Monday 6 July 2015

A Tail of Two Fishes.


This is a true story.

Years ago we had two fishes in a tank in the living room. They were of the goldfish variety. They swam to and fro happily in their tank and all was well.

Well ... not that well really. Because every week I had to empty the tank, clean it, re-fill it with fresh clean water and put in all the necessary tablets that fish require in a tank to live happily and swim to and fro.

After a long period of this weekly tank cleaning I'd had enough. So I put the two fishes in our newly dug pond at the end of our back garden and left them to it. They had to swim or sink as it were!

It's a lovely pond. Much larger than the tank they were in previously, with freshly planted pond weeds and floating flowers of various varieties which I could not name. I guess the pond is no bigger in volume than a couple of bath tubs; (depending on the size of bath tub you have in your bathroom of course; but then you wouldn't admit it here would you?)

Anyway, I left the fish there and every so often we threw in a few fish-feeding pellets which you can get from the pet shop in case the fish survived and were waiting there at their dinner table to be fed. This went on for about a year.

One day I was sitting there by the pond and noticed little one-inch sized silver-coloured fishes floating around in the pond. I looked carefully and yes ... they were small fishes all right. The original two gold-fishes which were about five inches or so big, were also there. I'd recognised them by their large almost transparent tails. The small fishes were swimming around very fast. There were between 6 and 6000 fishes, depending on how quickly you can count moving fishes.

The whole family was over-excited that the two goldfish had survived and now had a family of babies. Over time, the babies grew up to become lovely goldfishes which we can now count easily. There are now exactly eleven fishes in the pond, including the original two; depending of course on how good you are at counting moving fishes.

All this happened some ten or so years ago; and the eleven fishes are still there.

One thing I've often wondered though. Are the original two fishes still there, or have they died and been replaced by new fishes?

I really don't know. But I can tell you this. And this is the honest truth, my friends; believe me!

When I sit by the pond and call the fishes, as I used to when they were in the tank in our living room. I call them saying: "Hey fishy fishy ... hey fishy fishy fishy ..."

Believe me it's true. The fishes totally ignore me just like the original two did when in the fish tank!

8 comments:

  1. Be careful what you wish for...We started with only 6 in our pond and when we had to close down the pond because we have moved there were 26. Yes, 26 in just 6 years. Enjoy!!!

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    1. How good of you to join me here again Cathy. Thank you.

      They are wonderful though, aren't they? Did you take the 26 with you?

      God bless.

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  2. I made the mistake of having goldfish once. After a few days they ended up in our neighbor's one acre pond. I vowed to never have fish again unless they're skinned, gutted, sauteed and cooked very well. ~:)

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    1. Agreed Sparky.

      Fish in a tank are a great job every week having to clean the tank and disenfect it and so on. They seemed to live and reproduce quite happily in the pond.

      I like my fish and chips with salt and vinegar - typical English. Or in Scotland with "broon" sauce and perhaps a Scotch pie. Ah ... the British cuisine; and no tartare sauce in sight.

      God bless you, Sparky.

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  3. maybe the fishes don't understand English. Have you tried another language? I understand that gold fish originated in the far east. Perhaps you can look up "Hey fishy, fishy" in Chinese and see if they will respond. It could be a breakthrough. ;)

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    1. What a BRILLIANT idea Manny. I shall try Google translate and see if I could say "Hey fishy, fishy ..." in different languages.

      I always said your intellect is far greater than mine. Why did I not think of this? Especially since I already had a similar experience with our friend's French poodle. They left him with us for a few days whilst on holiday. Although I spoke to him in English he still insisted on raising his back leg against my leg and do his business.

      God bless.

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