Why My Mother never allowed us to have an Aquarium as kids...

I was doing a water change in my fishtank the other day and managed to get more water OUTSIDE the tank than in. Dad was helping me, but I can't blame him. :P First off, in filling the tank, I had to hook the garden hose up to the sink with a little kit that's supposed to connect the hose to the sink and thereby make filling aquariums easier. However... I'm not so convinced.

I had everything connected, ran upstairs to see if the tank was filling yet, and it wasn't. I had to run back downstairs, and realized I hadn't opened the valve; it was still coming out into the sink, instead of going in the hose. I opened up the valve and then I ran back upstairs. At this point, we had water, but only a small trickle. This discovery meant another trip back downstairs to see if there was a kink in the hose. When I came downstairs, I found that there weren't any kinks, but from the hallway, I could see water spraying in all directions. I ran, sliding in the water, frantically trying to shut off the Old Faithful that had appeared in my kitchen. I got the water turned off and as I was running for some towels to mop up the new lake in our kitchen, Dad hollered from upstairs, "Nothing is coming out!!!!"

I yelled back, "I know, its all in the kitchen," and continued cleaning up the mess. Dad must not have heard me.

Five minutes later he yelled a bit louder, "We still don't have any water!!!" By this time, he sounded mildly irritated. So was I.

"I KNOW," I yelled back. He still didn't hear me.

He called a bit louder this time. "NORA!!!"

I answered.... this time he heard me. The whole neighborhood probably heard me. But now he was aware that the water was, in fact, turned off and we had had a slight crisis downstairs.

In the meantime, I'd left my computer on, and people kept trying to talk to me on Instant Messenger, so I skidded throughout the water and typed a somewhat frantic post that I was a bit busy at the moment.

Finally, the fish tank was full, but I realized the water was too cold and the fish was going into shock. So I had to make another emergency run back downstairs for hot water, to neutralize the temperature. Despite all the excitement, the fish survived. I wasn't so sure I would. I collapsed in a chair, and wondered why I ever wanted the fishtank upstairs.

Later on, I decided to treat my Oscar by buying him some feeder fish instead of his usual krill and shrimp pellets. I bought ten, thinking he'd take a while to eat those. Right. The next morning, only one was left, and I swear the Oscar belched when he saw me.

So, I decided he needed more fish, and went to a bait shop and bought some minnows. A lot of minnows. They didn't look like a lot in the bucket, but they swarmed on the bottom and bothered the other two fish. I realized there was just way too many, so I decided to put them in an emergency tank - which happened to be a drywall compound bucket, with an aerator. It worked, but I spent two hours trying to catch the stupid things. They would race from on side of the tank to the other. Finally I had enough of them out, and the Oscar was happy. Well, at least he has stopped sulking at the bottom. I am not sure if he's quite forgiven me for interrupting his serene retreat.

Me... I think I need a bit of serene retreat myself.