ugly goldfish are NOT cheap

A goldfish seems like a perfectly good fish to have. They need very little to no care, adapt well to any aquatic environment, being bottom feeders they are excellent tank cleaners and at 15 cents a fish are easy on the wallet. If goldfish were all you chose to fill your tank with really there would be little to no need for even a filter, thus saving you money and time as well.

So what happens when your husband decides to add not one, but three ugly goldfish, whom your children lovingly name 'General Grievous', 'Batman' and 'Flash' to your serene and lovely fish tank which houses a rather jolly little black molly named 'George Costanza' and his friendly sidekick 'Arg the Pirate', the resident algae eater?

chaos. that's what.

Within days the fish were not visible, AT ALL, through the once crystal clear turn murky yellowish brown water. The once perky and social George was now a rather sluggish and skiddish George. Arg was just ornery. And really who wouldn't be when a big ugly goldfish sporting the name of a ruthless villain constantly steals your food right off the top of your head and gets too close to your eyeballs?

"But goldfish are so cheap!" Was W.'s prime reason for buying them. He wanted more fish, but didn't want to pay $2-$5 or more per fish. Cheap my hind foot, as my Granny used to say. The other night W. walked out of the local pet store with a comprehensive water read out, a new fish bowl, a bag of rocks and an aquarium vacuum cleaner. The water read out was free, but still time is money and all that sort of thing.

The three "fat lards" as I call them are now housed in their own little fish bowl, George is back to being jolly and only Arg eats Arg's food.

Cheap ended up costing us a total of $8.00 and some change plus 15 cents multiplied by three, $15.00 for a bag of rocks and whatever the cost of the vacuum, plus now we have two fish tanks. Factor in the cost of the extra food and well you guessed it, goldfish are not so cheap.

Did I mention that they are ugly?