I went out today with the intention of spending the gift certificate to the fish store that I got for my birthday from Carolyn. After wandering around for 45 minutes, dodging the kids of families wandering over from the Chinese buffet next door, and finding the fish I was after was out of stock, we moved on to the smaller, more local fish store I've been to for years.
The people who run the little shop have known me since I was so little that I had to be lifted up to look in the tanks above the bottom row, or warned not to put my little digits into the piranha tank. I found out today that they've finally found someone to buy them out of their little shop and allow them to retire home to their own personal wildlife community and family. While they were nice people and all, I'm going to be most disappointed if the new ownership either a) runs the place into the ground or b) jacks up the prices, and changes the selection much, or some combination thereof.
Anyways, I picked up some new fish for the tank downstairs which was down to just my oscar. The oscar has been getting pickier over food as it gets bigger, so I decided to grab some feeder guppies to change it up a bit. Little was I expecting to be so entertained by watching the oscar hunt down 11 of the 12 guppies within half an hour. Slowly at first, but with more effectiveness as it figured out the technique, and wore down the smaller fish. The smarter of the guppies, or at least those who lucked out by zigging instead of zagging lucked out for a little while behind the filter, but that no long-term memory thing will kill you every time.
Unfortunately, now that the fleeting guppy supply has been dispensed with, the oscar has kept up a bit of an aggressive streak and is poking at the other, larger (but not large enough) fish I also picked up. They're doing a slightly better job of finding the places in the tank the oscar can't get to. Survival of the fittest at its finest; hopefully they hold out a bit longer to give me a bit more enjoyment out of my rapidly dwindling savings.