Jul 22 2008
Feeling Stabby
I’m in the process of looking up ideas and brainstorming about cheap and interesting centerpieces for my youngest sister’s graduation party. I like these idle things. Here’s what I absolutely, positively, can not stand:
People who recommend using fish as centerpieces. Here’s a newsflash, Martha Stewart wannabes: Fish are living creatures. A fish in a small container with no moving water and no filtration system is going to choke on its own waste. What, you didn’t think that fish had to excrete waste somehow? You didn’t factor it into your little brain that they need food and that when they consume their food, they have to rid their bodies of the bits they can’t use?
Not to even touch the temperature issue - fish need regulated temperatures. The room temperature in your house or the hall where you’re holding an event is probably not ideal for most fish. Besides, what are you planning to do with those fish if they make it through the event?
Michael and I quickly learned that keeping fish healthy is an investment. Sure, fish are cheap. But add in a good tank with filtration, a heater, a light, live plants, water conditioner and testing supplies (to test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates - in other words to make sure the water quality can sustain life) - things get expensive and complicated really quickly.
Don’t be an asshole. Give fish the environment they deserve. I HATE how pet stores put containers out that cannot lead to good lives for fish - your fish doesn’t want to live in a giant martini glass or a tiny plastic container. It wants space, light, heat, filtered and conditioned water. Anything less than that is animal abuse and we ought to prosecute you for it.