The last thing we expected to get today was a new fish tank. But we have one, and at half price.

I was thinking today that in one sense, every pet fish is a rescue fish, they all live in crowded tanks and need homes. We have two goldfish and six snails, and our 20 gallon tank is doing beautifully.

Today, it was cleaning time,  we emptied out half the tank, replaced it with settled water, put in a few new plants.

At one of  our “office” meetings, Ali had told me there was a member of the soccer team who was dying for his own fish tank, he is a budding science scholar and he would love to have his own tank for study and for his class science project. His teacher is excited about the idea.

Grades are very important to the players on the soccer team, few of their families have the money to send them to college, and they all want to go.

Some of our political leaders like to portray immigrants as thieves and murders, but that is a grotesque lie:  these boys are dying to improve themselves and get the best possible education. They are grateful to be in America; today, they all went to see Mission Impossible, courtesy of the Army Of Good.

This child is an honor student, eager to be a scientist. I had that in the back of my mind, thinking he should get the tank if we ever got a new one, which we were not thinking of doing.

We spent a couple of hours exchanging water, pumping out the waste in the bottom, placing the new plants, taking out the decaying ones,  the goldfish and snails are hardly and unflappable.

Maria loves doing projects like this, and I confess I do also. We’ve been plotting it all week.

We seem to love watching the fist at times, the tank has all natural plants and is soothing and restful to watch.

I got the tank for Maria as a birthday present and it was a good present, she loves the fish, named Frieda and Diego, and the big white snail named Socrates, and I can’t keep track of the names of the five smaller snails, Maria knows them all.

We have talked often about getting a somewhat larger tank, it would be easier and we could perhaps add another fish or snail – we’d like to stay small. But we were not planning anything now or in the near future. We have a new dog coming soon.

The timing of things today altered our plans.

We were barely finished when I got an e-mail from Petco announcing a dramatic “one dollar sale” on fish tanks, one dollar off each gallon all the way down to 50 percent. Half off. That meant a 40 gallon tank would be around $50.

In the late afternoon, we scooted over to the Bennington Petco to talk to Devon, the manager there.

We looked at the 40 gallon tanks, but we thought they were too large for our table, and then Maria spotted a 29 gallon tank for even less money – much lower than the tanks on Amazon or elsewhere.

We decided on the spot to get one. Fate seemed to be intervening.

Frieda and Diego and the snails can have even more room and we can construct a beautiful landscape with the plants we have.

The pump we have now will work in the bigger one and the larger tank fits perfectly on the table, as you can see. I’ll let the water settle for a week or so and we’ll make the transition next weekend.

I’m going to meet with the soccer team player, a refugee from Asia, and see what his mother thinks about his getting a tank. I know they are short on funds, so he would need a stipend to pay for food, filters, and some inexpensive equipment like a net, etc. and a new pump and filter.  We have everything else he might need, including an LED light and some gravel.

I want to make sure he is committed to caring for the fish (just like the rescue groups do) and also that he will have enough money to take care of the tank or work to pay for supplies. But I don’t care if he goes to school all day, he can still have the fish.

Ali says he is a hard-working kid who is serious about learning and very responsible. And he has suffered a good bit.

Looks promising.

I would stay in touch and help him if figure things out. Much of my childhood was taken up breeding and caring for tropical fish – I had a half-dozen large tanks in my room at one point when I was 10 or 11.  I abandoned fish when my heating thermostat short circuiting and blew up all of my tanks. My dog Sam rushed upstairs and licked most of my carefully bred fish up off the floor and ate them.

I didn’t have another fish until Maria’s birthday last year.

It’s curious, but it is very nice to have them again, it brings me back to a difficult time but in a good way. I still like having a fish tank, and I remember almost everything I learned.

So we got the 29 gallon tank, it is just the right size for the table, set up the new LED lamp, hosed it down and filled it up. It fits.

Tonight, we dragged the garden house into the house to fill up the new tank, the water was colder than the air so the sides frosted a bit, it looks quite beautiful. I’ll test the water in a few days, mineral content and PH.

I like the symmetry here, we get a bigger  tank for little money, a worthy refugee child gets a tank for little or no money, and some needy goldfish get a future scientist to take good care of them.

I won’t need outside funds for these, the cost will be low, and this one is on me. It feels personal.

I also get to make some good use of my childhood time with fish. I am surprised that I have forgotten nothing. I’ll love teaching this wonderful child how to do it if he will let me.

Life is mysterious and wonderful sometimes. All the time.