Come here fishy, fishy, fishy

I'm sorry I don't have a better picture, but come on. They are FISH. Quick little suckers. Next on the menagerie of animals that doth take my money, fish. I have two little boys so of course we have fish, right? Let me introduce you to them. Top left is fish 1, top right is Blackie and bottom fish is fish 2. They've all had names, sure, but they've changed so many times who knows what they are at any given point. Big One usually names everything after himself. (**side note at the bottom on this topic**) Let me start out with this question to you. How long, on average, do you think fish that are won at the fair last? Come on, guess. Is that you're final answer? Mine would be like a week max. My answer now is who knows because this thing will not die. Fish 1 is what I'm talking about. I'm not purposely trying to kill him off or anything, but he's a tough one. Initially we won two fish at the grand ol' Fulton Co. Fair, Sept. 2007. Yes, 2007. Nope, couldn't stop at just one happy snapper, had to have a friend. We left with two fish. Had to buy a tank, and stones, and a light bulb, and bubble stones. And then plants and a little toy in there to hide in, which none EVER went near. With how much money we wasted winning the darn things, we could have bought 5. But no thanks. Two is fine. So we get two fish settled in their nice new tank and not three days later, of course one dies. By this time boys had determined which was who's and Little One was a tad bit upset his fish decided to swim to the light, or the dark swirling hole depending on who you ask :). So we head on over to Wally World and scope out their stock. I wasn't spending $3 on a dang fish, but I didn't want some cheesy little minnow to now occupy my home. Little One picks out a Golden Fan Tail ($1.69), which is Fish 2 in the picture. Beautiful flowing fins lined in black ribbon. We get him in his bag when Little One says "WOW. MOM, LOOK at that awesome cool big black fish there." It's a Black Moor. I check it out because it is rather cool with its own black flowing fins and his belly was silver, and it was compatible. So they talked me into it and we decide we will have a fish trio. Fast forward to November 2008 and we now have two fishies. RIP Blackie, he was the next to go. No, I'm not getting more fish. Fish 2 I would expect to live a little longer since it's probably safe to assume it had lived a better life than Fish 1 from the fair, but who knows. Fair fish is alive and kicking. Still. One whole year later. It has now become a pasty pale gold and has cloudy eyes, but he's lived through two 3 foot falls onto the floor. I call that one dang tough fish. I think he's a little slow from the falls, and he may not be able to see very well, but he does good. Just when you think he's giving up, he kicks up the water.

I remember a fish we had when we were little. THAT thing ended up living for a really long time and grew to like 6 inches long. They said they grow depending on their environment, but that one grew DESPITE its environment!! It was just in a little glass fish bowl. My fish have it made. I just bought them a brand new filter instead of just the aerator thing because I was having to clean the tank like once a week and I know they said transport is hard on fish. Don't want to stress them anymore than they do me :)

I also remember when I was about 13 and had gotten a fish at our local festival. I also had a duck :) Fishie got to swim in duck's baby pool and duck got to practice fishing. Did you know ducks will poo clear slime after eating a fish? It was really gross.

I will say fish are much cheaper than horses and way less effort, but definitely not as fun.

**Ok, funny side note. Big One has two Webkinz. If you don't have kids and don't know what those are, they are these stuffed animals that you register online and care for them and do crazy stuff with, online. My son isn't allowed online all that often, so they are really just expensive stuffed animals (shhh, don't tell my brother that bought them both for him). Anyhow, when he gets the first one, which is a Clydesdale (of course) I ask what he's going to name it. He looks at the tag on its butt and says, "Well, his name tag says Ganz." I said ok, cool name. I then really figure out that Ganz is really the name of the company that makes webkinz, but thought oh well, he'll never have more, won't matter. Yeah, for Big One's b-day this summer, my bro gives him another one. Before I knew bro was giving Big One another one, I was telling him the funny story of Ganz's name. Bro gives me a goofy smirk. Next thing you know, Big One is running over to show me his new webkinz, a dragon. I said "Oh," looked at my brother and start laughing. "What are you going to name this one sweetie?" Sure enough, he looks at the tag and then with wide eyes looks at me. "MOM, HIS name is Ganz TOO!!!!" I said NO WAY!! lol. I couldn't help it. I said well, do you want to name him something else? He said "Nope, I think it's cool they both have the same name, they were meant to be brothers." lol Hopefully he will not be getting any more. I had to share that. It was too cute.