A Fish Tale or The One That Got Away

I own some rental property and one of my tenants moved out and left his huge Oscar Fish.I had no idea how to care for fish, but thanks to my local pet store and the internet, I soon learned.I was instructed to buy some "Feeder Fish" for the Oscar, which were adorable little Goldfish, to supplement his diet. I thought it was a barbaric idea but I did it anyway. There were several "feeders" in the little bucket I carried in from the pet store. My kids thought it was Chinese food from the looks of the container, but I told them it was Oscar's dinner not theirs.When I dumped the feeders into Oscar's tank there was a mad flurry of churning water as Oscar charged his victims. It was a disturbing sight to witness. In the aftermath of the mayhem the water sparkled brightly with what appeared to be gold glitter settling to the bottom very much like a snow globe after it has been shaken. It was the golden scales of the goldfish which were all that remained after Oscar's attack. Later that evening, my son called to me to come and look in Oscar's tank.One of the little feeder fish had escaped the massacre. He had hidden up under the filter where Oscar could not get to him. The little guy had used his brain and outsmarted the big guy in sort of a David and Goliath fashion. My son begged me to get the little fish out of Oscar's tank and set him up in his own fishbowl. I "fished" him out and we named him "Dave".Dave turned out to have a great personality. He was so entertaining and seemed to be genuinely glad to be alive. We never got any more feeder fish for Oscar. He had to get by with regular fish food. He didn't seem to mind and lived a long healthy life as did Dave. VXA©