It was a sad, sad day in the Milner home yesterday.
Our very first fish, Papa Smurf, committed suicide.
He'd been threatening for a few weeks, jumping and hitting his head on the glass cover. Two weeks ago, he hit the top so hard that we think he was unconscious for a few seconds because he was sinking to the bottom of the tank with his body curled up, and he was spiraling down. When he got to the bottom, he spazzed alert and swam to the top for air. (He was a Guarami - they breathe from the surface.)
Well, last night, Matt was about to feed the fish. He was looking in the tank and asked where Papa was. We thought that maybe he was hiding inside this big plastic thing we have, so Matt was lifting it up trying to get him to swim out. While he was doing that, I had an impression to look behind the tank stand. Sure enough, there was Papa. On the floor, lying on a bed of dust bunnies. Dead as a doornail. And grosser than anything else I've ever seen.
Apparently, the area where the filter and heater are hung has a large enough opening for a five-inch Guarami to jump through.
We have another Guarami (same kind as Papa) that is still only 2-3 inches, but he's a major jumper. He freaks out all the time and swims (hard) into the sides of the tank. (As my dad says, he's got "dain bramage".) We're a bit nervous now, because Blue - that's the fish - could just as easily escape. We're not so sure we want to scrape another dead animal from the floor!
Anyway, other than losing a very special fish, we've been great. We've also been super busy. We wanted to go to an apple orchard, but no one knows of one around here. So we're still looking. If we find one to go to, we'll post pictures.
Until then, Adios!
Our very first fish, Papa Smurf, committed suicide.
He'd been threatening for a few weeks, jumping and hitting his head on the glass cover. Two weeks ago, he hit the top so hard that we think he was unconscious for a few seconds because he was sinking to the bottom of the tank with his body curled up, and he was spiraling down. When he got to the bottom, he spazzed alert and swam to the top for air. (He was a Guarami - they breathe from the surface.)
Well, last night, Matt was about to feed the fish. He was looking in the tank and asked where Papa was. We thought that maybe he was hiding inside this big plastic thing we have, so Matt was lifting it up trying to get him to swim out. While he was doing that, I had an impression to look behind the tank stand. Sure enough, there was Papa. On the floor, lying on a bed of dust bunnies. Dead as a doornail. And grosser than anything else I've ever seen.
Apparently, the area where the filter and heater are hung has a large enough opening for a five-inch Guarami to jump through.
We have another Guarami (same kind as Papa) that is still only 2-3 inches, but he's a major jumper. He freaks out all the time and swims (hard) into the sides of the tank. (As my dad says, he's got "dain bramage".) We're a bit nervous now, because Blue - that's the fish - could just as easily escape. We're not so sure we want to scrape another dead animal from the floor!
Anyway, other than losing a very special fish, we've been great. We've also been super busy. We wanted to go to an apple orchard, but no one knows of one around here. So we're still looking. If we find one to go to, we'll post pictures.
Until then, Adios!
4 comments:
(joel) that was a funny narrative of papa smurf's demise. sorry his death is so funny to me.
(lila) I am also sorry to hear about the loss of one of your family members...suicide is never the answer!
Poor Papa. You should write him an obituary. We used to do that with all our fish that died - it is actually fun (not to mention funny) and a great way to commemorate such a great and noble friend. Sorry for your loss.
I agree with Lila, suicide is never the answer. You should buy another fish to be blue's therapist before he tries the same.
Matt's pretty frustrated with the whole fish situation right now. He wants to just let all of them die so he can start all over. Isn't anger/frustration one of the stages of grief?
RIP littly fishy! I would have been pretty grossed up to find him all shriveled up too. My Sister's husband used to have a big eel in their fishtank. It always creeped my sister out. He also jumped out of the tank and shriveled up :( Yuck.
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