Bye Bye Freddie
Last August, we were very excited to welcome Freddie the goldfish into our little family. We bought him and a My First Aquarium from our local pet shop. Reassured by the pet store employee that the tank was perfect for a goldfish or two, we took Freddie home, and all was good for about a month until he clearly outgrew the tank.
A few weeks later, we upgraded Freddie’s accommodation and bought a proper aquarium with plenty of extra space for Freddie to swim around.
Or so I thought.
Fast forward a few months and Freddie just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Right now he is the biggest pet goldfish I have ever seen. It’s hard to judge properly because the front glass on the tank is curved but I would estimate that he’s about five inches long. And unfortunately he is too big for the aquarium that we bought last November, and we don’t have space or funds to upgrade to a bigger size. It’s quite funny watching visitors catch their first glimpse of him in the tank – they almost always do a double take at the size of him!
Last week, he lost a couple of scales trying to squeeze behind the pump at the side of the tank and I realised it’s cruel to keep him any longer in a tank that’s clearly too small for him. After a brief search, I found someone with a pond who has agreed to take him.
So tomorrow Freddie leaves us for a bigger pond. We hope he’ll swim happily there. Bye bye Freddie, our not-so-little fishie.
aww, well at least he’s going to a good home. Hope little guy doesn’t notice too much!
I really dislike any pet smaller than a cat/dog. I don’t actively dislike the animal or the keeping of them as a pet, it just seems like more work than enjoyment, I just don’t think I’d get anything out of them y’know and keeping hutches/tanks/hamster playgrounds clean is quite an effort too. I’m definitely a cat kinda gal, low maintenance & maximum purring. Also, D feeds them now with my help, so even less maintenance from me 🙂
Little Man was pretty upset actually Jill – much more than I expected. He tried to convince me that Freddie wasn’t too big, that he was in fact “really small”! But it had to be done. It was just getting cruel keeping Freddie in such a small tank. Hopefully he’s settled into his new pond now today. 🙂
I guess he was more attached to Freddie than the other two fish so he was bound to be upset. Are you going to get tropical fish now.
No we still have the other two fish, so we’re leaving the tank as it is for now.
Lisa | Mama.ie recently posted..Review: Burt’s Bees
oh no! it’s kinda weird when you still have your child as your baby in your head, but then realise that they understand way more than you thought. and the levels of understanding in my experience seem to leap every couple of weeks at this stage. Poor guy.
It’s amazing, isn’t it Jill? They really do understand so much more than we realise. Thankfully, they also move on quickly enough because Little Man is over it today!!
Lisa | Mama.ie recently posted..Review: Burt’s Bees
WOW, some fish! I always remember having one fish as a kid which outlasted all the others. Eventually he went to live in my friend’s pond and grew enormous. Clearly they can if they have, or think they can bag, a big enough space 😉
Alexander Residence recently posted..Young British Artists The Very Hungry G-aterpillar
Well according to reports from his new owner, Freddie is settling in nicely to his new pond, and already making friends with the existing fishy residents. No doubt he’ll be a foot long in a year or two!