Fish Lights

This past week I finally replaced the lights in my fish tank. It suppressing what you see in your tank when you get around to doing such a simple task. I noticed fish that had been long thought victims of something akin to the moved the Vanished... Fish check in my tank and don't check out, they somehow just disappear sometimes. Well with the new lights I can find the living ones, and even the ones that have died and started to feed the plants.

I've been watching the fish in my tank very closely. I've noticed how some seem to dominate the tank. They bully the others into thinking that they are somehow inferior. They push they even nibble. One of the fish I imagine has the voice of the Godfather as he bosses the other fish down into the plants into the tank, maybe to do work for him that only the smaller fish know how to do. There is a slightly smaller fish in the tank, a tiger barb that swims next to this huge blue Grami... She swims close to him as if partners in the domination of the other fish. They take no pity on the smaller fish and charge at them when they do not keep their place in the hierarchy of the tank. I think of the second fish with a female nasally voice that barks out from time to time commands with a demeaning tone to the other fish. Keep your place, make sure you tend to the plants closely. I see some fish in the tank ignore these two monsters and yet others try to hide, to blend in with the grass so as to not be noticed, they only come out when the food is present, and the two bossy fishes attention is distracted. At times it annoys me to the point of thinking that I should put the two bossy ones in the toilet and flush. But I keep them, they remind me of life and how we treat each other.

Are the fish in the aquarium really that different than how we treat each other in life?

There is the fish that sneak around the bottom of the tank rarely seen, he keeps things clean and minds his own business. There are the tetra's they swim freely but dodge out of the bullies way when they are in their more pecky moods. The rainbow fish swim back, and forth, back and forth, continually going about this routine with out realizing that they are in a tank and will never make any progress in life. Some of the cardinal tetras are the most brilliant of colors, in appearance I wish that they would swim proudly through the middle of the tank, but they prefer the safety of being in clusters, and swimming close to the ground, its safe there... Not much to worry about and the food eventually comes to them, its them I feel the most sorrow for, for they never seem to know freedom to swim boldly in the tank and show the world what makes them so beautiful.

Which am I most like, which are you? I guess at times, I'm a cardinal tetra swimming and keeping my head low, at other times I'm more like the rainbow fish keeping pace, keep moving, keep doing. I envy the bottom feeders (no gay pun here). They seem to just be content to be where they are at, move when they desire, but their lack of ambition, is matched by their lack of beauty, yet they are functional and content with life. I still think of flushing the two bossy fish... They are a pain in the ass to the peace of the tank.

May the barbs beware, the toilet is always near by....