Fish Are Low-Maintenance Pets

Today I redecorated the fish tank by replacing the gravel with sand, putting in some new plants and generally sprucing it up a bit. The sand makes it look more natural, it's easier to keep clean and the bristlenose pleco (I hope that's the correct English name for the poor fish) should be happier - she swims with her sensitive nose pressed tot he ground, after all.

The experts make this sound very easy. First you take out the fish, then the plants and the machinery, remove the gravel and put in the sand. Put the plants and other decoration back, and release the residents to their new home. How hard can that be?

Yeah. Unfortunately I have managed to buy the sneakiest bastards ever to be my pets. The fish and the shrimps swam for their dear life to escape my catching attempts, hiding themselves under the most creative things the best they could. The pleco, to make things even more difficult, glued herself to every available surface, and when a pleco doesn't want to let go, it'll take a sizable crowbar to prize it loose. To my sorrow I only found three of the five shrimps I was supposed to have in the tank, so two must have perished at some point without me noticing a thing.

Then there was the matter of the sand. I spent yesterday washing the excess dust from it, all the while spreading it evenly across the bathroom and, as it appears, across the rest of the apartment too. There's sand everywhere. Plus, I think the nice guy in the aquarium shop made a mistake when calculating how much sand do I need, because there's probably too much of it in the tank now and there still is almost a third of it left. What do I do with a pile of extra sand? Build a castle? I haven't even figured out what to do with the gravel.

The result of it all was me, wet and covered in sand, some very upset fish and a better-looking fish tank. Although the water hasn't cleared out yet and it's been hours.

Damn. The pleco is still sulking in her corner, while the other animals are by now quite happily swimming around. I may have to give her a pea tonight to soothe her bad mood.