VIEWPOINT (cont.)

Ultimately, we ended up with six fan-tailed goldfish of varying shades and color patterns as well as two little sucky fish (they will always be sucky fish to me, no matter how many times she tells me they are a clown pleco and a calico pleco). And we took them home and showed them their new digs.

One of them, sadly, died overnight, but the other five seem to be doing well.

The cats seem to really like watching them too, so I guess the whole family is getting to enjoy the benefits of having the fish tank.

While we were at the pet store, I kept trying to get some of those cool little red and blue neon tetras, even though my daughter insisted that they did not need to be in the same tank as the goldfish. As a compromise, she set me up with a little 10-gallon tetras -only tank in my home office, complete with all the multicolored fake plants and the stone skull and all that jazz that is way too tacky for her respectable fish tank, but definitely “looks like a Dad tank,” as she so eloquently puts it.

We started off with six little tetras and then decided to bump it up to 10. And the cool thing about them is that they school together, so at any given time, you’ll catch five or six of them just hanging out together in the middle of the tank, while the others will go off by themselves to chill inside the stone skull or swim through the bubble stream in the back of the tank or just float alone and contemplate whatever it is little fishes conemplate.

So, if you’re looking for a low-impact hobby or something you can do together as a family, couple or even alone, I highly recommend getting a fish tank. Yes, there’s some initial startup cost, but I find the whole thing kind of relaxing and rewarding.