masterwordsmith-unplugged

In my household, each member of the family has a deep love for many creatures - great or small. Having been unable to overcome the death of my beloved dog 25 years ago, I have only been keeping hamsters and white mice. Recently, my husband gave my younger boy an aquarium and many colorful fishes. The first batch did not do well as the light was too close to the water surface and raised the temperature thereby shortening the life span of the fish. After some minor adjustments, we finally found the correct position for the light.

Last night, in an attempt to assuage the pain of losing my last hamster Mishy, my husband took us to the CTY pet shop. As mentioned in an earlier post, I could not bring myself to replace Mishy with another hamster - it is just NOT the same. So I stood by the various cages admiring the antics of the different breeds in the shop.

Nick and his dad had a gala time choosing neon tetra ...

and zebra danio (no pics available as they move quickly) but take a look at these lovely guppies which Nick has named Jablies and Publies...

They were soon released into the aquarium as soon as we got home. There was one problem though - the big bully of the aquarium - a tiger barb named Blumaroo started throwing his weight around and chased the smaller newcomers, especially the zebra danio which are long fishes with black and blue stripes. Take a look at Blumaroo...

The Man of the house decided to put Blumaroo in a separate container and of course I was absolutely against this move to put him in solitary confinement!!!

"Do your maths," he said. "Blumaroo costs 50 cents while the three neon tetra each costs 80 cents and the zebra danio each costs 50 cents. Would you rather lose all the smaller fish because of ONE big bully or lose ONE big bully and save the smaller fish?"

I responded, "I want all of them to survive. Their lives cannot be measured by their monetary value. Besides, we have had Blumaroo right from Day 1 of the aquarium. We must love them for who they are and not who is more expensive than the other."

And so my campaign to release Blumaroo from solitary confinement went on the whole night and continued from the early hours of the morning...Initially, Blumaroo went crazy and swam at turbo speed round his new home. I protested that this guy is so lonely and then they let one of the zebra danio join him and both went crazy. When I woke up in the middle of the night to check on Blumaroo, the poor guy had resigned himself to his fate and was almost stationary.

This morning, I continued my protest and Nick finally let the two of them return to the aquarium. Surprisingly, Blumaroo seemed to have learnt his lesson for he no longer played the role of BIG BULLY and till now, has not chased any of the small fish.

The point that I am trying to make is that if a punishment is imposed on someone/a creature that deserves it, they will learn and turn over a new leaf. However, if imposed with wrong reasons or indiscriminately, there could be negative repercussions. There has to be a limit in the type of punishment given. I am sure that if Blumaroo had stayed on longer in his solitary confinement situation, he would have perished from depression or loneliness and not because of a lack of food.

So now, they all live happily, harmoniously, each observing their own boundaries. All it takes is for ONE person or group to start creating trouble and disharmony is likely to occur until all cannot live in peace and harmony.

If only life could be as easy for homo sapiens....

*Pics were taken by Nick.