inspired by Big Fish - the small fish

Hmm. The name of fish reminds me of my dad, too.
The first memory of fish is the black dotted pair and a gold fish he got after visiting his friend. I would have been 10 or 11 then. For the next few months, he would take me and my sister to a local fish store and we would spend hours gazing at the tiny beauties swimming effortlessly for hours and without break. We made it a point to buy fish food when we return from school, by ourselves so that dad wont get bored waiting for us at the shop!

My fear for live animals never went down a bit; I would scream when they jump out of the nets when mom and sister clean their tank.. I once remember holding one with bare hands when it fell out and no one heard my screams for rescue.. I had to pick the slimy character from the dry floor, where it jumped all over the place looking for water! I have to admit, the first thing I thought of was not picking up and putting it into water, but pouring a little water over the floor so that it will lie still and I really do not have to pick it!! What presence of mind.. lol.. It tickled my hands and made me nervous; it was one of those old black mollies with graying out scales which I never liked to watch.. but still, thinking of it dying made me weak. From then on, I made sure, the little naughty ones never made a mess and had a watchful eye on all young and old alike!

All was fine till the day, when we found all the fish dead and floating.. the one and half foot tank was colorful with fish food and fish alike! We thought the useless lizard which plays hide and seek with dad and tries to eat them at night (the tank we had was an open top!) would have poisoned the water. Or some one later suggested that we overfed them because we all went away for picnic for a day! I never could understand why someone would want to eat and die even if it feels full! Have heard of starvation death..but what is over-eating death?!
Looking at the miniatures dead none of us wanted to see it again and decided to quit keeping fish at home. That was a way to keep the neighborhood kids who wanted to kill time “fish-watching”, away too! My sister's interior decoration ideas included leaving the tank in its place with colored pebbles and shells and conches in water..but with no fish! The water became still and there was no life in it! And it remained untouched for years until mom got tired of clearing the water every weekend and we decided to clear the space!

That’s the end of small fish story!