What animals make the best/worst pets?
All pets make the best and the worst depending on the person, and that’s due to wanting one kind of pet because it’s cool and really being another pet’s kind of owner.
For instance, if you don’t like to walk every single day, don’t get a dog that’s barely under the weight limit at your apartment complex because it’s adorable and “you can’t help yourself.” A dog depends on you to be out in the weather no matter what several times a day. Shelters are full of that kind of regret.
For me, the truth is in the slash with aquariums. They’re the best because they’re the most beautiful, especially salt. I also like the type of maintenance that aquariums need, so it doesn’t feel like work to me. However, they’re the worst in terms of startup costs and ongoing maintenance, because if something goes wrong with one fish, there’s a domino effect. I also fit the tank to the pet. I won’t put even one goldfish in a 10 gallon tank as a permanent solution. Goldfish grow, and if they’re in a container too small, their guts and bones will start to squish to adjust to the size. If you give goldfish the space and time they need to grow, you’ll never spend more than 15 cents for fish. It’s also really hard to tell a fancy goldfish from a feeder fish when they’re young, so I’ve had a black “feeder fish” with golden flecks grow into a bubble eye of some kind, and several goldens with dual fantails.
The care on goldfish, however, is relentless. They are nasty fish, and if you don’t have a live aquatic solution (and I can’t even think of plants that can keep up with goldfish shit), you’ll be cleaning the tank at least every six weeks, if not more often. Because other breeds of fish cause so much less waste, I’ve stopped keeping goldfish. But it’s a great hobby when you do find those very expensive fish among those meant to feed predatory fins.
If I ever start a new aquarium, I’d like to put live plants in it this time, because you can make an ecosystem that runs itself, you just trim the plants. The water stays clear on its own, and there are a ton of ways to do it.
Aquascaping videos on YouTube are why I know so much about construction now. My algorithms started leading to bigger and bigger landscapes…… from aquariums to tiny houses to Perkins Brothers, foureyesfurniture, and Bourbon Moth (my three absolute favorite content creators on YouTube). But liking these types of channels started with Paul Cuffaro, then an 18 year old kid who built ponds in his parents’ backyard. He’s a Florida YouTube legend now. I still watch Cuffaro, I just like furniture and house building more now.
So when I tell you that fish are a blessing and a curse, I know quite a bit about which I speak. But it adds so much to a room and the work is so tedious it’s zen, truly, especially snipping live plants like you’re Mr. Miyagi. But it’s a rhythm you have to get into, and a chore that’s not fun until you get into it. Hard to make yourself start, hard to make yourself quit because once you start, it must be perfect, because you need to feel the zen inside yourself before you can rest.
I often feel that working on an aquarium is in fact rearranging my own chi. A water change is a breath of fresh air, moving a cave, for a fish, is a brand new cave. I keep it in mind. Blog entries are often mental water changes, the zen of cleaning an autistic mind.
I am very much raking sand every day, here, with you. When you read, you pick up a rake and leave your own impressions. My thoughts mix with yours, so maybe your path is circular in reading just as mine is in writing. Yet we arrive at the same place.
You have reached the end by diving in. I have reached the end by coming back up.
Stories That Are All True 