and in the dawning moments of what would become an obsession...

I've been interested in fishkeeping as a hobby since I came to UVM. For my first two years in college, I lived on campus in a residence hall (a.k.a. dorm), Living and Learning. I was therefore limited to aquatic pets (technically, although I housed several rabbits, rats and mice over the years, while I was living there - Shhhh! :-). I originally had little interest in fish, and was of the opinion that any pet that you couldn't cuddle with was not worth the trouble.

My sophmore year, I was inspired to try keeping fish by two influential people in my life. My friend and suitemate Buffy had a beautiful comet (goldfish with a single, long tail) named Prick. Prick was about 8 inches long, and would eat out of her hand. S/he was enchanting to watch and had more personality than I thought a fish could ever have. I asked Buffy how she ever found a goldfish like that, and she explained that she started with 4 "feeder" goldfish in a 10 gallon tank, and took good care of them. 3 ended up dying, but one made it - that one grew, and she bought a 20 gallon tank for it, because it had outgrown the 10 gallon tank. I thought, "I could do that...!" The second influence was my Pottery and Clay Sculpture Program Director Joan Watson, who had several tanks in her house. I remember using her bathroom once, and finding several small clear plastic "tanks" hanging from the wall in a sort of arc, with bubbles coming up from each one, giving you the illusion that the tanks were flowing into each other.. it was beautiful. She also had a telequarium in her living room. To the uninitiated, it looked like an old fashioned wood-frame square TV, but when you turned it on, an overhead light inside the box turned on and illuminated a big fish tank. It was incredibly neat. Slowly, I began to become more interested in keeping fish...

In the summer after my sophomore year, the adventurer in me became alive again, and I bought a little chocolate oranda (fat little brownish fancy goldfish, like the one pictured, except "chocolate" colored). I had her for several months. I kept her in a little bare bottom "tank" with a bubbler. My "tank" was an old, cleaned bulk yogurt covered raisins bin, turned onto its bottom (about 2 gallons maybe). She was healthy for a while, but then died, probably because there was no filter or gravel, and therefore, no biological filter.. (I was a *real* newbie at this point - I can't believe the petstore folk allowed me to walk out of there with a fish!).

Not wanting to repeat that experience, and assuming (wrongly) that her death had something to do with her goofy looks, I replaced her with 4 comets (tiny "feeder" goldfish) from a local pet store, the Pet Advantage. I was thinking of Prick when I made this purchase, and assumed that some would die, and hopefully at least one would lide. I picked out two orange ones with black fins, and two with some white on them. They were very lively, but they looked really crowded in their 2 gallon home (gasp!). Luckily, I realized this before too much damage was done, and moved them to an old 10 gallon glass tank I had (leftover from my former hamster days), following in Buffy's footsteps. Being a poor student, I put off buying a filter for a while, but after about a month, I "got serious", and bought a tiny whisper power filter (I think it was a whisper "J" - junior) and some gravel. Three years later, I still have the same 4 fish, much larger now. They're in good shape, but they're terribly over crowded in their current 20 gallon tank. I feed them every morning, and I can hear their desperate whispers, saying, "Jess, you want a pond.. a nice goldfish pond.. pond.. we need a pond...!" Sigh!

And that was just the beginning..

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Last Updated June 13, 1997 


                                                                     
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(c) 1997  Jessica Dion                   \___/