Collected Item: “Fish Food”
Give your story a title.
Fish Food
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
Text Story with Photograph
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
Since the Pandemic began and I was moved to remote work I have been spending more time than ever in my apartment. I bought some house plants to liven up my humble abode but they are easy to care for and don't do too much other than exist. I was looking to get a pet to occupy some of my time but unfortunately my building does not allow for cats or dogs, so I went for a fish friend as the lease was ambiguous towards fish. In college my roommate had two fish tanks and cared for them very well. The fish were always big hits with house guests and caring for them seemed easy enough. It was with this in mind that I purchased a male betta fish, which I named Tarzan after the drug smuggler Ludwig Fainberg from the documentary "Operation Odessa" which I highly recommend. However caring for a betta fish is not as simple as I initially thought. Yet with the help of the internet and all its wisdom I was able to do enough research and find exactly what I needed to make my tank as comfortable as possible for Tarzan. I purchased a five gallon tank along with, a filter, a heater (betta fish like it warm), gravel, a background poster, a pagoda, live plants, a net, a gravel pump for cleaning, ph chemicals, a large moss rock and of course fish food. He gets fed twice a day, once in the AM and once in the PM. The tank needs to be cleaned at least once a month and the filter is changed during that process as well. Every time I crack open his food my nose is greeted by a distinct fish food smell that is unmistakable and equally unpleasant. While I do not think that it would be impossible to care for Tarzan if I was still going into the office every day, it is definitely easier now that I am home more often. Cleaning the tank takes about an hour and can get smelly at times depending on how long it has been since its last cleaning. Without the current work from home situation brought on by the pandemic I would not have considered owning any type of pet that I would have to care for on a daily basis. The average lifespan of a betta fish is between three to five years, hopefully with enough care Tarzan can live to the full five and see the other side of the pandemic.
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#Quarantine, #Fish, #Pets, #Smell
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Kevin Smith
Give this story a date.
2021-10-17