The Day We Rescued Daisy

So the fish saga continues at our house… Glitter #2 died despite our best efforts.  There were more special chemical treatments, water tests and countless trips to the pet store.  I even took her with me so they could figure out what was going on with the poor little fish.  Apparently while Daisy successfully overcame her stress-induced fish disease called ICH (probably from witnessing the death of her aquarium mate Rainbow) her top fin appeared to be falling off and/or partially disintegrating.  Sadly, the morning after her field trip with me to the pet store we discovered she had died.  The girls were so sad AGAIN and I called the pet store AGAIN for some direction.  AGAIN.  So after emptying and cleaning the tank AGAIN and doing all the start up tasks AGAIN, we they were ready for more fish.

During our countless trips to the pet store, we discovered that Brooke’s original fish Daisy the Tiger Danio, was still in exile.  [Sidebar: We returned her because she appeared to be a super aggressive Danio and was stressing out the mild mannered Guppy.  The Guppies however had some problems of their own, so we decided that maybe Daisy wasn’t to blame for Glitter #1’s untimely death.]  When we took Daisy back to the pet store, they put her in a tank on the side of the fish wall with a bunch of aquatic plants.  We figured she was in quarantine and would be reintegrated after they made sure she was healthy and emotionally stable.  However, after two weeks she was still wasn’t back in “gen pop” (I just finished watching Prison Break) so we were giving up hope.  Soon after that, we discovered she was no longer alone with the aquatic plants either.  Instead, Daisy was rooming with a bunch of very large Koi fish.  As you can see in the photo, she tried very hard to stay at the top of the tank and out of harms way.  Katelyn and Brooke were sure Daisy was going to be a snack for her new roommates, so they decided it was time to move on from Guppies and try Danios.  Since we were down to zero living fish, the change was easy to make.

As soon as we arrived at the pet store on Saturday, we re-adopted Daisy – she seemed un-phased that we had abandoned her once and just happy to be getting out of dodge.  Katelyn then selected a Zebra Danio that she has named Splash Wave Hansen.  The name really fits because her fish loves to swim like crazy with Daisy and actually jumps over the filter waterfall.  I fear that her seemingly cute trick might end badly one day, but I’ve probably just seen Finding Nemo one too many times.  Daisy and Splash have been home now for 24 hours and everyone seems to be doing fine.  I guess we will wait and see what weird new fish issue tomorrow brings.

As a side note, since Daisy wasn’t in back “Gen Pop,” they told us it was an adoption and she was “free” as opposed to her $2.05 price tag.  That thrilled both girls, – I didn’t have the heart to burst their bubble and explain that they meant there was “no charge” to adopt Daisy… this project has been anything but free.  I am hoping that the fun can begin now.