We just had our school’s big fundraising carnival last Friday night, and that means our beta fish, Ombré, is officially one year old (since we got her at last year’s carnival)!
So…in honor of her *longevity*, I gifted her a new tank for her bday. Woohoo!
Also. Please note the happy playroom in the background of the above pic. We’re still enjoying the refresh so much, and I swear, someday soon, I’ll type up a whole post.
Now.
The reason for the new tank wasn’t exactly pure celebration, but part necessity, as this was Ombre’s former living quarters:
Ewwwww.
(Also, it was much worse in person than in the pics. Trust me.)
But to explain this whoooole situation, let’s rewind to the beginning of our fish journey, m’kay??
In April 2022, we attended our elementary school carnival/fundraiser, where Chicklet won a fish that was eventually named Sprinkles.
Look how tiny my babies were, just two years ago!! And how hilariously consistent Chicklet has been with her pink-on-pink outfits, despite the fact that pink is NOT her favorite color, ha.)
So Chicklet won the fish—thus fulfilling the first of many pet dreams—and we promptly purchased a tank and gave Sprinkles a very happy home…for the entire three days she lived.
Goldfish, amiright?
Here’s the whole blog post of that shebang if you want a trip down memory lane.
Fast forward another year, and in April 2023, it was Chica who won the fish (a beta, this time), at the very same school carnival.
Welp. We freshened up the tank, crossed our fingers for more than three days, and, voila! Ombré appeared to thrive. (But, UGH, look how young Chica looked, just one year ago!! STOP THE GROWING!!!)
So Ombré thrived, and all was well for a time…with one minor complication: algae built up in the tank after a few months, despite our best cleaning and filter efforts.
This is around the time things took a downhill turn. When the hubby and Chicklet went to the pet store one day for funsies, and came home with a SNAIL, that they claimed would help clean the tank.
Goldenie the snail DID help to clean the tank.
But then she had BABIES.
LOTS of babies.
Upwards of 28 babies (that we could count).
And lemme tell you how pinprick small these baby snails were! See these dots admit the tank grossness??? Yup. Baby snails.
And then, some of those babies had babies (I kid you, not.)
And before we knew it, our tank went from clean, to really clean (once the first batch of babies were old enough to help eat some algae), but then things absolutely TANKED (pun intended), somehow.
The tank got really dirty.
The babies weren’t thriving or cleaning.
This black plague and weird algae started to grow.
And worse, still, I couldn’t manually clean the tank, for fear of a MASS SNAIL MASSACRE.
It was a whole, terrible thing.
Worse (worse) still…in January, when we launched the playroom refresh and moved out all the old furniture for carpet cleaning, the fish tank was temporarily relocated to Little Man’s bathroom…where it stayed for three terrible months. GAH.
NOT.
IDEAL.
It finally got the point where I was fearful of the growing plague of the fish tank in such close proximity to the kiddos’ tooth brushes. And poor Ombré the fish started spending 99% of her day hiding under the faux cave in the tank. And not eating.
I JUST COULDN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.
Last Thursday, I drove straight to the pet store, purchased a fresh tank (in addition to the plague, our old tank was cracked on three sides and I was fearful of an eventual fish water tsunami).
I came home, spent two hours gently setting up the new (plastic, much cheaper, ha) tank and glow-in-the-dark gear I purchased for a VERY low price, and plopped Ombré in her new water balanced home.
I’m not gonna lie: that fish was HAPPY.
So obviously happy—and it’s funny that you can even tell this about a fish, ha—that I felt guilty about her forced months of filth and grime and bathroom living.
I didn’t do it on purpose, but the new fish tank decorations are so bright and happy (and coolio at night) and match so perfectly with the playroom colors right now. It’s a JOY to see the tank and Ombré, out in the sunshine open, looking so clean and happy.
It makes this milestone of keeping her alive this long all the sweeter. :)
Meanwhile…last Friday night (the day after the new tank milestone), we enjoyed the school carnival, YET AGAIN. And I told the kiddos if they even thought about trying to win a fish, I would donate them (the kids, not the fish).
Luckily, the PTA decided against any fish this year (Amen, Halleluiah), and my kiddos were just happy and social and OLD, while they enjoyed this annual tradition of ours.
So there you have it. The story of Ombré, one year later. And the Tank: 2.0.
For those of you wondering…the snails were, indeed, a casualty. :(
Goldenie, the original snail, passed naturally a couple months after she came home (only after laying all those darn eggs).
Most of the babies weren’t viable and surviving beyond a short spell once they were hatched from their little water eggs. And Ombré, herself, actually ate quite a few of them. Yikes.
I did, indeed, capture and “release” as many of them as I could find alive when the old tank finally met its demise. And then I said a little prayer for their snail souls and wished them well on their next adventure.
Lesson learned: don’t ever let Daddy take Chicklet to the pet store unchaperoned.
Also: any pet, even the most unassuming one, is a commitment.
Still many catch-up posts to tackle, but I’m trying to make it through them, day by day! So, more soon!
Happy Tuesday, peeps!
Over and out.
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