Just Keep Swimming

I am pleased to announce the arrival of our newest family member ...

His name is Lunch.

He's lived with us for over a week now, which is a bit surprising considering his tank mate is a bloodthirsty monster that lurks in the depths of his home.

And also because he was specifically purchased as a meal for said bloodthirsty monster.

I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I walked into the pet shop and asked for live food for my turtle. Sure, I wanted to vary his diet, and yes, it would be good for him to have to catch his food like he would in the wild rather than just have it handed to him.

But the thing about live food is ... well ... it's alive.

The guy in the shop led me over to a tank of pretty yellow fish and said, "These will be good for him. Plus there's plenty of calcium in the bones."

"Wow, they're quite big," I said, beginning to suspect I was making a mistake. "My turtle's only a little guy. They're going to stay alive long enough for me to fall in love with them and then I'll be really upset when he eats them."

"Nah," he said, "He'll take 'em down. You won't have time to love 'em."

"But I've only been watching them for 30 seconds and I already love them a little bit."

I ended up buying three fish. Or rather, I bought two and got the third for free because it was already dead.

It was almost humorous watching him try to "hunt" the dead one. It would get swept up in the currents caused by the filter and he'd chase it up and down the length of the tank. And being that he's still so little, he would also get tumbled about when he got too close to the water jets.

Watching him devour the live one a day later, however, involved no humour whatsoever. It was brutal. His attacks were vicious and the death was horrifically slow.

Now, I'm a delicate lass with an overactive sense of empathy. I could anthropomorphise a stapler. Watching my turtle do things the way he'd have to do them in the wild was a traumatic experience, and not one I wish to witness again. From now on, as far as my turtle is concerned, food is something that comes in pellet form or little frozen blocks.

With any luck he'll be satisfied enough chasing frozen bloodworms through the filter currents to skip Lunch altogether.

The Bloodthirsty Monster of the Deep
questions my use of the G minor chord