Death and Taxes

Now all of these guys are flushed.

After procrastinating for long enough (all the while telling myself it was because I was trying to save up as much as possible, even though it was because I was scared of the 1099 process) I finally did my taxes today.

I gotta hand it to Turbo Tax for being pretty easy to follow. My favorite thing is when they tell you when some option is common or uncommon and then give examples so newbies can figure it out. It cost me $90 and I doubt I got as many deductions as I could have or should have, but I still ended up owing a lot less than I anticipated (helloooooo new MacBook Pro!!!) and got it done within a few hours, so not to shabby. 

However, earlier today, again after a lot of procrastination, I finally changed the water in my fish tank. About half of the water had evaporated over the weeks (it'd been a while since any water was put into it) and I took about another quarter out for a total of three quarters water change, which is about normal. After adding about half of the total amount of tap water in, which has always been fine for my fish since I specifically got hardy ones, I put in a bit of the water purifier. Then I added more tap water and topped it off with a few drops of the purifier. Maybe the tap water was too warm, maybe the fish were old, but the shock of the water change killed my two silver fish.

Fucking nothing is certain but death and taxes.

I'm a little sad because I'd had these guys for a while and kinda thought they were indestructible (I asked the guy at the fish store for fish that were difficult to kill and have been quite pleased with them the last few years), and after adding a couple of more fish to control my exploding snail population the silver fish were no longer kings of the pond. The new fish were bigger, though they were all supposed to live peacefully together, and the silver fish seemed intimidated and not as likely to go after food. It could be me seeing more of the situation than there was, but they looked thin (if fish can look thin). So I'm not really surprised that they died. I do feel bad for them though- I did like them a lot.

One thing is for sure though: I'm not replacing these guys. I'm about ready to be done with the whole having a fish tank thing, especially now that they're getting fed twice a day instead of once (damn spoiled fish) which is fun on weekends, and the new fish are still young so I know they'll be around a while, assuming I don't kill them with water changes. I swear, I kill more fish by changing the tank water than anything else. It must be like desert plants: water them too much and they shrivel up and die.

In other news, the water change has reminded me that I have way too many snails for one fish tank. I need something that eats the adults that won't eat my surviving swimmers.