the attack of the killer goldfishes

(taken from Thursday is Laundry Day)

As I have mentioned, I was tasked to take care, besides my self and the house, my mother’s orchids and four goldfishes. Everything is fine except for the fishes.

I think they have turned to Cannibalism.

There were originally 7 of them. Raul was the first to go. He is the one with the big belly and who usually has fishcrap sticking out of his behind. One night, my mom and I came home from the baptism of my niece when we found Raul floating in the aquarium with Nena beside him while the other five were suspiciously cramming in one corner of the fish tank. He was floating with foam in his mouth and had the flesh on his belly tore off. The water wasn’t that clear when we arrived, which suggest that they didn’t eat the fishflakes we had fed them that morning before we left and that the food just dissolved, leaving the water murky. Two days after, when I arrived home, mama broke to me the news that one of the fishes that were left was missing. It was Nena. Later that night, I found her under my computer table. Mama said that it must have been Nena was very lonely and committed suicide. But I saw a different story. Yes, I agree that it was suicide. But it was not out of loneliness or rage, but because of fear. This angle that I looked into (being the son of a police investigator) is that Nena was scared of being eaten as well. There are traces of resistance in the way her tail appeared. The tail was wounded at the tip and that after the incident, the five were swimming at the bottom part of the tank indicative of a certain desire to swim in areas that are colder. The low temperatures, as I postulate, help to slow down the metabolism of the fishes in situations that food is scarce. But still, it got me thinking, they can’t keep this forever! Some day they will need to eat and their distaste with the fishflakes that we buy for them won’t be changing any time soon.

So then it happened. The latest of the casualties was Valentino. He is the smallest of the five. Then, I found myself thinking: Survivor Fishtank. In my opinion, it would have been better if they had ganged up on Max, the biggest of the Goldfish Mafia, for four reasons.
1) they got to eliminate the greatest threat in terms of its capacity to dominate
2) they got to yield the largest amount of food because of the his size
3) they got rid of the biggest consumer of food
4) they would have made the competition less lopsided for anyone of them who will be left for the last two. Imagine if Max survives up to the end (which he would probably will), it would be easier for him snap the life out of anyone who will stand (swiM0 in his way because who will be left will still be, as it has always been, someone less strong than him.

But as the story goes, they chose to eliminate Valentino. What was only left of him was his head.

So now, I’m wondering, how could I get these fishes to stop eating each other? Im afraid that when mama gets home, there will be nothing left of her goldfishes. Well, I could tell her that we have cannibal fishes. But she wouldn’t believe me anyway…