Fish, as pets, are a bit to ephemeral for my taste. I have attended a few too many fish funerals in my time and I eventually developed a dreaded "fish rot FIRST SIGN of 911 BREAK GLASS" box because that can slowly kill off an entire TANK. I developed this sort of built in.... these are the "most professional" fish shops in town (never, ever introduce a new fish into ANY tank,until you have isolated it on its own for 10 days, regardless if it sells goldfish for the price of gold, instead of bigger fish food.
I will admit all these were motivated by the various fish funerals. They were pretty sad. Much sobbing would occur (the parent would keep hers stoic and silent and lead the child to the shoebox area thinking "oh I am so glad I keep my shoeboxes and the child would select one. It would be lined with soft things like felt and the parent would tell the child to pick an object or two to keep the fish company. Sometimes it was unexpected. "Fish Named X wants my Sufi Wood carved Donkey WHY exactly, OH FINE.") the parent like would invite the sobbing child to write a goodbye letter to Fish Named X (I don't think that was an actual fish name but we had a few) The grave would be dug, usually by the quietly sobbing parent going, "I need to remember to check out here tomorrow morning to see if the dog ate it, although in that case I would get my Statue back" but in the interests of fairness the Parent would dig in a remote place, so that there was at least a foot of dirt to go on top of the shoebox, and Tucson dirt is hard.
The grand procession would begin, and the fish would be reverently laid in its grave. The sobbing child would say, "Fish X was such a GOOD fish, and a back and forth account would begin between the parent and the child concerning like, the accomplishments of the fish. Mostly the kid would know more, but the parent would valiantly insert a memory or two, thinking "All fish swim gracefully that is not LYING." and so on. Then a sort of non-denominational prayer would occur, the sobbing would be GREATEST at that point." The child would like, ask a heaven related question like, "Will Fish X really be in heaven." The parent would think OH GOSH. The parent would respond with something like, "You said Fish X is such a GOOD fish and like, GOOD things go to heaven is what I have heard and I am sure, since you clearly loved "Fish X" and loving someone is good, well, yes, I'm sure you will have a meetup if you both want one and Why Wouldn't you? I mean...…"
The parent would then invite the child to go distract the dog so she wouldn't know where this particular fish was just yet, and TAMP down that dirt wetting it often, thinking, "In my afterlife there will BE no dead fish. If that means we are overrun, and like the gold streets are SLIPPERY with them, well, we won't fall over and they'll be invincible. Also, I'm getting my donkey statute back. OH the money I spent (and knowledge I learned) about fish, fish fish over the years. Then the child wanted a salt water tank.
BUT I READ UP. I was like, No, son, sorry you can do that when you are all grown up.
He has not done so yet.. However, I do have about a jillion Ph adjusting things and fish abx and crud I can send him .But he's gonna have to ask.
I mean when you start mixing a bunch of fish in a community tank, it can be pretty a) fun b) deadly c) expensive d) time consuming e) all of the above. Heh.
Anna
Now you got me thinking... 
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