The other day, the girls left to go get some french fries from Wendys. Two hours later they came back with a baby tropical fish they dubbed lovingly Thor and plopped him in a cute 1-gallon tank. Impulse buying at it's finest. We, as an apartment, have been talking about getting a fish for some time but were planning on acting on that when we were all back together in September.
Thor has been hanging out at Trish and Russell's for the last few days because no one will be here for a few weeks to take care of him. Yesterday, Trish called Erin to tell us that not only has Thor been eating fishy flakes by the pound, he has been JUMPING out of the water, trying to eat Trish's finger when she wiggles it at him.
(Baby Oscars)
I wake up this morning to: "BAD NEWS BEARS!" being yelled in our living room. I walked out and before I could ask what was going on, both Anne and Erin look up at me from the couch with fear in their eyes: "We have a BIG problem."
Anne and Erin did some research on our new pet this morning (two days AFTER buying him, of course) Turns out: Thor is an Oscar fish, who are typically found in the Amazon. And our two inch little buddy will quickly grow to be 15 inches long or more. Not only that but:
-A large aquarium of at least 70 gallons is required to house a pair of Oscars.
-Oscars have hearty appetites and should only be kept with fish that are the same size or larger; smaller fish soon become a quick snack for the Oscar.
-Captive oscars may be fed prepared fish food designed for large carnivorous fish, crayfish worms, and insects such as flies or grasshoppers
-A very large Oscar could easily exceed 2 pounds in weight.
and oscarfishlover.com was quick to put erin's solutions about just getting a 10-galleon tank a rest:
"If you know anything about the Oscarfish, you will know that they get very big, and they get big in a relatively short space of time. They are also very messy fish, both in their eating and toilet habits. For this reason I would suggest that you set yourself up with the right equipment at the very beginning. I know that a 2 inch Oscar doesn't look anything in a big tank, but believe me, that 2 inch Oscar won't stay 2 inches for very long. Far too many people think they have got time on their hands when purchasing Oscars. They think they can house their little friend in a 10 gallon fish tank for a few months while they think about getting a larger aquarium. I am afraid that is not the case with Oscars. "
so now, not only do we have a man-eating fish in a tank that is already too small for it, we have to figure out what on earth we are going to do with dear little Thor, because we cannot afford to have a 20 galleon fish tank in our apartment! We'll get kicked out if we get caught! Anne and I both think the best solution is to bring Thor back to the store and get a Beta (like we had planned on originally) but Erin is convinced he'll die there.
and no, Erin, putting a box labeled "misc." over the tank when our managers come by is not the winning solution.
lesson learned: impulse buying fish that no one knows about (including the workers at walmart) is never a good idea.
