I have a new pet. We went to the pet store and I picked out a goldfish. She cost around a dollar. Less expensive than the jar of food and far less expensive than the light and filter I got for her.

Help me think of a name for her. I am not good with names. She is half white and half gold. I just thought of "twinkle". Please look at the picture and think of a name for her.

She is my birthday present to myself. I paid for her myself. My father got me the speaker. It is good to be alive. I now have a new pet. Name as of yet undetermined. Maybe I could name her after a Saint. I do not know the sex of the fish, but I am calling it a "she". So a female name. Not "Gemma." She would be black like the midnight sky. Are there black goldfish? Perhaps "Poor Clare".

The man at the pet store said you can not have goldfish together with most tropical fish as the goldfish poop out ammonia which poisons the tropical fish. He also said my fish tank is small so I should not have another fish. One is enough. I just hope she lives for a while.

I got disillusioned with fish after i tried keeping tropical fish when I was a new convert. I always went to the local pet store called "Cameo Fish" and the fish would always die immediately after I bought them. I would be lucky if they lasted a week. It was as if the store sold sick fish so the customers would keep coming back again and again to buy more and more fish. I even followed his directions checking the PH of the water and adding the tap water treatment fluid and changing the filter. Now because it is a goldfish I hope she lives longer.

The guy at the pet store said one lady who comes to the store had a goldfish that grew to fifteen inches long in a twenty gallon tank. It took three years to grow that big. I hope I have similar success in my ten gallon tank. I want to get plants to put in the tank so it looks prettier. I considered buying a "Yellow Submarine" prop to put in the fish tank but I declined because the holes for the fish to swim through were not big enough for the fish I bought.

Now I have a new friend. So help me find a name.

Yes, goldfish can grow to be 15 inches long or even larger. Tinkerbell is a cute name for now, but she will quickly outgrow that name. Goldilocks might work as she does have some gold in her fins.

My sister wants to grow coy in her backyard swimming pool, which she has convert into a fish pond. The pool is 9 feet deep in the deepest end and three inches deep in the shallow end. She put rocks and reeds in the shallow end, not knowing that tiny baby crayfish, only 1 mm long, were on the reeds hiding. Soon the entire bottom of the pool had black spots from a surprise snail bloom. They suddenly died leaving their white shells behind. Then the tiny crayfish started hiding in the shells, but quickly outgrew those hiding places. Now they are crawling all over the place.

She had always had mosquito fish ever since she discontinued swimming. These fish are now two to three inches long. Somehow, frogs found her pond, but these mosquito fish would eat the tadpoles nibbling away at their legs, so the tadpoles soon died and the crayfish finished them off.

She went to the pond supply nursery, and purchased water lilies and other water plants.

In her pond are also three species of dragonfly nymphs, which might have been hiding in the water plants. These nymphs emerge as dragonflies after about seven years and fill the air with a delightful hum. To control the dragonflies, a starling has taken up residency near her pond. It is there year round.

Just this year, she purchased some gold fish, small ones, but big enough to survive the hunt of the mosquito fish. Goldfish tend to be bottom feeders while mosquito fish stay at the top to eat mosquitoes and flies. She feeds the goldfish pellets that sink to the bottom, so these goldfish are not tame, but neither do they need to swim to the top and become prey to the mosquito fish. These goldfish hide in the plants when they hear her approach. However, the mosquito fish have learned to greet her in an attempt to get the first flakes of food. They follow her around the pool begging for food. Her friends who also have mosquito fish claim that mosquito fish usually hide to avoid human contact, but not these fellows! The first fish who come to greet her in the early twilight hours get the largest flakes of food and the first mosquitoes too. There are not that many mosquitoes left because they are attracted to water and quickly get eaten.

Mosquito she fly high,
Mosquito she fly low,
Mosquito light on me, (slap)
Mosquito fly no mo.

Enjoy your new pet, but realize that these goldfish ultimately need a huge outdoor pond where they will proliferate if the weather is temperate.

Gloria the Gold fish.

And belated Happy Birthday!

I like "Gloria." I will consider it. And thanks for the birthday wishes.

How about the name Lucy? 

I have heard that the general position of the Church is that we shouldn't name animals after Saints. So how about "Aurora" or "dawn"?

So we should not name animals for saints? Thanks, I did not know. I like "Aurora". So far I like that best.

So we should not name animals for saints? Thanks, I did not know. I like "Aurora". So far I like that best.

        Happy birthday, Matto.

I have heard that the general position of the Church is that we shouldn't name animals after Saints. So how about "Aurora" or "dawn"?

Why not?
Then when we see the animal we can think of the virtues of that particular saint.