It's a bad day for Tiger Barbs

A few years ago, my parents bought Gracie a fish tank. The tank has gone through some fish, but ultimately, we settled on a pretty good group. We have our chocolate tank cleaner, a couple of spotted catfish, some tiger barbs, a couple of bala sharks and a silver dollar fish. We've had many more, but these guys have hung in there the longest.

Throughout the process of those guys getting comfortable, Jim has tried to integrate a shrimp. In the past, the shrimp were all, well, shrimpy. We had about 4 and they all got eaten by the tiger barbs. We make lots of jokes about shrimp cocktail in this house.

A few weeks ago, to Jim's delight, he found a magic solution. A tiger prawn. Now, this tiger prawn is larger than all but one of our fish and MUCH more aggressive. Aggressive in that he's eaten, several fish. A lot of poor defenseless fish. Our shrimp is lovingly called Jacques the Barbarian.

This morning, I go to turn their light on and in Jacques' grip is his third tiger barb. I drag Jim to the tank so he can see what his shrimp has done...again. At that point, for the first time, Gracie sees what's been happening to her fish. It's the shrimp. In the tank. With his own bare claws. Eating.Her.Tiger barb.

She begins relentlessly following Jim around asking what happened to her tiger barb. Jim tries explaining that animals sometimes eat each other and that they just don't know any different. I hear him say things like "Gracie, it's a cold, cruel world" in exasperation when he just doesn't know how to explain it to her satisfaction. This makes me laugh. A lot.

Gracie then starts going to the tank to examine the carcass, which I've decided, should at least be put to use. We'll let the Barbarian eat in hopes that he fills up and leaves the others alone for a while. So Gracie, decides to give us the play-by-play... "Mommy, his eye is gone. Mommy, his mouth is gone..." You get the idea.

And then, the ultimate.

Gracie starts singing a new song...

"It's a bad day for tiger barbs....But, a good day for shrimps!"

And I guess, that's about the size of it.