First thing we learned about owning fish, DO NOT USE BLEACH to clean the tank.

Oh my gosh, John. Hilarious! Also, don’t just dump the fish in tap water. Chris learned that one the hard way. But now, sadly, it looks like we’ll be on our THIRD Dorothy for the week. She just went to fishy heaven again tonight, so I’ve gotta go grab a quick replacement tomorrow before S catches on. We’re going all out for a Beta fish this time because I hear those are supposed to last up to 2 years. (”Look, Dorothy grew up!”)

I can’t be buying goldfish 3 times a week for the rest of my daughter’s childhood. Even at only 12 cents a pop, it still gets old fast!

I’m a murderer… sniff. Someday, when the girl can read, she’ll realize I killed her fish and hopefully she’ll forgive me.

Betas are good choices for stagnant water systems. Goldfish, which can live for many years, really need a tank that is being filtered and oxygenated. Once you figure out how to cycle a tank, fish are pretty darn easy. You can pick up an el cheapo tank w/ filter for less than $30 from many pet stores, which will keep a goldfish alive a lot longer than a bowl. No more than 1″ of fish for each gallon of water.

I was running to the pet store about twice a month replacing up to three fish at a time before I took the time to figure out how to actually keep fish alive. Now we’re going on 4 months with no deaths! This is a photography site, but maybe I should write a post on fish! LOL

Ha - John, that is so great! I’m glad you guys figured out the ins and outs of raising fish. We almost went down the filtered fish tank road, but we were just not ready to commit, ya know? I mean, it’s one thing to have Grammy buy S a fish and pop it in a bowl. It’s quite another thing to buy the aquarium and become fish people! We did, however, lose yet another Dorothy this week (yes, that makes 3!), so we picked up a Beta this time. It was pretty tricky finding one that looked remotely like a goldfish. My daughter might only be 3, but she’s not blind. She knew what her fish looked like and wanted that one back when we went to “the doctor” to pick her up. Luckily, we found a pretty low-key female Beta that was close enough. Here’s hoping this one lasts!