I bought a floating fishbowl for the backyard pool.
It’s an intriguing consideration— float a fishbowl in your pool on a cloudy day. I busied myself with due-diligence homework. A fish to tolerate a splash of saltwater— brackish fish. Topped with a Lilypad for shade and a small, clear shower cap to prevent most splashes.
I visited the pet store and left with five fish, gravel, and water plants. I gently encouraged the stressed fish and placed them in the fishbowl with two plants. Perfect.
They tapped the fishbowl glass with their pointy noses— do fish have noses? They seemed happy, inspected their new surroundings, and settled atop the dining table. Satisfied with new fish names, I turned my attention to cooking dinner.
I returned to check in on my new fish friends. Forty extra little guppies were darting around in the fishbowl. Truth be told, they swam so quickly I couldn’t count them all. I blinked and peered intently through my bifocals for confirmation.
Not a school, but an entire university of babies.
My world tilted as the number of fish increased, then decreased. To my horror, they were snacked on like a delicacy— I own cannibal fish! In a panic, I scrambled for another container to rescue a dozen and a half before the larger fish species ate the tiny, darting multitude. I grabbed the stepstool to reach the flower vase from the top cabinet.
This is not my plan and not what I purchased. The increased weight of these little lives on my shoulders instantly became more than I had signed up for. I could handle five. Five little swimmers in my bowl.
There are twenty-three surviving swimmers with tiny mouths. The fish food needs smashing to accommodate their teensy bite. This is all too much!
I called a neighbor with children. I desperately hoped they would want guppies. I managed to send three fish off with their new owner, but the remaining batch swam about in my flower vase without the predator’s meal threats until I concocted a long-range plan.
I sat helplessly and watched the tiny fish crew nose their flower vase parameters— my mind swirled with guppy-raising instructions.
I inspected the bowl closer to discover four small round creatures slowly scaling the fishbowl plants. Snails. What do I do with snails? Escargot for the predator fish?
