by Carol Barnard

Created on: December 04, 2007

My husband and I have experimented keeping different kinds of fish since we married nearly thirty years ago. We have had several ponds, tanks of varying shapes and sizes, and even tried the space age looking bi-orb. All of these projects produced only limited success:
Heron's ate the fish out of one of our garden ponds. Another small pond we had in a wishing well got contaminated. Out of twenty four goldfish only two survived. The tanks faired no better. We stocked cold water fish, who would invariably die of fin rot or bloat, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. Less tenacious characters would have given up altogether, but we have continued valiantly on.

Our most recent acquisition has been a bit of a step up for us, a tropical aquarium. We had been reliably informed that tropical fish are much hardier than cold water fish. Their genes have not been radically weakened by cross breeding. As you shall see, never a truer statement has been uttered.

I had always lusted after Angel Fish, not least because their name conjured up paragon's of virtue majestically gliding through the water. We bought three. We were very circumspect with the rest of our choices so we had a varied mix in the tank. At last we could finally settle back and relax.......

A few days later the battle between the largest of the Angel Fish, we had affectionately named Zebra, and my husband commenced.

"What are you doing? You little....."

I could hear my husband raising his voice from the kitchen. I hurried in to find him peering angrily into the tank.

"Zebra's bullying the other fish. Look at that, he's chasing them round and round the tank and then pecking them."

Zebra was indeed causing unrest in the aquarium.

"Maybe he's just asserting himself as leader, and it'll all calm down in a couple of days" I ventured.

The next morning the aquarium looked eerily empty save for Zebra strutting around the tank.
There, hiding among a large clump of greenery we had planted in one corner of the tank, were the remainder of the fish. Anytime one of the fish tried to leave the greenery, Zebra would shoot over and peck them until they returned to the safety of the plant.

"Right, that's it. I've had quite enough of this, one thing I absolutely will not stand for is bullying in any shape or form." said my husband.

With one swift scoop of the little net we had purchased Zebra was in my husbands clutches. He held him up firmly around his body so they were eyeball to eyeball. My husband then proceeded to rant.

"It's not very

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