pet – Frugal Living

The Cost of Pets

February 10, 2016 by Andrew 1 Comment

Growing up there weren’t any pets in my parents house. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, my brother had a fish for about a year when I was very little. Not growing up with a pet wasn’t a huge deprivation because there were plenty of neighbor pets, friend pets, and strays around town. I always figured that we didn’t have any pets because they were expensive. As it turns out, my mom is allergic, but the money aspect was likely the more prominent reason.

Pets are a lot like any other hobby, you can sink as much money into them as you want or can afford with very little or no return on investment. Many people consider their pets to be extensions of their families. Just this morning, I learned that a friends pet was having emergency surgery to the tune of $1500, a bargain considering the original price was $3000. I don’t know too much about pet insurance, but a quick search on the internet revealed that an average premium would pay back the cost of this procedure and break even if the pet used it within five years. Considering many small mammal pets live longer than five years it would seem that insurance would be prudent.

My siblings and I are divided right down the middle on pet ownership. Two of my siblings own dogs, two have no pets, and I am right in the middle with fish and invertebrates. I feel as if I have spent a lot on our fish but today was a bit of an eye opener for me. Even my splurges on this fish gadget or that fish accessory pale in comparison to an emergency vet bill.

Part of the reason why I love fish as a pet is the low upkeep and responsibility involved. I feed them once a day, do a 20% water change once a week, and enjoy them the rest of the time. Vacations are easy to do without having to worry about a kennel and vet bills are not even on my radar. One of my fish has been swimming around with one eye for months for goodness sakes!

Hobbies aren’t suppose to make financial sense. If pets make you happy then enjoy pets. If pets aren’t your thing then don’t get them. Just make sure that you consider what that adorable pet will cost and whether or not you will be willing and able to shell out that money BEFORE you bring Mr. Flibble home.

With that said, I am really enjoying the plant growth that I am getting in my aquarium ever since I added pressurized CO2 (see, I told you hobbies can be as expensive as you wanted).

1 month of growth

Christmas present

Do you have pets? Do you have pet insurance? How much is the pet insurance and have you ever used it? Have you ever wished you had pet insurance? Leave a comment with your answers.

A Moment of Silence

June 10, 2015 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Yesterday our male betta fish died.

He was between 2.5 to 3.5 years old (depending on how old he was when we bought him). Betta fish have a lifespan of 2-6 years and that is heavily influenced by the conditions they are kept. These solitary tropical fish prefer a 5 gallon or larger heated, filtered, tank all to themselves. The colorful males will fight to the death with other males and show aggression towards other flashy species as well.

Fishy was older than Frugal Boy, and started life with us back when we lived at our apartment. We adorned his space with live aquatic plants that gave him places to rest and hide. The living landscape changed as plants grew, died, and were replaced.

Frugal Boy enjoyed watching fishy, and one of his first recognizable words (apart from mama) was “isssh”.

Fishy had a variety of tank mates over the year. It felt a little absurd to let him have an entire 15 gallon tank to himself. He murdered half a dozen ghost shrimp.

Fatalities usually happened when the shrimp molted and smelled like food. Other times he would snack on them when we were gone for the weekend instead of eating the time released pelletized food we provided him.

He also had a never-ending supply of snail companions. We added several large nerite snails to help control algae. Fishy enjoyed eating the eyestalks off these cleaners. Later on, one of the live plants we added carried a different type of snail eggs and the tank has been infested ever since. We could add some copper to kill them off, but it would also kill off the cleaner snails. It doesn’t help that the small snails can produce asexually. Leaving just one behind results in a complete re-infestation within a matter of days.

The latest tank mates was a school of harlequin rasboras, or as I like to call them, pork chops.

The rasboras are peaceful community fish. Sometimes the betta bruiser would chase them around, but his long showy fins made him much slower than the streamlined pork chops.

Fishy has been slowly deteriorating for the past few weeks. We noticed that he was no longer eating as much, and then not at all. He spent most of his final days resting on plants or hiding out below them. Every morning we would check to see if he had expired until one day he did.

Shae made up a fishy coffin for him. Contrary to popular belief, you should never flush aquatic life down the toilet (unless you have a septic). Most aquarium species are exotic foreigners and the damage they could potentially do to the local ecosystem if they survived could be devastating. It is better to toss them in the trash or bury them in the yard.

After a few words, fishy was buried under our (future) front porch right below the electrical outlet.

So long fishy, you were a good pet (when you weren’t eating our other pets).