Farewell, Zebra

Our cichlid tank has been the source of much amusement and drama in this house. They're fascinating fish to watch, very busy and full of personality. A couple of months ago the Chief Fish, Crunchy, got sick and nearly died. While he was out of commission and in solitary confinement Vice Chief Fish, Zebra, became quite the brutal dictator. All the fish in the tank spent the whole day trying to hide from him. Kind of sad to see a big tank with nobody swimming in it! We re-introduced Crunchy, but he wasn't up to being Chief Fish any more so we put up a barrier and left Zebra in jail, which absolutely infuriated him. Fluffy, #3 fish, was glued to Crunchy's side nursing him and protecting him. Very funny to watch. Then the #4 fish, Zippy, somehow got through the barrier and Zebra killed him! Yikes! We said farewell to Zippy (Eli's fish).

Yesterday, Zebra somehow jumped or scooted through or around the barrier and was beating up on Crunchy and Fluffy when Amirah woke up. She scooped him up and put him back in jail. So, tonight, off to the fish store went Zebra to go live with much bigger fish (and hopefully get a taste of his own medicine!). We traded him in for two little tiny three-inch cichlids (well, actually traded him in for 70% of one cichlid and we paid for the rest!). They are now swimming around the tank (a little) and hiding under the rocks (a lot). There were beautiful yellow and dark blue cichlids, but both Amirah and Eli wanted plain white ones, so that's what we got! No names yet. It's nice to have the jail barrier out of there and fish swimming around the whole tank again. And we all hope Zebra is enjoying his new home, and Crunchy and Fluffy are enjoying a less stressful environment. Great classroom pets!

Oh, and we almost came home with a hissing cockroach (after Amirah begged and begged), but papa decided she could clean out her old goldfish bowl and catch her very own cockroach for free instead of paying $1.50. Granted, the $1.50 ones were much larger and made a great hissing noise but, well, I think fish make good pets. Today we also got to see one of the hermit crabs out of his shell, maybe getting ready to molt (?). He's buried in the sand. We think the other one is buried somewhere too. The cage has a few mites, so we're going to have to clean it all out sometime soon here.

One is constantly reminded of how perfect Hashem's creations are and how absolutely wonderful and intricate. How could one doubt that Hashem is everywhere?