Chub in a Tub

This is Chub.

This is Chub in a tub.

Now Chub doesn't normally hang out in a large Tupperware bowl, even though the yellow really accents his nice orangey scales. Chub has his own crib, er tank, to swim around in, a nice model with an air stone, a filter, lots of tank decorations, and Chub's personal favorite: pebbles. Lots and lots of pebbles that cover the bottom of his tank and collect all the Chub detritus that builds up in there. 

Everyone knows that goldfish are the pigs of the aquarium world, which means their tanks must be regularly cleaned. Usually when Chub's environs are being sanitized, he just hangs out in the tank. Sometimes, when a more massive cleaning is underway, he must retire to his snazzy yellow Tupperware tub until the procedure is done. 

Today Chub's tank was scheduled for a regular clean up, so there was no need for him to vacate the joint. 

However, if it hadn't been for my daughter, Super Smart Girl,  he might have vacated the tank in a more metaphysical sense, shuffling off his mortal coil (scale?) 

Normally, we remove a couple gallons of water from the tank every time we clean it. This is done with tubing we run from the tank water to a bucket below the table the tank rests on. Collect the water, remove the tubing, water the plants with the dirty water. Add some new water and voila! Happy fish. However, mom, who has a mind like a steel trap--rusted shut--efficiently set up the water removal system for the fish tank, and then promptly forgot about it when she was distracted by another task. 

Eventually Super Smart Girl entered the bedroom where Chub resides. Good thing. The water bucket was brimming over with dirty tank liquid which was spilling across the bedroom floor. And Chub...well let's just say that Chub was almost like a 'fish out of water'. Because I had removed not one gallon, not two gallons, but  more like 5 or 6 gallons out of his tank! 

Chub was still swimming, but the remaining water barely covered his dorsal fin. (Did you know fish can look panicky?) Fortunately we had several gallons of water that we keep on hand just for the aquarium, so they all got dumped in. The water reached a safe level and Chub heaved a sigh of relief. Actually, he went back to nosing through his pebbles, but if a fish could have sighed, he would.