A fish called Herman

At my job there was fish named Herman. He resided in the station’s accountant office, officially hers, but he was beloved by all… especially me. When he got sick about a year ago, I became dedicated to saving him. A little hard work, some luck, and some supplies at Petco and Herman became a new fish. I became his caretaker. If anything went wrong, I would get grief from everyone that I wasn’t doing my duty well. I took it, because I could just watch Herman swim around and get a Zen-like calm.

To help combat the constant algae growing in his tank, I got him a companion: a yellow-shelled snail named Francesca Louise Garcia Rrrrrramone. She was a voracious cleaner (eater), but she was also very pushy, pushing Herman out of her way in pursuit of food. Finally Herman had enough, and got back at her the only way he could: he ate her antennae. Francesca, now injured and newly made skittish, stopped eating and ended up dying. So I then bought another one for Herman, smaller and a little more timid named Lily. Unfortunately, due to an error on my part, she died shortly after arrival.

I came to work on Friday and saw a sight that deeply saddened me. Herman was lifeless on the bottom of his tank. The accountant told me that he had passed on Wednesday, but she had kept him in there to show me that I failed to take care of him. She spent the entire day doing this, making me feel bad for what had happened. I don’t think she realized how deeply it hurt me doing this. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you a story…

When I was younger my parents gave me a fish tank with assorted fish. I loved it, and it was my responsibility to take care of them all. The first time it didn’t end well at all, as when I was feeding them, I noticed that they didn’t smell too good. So being the responsible kid I was, decided to correct the problem the only way I knew how:

I dumped the entire contents of my father’s bottle of Brut I had gotten from my parent’s bathroom.

They smelled nice, and I went to bed satisfied I had done a good thing. The next morning… well, let’s just say I learned a valuable lesson. To this day I STILL get grief for that incident. So my parents decided to try again. I would just put in what my parents said to put in there, and everything went well.

A few months later, we all went fishing at a place known as Picnic Point. During the trip, I caught a crawfish, basically a small freshwater lobster. I wanted to keep it as a pet, so my parents relented and I took it home and placed it in the fish tank. I thought how great it would be, they could all play together, share the space and all would be well.

I wish I had watched more 'Animal Kingdom' when I was a kid…

Turns out Crawfish don’t eat fish food… but rather fish. In the course of a couple days, it devoured the population of the tank, and shortly after that my parent’s experiment with me and fish came to an end.

I am a person who tries his best to always take care of animals in my charge, and even those that are not. When I mess up and cause a situation fatal to an animal, I am mortified for what I have done. There was an incident involving a baby mouse I was trying to catch that went horribly wrong that my brother witnessed. He gave me grief for a while until he realized how bad I really felt about it. Which is like what is happening now. I really cared about Herman, and did as much as I could to keep him as happy as a fish could be. And to get made fun of for his death, being called a fish killer really brought me down. I didn’t voice this, though; as I most likely would have been treated like I was making a big deal over nothing.

So on Saturday I came back to work and I asked the weekend accountant if he could take care of Herman. I didn’t really feel like I was the one who should do it. I will take the tank, remove its contents and then sterilize it. Maybe she will get another fish, but I won’t help this time. It’s her choice, she will have to deal with it. Instead, I will focus on my beta, Crow. Hopefully I will do a better job with him. So far he seems to like the care I give him…