PTSD for a friend
Sal the gold fish:
Okay, I'm usually not a fish that panics or is afraid of my own tail BUT, if you have ever woke up with a room mate that was well, deader than a cold mackerel? If so, then you know what I'm going through today.
It was a normal morning last week, nothing out of the ordinary, just the 5(!) of us sharing a 1-gallon tank. Now, it was no big deal but it was crowded and it didn't have the really cool filtration of my old tank back home. It was fun and clean but I was sold off along with 900 of my closest tank-mates.
The guy that bought me or should I say in goldfish PC language, "transferred living-water apartments containing multi-colored fin bearers for human ego stimulation and visual consumption at a price" put us ALL in the same tank! Actually, I along with 5 other tank-mates was free but DON'T get me going! Soon, however he moved us to this snazzy new 10-gallon tank!
Anyhow, Bubble-head 1 dies in the middle of the night and no one hears a thing! No cries for help, no water gasping, nothing! Somewhere in the night he goes fins-up. Tank-mates die all the time at the goldfish birthing center but this was the first time I ever saw a dead, brother fish up close.
It was getting light the morning of the incident and I was trying to get BB1's attention. I was curious because he just kept bobbing up and down near the top of the tank. My first thought was food!, he's found more food! I bumped him over then, he just kinda turned toward me and I saw it! It was in his eyes, so cold and well, lifeless. Something inside of me told me the great FishForce had reclaimed another tank-mate. The stillness made my scales crawl.
I think about him a lot these days. It's been a week and I still can't get him out of my head. I look across the tank I swear I see him at the filter pump. Yesterday, I thought I heard his tail swish but when I quickly swam around he wasn't there.
Humans say that time heals all wounds but honestly, how long do goldfish live? So here I swim, living one water change at a time wishing BB1 could tail-nip me just one more time. :(
Okay, I'm usually not a fish that panics or is afraid of my own tail BUT, if you have ever woke up with a room mate that was well, deader than a cold mackerel? If so, then you know what I'm going through today.
It was a normal morning last week, nothing out of the ordinary, just the 5(!) of us sharing a 1-gallon tank. Now, it was no big deal but it was crowded and it didn't have the really cool filtration of my old tank back home. It was fun and clean but I was sold off along with 900 of my closest tank-mates.
The guy that bought me or should I say in goldfish PC language, "transferred living-water apartments containing multi-colored fin bearers for human ego stimulation and visual consumption at a price" put us ALL in the same tank! Actually, I along with 5 other tank-mates was free but DON'T get me going! Soon, however he moved us to this snazzy new 10-gallon tank!
Anyhow, Bubble-head 1 dies in the middle of the night and no one hears a thing! No cries for help, no water gasping, nothing! Somewhere in the night he goes fins-up. Tank-mates die all the time at the goldfish birthing center but this was the first time I ever saw a dead, brother fish up close.
It was getting light the morning of the incident and I was trying to get BB1's attention. I was curious because he just kept bobbing up and down near the top of the tank. My first thought was food!, he's found more food! I bumped him over then, he just kinda turned toward me and I saw it! It was in his eyes, so cold and well, lifeless. Something inside of me told me the great FishForce had reclaimed another tank-mate. The stillness made my scales crawl.
I think about him a lot these days. It's been a week and I still can't get him out of my head. I look across the tank I swear I see him at the filter pump. Yesterday, I thought I heard his tail swish but when I quickly swam around he wasn't there.
Humans say that time heals all wounds but honestly, how long do goldfish live? So here I swim, living one water change at a time wishing BB1 could tail-nip me just one more time. :(
posted by forestparknixa at 2:43 PM
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