Looking Back
About 20 years ago, the husband owned a 50 gallon aquarium and a smaller 15 gallons tank. He took care of different fishes. He had an Oscar (Astronotus Ocellatus), a Knife fish (featherbacks, family Notopteridae) , an Arowana and a Janitor fish (Pterygoplichthys). I have witnessed how he took care of all. Back then, I thought it is complicated to clean the fish tank. It was a stress reliever for him, he said.
It was only now that I realized what he meant “stress reliever”. We still have his old 15 gallon tank and used it for our 7 Shubunkins. It was because of our younger daughter that we were encouraged to use his old tank and set it up at home. Our daughter saw beautiful gold fishes being sold outside school and bought two. She has learned to care for her fishes and they started growing, literally and in numbers. We saw how joyful she is with all her pets. She also shed tears for the ones who died, especially when the first two fishes she had passed. Still, we can see benefits having them at home.
