Wiley thinks that was one of the cardinal sins of parenting

[siercia]

I'm not so sure.

Suckerfish-suckerfish* (the new-ish pleco we'd bought) died over the weekend. Oooops. Rather than try and explain death to Miss Widget, we took the coward's way out and went and bought a new pleco. Yeah, if that makes us bad parents, so be it. Widget certainly didn't notice the swap.

And keeping in mind halleyscomet's words about "if the plecos are fine, the goldfish will be", we've added a heater to the tank setup (it was in the low 60's, now it's warmer, within the recommended pleco range) and a Ph testing kit (that was a little off too)

So, now we have a peppier pleco, and still three happy goldfish, and Widget's none the wiser.

* Widget is responsible for all the fish names. So we have Dorothy (three guesses where *that* came from), Shark and Whale as goldfish, and Suckerfish-suckerfish the pleco. Cute, eh?

Comments

[sarahparah.livejournal.com]

Heh. We have a tank too and y'know, fishies die. It never occured to us to *not* just say "fishie died" ! although now she probably thinks that when people die you put them in the bushes in the garden too.

Seriously though, you'd probably find that Widget doesn't have the same kind of scary thoughts about death that we grownups do.

[siercia]

You are quite likely right. And if we'd not planned on getting another anyway, or Widget had been around when it happened, I probably just would have told her. Since she was away for the weekend, and she just walked in and said "Hi suckerfish-suckerfish!", we figured it was probably just as easy to leave it alone. I doubt we would have tried if it had been one of the goldfish.

[kayre]

I learned only after I was an adult that our beloved turtle, "Tiny", was actually about the 10th in a succession of turtles who each died after a few days or weeks. Once we got a survivor, she really survived-- we think she was about 20 when we donated her to a nature center because we couldn't afford a big enough aquarium.

I don't seem to have been traumatized by either the deception or its revelation :)

[siercia]

Personally, I think it's one of those things that is only a big deal if you get caught in the act, as it were. Belated revelations aren't nearly such a big deal.

[gigglinggorgon.livejournal.com]

LAurel named our alge-eater sir-sucks-a-lot, hee hee!! He was actually Suck-suck-boy first, and we decided that just COULD NOT STAY, hee hee hee!

[siercia]

Suck-suck-boy?

My god, that sounds like a child prostitute from a bad Vietnam war movie. *laugh*

[gigglinggorgon.livejournal.com]

yeah, lol, that's what I though ;)

[metalliman502.livejournal.com]

i think you made a wise coice in not telling Widget. 2 1/2 is too young. i don't think she'd understand( not saying she isn't a smart little girl) or she would've been warped for life like me lol. and we all know we don't want her to turn out like her Uncle James =P

[siercia]

*shrug* I don't think it would have mattered much either way. Because she was away for the weekend, and we were planning on replacing him anyway, this just made sense, since otherwise, we would have had to have made a big deal out of the replacement.