In memory of my perky little fish, in his usual 'begging for food' pose
So, yeah, I always have a soft spot for this little guy. It's a long story.
Back in January my mom was looking to buy a red fish for my brother(another long story as to why, so I'll just say it's for good luck) and we picked up red betta #1. Red betta #1 started developing fungus within ONE day, and he won't eat what I give him. So we exchanged him for red betta #2. Red betta #2 lasted 2 days before developing fungus (again) and he was simply wasting away in his tank, lying around and refusing to eat. Another two days later he died.
So, we went to the pet store and exchanged him for red betta #3, which would be Perky. And boy, Perky was truly...perky. He was quite active when we first saw him in the pet store so we brought him even though we knew he had a little fin rot problem. He started having a little fungus but this time I was more equipped and had medicine to make it go away.
He never really did got rid of the fin rot problem though (and trust me, I tried every fish medicine I could find), and later I also noticed there seems to be little HOLES in his head (yuck!).
So, he was plagued with disease ever since I knew him. But does he just sit and wither away in illness, like red betta #1 & #2? No way.
He was so active sometimes I wonder if he was high from all the meds I gave him. Seriously. He darts around in his little jar. He flares and chases like mad at the sight of another betta. And he eats like a pig. Eventually he got so used to me feeding him that he would immediately swim to the surface when he sees me, and when he sees my finger, he'll *leap* at it. It was absolutely adorable! And when he sees I'm not dropping food from the surface, he'll look at me and starts swimming excitedly towards me, as if saying "GIMME FOOD! XD". To me he looks as if he's just repeatedly banging his head against the jar as he darts at me like mad. It was so cute :)
As I said, he still had fin rot, he still had holes in his head, and occasionally he still had some fungus (around the parts of his fins that were rotting). Heck, the rot even caused half of his pelvic fin to fall off O_O Did any of these problems ever stopped him from being the perky cute little guy he is? Nope.
Which is why I loved him so much. It was amazing how happy he was despite all his problems. And he's just a little fish. I can't believe how much determination he has.
A few weeks ago he started showing very severe problems though. He had problems swimming. Maybe he's just too old, I dunno. He did spend a lot of time lying on the bottom of the jar, but when he sees me, he still does his traditional 'beg' for food and flaps his fins hard to get to the surface and watch me intensely to wait for me to drop food.
Eventually whatever he had did take its toll on him to the point where he just couldn't swim to the surface anymore no matter how hard he tried. And he really was trying hard. About a few hours before he died, you could see he really had no strength anymore and was lying flat on the ground, but every few minutes he would flap his fin or leaped a little from the bottom, as if he didn't want to give up. The two fishes that died before him certainly didn't show such signs as they just let themselves die.
It was just so painful to watch. When I woke up this morning, he was finally gone.
It seemed a bit silly for me to be feeling over that much for a fish. But he really had character, and his determination was truly inspiring to me. He fought until the end. If I was plagued by as much problems as he did, would I be able to be like him and enjoy life until the bitter end, instead of simply wither away like his predecessors?
You will be missed, my perky little guy...
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water_with_ice's journal
aggravated
lethargic
accomplished
thirsty
hot
calm
sad
pessimistic
sleepy
bored