A new addition to our little family

The Mister won us a pair of friendly goldfish at a dear friend's daughters' amazing carnival-themed birthday shindig this weekend past. It might sound silly, but this unexpected addition to our little family turned us into excited, yet nervous pseudo-parents. First a bitty basil plant, and now a pair of teeny fish for which to be responsible. Neither of us had pet fish when we were kiddos, so right when we got home, we totally ransacked YouTube and Google for the how-to on goldfish-caretaking. We don't want our fish to face the same fate as our said plant, which my love zealously and accidentally overfed with water, thereby causing its unfortunate, dismal demise not too long afterward.

It's been exceedingly endearing to witness my love lead in caring for the wee fish. When we learned we were to replace the water in the fishbowl daily until we get our hands on a filter, he emptied out most of the water and gleefully poured in ice-cold Brita-filtered water, which shocked the fishy pair to flail around, belly up. The Mister yelled in aggravation when he realized he nearly froze the poor fish, and hurriedly dumped out the icy deathtrap before stabilizing the environs with room temperature water. Since then, we've purchased fish food, procured a larger tank and filter from generous friends, and had tons of fun observing the little guys swim about. The Mister also enjoys having giddy one-way conversations with them, while I get a kick out of watching the exchange.

Then a friendly lad revealed to us that they are feeder fish. In other words, they're bitty fish meant as food for bigger fish. And, they're bred to live for a mere couple of days. Our countenances indubitably fell when he broke to us the heart-wrenching newsflash. But you can bet that strengthened our resolve to keep them alive, and to help them thrive, so any advice is warmly welcomed!