I swear I wasn't trying to kill the last fish swimming forlornly around in my tropical fish tank (I can't even kill snails, the sound they make when you stomp on them makes me dry retch), but nevertheless, the poor lonely thing up and died today.
So now I have this awful guilt... combined with relief that I can finally pack the thing up and give it away! This is the first time in 17 years, by my recollection, that I have had no tropical fish. And I don't feel sad about it. Isn't it funny how our priorities and interests change as we move towards a more simple and sustainable life?!
The tank just wasn't sustainable at all. For starters, it sucked the electricity up. It had a power filter, heater and aerator pump on 24/7, plus a fluorescent light on for 14 hours a day. According to my Cent-A-Meter, it was consuming around 0.25 kW on average. That works out at costing around 75 cents per day - or a whopping $273.75 per year - to run!
Secondly, to keep the tank healthy you need to change one third of the water at weekly intervals. My tanks holds around 150 litres - hence a need for 50 litres of clean, dechlorinated water each week (not that I changed it that often, *ahem*).
Thirdly, whilst some fish are easily captive-bred, many of the popular tropical pet fish for home aquariums are caught off the shore of Indonesia and the Philipines. To say the industry is unregulated and unsustainable would be an understatement.
Then there's the production of all the various fish foods and sundry accessories, and shipping them all around the world...
So goodbye, little fishies. I mourn for the two lovely big clown loaches I had for 15 years before the dreaded Ick in some new fish killed them a couple of months ago (*meep*), but on the whole I am looking forward to some serious savings on our energy bills and some extra room to move around the dining table!
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