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sixty-one babies gone

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

We took the large majority of the remaining baby goldfish to the fellow with the aquarium shop in Tachikawa. He paid us another ¥732 for the fish (that's ¥12 a piece!) and told my daughter "I haven't told you this, but I've been using them as feeder fish." That wasn't unexpected, but I'm not sure why he told the twelve-year-old that.

This was our fifth visit to his store, and brings the number of fish we've handed over to about 285. We still have fifteen of the slowest-growing in our new upstairs 48L tank, but I was finally able to pack up the tub we were using as a breeding aquarium for the past three months. ¥2,000 well spent, I'd say! In total, I worked on goldfish related things for three hours from 07:30 this morning -- not including the trip to offload the fish.

It feels good to put all this behind us. I now know a lot more about goldfish, and I was well-pleased at how healthy and glossy the fish were. I feel that I know enough to "do it properly" should I ever have to, and by that I mean how to produce goldfish that are more colorful. But I can't say I'm too interested. This was a LOT of work for not a lot of purpose.

Mari and Emma each selected one fish to keep for the upstairs aquarium. I give it about two years before they outgrow that small tank, and we'll see what happens then.