Something I could stare at for hours on end

Say hello to the new occupants who share my living quarters with me.
Clockwise from top left: Shere Khan, Confucious, Kitty, and Tutankhamen.

The sudden inspiration for me to get an aquarium came after my visit to the shrink this morning. I noticed how I always stare at her fish tank of goldfish whenever I talk, and it occured to me how relaxing and therapeutic it is to just watch them swim in circles. Plus, I felt the sudden need to have a living, growing thing in my room (and no, my sister doesn’t count because she’s not a pet). We’ve never owned an aquarium at the house because my mom insists that according to Feng Shui, everyone in the family except my dad are Fire people, and it’s apparently bad luck for a Fire person to own an aquarium. I don’t believe that bad luck or good luck run the course of our lives, so upon my insistence (and my reluctant agreement to pay for everything with my own money), I eagerly traipsed over to the pet store to choose my fish.

Putting together an aquarium was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. It’s a lot more than just water and a fish bowl; you need pebbles, plastic seaweed to make the whole thing look pretty, a filter, and anti-chlorine. It took me a while to do the landscaping of the aquarium. I got dark gray pebbles, which I regretted at first because it made the whole place look horribly dull. But then I added white seashells all over, which stood out amongst the darkness, making everything look pretty. Still, it looked empty without flora, so I looked at every single accessory the pet store had to offer just so I could find the most authentic, non-tacky-looking plants in there. Add the filter to a corner of the tank, some anti-chlorined water, and voila! My aquarium is ready to be inhabited by finned little beings.

Choosing the fish took a while too. I could only get four because of the size of my tank, and I couldn’t get the really colorful ones that I like because they’re really fierce and will end up killing or maiming the other fish in the aquarium. I got two rainbow fish, a catfish, and a goldust molly. (Later on, I learned from my sister’s friend that mollies are little bullies. So much for peace and order in my tiny ecosystem.)

I picked out my fishes’ names based on what I observed about their personality (or lack thereof).

Shere Khan is the easiest to name. It’s the fish with angst. It keeps attacking the filter and all the other fish.

The logic behind Confucious’ name is stupid. I picked it because it keeps ramming itself against the glass, like it wants to get out of the tank and can’t remember why it’s trapped inside in the first place. I couldn’t think of any other name that meant “confused”. So Confucious it was.

Kitty is a catfish. Enough said.

Tutankhamen just lies amongst the plants or bubbles and doesn’t do much, like the child king of Egypt who is already dead.

My sister upon learning I gave one of the fish the name “Shere Khan”:
“Ooh! Shere Khan! Isn’t that the panther from Bambi?”

Meet Confucious.

Meet Kitty .

Meet Tutankhamen.

Meet Shere Khan.