“Santa” brought us a brand new aquarium! So we went to the aquatic store and talked to the poor salesman at length about getting a Betta. We finally settled on Cinderella-blue Oscar.

The salesman, smart dude, told us to give it two weeks to see how the fish did. A week in, poor Oscar was lethargic, slow-moving, and unresponsive. A quick internet search revealed that he desired much warmer water temperatures. So, one frantic Amazon shopping purchase later, we had a heater that we stuffed into the tiny 1.5-gallon tank. And suddenly, Oscar is invigorated! He swims around, fins fanned out fully, and he loves to dart back and forth.

But we decided Oscar needed a buddy, so we brought home a dwarf frog. I was so excited about this frog, quickly dubbed Slimey. Unfortunately, Slimey is nocturnal and incredibly dull. Half the time, we can’t even locate him in the tank. But Olive and Ingrid delight in searching for him every day. And they get even more excited about the blood worms (yes, they’re as gross as they sound) that we feed the aquatic creatures a couple times per week.

Frankly, I’m shocked that we haven’t killed the duo yet.