Meet Edgar
I apologize for the fuzziness, Edgar did not like the camera.
Edgar is a cichlid, but he looks like a goldfish. Michael and I received many wonderful presents this Christmas, two of them being a fish tank and a gift card to Petco (thanks mom and dad). Several days after returning home from our vacation we headed to Petco to fill our new tank. We both wanted to get an African cichlid,
but the Fish Nazi (we'll get to him later) wouldn't sell us one. So we took home Edgar, instead. It's probably for the best. Apparently African cichlids can reach up to 10 inches in length, so one probably wouldn't do very well in our 12 inch tank.
Edgar, however, seems to be doing well. We've had him for three days and he hasn't died yet. With my fish record, that is nothing short of a miracle. Every fish I'd ever previously owned died within two days.
He enjoys his cichlid fish pellets and he loves his rock. He prefers the tank light to be off and he doesn't seem to like it when I wake him at 4 a.m. as I'm getting ready for work.
Had it been up to the Petco Fish Nazi, we wouldn't have taken home a fish that night, because we hadn't let our filled tank sit long enough. He grilled us with questions about the size of our tank and the type of light it has. Michael and I scrambled for answers and probably made some up. He insisted that we purchase a background (so the fish's color would really pop) and a $30 water heater all for our $5 fish.
I was ready to give into the fish Nazi, but Michael held strong. When he wasn't looking, we ditched the water heater and headed for the register before he could take Edgar away from us.
The most awkward moment of the night was when the Fish Nazi was informing us about the different types of fish at the store. The Tetra's, he explained, needed to be purchased in groups of three. Alone, a Tetra would get so stressed that he would die in a matter of days. The thought of a freaked out lonely fish hectically swimming around and suddenly dying seemed slightly amusing to us and Michael said out loud, "Oh, that's funny." The Fish Nazi's response: "Not to the Tetra."
Until next time,
Anne
