Let me tell you about Susie........

Last Thursday I decided to go buy Anna Claire a fish tank.  They have two fish in her class at Barnyard, or they did, until she moved to the 3yr old class on Friday.  She seemed to love the fish and was excited to see them every morning that she was there.  I went to the Pet Planet here in town to get the aquarium.  I, for some reason, just figured Wal-Mart didn't carry aquariums anymore since they don't have fish.  Anyway, I walked in to Pet Planet and the smell about knocked me down.  Thankfully, after a few seconds you got used to it.  It was your normal pet store smell.  As I am trying to pick out an aquarium, which it's not like I had a lot of options, I kept having to watch behind me bc I knew they were getting a snake out of its aquarium thing on the back wall.  I am a little scared, OK, terrified of snakes!!  I go back and forth for about 10 minutes and finally decide on a desk aquarium.  It's cute, yet classy, matches my living room, and will fit perfectly on the end table.  It looks very easy, as there are no pumps, filters, heaters, etc.... to mess with.  I bought a little light that fits on it, but other than that, there was nothing to plug in.  It came with the gravel, decorative rocks, the conditioner that we needed, and a little pack of fish food.  What more could you ask for?  I checked out their Betta fish while I was there, to see what they had because I decided we would start with a Betta fish, since they are usually hard to kill and I'm not good with plants or fish.  We set the little tank up Thursday afternoon, so it would be good and ready for the new fish.  I promised her that Friday afternoon when I picked her up that I would take her to Pet Planet to pick out a fish and that, I did.

She loved the pet store.  I finally get her to where we need to be and she picks out her Betta.  There were $3.99 Betta's, $4.99 Betta's, and $11.99 Betta's.  Yes, you read that correctly, $11.99 Betta's.  Apparently people show their Betta's now days?  Thankfully, Anna Claire picked out a $4.99 Betta, even though the truth be told I would have bought an $11.99 Betta if that would have been what she chose.  She was so excited.  She told the lady at the front desk that she was going to give her new fishy a very good home.  We get in the car and I ask her what she is going to name her new fish and she says, "Susie".

I'm sorry, what?  "My new fishy's name is Susie."  Well, Susie it is.  Susie, the male Betta.  :o

We get home and I float the bag that Susie is in, in the tank to get her used to the water temperature.  See, I've got this.  Momma was big in to the Betta's in the bowls with the peace lily's when they were popular.  I helped make them and had one of my own, so I knew what I was doing.  Or did I?

After floating for about 10 minutes and listening to Anna Claire cry wanting to know when we could let Susie out, it was time.  I opened the bag, scooped out Susie, and put him in his new home.  You can't really tell, but the background is brown with the white vine flowers running up the back of it.  It was very pretty.

Susie did not seem to pleased, but I didn't really expect him to be.  He went from a very small little box thing to an almost gallon size home.  I'm sure it was culture shock, but he would get used to it.  Anna Claire was a very happy little girl.  She talked to Susie and fed him after a while.  She LOVED watching Susie eat.  At bedtime, she walked over and told Susie good night and that she loved him.

At this point, I knew I could never let Susie die.

The next morning we got up and Anna Claire greeted Susie and we got ready for swim lessons.  I noticed Susie looked even more unhappy Saturday morning than he did Friday night.  I expected just the opposite.  Anna Claire fed him and I removed the food when she wasn't looking because Susie did not eat it.  I knew at this point something wasn't right.  I felt like I didn't put enough of something in her his water because I remember when we used to make the vases we used 2 different products in the water and Thursday I only used one.  After swim lessons we came home and I watched Susie and decided I needed to go to the store bc Susie just wasn't right.  I went to get the other product to put in the water.  I came home with a new aquarium, fake plants, a heater (that I have since learned is not safe to use in the 1.5 gallon tank), a frog decoration, new gravel, fancy crystal rocks, the 2 items to clean the water, new Betta food, extra filters, and I think that is it.  I took Anna Claire with me, if you can't tell.  My $4.00 trip turned in to over $50.00.  I guess that will teach Kerry not to go with us.  : )  He just shook his head when we got home.  I set the new aquarium up and this one was much more difficult to set up because it has a filter on it.  I could only use the clear and purple crystal rocks because I knew the red ones would freak Susie out and I was afraid the pink ones would as well, so I gave them to Anna Claire.  I got the aquarium ready and let it sit for 24 hours.

At this point I have now spent almost $100 on a Betta fish that we have owned for 2 days.  Sunday afternoon we move Susie.  She He seems much happier in the bigger aquarium.  He is swimming around, coming to the glass when you talk to her him, he ate, and everything seemed good, but I noticed a little white spot on his tail fin.  I was hoping it was just something in the tank.  Monday night I noticed more white spots on his body and this morning there were even more.  Kerry even agreed that something was wrong with Susie.  After googling it, after all google has all the answers, I found that this expensive little fish has the Ick.  I will be going back to Wal-Mart this afternoon to buy some Ick treatment.  This also requires me to do yet another water change.  I am guessing the net used to move Susie from her little box to the bag we brought him home in had not been cleaned since moving another fish, possibly a dead fish.  I'm guessing things like that aren't important to them because they don't have to deal with child when or if the fish dies.

Maybe a fish was a bad idea.................