First impressions

Yesterday we said goodbye to old fish friends, sending our goldfish off for a new start in Brad Beach's garden pond. We also said hello to some new fish friends, courtesy of the nearest PetSmart. More than 10 of us journeyed to the pet stores at 3 p.m. with lists, ideas, hopes and dreams about the kind of fish we wanted. Some of us were elated -- Rachel got a frog! Some of us were excited -- Jamon and Eric got "sharks." Some of us were disappointed -- Andy and Cari's big fish was declined (it would eat the others).

Our PetSmart helpers were not so pleased with our zeal -- or our numbers. Too many fish, too fast, they said. I finally had to take one of them aside and said, "Look, I've been keeping fish for years. It's going to be fine. Stop killing our buzz." And so it was.

We left with lots of great new additions to our community aquarium, including:

Irwin the bala shark, owned by Jamon Abercrombie.
Frank "Blue Eyes" Platt the African dwarf frog, owned by Rachel Platt.
Frozone the glass catfish, owned by Nourisha Wells.
Whino the looach, owned by Tracy Benbrook.
Unnamed loach, owned by Andy Schiller.
Darf the black molly, owned by Tim Baxter.
Toby the catfish, owned by Eric Bowlin.
Aubrey and Coral the marble mollies, by Terri Spears and Andrea Turner, respectively.
Fatty Arbuckle the Balloon Belly Molly. owned by Cari Heelan.