Shaw's New Fish

We bought two new fish for Shaw's tank today. He picked the biggest bottom feeder he could and then we took the smaller one that ended up in the net along with him.

When we got them home, I let them out into the general population. What followed next was pretty profound for me on several different levels.

The smaller one sank to the bottom and sat there for a minute or two. He then surveyed the tank, found the two catfishes that were busy eating junk from the bottom, and swam over to join them. The three of them then began to clean the bottom of the tank together and swim around together.

The large one wasn't so lucky. He dropped to the bottom and immediately went over to the plants to try to hide. First the Mollies came over to say "Hi" and see how he tasted. He panicked and swam further into the foliage. Then the snail came along and attempted to move past him. This time his whole body wigged out and he started swimming up and down the tank, as if in a full blown panic. And then he stopped. He attached himself to the side of the tank, on the farther corner of the tank, and he hasn't moved.

 

This really made me start to think. These two fish were thrown into a tank, an unknown place, with foreign fish, leaving behind everything their little fish brains know, and expected to assimilate into the pack. One of them was able to mingle easily and he is doing well. The other one may or may not make it. We've had another fish that didn't make it and I wondered if he ever ate anything or just wasted away.

And of course this led me right back to adoption and our little one losing everything she knows. She will be thrust into a home with people she doesn't know, unfamiliar surroundings, and she'll be expected to assimilate. She'll be expected to learn OUR language, eat OUR food, follow OUR traditions. She won't be given a choice on whether she wants this or not, it will simply be expected of her. And we'll smile and think "Isn't it nice to see how well adjusted she is?" and "We couldn't ask for a more loving child." And all the while she will be wondering when she'll be grabbed out of the tank next and taken to another tank. Because really, you can tell her until the cows come home that she is loved, she is home, she will never be given away or go away, but what else does she know? She's used to being that fish in the tank with all the others that wonder when that net will come down next and scoop her up.