A Pretty Bit Of Philosophy

This is a fancy goldfish, a veiltail.

I don’t own an aquarium right now
and if I did own an aquarium
I’d want an eccentric aquarium
about a gallon or less of water
and a veiltail can exceed six inches.

That’s too big for a small aquarium.

That’s too bad because I’ve always believed
a veiltail is the most beautiful fish
a fresh water aquarium can hold.

I like the idea of maintaining
a small ecosystem that is balanced—
a couple of plants and maybe some snails
and a gravel substrate populated
by some kind of healthy bacteria.

I once read of a submarine captain
who kept a glass bottle in his cabin
and in it there was one plant and some shrimp.

The plant gave off oxygen for the shrimp
and the microscopic life the shrimp ate.

The plant lived on shrimp waste and cabin light.

The article didn’t say exactly
how long such systems could be expected
to work, to keep their occupants alive.

I think it said such systems could sometimes
last longer than anyone would expect.

Even without the most beautiful fish
a fresh water aquarium can hold
swimming in it, a system such as this
is a pretty bit of philosophy.

I don’t own an aquarium right now.

But I’m immersed in the philosophy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



Veiltail at Wikipedia



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