowl, mindlessly moving back and forth.  Me feeding him every day.  I started to feel guilty.  He was growing.  Was his bowl to small?  Was he bored?  Lonely?  Did he regret getting rid of his "buddy" and suffer from a guilty conscience?  Zach, he of the most useful random knowledge ever, reminded me that fish have like a 3 second attention span so he probably wasn't thinking about much at all and if he was it was soon, very soon, forgotten.  I would even baby talk to Carl while I was feeding him.  "Yes, Carl, look at who's feeding you.  I care about you, Carl.  I take care of you Carl." 

And then.....

Ryan got a 15 gallon aquarium this weekend.  It's pretty flippin sweet.  Carl, along with 4 other fish are happily floating in 15, cool, clear filtered gallons of water.  But, I'm still feeling a bit guilty.

I miss Carl on my kitchen counter.  The small bowl is now being stored in the garage and will be used as a time out tank if any of the other fish get aggressive and misbehave.  I feel guilty that the other 4 fish are in pairs and Carl is the odd fish out.  I see him alternately avoiding the other fish and then trying to buddy up to them.  One of the orange fish (Ryan tells me they are NOT run of the mill gold fish) was doing a swim by, giving Carl the stink eye.  I kept MY eye out for that one for awhile.

Today they seem to be a little more friendly towards each other, although Carl keeps to himself mostly.  I think I've convinced Ry to get only 2 more fish.  A solitary sucker fish who has a job to do, and another tetra type that can be friends with Carl.  

Only time will tell if that will work. 

But if it doesn't work, Carl will forget in 3 seconds