Just one more bit of bad Karma I didn't need....

....jeez -- you try to do something nice.....

So I cleaned out the fish tank. Now, one would think that would be a nice thing to do! It's a pain in the a$$, but I like to try and keep the animal members of my family healthy and happy and frankly the tank really needed it.**

So I cleaned it. Scrubbed the inside of the glass, removed all of the plants (plastic) and rocks and scrubbed them too. Replaced filters that needed to be replaced and rinsed out the permanent ones. Changed out 80% of the water. Then, I put everything back and peered in to see the gratitude on their little fishy faces. Sadly, not only was there no gratitude, the Guppy is missing. The fancy orange one. Crap.

So did a couple of head counts -- no Guppy. Waited a few minutes, repeated the head count, still no Guppy. Picked up and shook all of the plants and the rocks, checked the intakes for the filter system, removed all of the filters. No Guppy anywhere. Not in the tank, not in the bucket, not in the siphoning/cleaning tube thingy. Nada. Zip. Zero.

So now either I am an inadvertent Guppy killer, or he has been spirited away into some weird Fishy Witness Protection Program that I didn't know about.

Either way, I feel guilty. Why? I don't know. I think it's a mom/caregiver thing (you never want to lose a ward) or something. My only condolence is that it's a freshwater tank instead of saltwater so the Guppy cost like $1.35 instead of $35.00. That helps.

Now I just have to hope that the girls don't notice -- or that they at least buy my whole Fishy Witness Protection Program story.... Either way. Crap. Sorry Mr. Guppy!

**Technically, cleaning the fish tank is *not* supposed to be my job. But as it is with all pets, in my experience, care and feeding almost ALWAYS becomes "Mom's" job.....