So, I encouraged my mom to get goldfish since she seemed to like Fish and Other Fish a lot. So she did. Her fish got along pretty well, up until one of them died unexpectedly two weeks ago. Fish suddenly became too much work for her, thus I inherited her one remaining goldfish, and a sucker type fish whose breed I can't recall.

This is okay with me, I guess, since she was threatening to flush them otherwise. (Have you met my mother? She's nothing if not melodramatic.) But I'm wondering what Fish and Other Fish must think of the whole situation. Sure, goldfish aren't terribly bright, but I think they're smart enough to notice that they suddenly have aquired a new roommate that swims about like they do, and another that spends 99% of its time hiding under a rock.

The thing you have to understand is that these fish are 2.5 years old, and they haven't seen any other fish since two weeks after I got them and the other two then nickel-sized goldfish went to their watery graves.  As far as they were concerned, there were no other fish in their finny little lives.

But now there are.

They're adapting fine, all four (okay, three since the other one hides) get alone fine, but I can't help but think it must have seemed incredibly strange to them to suddenly have another fish appear out of thin air.  Or maybe I'm projecting too much.