The Fish Tank

I don't know whats going on. I mean, I generally don't, and I like it that way, but in this particular instance I'm a little more confused than usual.
About two weeks ago Holden came tearing into the kitchen holding the fish net.
" Look! Look!"
He had a teeny baby fish in the net.
"Put it back in the tank!" Jeff and I yelled simultaneously.

One of the fish had given birth. This thing was tiny. It was all eyes and a tail. The really surprising part is that our tank is a bit of a disaster. We usually find dead things, not extra alive things. We battle algae with neglect which isn't always the best technique. I would never have guessed that neglect would provide a fertile environment.

Well, now that we have a baby we have to take care of it. I wonder if thats how crack heads feel when they discover they are giving birth. We googled care of fish babies and unplanned fish birth. We learned we needed to sequester the baby.

We went to Petco to get supplies but they don't sell them. Why would they? They are a pet supply store. We went to the more high end aquarium supply place. We said we needed something to use to sequester a baby fish. They explained we needed to separate the baby fish. Yes, thats why we are here, to procure the supplies needed to sequester the baby fish. They explained the mother fish or any of the other fish could eat the baby. Yes, we are here to buy the appropriate supplies. Do you sell baby fish sequestering devises?

What is a sequestering devise? They wanted to know.

Well, presumably something used to sequester baby fish.

You will need to separate the baby fish , they explained.

OK, thanks for that. Do you sell something like that? ( Perhaps the word sequestering threw them off).

Yes.

Yup, the word sequester was the problem.

Eventually we bought a net to set up in the corner of the tank. We set it up. In two minutes baby Nemo was on the other side. We arranged the net with more gravel around the bottom and tried to seal off all possible escape routes. Two minutes later Nemo was out. We gave up.

Nemo is doing well. He has beat the odds and within the last two weeks has tripled in size. There was a point, a week ago, where I spotted an additional small orange fish. The next day it was gone. He did not have the staying power of Nemo.

We all check on Nemo periodically. We're amazed by him.

I always thought I wanted several kids and pets. But I never imagined four kids, 3 cats, multiplying fish and a snail.

Every year at the annual school fundraiser fair Holden likes to play the game where you toss a ball into a bowl and win a goldfish. No one ever wins that game. Except Holden. He wins every year. Of course he does.

The other morning Holden was feeding the fish.
" Mommy! What?! Look!....."

There is a baby snail in our tank.

Of course there is.